Jesus Set Us Free!

Adam’s Rule

/ Joan C. Thomson

To the woman he said, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” Genesis 3:16 NIV

 Many teachers throughout the ages have tangled this scripture into a proof that God had in mind, from the start, for males to dominate females—married or unmarried, Christian or non-Christian, in church or outside the church, for all times.  These teachers insist that God had already created such a hierarchy, though the creation account states that God gave both male and female dominion over the earth together (Genesis 1:27-28) and was simply reiterating it.  They see scriptures that instruct wives to submit to their husbands (see my article on submission: as further proof of intended domination. Unfortunately, such ideas originated from pagan surroundings instead of the light of Jesus*.

The Hebrew word “mashal,” translated as “rule” in Genesis 3:16 means “to have dominion or to dominate;” when the Rabbis translated the Old Testament into Greek in the mid 200s BC (Septuagint), they used the word “kurieo” meaning to “lord over” or “control.”  The only uses of this word in the New Testament describe the Gentile rulers, who Jesus warned against–those who lord over one another (Luke 22:25) and the demon who overpowered and beat the seven sons of Sceva (Acts:19:16)—both were motivated by the devil, so in no way was God instructing Adam to “rule over” Eve!  Notice that God was addressing Eve, not Adam; he didn’t say, “Now Adam, this is what you must do;” rather, God described Adam’s future actions as a “fallen” man.  However, the Greek word “hupotasso,” translated as “submit” is entirely different and means to “voluntarily come under” as in cooperating—what all Christians are to do for each other (Ephesians 5:21).  The first is to demand; the second is to give.  Nowhere does the New Testament tell husbands—or any men, to dominate or lord over wives—or any women just because they’re women (or lord over anyone), but rather to serve them (Ephesians 5:25-33).

For some reason, Adam and Eve wanted the Knowledge of Good and Evil though they already knew Good since God is good and everything he made was good.  Taken in context, this confrontation of their sin describes, rather than a hierarchy, the ways they would experience that knowledge of evil, first hand–in the form of pain and struggle in working the land, in giving birth and in their relationship.

To the woman he said, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”  To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life.  It will produce thorns and thistles for you,  and you will eat the plants of the field.  By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.” Genesis 3:16-19 NIV

God’s response to Adam and Eve’s sin is written in a type of mirrored poetry in which the results of their mutual sin are somewhat paired.  Eve’s “painful labor” in childbirth is mirrored with Adam’s “painful toil” in farming—the Hebrew uses essentially the same word for both. It’s a sad prophecy that the areas of their fruitfulness would be hindered—by hard, painful work. Though their fruitfulness—Eve’s work to “give birth” and Adam’s working of the ground to “eat food from it” would continue, it would be tough going.

Additionally, the two sets of results or punishments for their sin are mirrored. Eve will have a longing for her husband, but apparently, he’d take advantage of her making herself vulnerable to him and rule over her (v.16b) while Adam will need the benefits of the soil, but it will fight him (v18).  The Hebrew word translated as desire, “teshookaw” means a stretching out after, a longing, a desire.  Some teachers attach a sinister meaning, insisting that Eve was after Adam to take him over just as sin was going after Cain (Genesis 4:7) and in fact, the same word is used.  However, the same word is also used in Song of Solomon (7:10) to describe the longing of a man and woman for one another—the latter is the way lexicons define the word (Brown-Driver-Briggs).

Eve, in making herself vulnerable, would want her husband Adam to love her in return but Adam would think of her as trouble and rebuff her.  It seems likely that God put that longing in Eve or she would probably turn away from his domineering behavior and there wouldn’t be any multiplying—no more humans on the earth.  So she longs to be with Adam—they’d always been together before, after all she was made from a part of him, though he would push her around and the childbearing that results from their union would bring intense pain.

Adam had also had a close relationship with the “ground” right from the start, first having come from it, then working the beautiful Garden of Eden. But now that relationship had gone sour as well. Adam was vulnerable to the “ground” because of his need for food—he and Eve had only “seed-bearing plants” to eat so Adam had to grow their food, or they’d starve but the interaction with that “ground” would also be painful.

But the ground couldn’t help it, because “the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice” (Romans 8:20).  Similarly, Adam was trapped by sin in his domination of Eve.

Then Jesus came to set us free! There’s hope—hope for Eve, Adam and all of us born since!  God didn’t leave them there; he announced that Eve’s seed—not Adam’s (v.15) would crush the serpent’s head!  Jesus would be (and now has been) born of a virgin woman–not a man and overcome Satan for all time and beyond!

“…the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:19) and in Jesus, a husband “must love his wife as he loves himself” (Ephesians 5:33).

*“Plato (428 BC) an ardent follower of Socrates, passed his low view of women to his most influential disciple Aristotle (384 BC), who taught that males were to be the dominators, while females and slaves were meant to be dominated, and that all females were inferior to males.  Aristotle wrote ‘we should look upon the female state of being as though it were a deformity, though one which occurs in the ordinary course of nature.” Gundry, Women Be Free, 18.

 

 

 

 

More Easily Deceived?

/ Joan C. Thomson

Sadly though everything was wonderful in the Garden of Eden, Eve, then Adam, sinned.  Eve was deceived by the serpent, but Adam knew full well what he was doing.  Does the fact that Eve was deceived mean, as it is often taught, that women are more easily deceived than men and therefore can’t be trusted in leadership?  Of course not!  Not unless deliberate sin makes one more trustworthy!

No, Paul constantly warned all the Christians against being deceived–female and male. (1 Cor.6:9; 2 Cor. 11:3; 2 Thes. 2:3; Gal. 6:7; Col. 2:4; 2 Tim 3:13; Titus 3:3; James 1:16; 2 John 7—Jesus too, in Mt. 24:4) Besides, the Bible says that Jesus’ death and resurrection freed all of us from the punishment for original sin—not just Adam’s but Eve’s too! Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, so we’re no longer under the “curse” that when Eve would have a longing for her husband, he would take advantage of her by trying to control her. (Galatians 3: 13) That’s right!  We’re free! Jesus came to set the captives free from sin, free from personal and original sin and free from the constraints of culture—the traditions of men.

Jesus vs. Culture

/ Joan C. Thomson

Jesus came into a world in which Greek, Roman, even Jewish men taught that women were inferior, on a level somewhere between men and animals, evil, the cause of all trouble and something of a curse that they even existed.  Plato taught, “The price for our sinning was exacted at the beginning of time by Zeus himself when he afflicted us with these creatures (women)” and “if we spend our lives in wrongdoing and in cowardice, afterward Zeus will send us back into this life as women.” * Plato taught Aristotle, whose teachings many of the early church fathers openly mixed with Christianity—rearranging some of the words but not deleting the ideas.

No one could have gotten such ideas from Jesus!  He never put women down, never used them as bad examples in his parables.  Instead he often referred to them as astoundingly good examples of great faith and giving, as with the widow who gave all she had to live on (Mark 12:42-44).  He never rebuked them harshly. The closest he came to that was gently saying, Martha, Martha you worry about too many things.” (Luke 10:39-41)  Jesus never talked down to women but spoke directly to them some great theological truths—to the Samaritan woman (who he wasn’t supposed to speak to at all because she was a woman—people might get the wrong idea, and a hated Samaritan one at that) He said to her, “God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth,” and identified himself to her as the Messiah. (John 4:22-24) When Lazarus died, Jesus said to his sister Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life.”  And she confessed, “I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.” (John 11:27)

Jesus had Mary, Martha’s sister sitting at his feet to learn from him—the position of a rabbinical student, unheard of for a woman in their culture!  And he said that learning from him was the best thing to choose and that it would not be taken away from her. (Luke 10:38-42)

Jesus entrusted these women with deep truths.  Were these truths only for women?  The men had better hope not!  No.  Jesus expects all his disciples to teach others to obey the things he commanded.  We are to put our light on a stand and let it give light to everyone.

*Why Not Women? Loren Cunningham, David Hamilton p.72 from “Plato”, Microsoft© Encyclopedia Encarta, 1993

 

We Are Humans First

/ Joan C. Thomson

Jesus is the best that ever happened to women! Colossian says that Jesus created all things! (Colossians 1:16) Do you think our maker knows what women are supposed to be like?  Of course! We can tell so much by the way he treated women—or didn’t treat them.  He really didn’t treat them any differently than men except as humans that he came to save and serve.  Yes, he made women unique and he made men unique and science is discovering more of this all the time but first and foremost, we have more in common than we have differences—we are human.

All Together

/ Joan C. Thomson

Jesus included the women and treated them well but that didn’t stop with his ascension—no, they were right there in the Upper Room praying constantly.  And on the day of Pentecost they were still “all together.” They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues then Peter reminded the men who heard them that Joel prophesied that God’s Spirit would be poured out on both men and women and that both would prophesy (Acts 2).

 

Women Disciples

/ Joan C. Thomson

When the Bible or even Jesus himself referred to “his disciples,” women—many women, were included in that designation.  They weren’t just part of the crowd or an afterthought. “Pointing to his disciples, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers.” (Matthew 12:48-50; Mark 3:34)  Luke tells us by name just who these disciples were, ”After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna the wife of Cuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others.” (Luke 8:1-3)

The same word is always used for disciples whether male or female. Women are not subset disciples but the first rate, real thing—if, as Jesus said, women as well as men, continue in his teachings. (John 8:31, 32)  Jesus’ teachings—and he continued to teach through the apostles, are the only teachings for Christians to follow—he said his sheep listen to only his voice.(John 10:3)  Get to know his word the Bible—especially the New Testament, intimately so you can use it as a filter for all the things that come at you.  Go beyond the English (or your language) translations and you’ll be amazed at the distinctions the ancient Greek makes.  It’s not hard to find Greek interlinear New Testaments and not at all hard to read them.  This is a good starting point in knowing what Jesus truly said. One I use is biblehub.com.

First to Proclaim the Good News!

/ Joan C. Thomson

Now Mary [Magdalene] stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”

Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”

Jesus said to her, “Mary.”

She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (“Teacher”).

Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her. John 20:11-18

Jesus appeared first to women after he rose from the dead!  Some have said that it was only because they were there doing the “women’s work” of preparing the body—if it was women’s work, then Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus were doing women’s work a couple of days earlier when they put spices on his body (John 18:38-31). No, the women were there because their love for Jesus overcame their fear.  And God will always honor that.

Jesus told Mary Magdalene and the women with her to “Go and tell my brothers..” but the men didn’t believe her (Luke 24:9-11).  A girl I know made that mistake once.  Her mother sent her little sister to tell her to come home when she was playing at a neighbor’s house.  The girl didn’t want to stop playing—who was this little sister to tell her what to do anyway– so she sent her away.  Of course, the younger girl went back to their mother who sent her again.  Then the younger sister came back to the older sister saying, “You’d better come, she’s really mad.”  She went.  The mother told the older girl, “When I send your sister, I expect you to listen; it’s just as if it was me telling you.  If you ignore her—you’re ignoring me.”  We dare not ignore the Word of God brought by his messenger even if some don’t like the package!  But to their credit, Peter and John raced to the tomb so they must have believed something (Luke 24:12)!