Male and Female are Primary in Hebrew Scriptures

 

Lancelot Andrewes (1555-1626) was an English bishop who oversaw the translation of the King James Version of the Bible, also known as the Authorized Version.

Dr. Alice C. Linsley

A detailed study of gender in the Hebrew Scriptures reveals that male and female are primary to the Hebrew worldview and to their understanding of God Father and God Son. In recent decades critics of the binary balance of Scripture have falsely claimed that the social structure of the biblical Hebrew was patriarchal. However, anthropological analysis of their social structure reveals that it was characterized by binary balance. This balance is expressed in various biblical narratives. 

There are many examples: the distinct duties/responsibilities of the mother's house versus the father's house; male prophets-female prophets; male rulers-female rulers; inheritance by male heirs-inheritance by female heirs, patrilocal residence-matrilocal residence; Hebrew patronymics-Hebrew matronymics; and in the Hebrew double unilineal descent pattern, both the patrilineage and the matrilineage are recognized and honored, but in different ways. 

The blood symbolism of the Passover associated with Moses has a parallel in the blood symbolism of the scarlet cord associated with Rahab. The abusive behavior of drunken Noah toward his sons has a parallel in the abusive behavior of drunken Lot toward his daughters. 

There is binary balance in the New Testament narratives also. Jesus restored the widow of Nain's deceased son to his mother (Luke 7:11-17). Jesus restored Jairus' deceased daughter to her father (Mark 5:21-43). 

When Jesus was presented in the temple His identity as Messiah was attested by the priest Simeon and the prophetess Anna.

To understand the gender distinctions and binary balance of the early Hebrew, we must dismiss the false narrative that their social structure was patriarchal.

The traits of a strict patriarchy do not apply to the Hebrew from whom we receive the foundation of the Messianic Faith we call "Christianity". There were women chiefs and rulers among them. Women could inherit. Line of descent was traced through high-status wives, especially the cousin brides. Residential arrangements included neolocal, avunculocal, matrilocal, and patrilocal. Assessment of the biblical data reveals that male-female responsibilities and rights were balanced, yet distinct.

Mother’s House versus Father’s House

A very ancient practice is alluded to in Ruth 1:8-9. Here Naomi urges her daughters-in-law to return to their “mother’s house.” This is Naomi’s way of encouraging Orpah and Ruth to remarry. Hoping that they will marry again, Naomi sends them back to their mothers.

The “mother's house” is where women gathered to plan weddings for betrothed girls. The women attended to the practical arrangements for weddings and the items needed to set up a new household. On the other hand, the “father's house” was where the fathers deliberated the terms of the marriage involving dowry, inheritance, and property. The elders of the village were present to witness the deliberations. Sometimes fathers denied marriage to eligible daughters.

A woman who was forbidden to marry (or re-marry) was to return to her father's house. When Judah refused to marry another of his sons to Tamar, as was required by the Levirate marriage law, he told her to return to the father’s house (Gen. 38:11).

Scholars have noted that Rebecca ran to her mother's house to announce the marriage proposal from Isaac (Gen. 24:28). Running to her mother's house expressed Rebecca's willingness to accept Isaac’s proposal. This practice entails more than preparing for a wedding and a new household. It is about building a lineage. Naomi tells both of her widowed daughters-in-law to return to their "mother's house" in the hopes that they would remarry and have families.

Gender and the Priesthood

There are no female priests among the biblical Hebrew. The sacrificing priest would be covered with the blood of the slain animal. Since women were regarded as life-givers, their blood work (menses and childbirth) and the blood work of the priest could never be in the same space.

The male priest is a sign that points to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Every Christian priest stands at altar in the person of Christ whose maleness cannot be denied without eviscerating the biblical understanding of His blood sacrifice. By His death comes the forgiveness of sins.

Consistent with the binary balance of Scripture, we find the Virgin Mary is another sign that points to her son. The honor due to her is unique since she alone brought forth the Messiah, the Christ. By her submission and divine overshadowing (Luke 1:35) comes the One who overcomes sin and death.

