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Essay on the position of women in the bible
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Sodanie Oum Philosophy P.6 Portrayal of Women in Genesis and Pandora's Box We always talk about the creation of the earth itself and how it all started with men, but let's talk about the women for once. In Pandora's Box, it says that the first woman, Pandora, a beautiful woman made from clay, was gifted to Epimetheus. Which Zeus names as “his own terrible gift to mankind”. Along with Pandora, Epimetheus received a box, in which he was warned not to let anyone, especially Pandora, open. After a seemingly perfect domestic life, Pandora's’ curiosity/desire got too strong and she opened the box. Then, outcome; want, suffering, hunger, thirst, jealousy, and mistrust. All evils were let out, except for one thing, hope, the only good thing, and …show more content…
Therefore implying women are troublesome. In Genesis, Eve “took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate [Genesis 2]”. Which tells us, Eve explicitly ate the fruit, even when God told her not to, just because a snake told her so. Not only that, she also persuaded Adam to eat the fruit. And got BOTH of them in trouble. Then in Pandora’s Box, “he told her numerous times not to touch the box, but each time her desire to know got stronger [Pandora’s Box 1]” and then “one night broke the seal and raised the kid [Pandora’s Box 2]” and “all evils had already been let out before she could close it [Pandora's Box 2]”. (Technically it's Zeus’s fault for creating the her and the box but..) This is basically trying to say that if women were never created, mankind would've never had any evils in the first …show more content…
In Genesis, Eve was literally made out of Adam’s rib and made specifically for Adam. Therefore implying women are secondary to men. Then God says “your desire shall be for your husband and he shall rule over you [Genesis 2]”. Which says it for itself. Then in Pandora's Box, Pandora, was Zeus’s “own terrible gift to mankind [Pandora’s Box 1]”. Which says women were gifts to men, not quite in a flattering way. Therefore also implying that, men own women. Pandora's Box also says women are secondary by getting Zeus to say “take her and she will tend to you and care for you [Pandora’s Box 1]”. Saying that women were made to specifically tend to men
Women were just there to serve their husbands in anyway the men wanted. The first example was in the second creation story God only created man and then realized he needed a helper and then he created a woman with a rib from the man (2). It is saying that women were only really created to help and support men, also its implying that the man helped make the women so he gets control over her. In Genesis 3:16 God says to eve, “your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you,” she ate from the tree so he is punishing her (3). Women were just objects for the men to control, but then in the first creation story God created men and women equally (1). He created them together and to worship the land and populate it. So the two creation stories contradict each other because one the women are equal and in the other story they are completely separate. It gives two different outlooks on the way women were portrayed, but throughout the story they are portrayed more like the second creation story than the
In Hesiod’s version, Zeus created Pandora as a punishment to man and illustrated her as an evil, deceitful and supposed curse on mankind, “Evil conspirators. And he added another evil to offset the good...she was a real pain for human beings” (Hesiod, 149-164) On the contrary women in Ovid’s tale were treated as companions who worked together for the greater good, as depicted by the myth of Pyrrha and Deucalion, “Then, side by side, they went without delay to seek the waters of Cephisus’ stream.” (Ovid, 17) Deucalion and Pyrrha are portrayed to be righteous and true devotes of the Olympian gods and hence given the responsibility of repopulating earth. Ovid demonstrates that the humans in this myth portray the role of a god, where they repopulate Earth with righteous humans, thus creating order in the universe again. He portrays their role as a vital component in this occurrence as without their diligence and morals—this act would not have been possible. Thus, establishing the human-centered concept of his
The ancient Greeks attributed the power of love and procreation to women. The goddess Aphrodite exemplifies their knowledge of this fundamental power. Christian doctrine subverts female power by aligning Eve, the original woman, with the fall of man. The power that is life producing is tainted because it is suggested that Lucifer was able to control Eve by manipulating her power. The resulting Christian premise is that Eve must be protected because she is unable to resist the forces of evil. Eve's garden experience resulted in punishment subjecting her to the rule of her husband. It therefore becomes God's will that men should dominate women so that evil can be con...
To begin explaining why this theory is not the truth of the text, let us begin with said theory. Gender Studies and Feminist critics have rhetorically argued for the culpability of the disobedience to God belonging more so to Adam than Eve. Scholar Rachel Russo argues that because Adam and Eve are clearly not created as equals, and Adam distinctly treats Eve as his inferior prior to their transgression [...] it is apparent that
The man was created first, God needed someone to be in charge of all that he created. The reason why God created the woman is because he saw that the man was lonely even though he had many animals under his control and with him, God saw that the man needed a companion. “So the Lord God cast a deep sleep upon the man, and while he slept, God took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that spot. And the Lord fashioned the rib into a woman; and God brought her to the man.” (Genesis 2:21) As it says in Genesis 2:21, the woman was created from the rib of the man. Another reason why she was formed was to be the helper of the man, helper. She was not meant to be superior to men, but to make the man’s job
Some people believe that women were created for the sole purpose of assisting men. They justify their position by citing Genesis chapter two, in which God takes a rib from Adam and creates Eve. They believe that because Eve was made from a piece of Adam, she is directly under him, as if he were her creator. Another source of evidence for this claim is that Adam was created before Eve. The rationale behind this piece of evidence is that the human being that was created first has more importance and is therefore, greater than the second. This interpretation also relies on the fact that women are less physically capable than men. It is believed that because God made women less capable then she must be considered less than by her greater counterpart. Clearly, this is an irresponsible interpretation of the bible. Many passages of the bible state the equality of his creation. The Apostle Paul states in Galatians chapter three that all people under the lord are to be considered one entity and are equal throughout that entity. Any interpretation that suggests women are inferior can be easily refuted by this passage. Some argue that women are inferior because God calls Eve a “Helper” in the second chapter of Genesis, however God uses that same name, ‘ezer, to describe himself a number of times. Out of context it would seem that the bible makes women look less than, but in realit...
