Eve and Adam

Eve & Adam

Eve & Adam

JEWISH, CHRISTIAN, AND MUSLIM READINGS ON GENESIS AND GENDER

EDITED BY

Kristen E. Kvam, Linda S. Schearing and Valarie H. Ziegler

Indiana University Press

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1999 by Indiana University Press

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Eve and Adam : Jewish, Christian, and Muslim readings on Genesis and gender / edited by Kristen E. Kvam, Linda S. Schearing, and Valarie H. Ziegler.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-253-33490-X (cl. : alk. paper) ISBN 0-253-21271-5 (pa. : alk. paper)

1. Bible. O.T. Genesis I-VCommentaries. 2. Bible O.T. Genesis I-VCriticism, interpretation, etc.History. 3. Bible. O.T. Genesis I-VCriticism, interpretation, etc., Jewish. 4. Bible. O.T. Genesis I-VIslamic interpretations. 5. Bible. O.T. Genesis I-VFeminist criticism. 6. Eve (Biblical figure) 7. Adam (Biblical figure) 8. FeminismReligious aspectsJudaism. 9. FeminismReligious aspectsChristianity. 10. FeminismReligious aspectsIslam. I. Kvam, Kristen E. II. Schearing, Linda S. III. Ziegler, Valarie H., date.

BS1235.3.E871999

222'.1106'09dc2198-39873

ISBN 978-0-253-33490-9 (cl. : alk. paper)

ISBN 978-0-253-21271-9 (pbk. : alk. paper)

6 7 814 13 12 11

IN HONOR AND IN MEMORY OF THE BONDS OF SISTERHOOD

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND PERMISSIONS

We are grateful to the people who have helped bring this anthology into being. The project started withand has continued to be nurtured byour students; we thank them for their concern for Genesis and gender. We also owe a debt of gratitude to the Indiana University Press staff (past and present)to Bob Sloan, for grasping the underlying vision of the work; to Cindy Ballard, for answering the many questions that arose along the way, to Jeff Ankrom, for his suggestions about the organization of the material and for his assistance with questions of Arabic; and to Melanie Richter-Bernburg, for her courage in joining the project in midstream.

Many people have contributed to this volume. There were those who responded to our requests for essays: Jouette Bassler, Judith Plaskow, Ann Holmes Redding, and Phyllis Trible. There were colleagues within our schools whose input we valued: from Saint Paul School of Theology, Warren Carter, Young Ho Chun, Emilie Townes, Grant White, Logan Wright, and Margaret Kohl; from Luther College, Judy Boese; from Gonzaga University, Robert Kugler, Gail Jennings, Maria Spies, and Cecilia LaGasa; from DePauw University, Bob Bottoms, Bernie Batto, Bill Harman, Kathryn Millis, Roni McMains, and Paul Watt. Other colleagues provided support and encouragement. We were also greatly assisted by our library staffs, faculty support staffs, and student assistants. Scholars outside our immediate institutions also contributed to this project: Greg Carey, Bob Detweiler and the Dana Foundation, Elizabeth Clark, Cheryl Cornish, Betty Deberg, Margaret Farley, Carol Shersten LaHurd, Jane McAuliffe, Eric Mount, Otto Hermann Pesch, Barbara Rossing, Letty Russell, Ellen Umansky, and Amanda Berry Wylie. To each of themas well as to the numerous friends who have talked honestly and passionately with us about the issues in this bookwe offer our gratitude for their help and encouragement.

As for our professional societies, we would like to thank the sections of the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature that allowed us to present portions of the book in their sessions. Thanks also to the audiences who listened to and commented on segments of our work in progress.

We are especially indebted to Emory University for bringing us together initially as graduate students and then as collaborators on this project by encouraging Linda to teach a course on Genesis and by supporting Kris and Valarie in their request to co-teach a course on Genesis and gender. We are also grateful to the sisters of the Graduate Divisions of Religions Women Scholars. Recalling our experiences in this group, we dedicate this book in honorand in memoryof what the Grimk sisters termed the bonds of sisterhood.

And finally, a deeply felt thanks goes to the members of our respective families for their patience and inspiration over the six years it took to put this project together: to Valaries spouse, Bill Nunn; to Lindas spouse, Angel Fitzpatrick, and to her children, Brittany, Sean, and Ariel; to Kriss spouse, Jeff Clayton, and to her children, Ellen and Joshua, as well as to her parents Doris and Adolph Kvam. This book could not have been written without their support and understanding. Thanks!

Every reasonable effort has been made to trace ownership of copyright materials. The publisher would welcome any information that would enable us to correct any copyright references in future printings.

CHAPTER 1

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. Copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

CHAPTER 2

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books. Copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Excerpts from The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha by James H. Charlesworth. Copyright 1983, 1985 by James H. Charlesworth. Used by permission of Doubleday, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc.

Philo, Questions and Answers on Genesis, translated by Ralph Marcus (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1953). Used with permission.

Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, Books 14, translated by H. St. J. Thackeray (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1952). Used with permission.

CHAPTER 3

The Babylonian Talmud, vols. 135, edited by I. Epstein (London and Brooklyn: The Soncino Press Ltd., 193548). Used with permission.

The Midrash Rabbah, vols. 110, edited by H. Freedman and M. Simon (London and Brooklyn: The Soncino Press Ltd., 1983). Used with permission.

The Targum Onqelos to Genesis, translated by Bernard Grossfeld (The Aramaic Bible, vol. 1B. Wilmington, Del.: Michael Glazier, 1988). Used with permission.

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan: Genesis, translated by Michael Maher (The Aramaic Bible, vol. 6. Collegeville: Michael Glazier, 1992). Used with permission.

CHAPTER 4

The Gospel According to Thomas, from The Gnostic Scriptures, by Bentley Layton (New York: Doubleday & Company). Used with permission.

The Gospel According to Philip