Dr. Dylan Johnson

But it spawned a real huge debate among various waves of feminist biblical interpretations on not just that fact that she's created second and out of man.

Also, therefore, the question is, well, does she also have that divine spark in her?

Like, does she have the breath as well?

And it stands in pretty distinct contrast to that other creation story in the previous chapter, where man and woman are created at the same time, both in the image of God.

So a much more equitable view of creation there.

So this has spawned considerably, not just between feminist interpreters and non-feminists, but within feminist interpretation of this text.

How do we take that?

Is it an inherent patriarchal version of creation as opposed to Genesis 1, which is a more equitable one?

And I've already kind of said, I don't think so, because I think Eve has a very, really important role in Genesis 2.

So...

We kind of are left with a few uncertainties there about the significance.

But it might play into the punishments that come at the end of the story.

So all of the creatures are kind of punished with the thing from which they're created.

So man, famously created from the ground, is going to suffer from having to toil, agriculture, crop failures.

That's going to be his punishment.

And woman...

It's going to hurt in childbirth, and she's going to suffer under the dominion of man, right?

So again, is that promoting that position, that that is a natural state of order, or is it saying this is a fundamental injustice of the world, explaining why that is the case, why there's misogyny or men running in control of most of these ancient societies kind of idea, right?

So that's a lot to get from a rib.

But that's where we kind of debate the symbolism and the meaning of these kinds of things.