E. C. S.



Note the significant fact that we always hear of the "fall of man,"
not the fall of woman, showing that the consensus of human thought has
been more unerring than masculine interpretation. Reading this
narrative carefully, it is amazing that any set of men ever claimed
that the dogma of the inferiority of woman is here set forth. The
conduct of Eve from the beginning to the end is so superior to that of
Adam. The command not to eat of the fruit of the tree of Knowledge was
given to the man alone before woman was formed. Genesis ii, 17.
Therefore the injunction was not brought to Eve with the impressive
solemnity of a Divine Voice, but whispered to her by her husband and
equal. It was a serpent supernaturally endowed, a seraphim as Scott and
other commentators have claimed, who talked with Eve, and whose words
might reasonably seem superior to the second-hand story of her
companion nor does the woman yield at once. She quotes the command not
to eat of the fruit to which the serpent replies "Dying ye shall not
die," v. 4, literal translation. In other words telling her that if the
mortal body does perish, the immortal part shall live forever, and
offering as the reward of her act the attainment of Knowledge.

Then the woman fearless of death if she can gain wisdom takes of the
fruit; and all this time Adam standing beside her interposes no word of
objection. "Her husband with her" are the words of v. 6. Had he been
the representative of the divinely appointed head in married life, he
assuredly would have taken upon himself the burden of the discussion