Charis

Craig,

I have some further thoughts about the connection of a sexual authenein with Eve. What if there is truth to the ancient understanding of Church Fathers that the “desire” of Genesis 3:16 has a sexual component ? Personally, this does not bother me a bit! If the beautiful Lucifer seduced Eve and she turned around and seduced Adam, it explains why Adam didn’t put up any resistance! While God commissioned them to “be fruitful and multiply” in the Genesis 1:26-28 dominion commission, there is nothing about the timing or frequency of the act involved, nor is there any mention of sex between them nor pregnancy until post-Fall.

The following are a couple clips (from pages 24-25) of Priscilla Papers ? Vol. 2 3, No. 2 ? Spring 2009 “The Transformation of Deception: Understanding the Portrait of Eve in the Apocalypse of Abraham, Chapter 23” by Megan K. DeFranza

The difficulty, according to Anderson, begins when one moves from the Hebrew to the Greek translation of the Old Testament (the Septuagint). The Greek word for “deceive” also allows the possible translation “to seduce.”35 Moving from Greek to Latin provided no improvement, for it is from the Latin Bible’s (the Vulgate’s) rendition, seducta, that the English finds its own root. Anderson writes:
The Greek and Latin Bibles allow us to construe the verse as an act of sexual seduction. This fateful accident of overlapping semantic fields allowed for the creation of a far more pernicious picture of the deed Eve had wrought. Not only did she consume the forbidden fruit but she was seduced by the Evil Serpent and engendered the demonic figure of Cain.36
Anderson goes on to document the pervasiveness of this version of Eve in the writings of early church fathers, and the religious art and literature of Western Christianity. Still, more was needed than a simple translation problem to allow for the idea of Eve’s seduction to be so easily received by Jews and Christians. Though the Greek word allows one to consider seduction, it is not used by any translation of the Old Testament to indicate sexual seduction.37 It is not until one encounters religious writings of the Hellenistic Era that the word is used within a sexual context.38

What the article points out is the history of seeing Eve as not merely “deceived” but as “seduced” by Satan. The author claims:

It is important to recognize that the Christian Scriptures reject the sexualization of Eve’s sin. Not only this, but biblical authors refuse to place more blame on Eve than on Adam. Second Corinthians 11:2–3 could be used to show that Paul may have been aware of the legend of Eve’s sexual sin, but Paul does not use it to disparage women. Instead, Eve’s sin is used as an exhortation for the whole church, women and men, to remain faithful to their spiritual husband, Jesus Christ.58 Paul also rejects the Jewish tradition that exalts Adam. For Paul, Adam is not the ideal human. This position is claimed by Christ alone (Rom. 5:12–21; 1 Cor. 15:45–49).59 Despite Paul’s rejection of the legend of Eve’s sexual sin, and his evenhandedness in blaming both Adam and Eve for original sin,60 the tendency to blame Eve more than Adam continued to be propagated in Christian and Jewish circles.61

But if one looks at that text in 2 Cor 11:2-3 it looks more like Paul is acknowledging a sexual component of her deception.

One consequence of the Fall which God prophecied over Eve is “your desire shall be for your husband”. This is in the immediate context of two mentions of pregnancy

Unto the woman HE [God]said,
I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception;
in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children;
and thy desire [shall be] to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. Gen 3:16

Compare animals’ mating cycle to humans. For many animals, “mating” is seasonal and rare. God told her “I will increase your conception””you desire shall be for your husband”. Doesn’t that imply that she had a higher fertility level? Did her hormones change so that she now had monthly fertility? desire for mating even when she is not fertile? PMS? menopause? (DO animals have PMS?) …and the “he shall rule over you”. Does that sound like the male got a testosterone boost at the Fall?