Are Women Responsible For The Fall Of Man?

by Joy O. Banks

We call it “Whooped.” Adam emanates an eloquent genius in the earlier part of Genesis as he lays the groundwork for the duties of a husband. The brotha had potential! However, the next time Adam speaks in Genesis, he's blaming God for giving him Eve. The problem was that the genius Adam so profoundly uttered in Gen 2:24 focused on the physical part of cleaving and not the emotional part of cleaving. Adam was so excited about finally being united sexually with a partner that was made exclusively for him, he forgot about showing Eve love, care, and attention. Adam did not demonstrate the difference between love and lust. He was more concerned about the physical cleaving instead of the intellectual giving, receiving, joining and responding. When Eve was deceived, Adam did not cleave to her emotionally, instead he was concerned about his own flesh. He blamed Eve and started the notion that the woman, and, by extension, all women, are the blame for the fall of humankind. The blame game begins with Adam and continues with the Apostle Paul. In his first letter to his disciple Timothy, Paul explains it this way:

“For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression...”

Adam was not deceived? Think again. When I read 1 Tim 2:11-14, knowing what happened in Genesis chapter three, I conclude that the Apostle Paul was either smoking crack or he had a different definition for the word “deceived.” This reminds me when President Bill Clinton was facing perjury charges by the grand jury and a prosecutor asked whether his lawyer's statement “There is no sex of any kind, in any manner, shape or form with President Clinton,” was false, the President infamously responded that “It depends upon what the meaning of the word 'is' is.”  When asked about the impression that he gave in the Paula Jones deposition that he was never alone with Monica Lewinski, he replied that, “It depends on how you define 'alone.'”

Of course, the Apostle Paul was not smoking crack, so what does Paul mean by the word “deceived?” The Greek translation is apato, which means to cheat, i.e., delude. The dictionary says that to be deceived is to make someone believe what is false. Paul says that the woman was deceived but Adam was not. Is Paul trying to say that Adam was too superior or intelligent to have been deceived by Satan but the dumb woman was? Let's look at the evidence that Paul presents showing that Adam did not believe eating the fruit would open his eyes? There is none. Paul does explain, however, that Adam was instead disobedient. Wow, that's a lot better than being deceived— not. Bottom line, only God knows whether Satan beguiled Adam.

Since Paul says that Adam was not deceived, perhaps Adam was experiencing PTS (Pre-testosterone Syndrome). PTS is much like PMS except PTS is when men get stubborn and moody when they are not getting enough sex or they think they will miss out on getting sex. In other words, maybe Adam was experiencing a testosterone thang? For example, you've heard jokes about men driving around lost, too stubborn to stop and ask for directions because they don't want to admit that they are lost. Women, on the other hand, will stop and ask for directions. Was Adam's testosterone kicking in, making him too stubborn to admit that he was also beguiled? I think so.   CONTINUES BELOW

"Adam's Apple” by Marnie Johnson. Oil on Masonite 25” x 28” $3,700. © 2003

Or perhaps Adam was just a SAM.

A SAM is a weak man who simply goes with the flow. He has no backbone, no leadership potential, and is concerned only about his individual needs. SAMs are men that never initiate anything; they just go along with whatever someone else initiates. They never plan a trip, make reservations for dinner, or surprise their wives with a picnic in the park on a sunny day. And by the way, the acronym, SAM, stands for “Sorry_Man.” Oops, there goes the ghetto in me. I'm just keepin' it real y'all.

The average Sunday school student has read Genesis and knows that Adam was right there when Eve ate the fruit (Genesis 3:6). But when Eve handed the fruit to Adam, he did not respond, he did not correct her, he did not flee the situation, and he did not say no, he simply ate. So how could Paul imply that Adam was not deceived but stipulate Eve brought sin into the world while Adam remains somehow blameless? “For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression”. So there it is. It all goes back to Eve. She ate the forbidden fruit, and so everything is her fault. Not only that, but everyone born since then with the misfortune to have two X chromosomes has had to bear the brunt of Eve's mistake. What about Adam?

How could Paul say Adam was not deceived when he is the same guy who said where Adam brought sin and death into the world, Jesus brought righteousness and life (Romans 5:15). In Romans 5:14, Paul declares that Adam disobeyed an explicit commandment of God and brought sin into the world. Paul implies that Satan lured Eve into eating the fruit but Adam didn't fall for that, he simply was hard headed and ate because he wanted to be disobedient to God. But, remember when God asked Adam if he ate the fruit, Adam said yes, but it was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit. Adam blames Eve while Eve blames the serpent and admits that it deceived her. If Eve was deceived by Satan and ate the fruit, but Adam was not deceived, why did he eat? Adam could have been a hero and a savior for Eve if he had said no. He could have saved all of humankind and spared Jesus the agony of dying on the cross, but no, as Paul implicates, Adam was simply disobedient.

