Discussion topic Scripture states God drove the man out of the Garden of Eden. The woman wasnt mentioned

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OurLadyofSorrows

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Reading Genesis 3:22-24

God drove the man out of the Garden of Eden. There is no mention of the woman being driven out also.
I find this interesting and think of a few reasons as to why.
One I have is
Did God know the woman would follow the man out of the garden?

Lets discuss this from an Ancient cultural perspective and from the various translations, rather then a fundamentalist literal perspective.
 
Well, to begin with children were born to them. Takes 2 to make that happen. 🙂
 
Yes there is no doubt Eve followed Adam out of the Garden.

The curiosity for me is why only the man is named in being thrown out of the garden
 
OurLadyofSorrows said:
God drove the man out of the Garden of Eden.
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‘The man’ in v 24 הָאָדָם ha’adam can also be understood as ‘mankind, humanity’ in addition to being ‘the man’ or Adam’s actual name.

But I think from a narrative perspective, the focus on Adam and his expulsion (rather than he and Eve together) makes the most sense: he was the first created person, to whom the blessings of the garden were given; he was the first man through whom sin came into the world (Rom 5:12); and so he was the first to be expelled from the garden.
 
OurLadyofSorrows said:
Lets discuss this from an Ancient cultural perspective
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What’s an ‘Ancient cultural perspective’ ?

So God created mankind (Hebrew Adam) in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
 
Not in this case because the definite article is there, it is an absolute
‘the man’
ha adam.
If reading Genesis in the Hebrew Bible. That is why I am thinking about this.

In the trial narrative (Gen 3:11-13) when God asks Adam ’ who told you that you were naked’ and then asks Adam if he had eaten from the tree, Adam both blames God for putting the woman in the Garden, and also blames the woman, who in turn blames the serpent.
Adam is not naked, he is wearing fig leaves he sewed in a previous verse.
God treats Adam and Eve separately in this trial narrative of Gen 3:11-13 and allows each of them to plead extenuating circumstances

The word for naked is also very similar to crafty and wise.
In Ancient culture was a Semitic person considered naked unless totally covered.

To all,
I realise Eden’s garden was closed to both, that is not what I am thinking about. In the driven out/ thrown out narrative only the man, specifically , is written about.
 
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Yes that is one hypothesis in the literature, Endtimes.

Adam names Eve, as Eve in Genesis 3:20. Before that she is not named.
I wonder if this changed their specified relationship. In Ancient Semitic culture to name something was to take responsibility/ ownership of it. Where in Gen 3:11 Adam was attributing God with the responsibility for putting the woman in the garden , who then led Adam astray.
In Gen 3:20, Adam, who has named all the creatures of the garden already, finally names the woman Eve.
 
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OurLadyofSorrows said:
Yes that is one hypothesis in the literature, Endtimes.
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Genesis precedes in Authority - ancient Semite cultures (plural)

Back to the OP - Scripture and Garden of Eden

To the woman -
"I will increase your labour and your groaning,
and in labour you shall bear children.
You shall be eager for your husband, and he shall be your master."

Since the Garden of Eden was closed to Adam&Eve
who in turn became the first parents of mankind -
it is directly implied that both Adam and Eve remained together
after the Expulsion
 
The entire Bible is male-oriented according to Ancient (and modern) cultures. Even G-d is the Father, and Jesus His Son. The Church hierarchy is male-oriented. With regard to the Creation, Adam is created first by G-d. Man was and still is considered superior to woman.
 
Genesis 2:15 God had placed Adam in the garden with the responsibility of tilling it and guarding/keeping it. He did this before Eve existed.

Again, this was before Eve.
Genesis 2:16-17 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, you may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.”
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It appears Adam was specifically given responsibility for whether or not death would become a human experience.

There’s no record of how Eve got the information - probably from Adam.
18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”
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If Adam failed in his roll, so did Eve fail in hers. Her roll was to be a companion help to him - to support and aid him in carrying out the tasks assigned to him. She did just the opposite.
 
I don’t know if I’m strange or something, but to me our human reproductive system is fascinating. It is the male who carries both male and female reproductive seed (x & y chromosomes); the female carries only the female (x) chromosome.
(And, I know there are chromosome abnormalities, but I’m referring to the norm.)

So, in that sense, a man sort of encompasses both male and female.
 
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In some way, Jesus (God and man) preceded mankind.
Colossians 1:15-16 He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation; for in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.
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From all eternity, God knew He would create us (in two genders) and our world. He also knew we would sin and that He would become Jesus, God incarnate. He intended to born as a male. (He did not intend to be incarnate twice, once as male and again as female.) Perhaps that is why He created Adam first and gave him the primary responsibility in the Garden of Eden.
Romans 5:12-15 Therefore as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned… But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many…If, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.
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OurLadyofSorrows said:
Reading Genesis 3:22-24

God drove the man out of the Garden of Eden. There is no mention of the woman being driven out also.
I find this interesting and think of a few reasons as to why.
One I have is
Did God know the woman would follow the man out of the garden?

