EVE'S BIBLE (Chapter 1) Beginning the Journey
The Bible is a dangerous book.
Written by men for men, it has been used for thousands of years to keep women in their place.
The Bible also vigorously challenges the powers that be and demands justice, compassion, and care.
How are we to reconcile these competing messages?
By reading with Eve's eyes, not Adam's.
One of the Bible's well-known stories says that God made a man, Adam, and from his rib fashioned a female whom the man named Eve. For millennia, this story has driven the belief that women are not quite as good as God's first creation, man.
In this book, we are going to institute a new understanding of where Eve stands in the order of creation. We will find the story behind the Bible's stories, reclaim what nourishes, discover new understandings of God, and let go of the rest. Hand-me-downs no longer suffice.
The Bible Transcends Religious Labels
If you come from a religious tradition that claims the Bible as its foundation, this work is imperative. But the Bible is not just for Christians or Jews. It offers enrichment that transcends religious labels, in the same way that the Dalai Lama's writings have inspired many who are not Buddhists. The Bible offers you:
Strong women and admirable "bad girls" Triumphant underdogs Wisdom to live by Ancient tales of power politics Erotic poetry and verses that support and comfort
Eve's Bible does not assume that you know anything about the Bible or that you subscribe to the religious doctrines based on it. It gives you the tools and information you need to read with insight, regardless of your religious affiliation—or lack of one.
You Know More Than You Think You Do
Eve's Bible helps you feel comfortable with the Bible by drawing on reading skills you already possess. As unlikely as it sounds, reading the Bible is much like reading the daily newspaper. A newspaper contains a wide variety of writing—news stories, features, editorials, book reviews, the crossword puzzle, comics, and so on—yet you take that in stride. You intuitively read an op-ed piece differently than you read a movie review.
The Bible, too, is a mixture of different types of writing. Genesis, for example, contains stories, legal documents, poetry, and genealogies—among other forms of material—all wrapped together and presented as history. It can seem an impenetrable mishmash, especially if you try to read it like a modern novel, as most of us have attempted to do.
Once you learn to distinguish the Bible's basic genres of writing—histories, stories, laws, poetry, prophecy, and wisdom—as Eve's Bible shows you how to do, you will know when to switch gears, just as you do with a newspaper. You will find that each of these is more familiar than you would think; it's all a matter of knowing what you're looking at.
Eve's Bible also tells you about real women's lives during the biblical era and how politics and history determined the final composition of the Bible. If you've been wondering why the biblical Deity sometimes comes across as such an unlovable character, you will learn the reasons. On the practical side, you'll get tips for how to read through a passage and how to buy a readable Bible.
Not for Yourself Alone
When you grapple with biblical texts, you do not do it for yourself alone. Although I sometimes feel as if men really are from Mars, in today's gender war it's not men versus women. Rather, it's advocates of equal rights for all versus religious traditionalists who believe that women and men have distinct, "biblically defined" roles. Wielding power disproportionate to their numbers, traditionalists promote policies that harm women and families—from abstinence-only sex education to laws that permit pharmacists to refuse birth control prescriptions—based on their reading of the Bible.
Using Eve's Bible, you, too, will be able to lay claim to biblical authority. You will learn how to challenge those who would use the Bible against you and where to find the words to articulate your aspirations for justice and equality.
How I Came to Write Eve's Bible
I had been living in an ashram for about four years when I picked up the Bible and was startled by how familiar it sounded. The rebellious followers of Moses in the wilderness and the dim-witted disciples of that rabbi, Jesus: I knew those guys! They were all around me in the ashram. In fact, I was one of them: anxious to touch the Divine, falling short in my efforts, whining, miffed, mystified.
As much as I liked the ashram, I decided it was time to check out my own religious tradition and see what more it had to offer. Eighteen months later, I was enrolled at a tiny Quaker seminary, taking my first course in the Hebrew Bible. That was more than twenty-five years ago.
I wish I could say that first moment of recognition was the start of a long, satisfying love affair with the Bible, but honestly? I've been more than a little ambivalent about this relationship.
To me, the Bible's stories about women nestle inside one another like Russian matreshki dolls. My most immediate response to the Bible's focus on men was, "Unfair!" But when I looked closer at the women who were there, I got excited. There were women prophets, a queen or two, pious and spunky heroines, and protective mothers.