Let's get real folks: Adam was deceived and fell into transgression. Just like Clinton, he was deceived by his lust for a woman. Male preachers are constantly getting into trouble in the church because of lust. Even respected leaders and preachers like Jesse Jackson have shamefully fallen into sin chasing skirts. 

Because Paul said that Eve was deceived by Satan but Adam was not, Adam appears somehow blameless in 1 Tim 2:11-14. Here's a quiz and a review: Where was Adam when Eve ate the fruit? According to Genesis, Adam was standing right there. Adam and Eve's eyes were opened together and they sewed fig leaves together. Therefore, Adam must have heard the same spiel that Satan told Eve, however he remained silent. Eve dialogued with Satan while Adam stood idly by saying nothing. That's a SAM for you. He ate the fruit after Eve handed it to him. Eve ate first and then Adam. Was Adam waiting to see if Eve would drop dead first to know whether the fruit was safe or unsafe to eat? If so, that would certainly confirm his membership in the SAM club: a coward and wimpy follower instead of spiritual leader. I believe that Paul said Adam was not deceived because, like many men, Paul wrote from an androcentric perspective. It's all about the man being the center of the universe.

Let's pause for a moment and bring in the choir because now I got to preach.

What many men don't understand is that they are NOT the center of the universe, GOD IS! Hallelujah for a GOD CENTERED universe, can I get an AMEN! Paul is looking at Adam and Eve's situation from an androcentric perspective. He puts Eve in a subordinate role and claims that she was trying to usurp Adam's authority. This was not the case. Adam was not the spiritual leader of Eve in the first place. Eve was a “help meet": an ally to fight the war against the forces of evil as in Chronicles 28:16. In the beginning, God made Adam and Eve equal. God meant for Adam and Eve to rule the earth together. Therefore, Eve cannot take authority away from Adam because he did not have any authority over her. However, God did.

Also, if Eve were trying to usurp the authority of Adam, it doesn't make sense that she would have offered him a bite of the fruit. Especially if she wanted to have power over Adam, she would have eaten the fruit and not offered Adam a bite because her motivation would have been to keep the wisdom and power exclusively. But now clutch your pearls and hold on to your hats: Eve was not trying to usurp the authority of Adam, Eve was trying to usurp the authority of God.

After all, God had and has all the power and authority. Now here's a revelation: Eve already had power over Adam. Adam was not her superior, he was her equal. Unfortunately, he also was a SAM who followed her example like a puppet on a string. If Paul would have looked at Adam and Eve from a Jehovah-centric perspective, he would have realized that Eve was trying to attain the power of the God-head while Adam was likely motivated by other imperatives.

Okay, I'm done preaching. Choir: have a seat.

In case I'm not clear, Adam had sex on the brain. It is reasonable to conclude Adam was not thinking about what God would do to or for him, he was thinking about what Eve could withhold from him. It was all about sex. Whoever has the power to withhold sex, has the power and can control the relationship. Eve had the power over Adam and worked him like silly putty. 

Like many men today, Adam's lust for a woman got him in trouble. Adam's biological imperatives deceived him and made him take a bite of the forbidden fruit. Like Paul, we often skim over the sins of men and focus on the women. Remember the woman caught in the act of adultery and the people were ready to stone her? Where was the man? Like Adam, he was right there. He may have been a Pharisee who felt he was above the scrutiny of the law or was trying to set-up Jesus. But he was right there.

Even our society focuses on the sin of women. For example, prostitutes are harassed by police and sent to jail while the “Johns” go free. The “John” will even turn around and have the audacity to blame the prostitute if he gets an STD (sexually transmitted disease). Remember that Adam had the gall to blame God for giving him Eve when God asked him if he ate the fruit. “Lord, it was that woman you gave me”. His words confirms that he was not worried about what God would do to him, the one who had the power to give him life or death, Adam was worried about getting some. Granted, a prostitute is wrong as two left feet for indulging in and soliciting sex acts, but society is quick to throw the hooker into jail rather than the John. 

Today, many Christian men blame Eve for the spiritual fall of mankind. I say that Eve messed up big time, but all Adam had to do was “Just Say No.” Men cast stones at Eve for being deceived by Satan and say that Eve was the weaker vessel. If Eve was the weaker vessel for being deceived by the shrewdest of all the creatures the Lord God had made, then that makes Adam the weakest vessel for being deceived by his own biological urges.

Joy O. Banks
15 December 2002
joy@praisenet.org