The last and greatest creation of the Gods was to create an help meet for Adam, for the Gods realized that it is not good for man to be alone.
And the Gods said: Let us make an help meet for the man, for it is not good that the man should be alone, therefore we will form an help meet for him. (Abraham 5: 14)
In the Book of Abraham, the text goes right into the creation process for woman, but the Book of Genesis inserts this information:
And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.
And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.
And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him. (Genesis 2: 18-20)
In these verses, God brings the animals He has created to Adam so that Adam won't be alone. Adam names them all, but despite the abundance of life forms, Adam realizes that an help meet who can be his equal and his companion was not among them. He need a human being, a woman, with whom he can fulfill the measure of his creation, i.e., to multiply and replenish the earth. He needed an equal, not a duplicate.
For centuries, men and women have read the term help meet (or helpmeet) to mean that Eve was subservient to Adam, and for centuries, if not millennia, woman have been treated as subservient and of less importance and stature than men. The Oxford Dictionary states that this misleading reading even effected the way we use the word: Late 17th century(as helpmeet): from an erroneous reading of Gen. 2:18, 20, where Adam's future wife is described as “an help meet for him” (i.e., a suitable helper for him). The variant helpmate came into use in the early 18th century.
According to Oxford, among other sources, the word really means: A . . . companion or partner, especially one’s husband or wife.
How different the lot of women would have been if these part of the creation story were understood the way God intended it to be. Eve came for Adam's rib, so she was taken from his side and was thus the complement creation, not a lesser creation. Women have suffered Eve's so-called shame for thousands of years and male clergy misread and miss-taught the creation story.
Even today in some parts of the world, woman are brutally mistreated. Female babies are aborted at a geometrically higher rate than male babies. Female babies are more likely to be abandoned to die than male babies.
The mistreatment of woman among many very traditional Muslims has come to light with such things as honor killings, female circumcision (which God never commanded) and the blaming of women for men's lustful thoughts to the point of completely covering them when in public so only the eyes are seen. And yet, this is what the Prophet said in the Koran concerning the creation of women (translated):
“And God said: ‘O Mankind! Be dutiful to your Lord, Who created you from a single person (Adam) and from Him (Adam) He created his wife (Eve), and from them both He created many men and women.’” (Quran 4:1)
Adam opened his eyes and looked into the beautiful face of a woman gazing down at him. Adam was surprised and asked the woman why she had been created. She revealed that she was to ease his loneliness and bring tranquility to him. The Angels questioned Adam. They knew that Adam possessed knowledge of things they did not know about and the knowledge mankind would need to occupy the earth. They said ‘who is this?’ and Adam replied ‘this is Eve’.
Eve is Hawwa in Arabic; it comes from the root word hay, meaning living. Eve is also an English variant of the old Hebrew word Havva, also deriving from hay. Adam informed the Angels that Eve was so named because she was made from a part of him and he, Adam, was a living being.
Both Jewish and Christian traditions also maintain that Eve was created from Adam’s rib, although in a literal translation of the Jewish tradition, rib is sometimes referred to as side.
The traditions of Prophet Muhammad relate that Eve was created while Adam was sleeping from his shortest left rib and that, after sometime, she was clothed with flesh. He (Prophet Muhammad) used the story of Eve’s creation from Adam’s rib as a basis for imploring people to be gentle and kind to women. “O Muslims! I advise you to be gentle with women, for they are created from a rib, and the most crooked portion of the rib is its upper part. If you try to straighten it, it will break, and if you leave it, it will remain crooked; so I urge you to take care of the women.” (Saheeh Al-Bukhari) [1]
I imagine that is not what you would have thought. How far have they drifted from their scriptural bases? How far have we drifted? We can rationalize and misinterpret ourselves from truth into lies so easily. That is why the companionship of the Spirit is so important.
No comments:
Post a Comment