Women According to Bible

Upvote:2

No. All have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God (Romans 3:23). In fact, Christ seems to argue (Matthew 5:21-28) that there are no degrees of sin at all; you are either sinful, or you aren't, and see previous statement. For example, hateful thoughts are equated with murder, and lustful thoughts with adultery, both of which are among the Ten Commandments.

What you will find is references to women as the "weaker sex". This is both biologically true (on average; there are strong women and weak men, but this just shows that there is overlap), despite current sociological trends to deny science in this respect, and spiritually true. Eve ate first and gave the fruit to Adam. Men are called to be the spiritual head of the family, while women are commended to be submissive in spiritual matters.

References:

  • Genesis 3:16
  • Ephesians 5:22-23
  • 1 Corinthians 11:3
  • 1 Corinthians 14:34
  • 1 Peter 3:7
  • 1 Timothy 2:11-15

That said, I would second the advice in curiousdannii's comment. The Bible has been twisted to "support" atrocities before (chattel slavery, anyone?), and it would not surprise me if there are people and/or groups out there doing the same with respect to women. The Bible may forbid Women to be overseers of a church, but women do not have a lesser place in the Kingdom (Galatians 3:28), nor is it permissible to mistreat them (Ephesians 5:25).

Upvote:5

No. Women are not more evil than men.

Perhaps the idea that they are eviler than men can be traced to the temptation of Eve in the Garden of Eden. Although Eve is described in Genesis as being the first to give in to the tempter's lies, she was not alone in her disobedience.

She [viz., Eve] also gave some [of the forbidden fruit] to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened . . . (Genesis 3:6-7a NIV, my emphasis).

Perhaps (and I use that word advisedly) the fairer sex (not a politically incorrect expression, I assure you) is more suggestible, or as the apostle Paul said in 1 Timothy, Chapter 2, she was deceived first, and then Adam gave in to the temptation.

A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. But women will be saved through childbearingβ€”if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety (vss. 11-14 NIV).

One of the questions that springs to my mind is: "Why did the serpent focus on Eve with his blandishments?" A tentative answer is because he saw something in her that would make her more suggestible to his cajolery than Adam. Or perhaps because Adam was created first, and then Eve, the tempter thought his chances of success would be improved by targeting not the titular head of the woman, Adam (see 1 Corinthians 11:3 and 7), but the fit helper God gave to Adam (see Genesis 2:22, which reads in part, "and God brought her to the man").

The Bible does not suggest that the woman is inferior to the man. In 1 Corinthians 11:7, the woman is called "the glory of man"!

My conclusion, then, is that women are in no way eviler than men. Both the man and the woman fell prey to the tempter's blandishments. Interestingly, however, Adam, not Eve--since he became the titular head of the woman and of the entire human race--was singled out by God as the person through whom sin entered the world (see Romans 5:12, for example). Moreover, as Paul reminds us in Romans 5:17:

For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ! (my emphasis)

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