Cheryl

Don,

The real question is whether we should trust Eve’s testimony.  Eve said “God said…”

In Jewish tradition, woman was not to be trusted.  The woman was not to be believed in court because women were considered to be unreliable.  Is it possible that we are inputting this same tradition into scripture?

I am the kind of person who is willing to look at all the evidence, but I need evidence.  Is there evidence in scripture that Eve lied?  There is no evidence per se, but some have put Eve’s testimony into question because they want to reconcile the discrepancies between what Eve said “God said…” and the words that God said to Adam before Eve was created.  I say that we can reconcile the differences without making Eve to be either a liar or childlike.

If we start with the view that we can believe what is said unless it is contradicted, then we can accept Eve’s testimony as truth.  We already know that God added additional food to what he had given to Adam so it is already logical and truthful that God can and did add to what he said to Adam.  God’s words then to Adam are not the entirety of what God had to say.  When we make God’s words to Adam as the entirety, we are left with a contradiction.  Rather we should realize that Genesis 1:29 is an addition not a contradiction.  In the same way the woman’s testimony regarding what God said is also God’s addition to what he said to Adam.  This is the easiest and simplest way to reconcile scripture.

Do I give hierarchists the ability to see other things from the text?  Yes, I do as long as there is something that would be considered evidence.  Is there any evidence at all that Eve lied?  Is there any evidence at all that Eve had a lapse of memory or got God’s command wrong?  If someone could show me what the evidence is, I would gladly look at it.  IN the meantime I just take scripture for what it says in context.  Eve gave testimony that I do not have liberty to not believe without any proof that she was wrong.  When we see Eve as being truthful instead of thinking that women should not be trusted in giving testimony, then the foundation of women hearing God’s words and giving out truthful testimony is found in Genesis.

So the problem I must have proof.  I must have evidence.  I have never had a hierarchist give me evidence that would allow me not to trust Eve’s words.  Until I see evidence, I will believe Eve.