Creating gender in the garden : the inconstant partnership of Eve and Adam

"What can explain the persistence of gender inequality throughout history? Do narratives such as the Eden story explain that dissymmetry or contribute to it? This book suggests that the Hebrew Bible began and has sustained a rich conversation about sex and gender throughout its life. A literary study of the Garden of Eden story reveals a focus on the human partnership as integral to the divine creation project. Texts from other Hebrew Bible genres build a picture of robust and flexible partnerships within a patriarchal framework. In popular culture, Eve still carries the stench of guilt while Adam, seemingly unscathed by Eden events, remains a positive symbol of manhood. This book helps explain why they have had such different histories. The book also charts the subversive alternate streams of interpretation of women's writings and rabbinic texts. The story of Adam and Eve demonstrates how conceptions of gender in both ancient and modern worlds reflect larger philosophical schemes. Far from existing as timeless verities, female and male relations are constructed according to cultural imperatives of the day. Understanding the different ways that Adam and Eve have been conceived gives us perspective on our own twenty-first century gender architecture"-- Provided by publisher. Cover Title Copyright Contents Acknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction The Present Study Chapter 1 Questions, Assumptions, and Viewpoints Focus Text Wisdom Resonances Awkward Neighbors Conclusion Chapter 2 The Garden as Tableau: Genesis 2 The Prelude Genesis 2:4b-25 Review 2:4b-25 Chapter 3 The Partnership in Action: Genesis 3 The Naked Partnership 2:25–3:7 Crisis 3:1b-6 The Knowing Partnership: 3:7, 20-22 The Troubled Partnership 3:8-19 The Serpent: Genesis 3:14-15 The Woman: Genesis 3:16 The Man: Genesis 3:17-19 Genesis 3:22-24 Review 2:25–3:24 Chapter 4 The Partnership of Brothers: Genesis 4 The Next Generation Competition The Divine Response Cain’s Line Adam’s Line Eve’s Line Conclusion Chapter 5 Reading for Gender: Inauguration to Contestation Twenty-first-Century Perspectives Text, Language, and Culture Man and Woman Masculinity Femininity Chapter 6 Eden and Gender The Man Summary: The Gendered Male The Woman Summary: The Gendered Female The Partnership Conclusion Chapter 7 The Couple in Context: The Hebrew Bible and Gender Interrogating Patriarchy Torah Same-Sex Sexuality The Private is Political: Genesis Ancestral Narratives Wavering Gender Roles in Ruth Sexuality and the Song of Songs Conclusion Chapter 8 Looking Back: Hierarchy Rules Section One: Interpretation Before the Common Era Section Two: Early Christian Perspectives Conclusion Chapter 9 Women and Rabbis Dissent Rabbinic Interpretations Conclusions: Rabbinic Writings Women’s Writing Review Chapter 10 Reading Forward The Partnership in Historical and Current Sex/Gender Frameworks Polarization in Two Stages Feminist Critique Finally Bibliography Index of References Index of Authors Index of Subjects