Adam and Eve Revisited

 The 65th session of the UN commission on the status of women was this month and I was able to attend some sessions virtually. It is fascinating to see delegates come from all over the world to the UN to discuss women's needs. I heard women from all over the world discuss how to stop child marriage, and gender violence; how to protect motherhood and promote equality. Sorting out needs, intent, language, and results are tasks of the delegates who give consensus to an outcome document. In the concluding session, it was heartwarming to hear so many many delegates from a variety of nations, encourage the equality of men and women, desire to protect motherhood and fatherhood, and protect life and national sovereignty. 

I'd like to draw attention to a fundamental focal point of this annual gathering-that of equality. I wish to explore a possible origin, a founding story. How did attitudes and behaviors towards women that create inequality begin? The origin story for many is the story of Adam and Eve. How could this story be associated with inequality? 

There is no end to the articles and literature discussing the story of Adam and Eve. And the discussion has been going for thousands of years. Having neither scholarly understanding, nor space here, only my readings and personal experiences I simply wish to draw attention to three things that I have pondered at length and share the briefest of thoughts.  

1. The origin story and the trouble it has caused for women. 

2. An alternative narrative that changes the troublesome beginning. 

3. A plea for cooperative, collaborative equal relationships. 

The way this story has roughly rolled out for centuries is that God placed Adam and Eve in a garden and commanded them to not eat the fruit from the tree of good and evil. The serpent tempted Eve to partake of the fruit, then enticed Adam to eat. Eve brought evil into the world and now they must leave the garden. Curses ensue and Eve is blamed for the Fall. 

My daughter recently shared with me a book by Elizabeth Lesser, Cassaundra Speaks, that explores women's voices. She says:

 

"The bible is full of heroic men celebrated for their hero's journeys-from Noah to Job, and from Moses to Jesus.  Men whose stories map the arc of exile from family or homeland of being tested of losing faith and regaining it. Men who learn about goodness and evil through the fire of their own experiences. Only Eve has ben demonized for answering the same call. While the men of the Bible are allowed to all in their humanness and rise in wisdom, Eve only falls."... "It's important to understand the significance of how our society's origin story is based in blame."

The tentacles of this type of story are manifest in so many ways, from minimizing, gaslighting, disbelieving or outright prejudice. The studies and lists could go on and on. Sometimes the inequality is obvious and we move quickly to eradicate it. Other times inequality is so subtle in our interactions and learned belief systems, it is extremely difficult to change, because of lack of awareness.

I learned the origin story with a different narrative that sheds light onto an equal relationship between Adam and Eve, a picture into their equality with more clarity. The story rolls out like this. God has a plan to help his children learn and grow. He knows that they can only experience this through the constant choosing of good over evil. His command in the Garden of Eden to not partake of the fruit, and then having Eve partake was part of His all knowing plan to usher in all of mortality, with evil and the inherent choices. Dallin Oaks said:

It was Eve who first transgressed the limits of Eden in order to initiate the conditions of mortality. Her act, whatever its nature, was formally a transgression but eternally a glorious necessity to open the doorway toward eternal life. Adam showed his wisdom by doing the same. And thus Eve and "Adam fell that men might be" (v. 25).

Joseph Fielding Smith (1876–1972) said: 

“I never speak of the part Eve took in this fall as a sin, nor do I accuse Adam of a sin. … This was a transgression of the law, but not a sin … for it was something that Adam and Eve had to do!”¹

From the ChurchofJesusChrist.org 

Most Christian churches teach that the Fall was a tragedy, that if Adam and Eve had not partaken of the forbidden fruit, they and all their posterity could now be living in immortal bliss in the Garden of Eden. But truth revealed to latter-day prophets teaches that the Fall was not a tragedy—without it Adam and Eve would have had no posterity. Thus, the Fall was a necessary step in Heavenly Father’s plan to bring about the eternal happiness of His children. 

Eve's partaking of the fruit in this story is a celebration story. She is honored for her wisdom and courage. What a difference this makes! The first woman and her choices are celebrated not denigrated! This narrative places glory and honor on Eve, not blame and shame.  I'm grateful for my understanding of Adam and Eve. I'm grateful for this clarity given by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. 

With that perspective and understanding comes a clarion call for men and women to work together - side by side as equals. Their capacity to form collaborative relationships of strength and purpose is a powerful thing to contemplate. Perhaps now when we see the large painting of Adam and Eve in the UN security council room and ponder the efforts made to bring equality, we might bring some new understandings and healing to our global family as well as profound respect to Adam and Eve and ourselves as their counterparts. We would begin a new story of love - because love abounds where there is equality.