Women in Genesis (Essay Sample)

In Genesis, women are painted in a negative light. God’s disobedience and the patriarchs judge them on their ability to fulfill their roles as mothers and wives. God created earth and man with a clear plan for his view on the world, but repeated sins kept messing up his dreams. Because Eve was coerced into eating out to the tree of knowledge, women are viewed as weak, untrustworthy, and dishonest. 

God designed Adam first out of the dirt and blew life into his nostrils to bring him to life. Adam was produced to cultivate and protect the Garden of Eden. With the one rule to “not eat from the tree of knowledge for you will die.” God then created Eve from Adam’s rib to be a subservient helper for Adam. Adam and Eve were required to be “fruitful and multiply, fulfill the earth and subdue it” (Gen 1:28). Due to Eve being tricked into eating out of the tree of knowledge and disobeying God’s word, humanity has been expelled from paradise, the Garden of Eden. From the beginning, the bible shows that a women’s role is to be a mother, wife, and helper.  “Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; nI will make him a helper fit for1 him.” (Gen 2:18) Some may find this reason enough to believe that women were made to help men. In today’s society, many relationships are just that, women being subservient to their husbands. 

Eve is everything that represents a woman; she is also everything that a man should guard himself against. Because eve was able to be tricked into eating from the tree of knowledge, she became a symbol that all women by nature are disobedient, prone to temptation, weak-willed, and untrustworthy (Witcombe 3). Due to the image portrayed by eve in the bible, no matter the accomplishment and success a woman has, she will always be identified as Eve. This story also harms women because when God kicked Adam and Eve out of the garden, it also punished Adam, the first man, due to Eve’s actions. God told Adam he would have to till the soil. Adam was created to cultivate and keep the garden, and now he has to work to get enough food to survive, sometimes being rewarded with thorns and thistles. In modern times, you have men blaming their wives for not becoming successful because they have to provide for that said woman. Even men use the bible to defend their actions in “disciplining their wives.”

In Genesis, you are lead to believe that marriage and love are shared by man and woman only. Only men and women are to multiply. Hence Adam and Eve being the first husband and wife, being man and woman. The bible says, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” (Gen 2:24-25).  Men are expected to find a woman that he feels is his match, his “life helper,” he is supposed to court her then marry her in the eyes of God. Once married, they become one flesh, one being. When you look at the relationship between man and woman in Genesis, look at the relationships between man and woman now, things have changed. Marriage is no longer between men and women. While yes, there are still men and women getting married, but you now have same-sex marriages and polyamorous marriage. In the modern world, if you’re getting married and it is not between one man and one woman, you are considered committing an act against God. You are sinning. Many beautiful and happy couples in today’s society are scared to get married because of how people react. I believe that is because of the story of Adam and Eve, that image they portray. 

The creation story Genesis, in my opinion, has hurt modern society. From the beginning of men being superior to women, a man is physically created before women, to a woman being tricked into deceiving her husband’s words meaning her and all women who come after having the image of being unloyal and untrustworthy—seen as evil and prone to temptation. Women are changing the modern world, and due to one mistake, women don’t get the recognition they deserve. To the extensive topic of marriage and love, you are an abomination if your anything but heterosexual. You are sinning and deserved to be punished, which is wrong. The bible also states that all children are God’s children. Everyone is made in his image, so if you are supposed to love all of God’s children, why are those said children punished for walking a separate path than the one God has set out.