INTRODUCTION
The first man, Adam, was set into a
state of happiness and was promised its continuity, to him and to his
posterity, under the condition of his fidelity in perfect obedience to the
statues and ordinances given to him by his creator. Thus he should not eat of
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. However, in disregard to the
commands of the Lord, Adam faltered and fell. In the garden, Adam and Eve lived
in a state of perfection. They experienced total harmony with the Creator, with
His creation, and with each other. This balance was destroyed when Adam and
Even submitted to the will of the tempter rather than to the will of God. At
that point in time, both the woman and man were cursed, inalterably changing
the course of history and the outworking of the original created order.[1]
The initial creation was paradisiacal;
death and mortality was not part of it. There was no mortal flesh upon the
earth for any form of life; all things had been created in a state of
paradisiacal immortality. The fall of Adam and Eve which is summed up as the
concept of ‘the fall’ is used to describe the transitional deployment from the
state of tranquility in the Garden of Eden to a state of hardship outside the
garden. This is basically from the biblical interpretation of the book of
Genesis. The fall is an apocryphal expression of the revolt of our first
parents from God, and the consequent sin and misery in which they and all their
posterity were involved.
THE FALL: WHAT
HAPPENED?
From the beginning God placed Adam and
eve in the primeval Garden of Eden to tend but, on the penalty of death, God
commanded them not to eat the “tree of knowledge of good and evil.” Adam and
Eve were persons of innocence, until they yielded to the temptations of the
serpent. Consequently they were driven out of the garden, and they lost their
paradisiacal immortality, and that was the beginning of a life of suffering for
them. God proclaimed punishments on them for their disobedience: for the woman,
her punishment was pain in childbirth and subordination to the man, and for the
man, relegation to an accursed ground with which he must toil and sweat for his
subsistence.[2]
The fall brought shame, degradation and pollution to man (loss of innocence),
and displeasure to God.
The
blissful harmony of the Garden of Eden came to an abrupt end. Man and woman
brought this tragedy upon themselves. The story of this tragedy has three
moments: temptation, fall and judgment. The serpent tempted Eve, and Eve
succumbed and involved his companion Adam, causing the both to sin against God.
Their disobedience disrupted the friendly relationship between them and God and
destroyed the simple harmony between themselves, thus they blamed each other.
This act of disobedience bothers majorly on man’s desire to acquire knowledge,
but eating the forbidden fruit only reveled to man, in a humiliating way, his
utter creatureliness and thus they became shamefully conscious of their
nakedness. They were cursed and sent out of the Garden of Eden, and doomed to
die. These consequences extend beyond Adam and Eve to their descendants—the
entire human race.
THE TEMPTING
SERPENT
Being created in the image of God, Adam
and Eve were moral beings with freewill. They had the capacity to decide for
themselves. Some scholars are of the opinion that the serpent tempted the woman
because she was weaker and inferior to the man. They were of the opinion that
if the man was first tempted, mankind would not have fallen. However, some
other scholars are of the opinion the serpent tempted the woman first because
she was the final perfecting element in creation. Being the perfection of
creation, with the fall of the woman, the man was already destined to fall.[3]
However this second group of scholars holds that if man fell first, the woman
being the perfection might not have disobeyed too. Another common explanation
is that the tempter addressed the woman because she had not personally received
the prohibition from God as Adam had.[4] A
fourth possibility is that the serpent approached her because of a difference
in woman’s personality which made her more vulnerable to attack. Some of these
explanations appear plausible, but we may never conclusively grasp the
serpent’s plan.[5]
THE FALL: THE
CURSE ON EVE
God’s original idea for man was to stay
in blessings not in a curse. However,
when man became disobedient to the commandments originally given to him by God,
it brought a curse to all humanity and distorted the image of God in man. The fall made humans sinful, and brought
death into the world. Man and woman lost their confidence in the sight of God
and sort to hide away from his face. The woman was tricked into disobedience in
which he involved the man. The consequences of their disobedience were instant.
The created order was violated and relationships were impaired. God cursed the
man and his wife as the result of their disobedience. Eve first transgressed
the limits of the Eden and initiated the conditions for mortality. The very act
of disobedience that started with Eve cost man his initial happiness. As a
consequence of the very act of disobedience God cursed Eve thus: “I will
increase your suffering in child-bearing, and you will give birth to your
children in pain, yet your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule
over you”.[6]
The primordial disobedience earn woman an inferior social position to man. The
curse of the woman is categorized in three aspects: pain, desire and rule-ship
of man over her life. The three are interrelated.