But wait a minute. Some of these women are less than ethical—they lie, trick, steal, and deceive—and too many are victims. Something felt terribly wrong.
Then I realized that even the "good" women were valued primarily for their capacity to bear children. And those tricksters? They, too, were merely part of the plan to continue the male line.
But that still wasn't the whole story. Looking yet again, I discerned something subversive about some of these women. They may have played their part in the patriarchal game plan, but at times they turned it on its head. Ultimately I concluded that if I read cautiously, there was enough to salvage and use.
These contradictory feelings prompted me to write Eve's Bible: to help other women re-vision biblical traditions and empower readers to decide what meaning the Bible has for them. If our spiritual lives are of any value at all, we need the best sustenance available, and the Bible, if read intelligently, can nourish us.
Three Fallacies About the Bible
Both religious traditionalists and nonbelievers have perpetuated fallacies about the Bible that lead otherwise intelligent, educated people to ignore its wisdom. Let's look at three misguided propositions that might keep you from moving ahead.
Fallacy #1: The Bible is the inerrant "Word of God."
Traditionalists claim that everything in the Bible is literally true (or, true except in matters of science), dictated by God to willing scribes.
Yet the great majority of scholars view the Bible as a compilation of writings by humans who were inspired by Divine promptings to greater or lesser degree. Politics, economics, cultural trends, and assorted worldly fixations influenced biblical writings.
The best motive for reading the Bible is not belief but engagement. The texts are there for you to ponder and wrestle with.
Fallacy #2: With the Bible, it's all or nothing; you can't accept some of it and ignore the rest.
Traditionalists argue that the early rabbis and church fathers [sic] determined the Bible's contents once and for all. We must accept the entire canon, or collection of scripture, without picking and choosing.
For starters, although we call it "The Bible" as if everyone knew what that meant, Jews, Protestants, Roman Catholics, Greek Orthodox, and Russian Orthodox each have accepted a different collection of works as its Bible. The Old Testament is not identical to the Jewish Bible. (Appendix 3 explains these peculiarities.) And even the most devout believers have made accommodations for modern circumstances. (No one nowadays is sacrificing bulls to atone for sin, for example.)
Furthermore, successive generations of biblical scribes augmented and commented upon received tradition—additions that then became part of the canon. When we use life experiences to gauge whether something in the Bible is valid and meaningful, we join a line of biblical interpreters stretching back more than 2,500 years.
Fallacy #3: The Bible is Western literature's greatest work of fiction.
Folks who don't care for the Bible repeat this fallacy, often to counter Fallacy #1. Yet as you explore what is really in the Bible, you will discover this: The Bible is not fiction—yet neither is it nonfiction. It's true but not necessarily factual, historical but not a history book. Rather, it is "sacred history," a story about the origins of a tribe and its relationship with the Deity that maintains a somewhat tenuous connection to actual events. And as we enter its stories, you'll find that what appears to be the past becomes an ongoing story in which we can participate.
Touring the Bible
Touring the biblical world is a lot like traveling in the wider world. You'll journey across distance and time to encounter a world both like and unlike your own. And as you travel into new knowledge, you'll be changed by the experience.
Eve's Bible will be your companion in this new land to keep you from getting lost or overwhelmed, encouraging you to rely on your sense of adventure, and to draw satisfaction from the self-discovery that is certain to result.
You are welcome to be an armchair traveler and simply read and learn from Eve's Bible. But at the back of the book, in the first appendix, I've outlined the methods you can use to find your way more deeply into a passage from the Bible, and I invite you to explore along with me as we go. I describe how to choose a passage, what to look for as you read, how to pace yourself, and ways to make sense of what you read.
"Making sense" has two parts: First, we have to grasp what the biblical author was trying to get across. Second, we figure out what it means in our lives. The first task requires a certain amount of analytical, left-brained activity, but your heartfelt intuition is needed at all times.
For each of the six genres I have identified within the Bible, I've included a "tutorial" that walks you through a passage. I also provide lists of where to find the women in each genre. A half dozen passages in each list are starred. These are good selections with which to start. My secret wish is that by reading Eve's Bible, you will feel inspired to explore further and will eventually become confident interpreting the Bible for yourself. That brings with it a wonderful sense of empowerment.
