According to a female rabbi and professor, Eve was the first victim of #MeToo, the recent movement to raise awareness of sexual harassment and assault. Her article is utterly ridiculous and so obviously false that it’s hardly worth commenting on, but I thought I would use it as an extreme example of what happens when God’s Word is no longer the authority—and when, instead, our own ideas, opinions, and cultural happenings become the authority over God and his inerrant Word.
Kolton writes,
The story that begins the bible . . . is actually the story of the first sexual assault of a woman. The woman’s name is Eve. And the perpetrator? God.
Her blasphemous article goes on to say,
I want you to think about this. Here is a young, beautiful, intelligent, naked woman living in a state of Grace. She’s hungry, so she does the most natural thing in the world and eats a piece of fruit. For following her instincts, trusting herself, and nourishing her body, she is punished. Her punishment? She will never again feel safe in her nakedness. She will never again love her body. She will never again know her body as a place of sacred sovereignty.
“What have you done?” He God thunders. Eve wants to defend herself, but she is too ashamed to speak. Eve, our first mother whose name means the “mother of all living things,” is silenced.
Clearly Kolton did not spend much time reading the biblical text because her entire description of the events in Genesis 3 is wrong.
Was Eve merely satisfying her hunger?
And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. (Genesis 2:9)
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. (Genesis 3:6)
No, she wasn’t hungry. She was in a garden full of food, was deceived by the serpent who twisted God’s words, and decided she wanted to become like God, so she rebelled against God’s command and ate the fruit.
Was Eve’s punishment never to love her body again?
but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. (Genesis 2:17)
Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. (Genesis 3:7)
To the woman he said,
I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing;
in pain you shall bring forth children.
Your desire shall be contrary to your husband,
but he shall rule over you. (Genesis 3:16)
Eve’s punishment had nothing to do with not feeling safe naked, or not loving her body, or not knowing her body as a place of “sacred sovereignty.” Her just punishment for sin was death, pain in childbearing, and discord with her husband’s God-given leadership. Shame, and the realization that she and Adam were naked, were among the many results of their sin, not a punishment God specifically handed out.
Was Eve shamed into silence?
Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” (Genesis 3:13)
Clearly not. Eve responded and tried to shift the blame from her own sin to the serpent.
Kolton continues,
The founding myth of Judeo-Christian religion, the story of Eve, granted generations of men permission to violate women. It teaches us that women are liars and sinners.
Nowhere does Genesis, or anywhere else in the Bible, give men permission to violate women. The Bible upholds the dignity of all human life, lays out that sex is for mutual enjoyment in marriage only (1 Corinthians 7:3–5), and that husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the Church (Ephesians 5:25). Kolton is simply reading her feminist agenda into the text.
But Genesis, and the Bible as a whole, does teach that every woman—just like every man—is a sinner (Romans 3:23) and that we are all liars from birth (Psalm 58:3). But it also teaches that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners (1 Timothy 1:15). He loved us enough to die in our place (Romans 5:8), taking the penalty that we deserve—death—for us. And someday those who have trusted in Christ (Romans 10:9) will dwell with him for eternity in a new heavens and new earth where there will no longer be any sin, sorrow, pain, or the Curse (Revelation 21:4).
Instead of ignoring Adam entirely in the Genesis 3 account and inventing a false, misogynistic god for her essay and agenda, Kolton needs to repent and look to God’s Word where she will discover the true God, who is full of love, compassion, and justice, and who died on the Cross to save sinners just like her.
I discussed this item on Answers News this afternoon with hosts Dr. Georgia Purdom and Bodie Hodge. Answers News is our twice-weekly news program filmed live before a studio audience here at the Creation Museum and broadcast over my Facebook page. We also discussed the following topics:
School cancels father-daughter dance over gender issues
Does Google know who Jesus is?
Teacher fired over her religious views
Walgreen’s new policy welcomes men into women’s restrooms
And more!
Be sure to join us each Monday and Thursday at 2 p.m. on my Facebook page for Answers News. You won’t want to miss this unique news program that gives science and culture news from a distinctly biblical and Christian perspective.
Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken
This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.
“Giggle for Girls” is an Australian female-only networking app that was sued by a man for barring him from using the app, even though he identifies as a woman.
A new find makes one fossil trackway even more incredible because the trackway is split between two continents and separated by the Atlantic Ocean.
Answers in Genesis is an apologetics ministry, dedicated to helping Christians defend their faith and proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ.