Religion and Literature

RLG 230Y

September 18, 1997

For an example of a feminist defense of the Adam and Eve story see Phyllis Trible, "Eve and Adam: Genesis 2-3 Reread," in Womanspirit Rising: A Feminist Reader in Religion, eds. Carol Christ and Judith Plaskow (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1979).

New Testament Interpretations of Genesis:

Romans 5:12-18

[S]in came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned . . . Yet death exercised dominion from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who is a type of the one who was to come. . . . Therefore just as one man's trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man's act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all.

1 Corinthians 15:21-22

For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:45-47

Thus it is written, "The first man, Adam, became a living being"; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first, but the physical, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven.

2 Corinthians 11:3

But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by its cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

1 Timothy 2:12-15

I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet she will be saved through childbearing, provided they continue in faith and love and holiness, with modesty.

For discussion next class:

Do you agree or disagree with Culpepper's analysis? Do you think that anything else in the Poohsticks story might be considered religious?