The curse is in two parts,
each composed of two parallel clauses. The first part deals with childbearing
and the second with marital relations. With two quick strokes God illustrates the bane of women throughout the ages. The
curse on eve bothers basically on motherhood and wifehood. God pronounced on
her pain of child bearing, and subordination to man. Before the transgression
there is harmony and peace, Adam and Eve lived a blissful life. It can also be
argued that prior to their disobedience; there is a kind equality between man
and the woman, or the man is not over the woman. However God subjugating of
woman under man is her chastisement. The fall brought rule-ship of man over the
woman. The immediate two sentences pronounced punishment that concerns child
birth. Women suffering down the centuries have multiplied through the different
generations; there are cases where expectation period prolong beyond nine
months. Irrespective of the sufferings and pangs of child birth, the woman is
still subjected under the man.
The second part of the judgment God
pronounced on the woman is just as significant as the first; yet it is always
taken lightly, just a few are aware of its implications. “Your desire will be
for your husband, and he will rule over you.” Following the sentence structure
of the original Hebrew text, it explains the role difficulty women experience
to this day. The pattern established prior to the fall was a hierarchy of roles
characterized by unity and oneness. However the judgment would work against,
rather than contribute to, this original created order and unity. The second
part of the judgment necessarily subjected woman under the man; thereby setting
a patriarchal standard for the basis of their relationship.
THE PLIGHTS OF
THE THIRD WORLD WOMEN
The entrance of sin into the world
changed man and woman’s relationship to God and to creation. No longer do women
and men walk in harmony with God. The unity and equality present in the first
relationship has disintegrated. Role confusion, rebellion, and disharmony
reign. Eve’s curse has resulted in the virtual
subjugation of women ever since. Women had few rights. In the past, fathers sold their daughters
into slavery or wed them to the highest bidder. In some places wives existed to
give the husband pleasure and sons and to keep the house. Many societies
insisted that women be veiled in public, and some considered it a criminal act
for a woman to walk out of her house without a chaperone. In short, a woman was
chattel.
However, in the third world,
the genesis pronouncement on the woman sowed the first seed of male chauvinism.
Since the time of eve, women experience pain in childbirth. According to a
research done by a pain specialist, the pang of birth is far greater than the
pain of amputating a finger without Anastasia injection. The pain of childbirth
is too severe that some women can’t bear it, many had given up trying to put to
birth, and many more have resorted to cesarean section. Some of the cases of
the increase in mortality rate during child birth may be as a result of
inadequacy of standard facilities, but it also is as a result of the curse of
the woman.
With regards to male
dominance, especially in the third world, women have sort to usurp male
authority and dominance only for them to be crushed, suppressed and oppressed.
The male counterparts have been so oppressive, domineering, unfair and
uncaring. Women in the third world have wrongly and rudely pronounced inferior.
The
modern feminist movement has risen in the past few decades to combat male
chauvinism and domination. However, the principle of men ruling over and women
fighting back to overcome this rule cannot be broken by our own efforts. This
is not something that has evolved historically and culturally. It is a
principle deeply engraved into our sin nature. It is a direct result of the Fall
and the judgment of God.[7]
Women
go through different types of suffering and struggles all over in the third
world. Its hard and a difficulty to be a woman in the third world; the women
subordination in the third world is alarming. In the third world, women are
taken to be slaves especially in the societies that uphold firmly the
patriarchal system. These men have little or no
interest about the sufferings of women. These women are subjected to men, used
for sexual fulfillment, domestic duties etc. the women of the third world have
be severely subjugated and humiliated. Of the 1.6 billion people who
live in extreme poverty, the majority are women.[8]
Every day, thousands of women and girls are victims of violence, including
sexual abuse, trafficking and early and forced marriage. The health of women
also remains a global challenge. In 2010, 287,000 women died during or shortly
after childbirth. Developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia had
the largest share of these deaths.[9] In
many developing countries, there are far fewer girls than boys to be found in
secondary schools and it is therefore harder for them to find good jobs.[10]
The women of the third world are always victims.
OUTSTANDING
PLIGHTS OF THE THIRD WORLD WOMEN
The status of women’s
rights today varies dramatically in different countries and, in some cases,
among groups within the same country, such as ethnic groups or economic classes.
Many disparities persist between women’s legal rights and their
economic status mostly in the third world countries. Women today constitute
nearly 70 percent of the world’s poor, despite international efforts to
compensate women and men equally. Women
also remain at a distinct disadvantage in education as
well. While primary school enrollment for girls now roughly equals that of
boys, women constitute about two-thirds of the world’s one billion illiterate
adults.
Women in the third world face all forms
of discrimination on the basis of their sex. Deep-seated
cultural beliefs allowed women only limited roles in the third world societies.
Many people are of the belief and opinion that women’s natural roles were as
mothers and wives, and they should be relegated and considered on that level.
