Eve and the Law - A Study of the Biblical Views on Women Based on the History of Creation in Gen 2-3 and Old Testament Laws

Abstract

The purpose of this C-essay within the subject of religion is to form a notion as to how the attitudes towards women and their position in a theoretical biblical society might have been perceived, based upon a select number of texts from the first five books of the Bible (the Pentateuch). Since this essay was written under the framework of the teacher education programme, it is also integrated with the pedagogy subject. This manifests itself with the didactic reflection at the end of this essay, where I try to relate the subject of this essay to the teaching profession. The material, which consists of excerpts from the first and second chapters of Genesis, and a selection of the laws in the first five books of the Bible (from Genesis to Deuteronomy), was analysed according to an ideological model, where themes and patterns have been more important than specific word choices. The analysis showed that the views on women vary depending on who writes and who interprets a specific text extract, and the conclusion was that since laws reflect the society it is likely that they were created to improve women's status to make it as equal to the man's as possible. The didactic reflection offers suggestions for lesson plans on the themes gender, feminism and feministic theology.