The very creation of women was set as a punishment to man because Prometheus, son of Iapetos, tried to trick Zeus into eating bones and then, with the tube of a fennel, steals fire to give to mankind. Zeus then proclaimed, "To set against the fire I shall give them an affliction in which they will all delight as they embrace their own misfortune." Out of Zeus' anger came Pandora, the first woman. Zeus ordered Hephaestus to mold women from the earth and water, Athene to dress and adorn her, Temptation to give her necklaces of gold, and Hermes to implant a bitch's mind and a thief's temper. Hesiod describes women as a "precipitous trap, more than mankind can manage." Hesiod states, "even so as a bane for mortal men has high-thundering Zeus created women, conspirators in causing difficulty." And thus the first woman was named Pandora, Allgift,-"a calamity for men who live by bread." And so Pandora and all the evils of the world, except Hope, were released into the world by a punishing Zeus. Hesiod explains how formerly the tribes of men lived "remote from ills, without harsh toil and the grievous sickness that are deadly to men." From Pandora descended the female sex, "a great affliction to mortals as they dwell with their husbands- no fit partners for accursed Poverty, but only for Plenty." An analogy is then used to compare women to drones who, according to Hesiod, feed off hard-working bees all day. Hesiod immed...
To further explain, Cecil L. Franklin states that throughout the history of the Christian religion, Scripture has used and promoted by many individuals. Unfortunately, a handful of people have been misinterpreting Scripture and have been manipulating what the Bible truly states. In causation, women have been portrayed on both positive and negative roles. The problem arises when those who are interpreting and teaching Scripture, educate solely on the negative
In our present era, there is no doubt that the evolution of women's rights has come a long way. It is in the Western Culture that these values for which women have fought for generations, are in conflict with Genesis 1-3. The events that occur in this "creation story" are crucial in that it begins when God creates man in his own likeness and man is given domination over all living things. The significance is the prominence given to men; God is male and his most important creation is male. The biblical account underlines the supremacy of man while making it clear that women play an inferior role. Furthermore, the biblical account also describes how woman are disobedient and yield to temptation, the result of which is the expulsion of both Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. In the poem "How Cruel is the Story of Eve", Stevie Smith's castigation towards the biblical story of Eve demonstrates how women have been victims of despair and suffering since the beginning of time. She holds it responsible for cruelty towards women in history, she implies that the values derived from the story of Eve were forced upon women without choice, and finally, she challenges the authenticity of the religious tale on a whole. Without a doubt, women have fallen victim to an untrue, religious tale from the beginning of time, and the poem is an outcry representing the suffering of women throughout history.
Mortal females cause struggles among men and are portrayed as wicked in Greek Mythology. In the story of How the World and Mankind Were Created, the Father of Men and of the Gods, Zeus, swears to get revenge upon mankind because of the poor sacrifices made to the altars. Therefore, he “[makes] a great evil for men, a sweet and lovely thing to look upon… they [call] her Pandora… the first woman… who are an evil to men, with a nature to do evil… is the source of all misfortu...
The depreciation of women and their overall inferior position in society can be attributed to the androcentric interpretations of the Hebrew Bible, especially the story of Adam and Eve. Throughout history, the story of Adam and Eve has been used by men to point out the inherent evil in women by pinning the eventual expulsion of Adam and Eve from Heaven on the neck of Eve. Eve has long been blamed for the expulsion from Heaven and in effect, women, even up until today, are portrayed as the “gateway to sin.”
The creation stories dating back to the Latin American Short Stories have a different set of morals and views that we have since changed. Life dating back to the fifteenth century had many drastic differences compared to how we see things in the twenty-first century and that is because we have adopted a new set of morals on how we should live. Life expectancy is a lot longer now compared to before due to the nature of advanced technology and innovations that were not available before along with education. A main theme that was displayed in the short story of The Men that Were Parted from the Women was the fact that women were seen as being subjective to men in many different ways. Women play an important role in life and they should be treated with greater respect and nothing less, but the men in this short story took all that for granted and later suffered. The men in this story took women for granted as they saw them as
One of the common interpretations of the myth is the biblical story of Adam and Eve. God gave Eve a command not to do something and she did it anyways. This adaptation does not really r...
Schungel-Straumann, H. (1993) ‘On the Creation of Man and Woman in Genesis 1-3: The History and Reception of the Texts Reconsidered’. In: Brenner, A. (ed.). A Feminist Companion to Genesis. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press. pp.53-76.
Prometheus tried to warn his brother to not accept any gift from the Olympians. However, when Epimetheus saw Pandora he forgot about his brothers warning. Pandora’s beauty and charm made a quick effect to the titan. Pandora arrived to Epimetheus with a box. This box was given to her by the gods and it contained evils for mankind. Instead of Pandora, being the evil punishment it was the box she carried that encased all the evil. When Pandora opens the box all the evil spirits fly out and spread evil all throughout the world. According to Harris (2008), “Other versions of Pandora myth indicate that the jar she brings with her contained not evils but blessings”. However, Hesiod version of this story Pandora lets out miseries for mankind. Thus, Hesiod illustrates Pandora as being a malevolent person that causes turmoil. This myth is a way for Hesiod to warn his fellow man against women. The gods are Hesiod’s way to say negative aspects about women that can derive from his own personal