These people considered women to be better suited for childbearing and
homemaking rather than for involvement in the public life of business or
politics. Widespread belief that women were intellectually inferior to men led
most of the third world societies to limit women’s education to the learning
domestic skills. Most of the women of the third world societies lacked the
educational and economic resources that would enable them to challenge the
prevailing social order; they generally accepted their inferior status as their
only option. This is because most of the organized effort by these women to
achieve greater rights and recognition in the society are not achieving their
purpose. Fragile in every sense of the word, they are obliged to look up to man
for every comfort.
HUMILIATION AND
SUBJUGATION:
Too easy deductions must be avoided
and yet the interest of men dominance and women subjugation is worthy of
reflection. Women
of the third world are humiliated on daily basis in many different ways. Women
continuously encounter many challenges in their Third World societies and in
the World in general, one of which is to secure social status for themselves in
a mostly male-dominated society. Women are devalued and taken to be the weaker
sex with little or no importance attached to them. The dogma of women’s complete historical subjugation to men
must be rated as one of the most fantastic myths ever created by the human
mind. For instance in some societies, when a woman loses the husband, some bans
are placed on her, she is not expected to come out in the public for a given
period of time, and her hair would be shaved off. While I the same society,
when a man loses his wife, nothing happens to him. In some cultures too, it is
said that when a king die, he is buried with his first wife, while in same
cultures when the wife of the king dies, the king will rather take another wife
unto himself. Majorly in the third world too, women are mostly given a passive
and not active voice.
PATRIARCHISM: The
biggest challenge facing the women of the third world is the patriarchy system.
In the third world regardless of a woman’s experience, education and abilities,
she is relegated to the background, below the least of the men. The women are
taken to be less qualified and competent. Patriarchy convinces people to see a
strong and intelligent woman as a problem; a disruption of the social order.
Many still believe that women are less worthy of the same opportunities
afforded to men. With this social order men behave the way they like and always
against women.
MALTREATMENT AND
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE:
this bothers majorly on sexual oppression. Women are taken as objects who exist
to fulfill the pleasure of men. The third world women suffer verbal, emotional,
physical and sexual abuses, along with traumatic injuries, sexually transmitted
diseases, chronic pain, eating and sleeping disorders etc. it has been estimated that one woman out of three in the
third world has been beaten, forced into sex, or otherwise abused in her
lifetime. Women are used for sexual
fulfillment, for domestic duties, to tend to the children.
GENITAL
MUTILATION: this
plight of women of the third world is dehumanizing. It is worse in the societies
where this dehumanizing act is carried out years after infancy. There is uncertainty regarding reasons for persistence of
the practice of female genital mutilation. However, some hold that it is a
measure of taming the sensual urge of the woman.
SLAVERY: this is one of
the most dehumanizing things suffered by the women of the third world. The
women of the third world are seen as less valuable. Women in some societies of
the third world are used to pay off debts. Some fathers give out their under aged
daughter to marriage and mostly against the daughter’s will to married because
they are unable to pay up debts they owe. While in some other societies women
are taking and relegated to mere domestic work force without education or
empowerment plans for them.
CONCLUSION
The
creation and Fall of mankind lay the foundation for New Testament role
directives. Upon the third world women have be laid all the vices and follies
of civilization and culture. Their
senses are inflamed, and their understandings neglected, consequently they
become the prey of their senses, delicately termed sensibility, and are blown
about by every momentary gust of feeling. Most of the third world women are
weakened by their culture and erroneous opinions in the favour of men as against
women. The third world women’s condition is much below what it would be were
they left in a state nearer to nature. The sentences passed on man and woman
affected their relationship to God, nature, and each other. These judgments
affected Adam and Eve after the Fall and have affected every human being since.
In Genesis the battle between the sexes began. Hard labor, sin, corruption, and
death are unmistakable realities that face us every day. The judgments passed
on Adam and Eve influences every human who has ever walked the face of this
earth. This harsh treatment of women, which is pretty
much the general pattern of human history, was not the original design of God.
Sin brought it in and it therefore corrupted the original relationship between
man and woman. In a very specific way, women have a general category of
suffering and primarily their suffering is related to two things. It’s related
to their children and their husbands; the perennial bearing and caring of
children and the perennial dealing with husbands. It is a hard and has been a
hard and relentless and often sorrowful duty through most of the history of
women and even till today.
[1] Mary A. Kassian, WOMEN, CREATION, AND THE FALL, CROSSWAY BOOKS WESTCHESTER, ILLINOIS, 1990, P. 21
[2] "Adam and Eve." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, 2014.
[3] P. 22
[4] V. Geehardus, Biblical Theology(Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1971), 45
[5] P. 22
[6] Genesis 3: 16
[7] P. 30
[8] World Development Report 2012 – Gender Equality and Development.
[9] http://www.who.int/pmnch/media/news/2012/20120516_unfpa_report/en/index.html
[10] http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTWDR2012/Resources/7778105-1299699968583/77862101315936222006/Complete-Report.pdf
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