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Complementarianism, as taught by John Piper and Wayne Grudem, teaches that God gave the man authority over the woman in the Garden of Eden, prior to the fall, and that Genesis 3:16 describes a perversion of God's good intention of Adam's loving leadership prior to the fall.
Egalitarians, of course, typically point out that there is no direct evidence of male authority over the woman in the first two chapters of Genesis, and from that we conclude that the man and the woman were equal.
But the Harper Collins Study Bible has an entirely different take in the notes in Genesis chapter 3.
I've never seen these points raised any place else. On the plus side, I'd say there is more evidence for this idea than the one put forth by the complementarians. That would explain the serpent dealing with Eve rather than Adam, and her leadership in 3:1-6.
But unless I'm missing something, that's pretty thin. Has anyone ever seen this position put forth by anyone else?
Egalitarians, of course, typically point out that there is no direct evidence of male authority over the woman in the first two chapters of Genesis, and from that we conclude that the man and the woman were equal.
But the Harper Collins Study Bible has an entirely different take in the notes in Genesis chapter 3.
3.6 The woman’s desire is physical, aesthetic, and intellectual. She is the focus of the story as she exercises her will, while the man is her passive cohort, described as her husband, who was with her. The woman’s command over the man will be reversed in v. 16, the curse of (and justification for) male authority. Genesis 3:6 (HC SB)
3.14–19 God’s punishments reverse the order of the interrogation. They also reverse the conditions that led to the humans’ transgression. The snake will henceforth be humbled and alienated from the woman and her descendants. This explains why snakes crawl on their belly and why humans have an innate revulsion to them. The woman is punished with painful labor in childbirth, which seems to be a negative correlate to the discovery of sexuality. She is also cursed with male authority, which reverses her previous command over the man. The man (Hebrew ’adam) is now punished with painful labor on the unfruitful ground (’adamah) for food, reversing his previous easy relationship with the fruit and ground of Eden. Moreover, the man is told that he will return to the ground (’adamah, v. 19). Man seems to have been made mortal (from the dust of the ground, 2.7), but henceforth he will be conscious of his mortality, another addition to his self-knowledge. Genesis 3:14 (HC SB)
I've never seen these points raised any place else. On the plus side, I'd say there is more evidence for this idea than the one put forth by the complementarians. That would explain the serpent dealing with Eve rather than Adam, and her leadership in 3:1-6.
But unless I'm missing something, that's pretty thin. Has anyone ever seen this position put forth by anyone else?