Slide 19
I really like what you said in slide 19, ” Common understanding is that God gave woman to man to cook, sew, clean, etc for him, but these things were not needed before the fall!” This is a good eye-opener for me. I already knew that ‘ezer’ helper did not mean subservient, but I never stopped to think before that cooking, cleaning, and sewing were not needed before the fall. This is a good response to give complementarian men when they try to say a woman was created to be man’s assistant. It should make them think, that is of course if they are capable of rational thought, LOL.
Considering that domestic services were not needed in the garden, it truly is for companionship, pro-creation, co-partnership, and shared dominion that woman was created.
Slide 20
You pose a question about Adam’s silence and if he possibly waited for Eve to act first and see what happened as a way to clear himself of the blame. I am not sure if this is accurate or not, but Hosea 6:7 says the word ‘Adam’ in Hebrew and says he dealt ‘treacherously’ with God.
(כְּאָדָ֖ם kə-’ā-ḏām)
“But like Adam they have transgressed the covenant; There they have dealt treacherously against Me.” (NASB)
Malachi 2:15 Uses the same word ‘treacherous’ as Hosea 6:7 when it refers to a man and the Genesis narrative, only this time in regards to how a man treats his wife.
“And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.” (KJV)
According to Strong’s Concordance ‘treacherous’ is a primitive root; to cover (with a garment); figuratively, to act covertly; by implication, to pillage — deal deceitfully
The above might or might not be connected to Adam, but it’s definitely possible according to Hosea 6:7.
Slide 29 & 31
Wow, I have never heard that before Jane! That Eve may have been the one to teach Abel how to give sacrifices to God. That is a really cool insight! She would have been a possible witness to the first animal sacrifice when God clothed their nakedness. Other women in the Old Testament also worked with sheep and animals, I think that was common for women. Rebeka did at least.
Slide 34,
God says to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” Cain lies and says, “I don’t know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”
Yep, Cain lied and made excuses just like his father Adam. The ties between Adam first avoiding God and then blaming Eve have strong correlations with how Cain answered and handled God.
Slide 35 & 36
That’s a very good observation about Eve taking some time apart from Adam after Cain murdered Abel. It makes sense. Also, that she would have confronted Adam about all of the pent-up hurt and offenses against her.
Jane, this is a bit off topic, but there is an extra-Biblical book that Jews read that fills in some gaps in the time before the flood. What the book says is that ‘Tubal-Cain’ the supposed grandson of Cain, murdered a child by accident out of rage, and his two wives refused to live and sleep with him afterward. They accused him of being wicked just like his grandfather and considered it a sin to have any further relations with him. The man repented afterward and his wives took him back after that. I just brought it up because if that story has any historical truth or at least the way Jews understood it at the time, someone would have had to teach the women those standards at some point, and it might have been passed down from Eve.
Slides 39 through 42
Those are very powerful insights and prophetic perspectives! I never heard that before. It makes so much sense! Another thing to back your revelations on the events that followed for Seth to be born is the fact that Jews themselves not only take the Genesis narrative to be historical but also prophetic and symbolic in nature. They understand and read Adam and Eve with the same type of thinking you do, and they read behind the scenes for the hidden things to be brought to light.