How did Christianity become a faith that demands people suppress either their masculine or feminine, preventing them from embracing the wholeness of their humanity? Why is there a compulsion to suppress and subjugate women into “complementary” service roles? Could it be a misreading of the third great cosmological myth that opens the book of Genesis?
Genesis’ first cosmological myth focuses on God taking the nothing to make everything and ultimately declaring it very good. The second story focuses on who we are as people, our relationship to one another, and our role in the creation. The third story, rather than revealing what is right and good, focuses on what went wrong.
Background to the Third Myth
Remember, Genesis was most likely written in Babylon where the people of Israel lived in exile. It responded to the great Babylonian narrative, the Enuma Elish, a story that called on all good Babylonians to conquer the gods of other nations by assimilating their people. It is a story about power, empire, and control.
Even more importantly, it is the story that explains why the people of Israel are living in Babylon. It does them no good to write the first and second narratives of Genesis that focus on how things should be, without including one that explains the reality they find themselves living in. Thus the story of The Fall. For those of you less familiar with the Bible, this is the one where Eve (before she is named) eats an apple and everything goes to hell.
So how does a misreading of this story explain why Christianity (which is not the same as Christian faith) hates wisdom (and women)?
The Story of the Fall
In the story, a snake invites the first couple to eat fruit from a tree that gives knowledge of good and evil. It is the one tree in the garden they are not supposed to eat from. Yes, the snake speaks to the woman, but in the story, the man is standing right there. Moreover, the snake’s question appeals to the feminine in all of us. The snake promises not just knowledge, but wisdom because knowing both good and evil gives the power of discernment.
Wisdom is central to our understanding of the feminine. It defines beauty and invites compassion and empathy to guided the way. The feminine also comes through in our anthropomorphisms of wisdom. The author of Proverbs personifies wisdom as a woman. The Greeks give wisdom the feminine name, Sophia. Many talk about in innate wisdom of Mother Earth. Could it be that by approaching Eve, the snake invites people to explore the depths of the feminine without the balance of the masculine? Does the snake invite all yin with no yang?
Masculine and Feminine In and Out of Balance
While he uses the words power and love differently than I typically do, Dr. Martin Luther King has a beautiful quote the enlightens this situation:
Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.
Now read it again, but substitute masculinity for power and the femininity for love:
Masculinity without femininity is reckless and abusive, and femininity without masculinity is sentimental and anemic. Masculinity at its best is femininity implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is masculinity correcting everything that stands against femininity.
Wisdom Unleashed
Without eating the fruit, a limited (all they knew was the good) masculinity and femininity lived in balance. This means the adam was not the one who discovered something was wrong while naming all the animals and not finding a suitable partner, that was God. Before eating from the tree, the couple lived in a place of fearless trust. There was no shame or a sense of unworthiness. There was no doubt about their belonging.
But with the invitation to add unlimited wisdom, things change. Suddenly there is the opportunity for them to be thrust back into the evil void of nothing. There is a chance for them to be unmade. The first Genesis creation myth is no longer something that happened, rather it is something that will keep happening until the masculine and feminine come back into balance for all of us … until it is one again, very good.
So did the snake go after the feminine?
Why Attack Wisdom?
In theory, the snake could also challenge our masculine, “Did God really tell you to tend and care for the garden?” Here the snake teases at the idea that tend and care are such loving terms. There is so much compassion and nurturing in them. Is that not a limit on the masculine. What if the full power of the masculine energy unleashed itself on the garden? In pushing this way, the snake could nudge people towards what Dr. King describes as recklessness and abuse. It would be all yang with no yin. So why encourage the sentimental and anemic?
Perhaps the snake knew there would be a masculine overreaction. The response to an unleashed feminine would be recklessness and abuse. Somehow the snake knew the masculine, loaded with shame, would fire back blaming both God and the woman. By inviting an expanded feminine, the snake brings about the desired oppression and exploitation. The first thing oppressed is wisdom itself.
Misreading Genesis
This is a reality that carries on in how we commonly read God’s response to the eating of the fruit. It is this response that ultimately undergirds Christianity’s hatred of women and the feminine. Christianity takes God’s words, “…your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you” (Genesis 3:16, NRSV) as prescriptive of how things should be moving forward. The masculine should be in charge, binding and limiting the feminine.
But what if we read these words as descriptive of a new and undesirable reality? The word translated as “desire” shows up three times in the Hebrew Bible. Here in the third creation myth, in the next story where sin desires Adam and Eve’s son Cain, and in the poem, Song of Solomon (7:10). There, in a work that, like the first two Genesis myths, declares how things should be, the woman announces that her lover desires her even as she desires him.
These words, attributed to King Solomon, who the Bible describes as the wisest man who ever lived. If this is true, then in the Garden God did not establish a new order but described a new reality. A way of organizing society where the masculine is reckless and abusive as it oppresses and exploits all things, especially the feminine. It is a way of being that is not good, and it is why we need the creation story to continue on as the divine invites our masculine and feminine back into balance.
Further Exploration
Note: Typically I use this space to share resources that shape my thinking. However, this week, I do not have any. These are my ponderings and ideas. If you know others thinking similar thoughts, please share so I can learn from them. That said, there are a couple things I think are worth checking out.
Video: Chess and Philosophy in General by Irami Osei-Frimpong
After last weeks post a reader replied, “So much of the nuances of the culture and cross cultural dynamics is a trap in arguments about Biblical truth. Interpretation tends to personal power of the human order and away from interpretation of the existence and will of God from before the beginning of humankind.”
I would have to say, “Yes and yes!” This is why I frame so much of what I say around what I define as the oppositional dynamics of power and love (this is different than the complementary dynamics used by Dr. King that I referenced in this piece). Power aims to limit our understanding and frame things for its own self-glorification or preservation.
This reality crossed my mind while watching the YouTube show of a current favorite. Irami Osei-Frimpong, also known as The Funky Academic, is a philosopher-based out of Athens, Georgia where he is a graduate student at the University of Georgia. In this video he talks about the work of philosophy in expanding our perspective and helping us to see a fuller reality.
As a caution, Irami talks about race regularly. He is Black and very pro-Black. He calls out exploitation where he sees it. When watching, rather than hearing him say, “You are wrong and evil!” I encourage you to ask, “How is he expanding my view of the world so I can adapt my behavior an not incidentally do evil?”
If you want a bit more Irami, here’s another collection of thoughts that connect directly to this week’s post.
Book: Creation and Fall / Temptation by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Years ago when I first read this book in seminary I described it as a product of The Fall. It was the first time someone invited me to engage with the text in a non-simplistic way.
When I re-read it while working on my dissertation, it played a major role in my understanding of Jesus in the Gospel According to Luke.
It is not an easy read, but it will invite you to think about things differently.
Action
While pulling this post together I saw this image:
Take some time to wonder. Ask questions. Imagine what could be. Give wonder time to lead you towards wisdom.
What’s Next?
If masculinity run amuck is reckless and abusive, then how are we supposed to understand humanity’s call to dominion over the earth in Genesis 1?