Cheryl Schatz

Lin,
You said:
This is because ‘desire’ is not a good translation and takes us into all kinds of error and problems on both sides of egal/comp. God warned Eve that she would turn to her husband and he, in return, would rule over her. Even though history of the translation of teshuqa is there for anyone to see, people still defend ‘desire’ as appropriate. I think it causes a lot of interpretation problems.

“Longing” is a very good translation and I have not found a single lexicon that translates the word as “turning”. I do agree that turning is in the text but it comes from the word “toward” as seen in the above example that I copied.

I also note that BEFORE God talked to them andright after they ate, Eve was hiding from God with Adam and covering her nakedness, too. Bad choice? Sin? Reaction to sin? The absolute horrible effects of bringing sin into the world?

The reaction was shame. This is always what follows when one sins. But shame is not the same thing as covering one’s sin like what Adam did when he blamed his deceived wife.

Eve was caught up in it even though deceived. Her subsequent turning to Adam was not a good choice. I think some here have a comp view of turning to the husband as a good thing. OUr human relationships are nothing compared to our relationship with God. If we are both seeking God, we will have a great relationship. God does not come between humans who are both seeking Him.

I think that we have a view of Eve as if she was a sinner like us. While we can sin by looking to our husbands as if they were mediators between us and God, the Scripture nowhere attributes Eve’s longing for Adam and turning to him as a sin. If I have missed something, I stand to be corrected. But where is the correction from the Scripture? It won’t be from what we “feel” the text says but what does the Scripture say in the text that makes Eve’s future actions as a sin?

Adam rebelled against God and dealt with Him treacherously. Yet Eve chose to turn to Adam. She enabled the sin of patriarchy with a bad choice. God warned her.

While I agree that God warned her what life would be like with her sinful husband, how can we say that God warned her not to turn to Adam? The Scripture doesn’t say Eve don’t do that. Where does the text say that God warned Eve not to do this action?

God is Soveriegn and could populate the Earth any way He wanted to. Not too long after, He flooded the earth and wiped out all mankind except a few. And Noah ended up drunk and naked!

God is Sovereign, but He always used humans to populate the earth, not recreations of the first man from the dirt. And yes Noah ended up drunk and naked. He too had an “old man” nature.

The effects of the fall were horrible. I shudder to see them watered down here in order to prop up Eve as totally innocent for her choices.

The effects of the fall were horrible. However God has always blamed only Adam. No one here is watering down the acts of Adam. Is charging Eve with sin when God didn’t charge her with additional sin something that is watering down the effects of the fall? I don’t see how.