All through my life I have always wanted to know specifics to knowledge, how comes and especially the answer to my whys. Just recently I heard a co-worker of mine say her child is constantly asking her, " … but why mom?" and my co-worker said she was tired of trying to come up with clever answers to her six-year-old’s questions. Well, I’m not quite six years old, but I still ask the question why and want to know the details behind the situation. Through the years of my theological training, I continued to ask the question why wanting to know the shape of theology and how the reformation changed everything; but I still have several questions and would like to offer a challenge to you as the reader how you would answer these why questions. Eve is the first woman mentioned in the Old Testament of the Bible and aspects of her character, in the Jewish and Christian interpretive traditions, have included sin, seduction and the secondary nature of woman. Western art and culture has a way of portraying her as using her presence in the garden to deceive and corrupt all of human mankind. But why does an intelligent society place the responsibility of human fate on the shoulders of one person?The accounts of Genesis 2-3 record the events this way. Genesis 2 sets the stage for a beautiful picture in our minds of a lush, abundant garden with trees for food and a tree for the knowledge of good and evil. God instructs Adam not to eat from the tree of good and evil and then creates woman as a helper to man. (Genesis 2:15-18). Simple enough. Genesis 3 brings us to the dialogue between the serpent and Eve. A crafty serpent … "more crafty than any other wild animal that LORD God has made.’ (Genesis 3:1) My mind wonders why did this crafty serpent begin the conversation with Eve? Did the serpent know Eve would engage with intellectual conversation and provide a good debate with the serpent or did the serpent feel that Eve would be a vulnerable source because she had not directly heard the words from God but only told to her by Adam?Communication in marriage is twofold and I wonder what the exchange of conversation between Adam and Eve was. If I were told of an eminent death sentence because of my actions, I would want to know more specifics. But I am not told what the exchange of words were. So I contemplate the situation why? Why the risk? Would Eve be the better of two to handle the stress of her consequences? Her actions were not alone because her mate partook in eating of the fruit as well. Maybe they were both risk takers or because in Hebrew tradition it was the reality of women’s roles to prepare and serve the food and not be a temptress or be seductive. There are many whys in the Bible and I am no scholar. My purpose was to engage you in some thoughts you may have not considered before and as for the Bible, it is the Word of God and someday when we leave this earthly life we will know the answer to these whys but for the time being, it may be of interest to engage in some theological conversation to better strengthen our faith and broaden our knowledge of the Christian beliefs.