Travel Advisory
I have just one caution for the road ahead: Please be careful about what you designate as holy and authoritative in your life—even the Bible. While it is called the "Holy Bible," the Bible is holy only to the degree that we allow it to have authority in our lives. The book called the Bible is not, by itself, holy, any more than are the sun or the stars. Holiness is what happens in our lives through dynamic encounters that let us hear the voice that guides us. Whether you call that voice God, or a Higher Power, or your own consciousness is up to you. But this holy wisdom is only potential until we complete it by recognizing it as our own.
Don't let the Bible become another domineering voice. "Authority" comes from the Latin word auctrits, from auctor, or "author." Who is the author of your life? Who makes the decisions that shape your story? I hope it is you.
Dates, Names, And Sources In Eve's Bible
All religious traditions have their own calendars, numbering the years according to their understanding of history. The West has adopted the Christian schema (AD and BC), but in this book I'm trying for something a bit more neutral. I use Common Era (CE) and Before Common Era (BCE), which refers to time without referring to the Christian messiah.
Biblical writers called the Deity by many different names, but the designation that appears most often in English versions of the Bible—LORD—was not one of them. LORD is a stand-in for the four Hebrew letters YHWH, traditionally considered too holy to pronounce. Chapter 13 tackles the question of what this name might mean and chapter 2 explains its significance to understanding how the Bible was composed—particulars that argue against a circumlocution such as LORD.
Some scholars and Bible versions write this name out as Yahweh. I've chosen instead to use the four letters (printed as Yhwh) to promote historical accuracy and allow readers to pronounce it or not as they wish. I hope this middle way will be acceptable to all concerned.
One of the things you will learn in Eve's Bible is that not all Bibles are created equal. In fact, there is no single collection of materials that everyone agrees is the Bible. Jewish and Christian Bibles are ordered and categorized differently, and the contents of Christian Bibles differ depending upon whether they're intended for use by Protestants, Anglicans, Roman Catholics, Greek Orthodox, or Russian Orthodox.
In Eve's Bible, I've included for the sake of discussion all of the books that form the Jewish Bible—often called the Tanakh—as well as the collection used by Christians that is called, variously, the Apocrypha or Deuterocanonical books. Whether you consider all of these "Holy writ" is up to you, but this more generous selection mirrors the compilation of Jewish scriptures that was translated into Greek late in the first millennium BCE. Appendix 3 tells you all about it.
Most of the quotations from the Bible in this book come from the New Revised Standard Version, unless otherwise noted. In certain places, for clarity's sake, I've used excerpts from the translation by the Jewish Publication Society (designated JPS). Appendix 2 tells you about the many different translations now on the market (only they're not called translations; they're versions) and how to shop for a modern edition that can significantly improve your pleasure in reading the Bible.
Companions for the Road
If you still have doubts about taking on the Bible, know that you join a long line of remarkable women who have felt empowered to interpret the Bible for themselves and who can be companions for your journey.
One of them was Sojourner Truth, who was born a slave in New York during the American Revolution. Freed after thirty years, Truth became an ardent campaigner for women's rights and the abolition of slavery. Although she never learned to read or write, she drew upon the oral tradition of her African heritage to memorize scripture, which she quoted at length in her public speeches. Truth interpreted critically what she memorized based on her own, intuitive relationship with God.1
Truth challenged literal interpretations of the Bible by comparing them with her own experience of God and everyday life. In her famous 1851 "Arn'n't I a Woman?" speech she said:
If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let 'em.2
This is a clever bit of interpretation. Truth took the standard patriarchal criticism—that Eve upended God's plan for creation by eating that apple—and said it testified to women's power. To refute her assertion that women have the capacity to make the world right again, it would be necessary to deny that Eve caused a major upheaval.
And by warning that "the men better let 'em," Truth issued a veiled threat that played upon the same patriarchal proposition: If Eve was so powerful that she thwarted God, just watch out what her daughters might do to you!
I hope that you will join other daughters of Eve in reading the Bible with her eyes. I know you'll derive pleasure and benefit from its pages. You'll also find a renewed sense of your place in the world as well.
EVE'S BIBLE Copyright © 2008 by Sarah S. Forth.