Lets discuss this from an Ancient cultural perspective and from the various translations, rather then a fundamentalist literal perspective.
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I admire this venture. It is wonderfully in keeping with pre-Reformation readings of the Scriptures (i.e., allegorical, spiritual). Sts Ephrem the Syrian and Augustine have clever readings here. See what you think.

Ephrem seems to suggest that perhaps man, uniquely among the genders, struggles with ambition. He writes, “If Adam had rashly eaten from the tree of knowledge he was commanded not to eat, how much faster would he hasten to the tree of life about which he had not been so commanded?” Commentary on Genesis 2.35.1. So Adam has to be quickly removed from the Garden due to his ambition. Eve had to be cunningly prodded and persuaded to eat. Adam simply went for it!

And Augustine writes, “And then, lest Adam stretch forth his hand to the tree of life and live forever, God dismissed him from paradise. It is well put, ‘he dismissed,’ and not ‘he excluded,’ so that he might seem to be drawn down by the weight of his own sins to a place that suits him. A bad man generally experiences this when he begins to live among good men, if he is unwilling to change for the better. He is driven from the company of good men by the weight of his bad habit, and they do not exclude him against his will but dismiss him in accordance with his will,” Two Books on Genesis Against the Manichaeans 2.22.34

I like this train of thought too. Perhaps one could read this as Adam having been “dismissed,” though Eve more “excluded?” The Fathers are the absolute best at probing truisms from the texts! Wonderful food for thought! What do you think @OurLadyofSorrows?
 
The Scriptures refer to the sin of Adam, rather than Eve, when speaking of original sin, and Christ is seen as undoing Adam’s sin. Adam sinned and lost his inheritance for himself and his posterity, which is what his being driven from the garden signifies. Just as Adam was driven from paradise, taking all who were members of his body with him (including Eve), so does Christ open the gates to paradise, taking the living members of His Body with Him.
 
OurLadyofSorrows said:
Not in this case because the definite article is there, it is an absolute
‘the man’
ha adam.
If reading Genesis in the Hebrew Bible. That is why I am thinking about this.
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The definite article with Adam can refer to mankind and generic peoples:

ויהי כִי־חחל האדם לרב על־פני האדםה (Gen 6:1).

As in Gen 6:4, 5, 6, 7, etc. That being said, the LXX does translate האדם in 3:24 with Αδαμ, and chapter 6 verses with ἄνθρωπος, so the emphasis in v 24 is more so on Adam (hence I offered an alternative interpretation in my prior post).
 
EndTimes said:
Genesis precedes in Authority - ancient Semite cultures (plural)
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Could you explain what you mean by this?
EndTimes said:
What’s an ‘Ancient cultural perspective’ ?
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I meant that Genesis and all books of the Old Testament were written for the readers of the time , so they could understand the text. One example is the Cherubim. They are set to guard the entrance to the garden with flaming whirling swords. Ancient peoples were very familiar with this image and concept of the winged Cherubim as we can see from artifacts.

A face value reading today might mistranslate the word naked or the motif of the fig leaf, or even the word used to describe the woman as being made from the man’s rib. The Hebrew word also means side. Ancients would have different layers of meaning in these texts. Genesis Ch 2 is much older the Genesis Ch 1. These chapters, both describing creation, are quite different. In Chapter 1, God speaks, it is done. In Chapter 2, God is much more hands on and guiding His creation.

The Garden of Eden is described as the gardens ancient kings had , and would stroll through .

Meltzerboy has brought up a good point about a patriachal society existing then. It was common for a married couple to live apart and have conjugal visits, the wife continuing to live with her parents until pregnancy occured , then they would live together.

Any discussion of feminism would bring the patriachal society motif into the modern world and bias a reading of Genesis.
 
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Appreciated Bithynian. I have no knowledge of Greek and cannot comment on the Greek translations.
Magnanimity said:
I like this train of thought too. Perhaps one could read this as Adam having been “dismissed,” though Eve more “excluded?” The Fathers are the absolute best at probing truisms from the texts! Wonderful food for thought! What do you think @OurLadyofSorrows?
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I think CAF could have some threads promoting Scriptures and layers of meaning and the times they were written, especially while many of us are not going too far.
I had not thought of the Church fathers and their thoughts on this, a wonderful line to explore.
Certainly with the word used to describe Adam’s exit, it is quite a strong word, ‘thrown out’ ‘evicted’

Adam is placed at first by God, in a garden made by God, then thrown out and placed opposite the garden and in the face of those fearsome Cherubim with their swords. We see this motif again in Revelation, flaming swords .
 
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