{"id":34076,"date":"2018-07-16T14:36:02","date_gmt":"2018-07-16T11:36:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=34076"},"modified":"2022-02-07T14:30:11","modified_gmt":"2022-02-07T12:30:11","slug":"fractured-relationships-in-context","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/fractured-relationships-in-context\/","title":{"rendered":"Fractured Relationships in Context"},"content":{"rendered":"
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What are we to do with God\u2019s pronouncement to woman: \u201cto your husband is your desire and he shall rule over you\u201d? Some 21<\/span>st<\/span> century readers respond with disgusted dismissal; others, with fundamentalist apologetics. I prefer a third path: carefully rereading God\u2019s words in Genesis 3, while considering their place within their immediate context and within the context of the larger creation story. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When humanity is first created in Genesis 1, man and woman share a name, \u201cHa-adam<\/em>,\u201d along with all the characteristics invested in that name. Both woman and man are created in God\u2019s image, unique and infinitely valuable; both confront the world as subjects, not objects. God blesses both equally and charges both to fill the earth and conquer it.<\/span><\/p>\n

How different are God\u2019s words in Genesis 3, in which rulership (the Hebrew root <\/span>m-sh-l<\/span><\/em>) replaces equality. Woman is now object to man\u2019s subject; she yearns for him as he controls her.<\/span><\/p>\n

How can this dramatic descent in woman\u2019s status be explained? Context is key. In Genesis 3, humanity has rebelled against God, and as a result, many essential relationships are negatively affected: between men and the earth, between women and animals, between women and their offspring, between men and women. Viewed in context, we may reasonably conclude that the disintegration of male-female equality is neither natural nor desirable. As with all the other relationships fractured at this moment, it is the unfortunate consequence of humanity\u2019s disobedience.<\/span><\/p>\n

Moreover, as we read on in the book of Genesis, it becomes evident that God\u2019s pronouncements in Genesis 3 were never meant as permanent mandates. Although God proclaims that man will eat bread by the sweat of his brow, we find that most male protagonists in Genesis are shepherds, not farmers. Logic dictates that man\u2019s subjugation of woman is intended to be no less reversible than his choice of livelihood. While Genesis 3 describes much of what will characterize behaviors and relationships throughout much of human history, at the same time its words challenge readers to seek to repair these fractured relationships. Repair includes overturning gender hierarchy and returning to the state of equality presented in the original creation story.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is worth noting that in Genesis 1, in which all of creation is deemed by God to be \u201cgood,\u201d the only rulership (<\/span>m-sh-l<\/span><\/em>)<\/span><\/i> mentioned is that of the sun and the moon, created to illuminate the earth.<\/span><\/p>\n

In this age of \u201cme too\u201d exposures, these biblical messages resound. Rulership in interpersonal relationships\u2014denying the divine image and infinite value of the other, treating the other as object, not subject– is a sign of the collapse of God\u2019s wishes for equality among human beings. It signals a move away from the luminous sunlight of Genesis 1 and a return to the darkness that preceded God\u2019s creation. In God\u2019s ideal world, the only license to \u201crule\u201d is granted to heavenly objects, charged with shedding light on humanity, perhaps toward a better, more equal, future. <\/span><\/p>\n

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