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

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Kvam, Kristen E., editor.

Schearing, Linda S., editor.

Ziegler, Valarie H., 1954- editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Adam (Biblical figure).

Adam.

Eve (Biblical figure).

Eve.

Bible. Genesis, I-III--Criticism, interpretation, etc--History.

Bible.

Bible. Genesis, I-III--Islamic interpretations--History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xviii, 515 p. )

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Bloomington, Indiana : Indiana University Press, 1999.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

No other text has affected women in the western world as much as the story of "Eve and Adam". The story has engendered countless commentaries, has been used to argue the 'fallen' nature of humankind or to explain or exploit relations between the sexes, and has played a key role in justifying the ways of God toward man and woman. This remarkable anthology surveys more than 2,000 years of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim commentary on the biblical story that continues to raise fundamental questions about what it means to be a man or to be a woman.The selections range widely from early post biblical interpretations in the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha to three commentaries written especially for this volume. The editors have included early rabbinic texts, interpretations from the New Testament, and commentaries from the Church Fathers. There are excerpts from the Quran, from medieval Jewish commentaries, from Thomas Aquinas and other later figures, as well as representative texts of the Protestant Reformation. One section focuses on nineteenth-century America and the antebellum debate on slavery, the struggle for women's equality, and new religious movements such as Shakerism and Christian Science. Twentieth century texts from all three traditions conclude the volume. A special appendix focuses on race and Genesis 1-3 at the turn of the new millennium.The tale told through these texts is a remarkable one of the hold the story of "Eve and Adam" has had on the western imagination. The editors note that though the biblical account has been invoked throughout history to justify all manner of oppression, there is an equally rich tradition of egalitarian interpretation, well-represented in this book. Far from a collection of lifeless, historical documents, these texts are lively representatives of a debate that continues to animate men and women to this day.

Contents:

Chapter 1. Hebrew Bible accounts

Genesis: selections and commentary

Chapter 2. Jewish post-biblical interpretation (200's BCE-200 CE)

Apocrypha (Deuterocanon) and Pseudepigrapha

Jewish philosophers and historians

Chapter 3. Rabbinic interpretations (200-600's CE)

Midrash and Talmud

Targums

Chapter 4. Early Christian interpretations (50-450 CE)

New Testament

Extracanonical sources

Church fathers

Chapter 5. Medieval readings: Muslim, Jewish, and Christian (600-1500 CE)

Islam

Judaism

Christianity

Chapter 6. Interpretations from the Protestant Reformation (1517-1700 CE)

Five Reformation thinkers

Chapter 7. Social applications in the United States (1800's CE)

Antebellum debates on household hierarchies: proslavery and antislavery views

Women make the case for equality

New religious movements on gender relations

Chapter 8. Twentieth-century readings: the debate continues

Hierarchical interpretations

Egalitarian interpretations

Appendix. The preadamite theory and the Christian identity movement: race, hierarchy, and Genesis 1-3 at the turn of the millennium

Nineteenth-century preadamite approaches

Genesis and white supremacy in the twentieth century.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Includes index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9786612062995

9781282062993

1282062999

9780253109033

0253109035

OCLC:

1024282273