Monsignor Pope Ping!
Thy first father hath sinned, and thy teachers have transgressed against me.Many (not all) understand the “first father” (or forefather, literally) here to be Adam.
— Isaiah 43:27
Eve was deceived first by the serpent and succumbed to the temptation to possess the knowledge of God (in a sense to be equal to God). The part that has always troubled me is that upon that first bite, and becoming aware of her sin, she then offered Adam the second bite. He succumbed to the temptation, and I’m guessing here, the new awareness in Eve’s eyes that he had never witnessed before. I would call it a seductive look. To me that is why women should not be permitted to teach men or hold positions of authority in the church. Even when we come to the knowledge of our error we do not confess it but try to entice others to follow us. But that’s just my opinion. Did Adam sin? Yes. But was Eve instrumental in his downfall? Yes.
“These sorts of teachings grate on modern ears, but this does not make them untrue.” AMEN!
***Bump*** for later reading.
“And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner”
And, generally speakinv, aren’t women more easily deceived than men even today?
“Thus, Adam’s sin lay in his willingness to allow his wife to tempt him.”
Nothing has changed there. Men are suckers to women’s advances. The little head downstairs takes over.
So women are easily conned by shysters and men are easily conned by women.
That, in a nutshell, is the history of the world.
Nice post; tied to scripture
Genesis would be a very different book had 1) Adam run toward God rather than away, and 2) had he taken the blame for his wife rather than shift the blame to her.
It’s always better to face God’s judgement straight up, than to run from it. In the end God loves you. If you have to face judgement, that’s your better choice.
Modern ears need to be grated upon.
No. The Truth is policially incorrect ... please keep posting it.
Can’t wait to read this! Thanks for the post Salvation.
It’s the woman’s fault.....
On a side note, at the peak of Venice’s wealth and power, a new priest was asked to minister to a wealthy but contentious congregation. Their last several priests had gone foul of one of the two major factions in the church, so had been displaced, some after their first sermon, which was broadly interpreted as supportive or hostile to the factions.
So, knowing of this, his first sermon was on the sin of Adam. And the second was on the sin of Eve. And the third on the sin of Adam again. etc. And he did this for decades, often carrying on extended arguments with his previous sermons. And yet he offended no one enough to get himself fired. Some congregants made it a point to go out of their way to come to church just for the sermons, like they were a serialized story.
And in the process, he was able to integrate more traditional topics of sermons, in reference to his debate about Adam and Eve. He retired in good standing, and by that time, the contentiousness of that congregation had ended.
Who’s sin was it that condemned us? Adam or Eve’s and does it really matter since God must have known that it was going to happen since it was ordained that Jesus would die for our sins from before the foundation of the world?
Because he trusted a woman instead of God. It’s been a disaster ever since.
Born again Christian women are amused when reading the bible and notice that Adam blamed God because God gave him the woman.
This seems an appropriate venue for this story ;
This story happened several months after that episode in the Garden of Eden, when the serpent convinced Eve to offer Adam the forbidden fruit.
God and Adam were sitting around talking one evening after dinner. Adam looked up to the heavens and said to God, “You know, ever since Eve screwed up and we had to leave the Garden of Eden there is something I have wanted ask you.”
With a deep voice that seemed to come from everywhere, God said, “What is it you want to know?” Adam quickly asked God, “Why did you make Eve so beautiful?” God slowly replied “So that you will love her.”
Adam then asked God, “Then why did you make Eve so soft and curvy?” Again, God replied, “So that you will love her.”
Adam looked perplexed as he asked God, “Then please tell me, after doing all of that, why did you make Eve so dumb?”
God casually answered, “So that she will love you!”
A man has a reason to kneel before God and his wife.
Let women be subject to their husbands (Eph. 5:22)The lectionary had a pencil mark: a faint arrow leading from Verse 21 to 24.
I ignore the mark and read the passage full. Moans were heard at Verse 22.
In the homily, the priest addressed the verse. "I heard you moan. But let me explain ...", -- he proceeded with the stock reference to "the times".
After the Mass he found me and said "We don't normally read that part, but I think I smoothed it over well enough in the homily".
It is a miracle our Church survives to this day, and God bless Monsignor Pope.
Adam’s sin was a knowing one: He followed Eve into disobedience. It consolidated the rebellion. It was worse.
C. S. Lewis addresses this in Perelandra.