A male standing at altar is appropriate when we contemplate the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Women priests cause confusion because the sacrament of Christ's giving of Himself is about His Blood, a covering for sin. Female priests overthrow the binary balance.

Were we to contemplate the humble Virgin Mary, would it be appropriate to place before us a male image?

It is no coincidence that the innovation of women priests was first introduced by a denomination that had embraced Feminist thought and had created binary imbalance by promoting erroneous interpretations of Scripture and by dismissing the veneration of the Virgin Mary.

Eve, the Crown of Creation

In the creation stories Eve is the last creature to be given life by the Creator. In this sense she crowns the creation. The biblical Hebrew conceived of the order of creation as a hierarchy, somewhat like the shape of a mountain or a pyramid. The dwelling place of the High God is above the peak and at the peak is the crown of creation. Eve is vulnerable to attack by the Evil One who seeks to invert the hierarchy, placing himself at the head. Eve's submission to the ground-crawling serpent represents a metaphysical reversal of the divine order of creation. 

We live in this reversed state until Christ returns. This is what the Apostle Paul means when he speaks of the whole of Creation groaning and yearning for the day of redemption (Rom. 8:22-23). 

"For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies."

Related reading: Why Women Were Never Priests; Ten Objections to Women Priests; The Bible and Imagined Morality; The Church's Consensus on Women Priests; "Binary" is a Bad Word These Days

The Fig Tree in Biblical Symbolism

Luxor figs, detail from Usarhet's tomb

Usarhat, a high ranking official, was "Overseer and Scribe of the Cattle of Amun."

Alice C. Linsley

The fig tree is one of the oldest known fruit trees, as attested by the discovery of figs in an 11,400-year-old house near Jericho.

Illustrations of fig trees are found on monuments and tombs of ancient Egypt. The Sycamore Fig grew in abundance along the Nile, the region from which Abraham's cattle-herding ancestors came. This tree was the plant totem of Hathor, the mother of Horus. The oldest sycamore tree in Egypt is in Matarria and is known as the "Virgin Mary Tree".

Zohary and Hopf, authors of Domestication of Plants in the Old World (Oxford University Press), assert that Egypt was "the principal area of sycamore fig development." They note that "the fruit and the timber, and sometimes even the twigs, are richly represented in the tombs of the Egyptian Early, Middle and Late Kingdoms. In numerous cases the parched sycons bear characteristic gashing marks indicating that this art, which induces ripening, was practiced in Egypt in ancient times."

In ancient Egyptian iconography the Sycamore stands on the threshold of life and death, veiling the threshold by its abundant low-hanging foliage. The caskets of some Egyptian mummies were made from the wood of the Sycamore Fig tree. Pharaohs called the Sycamore Fig Nehet.

With one striking exception, the fig tree symbolizes life, prosperity, peace, and righteousness throughout the Bible. Micah 4:4 reads: “But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and no one shall make them afraid.”

Jesus alludes to this image of the righteous man enjoying God's peace under his own fig tree when he said to Nathaniel, "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!" Nathaniel said to him, "How do you know me?" Jesus answered, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you."

The fruit bearing tree is also an allusion to the crucifixion and to the third-day resurrection of Jesus Christ. On the third day, God said, “Let the earth put forth grass, herbs yielding seed and fruit trees bearing fruit.” The third day signals the exercise of divine power, or in more mystical terms, the arousal of God. In this, trees and pillars have similar symbolism. Both rise from the earth and stretch upward toward heaven. Jesus who was lifted up on the tree is the sign of God's power to draw all to Himself.

The Fig Tree's Association with Hathor

The fig tree is associated with the "Seed of God" (Gen. 3:15) in ancient Horite Hebrew symbolism. The sycamore fig was Hathor’s tree. Hathor conceived HR (Horus) by the overshadowing of the Sun. That is why she is shown with the solar image resting between the cattle horns on her head. In ancient Egyptian, Horus was called HR, meaning "Most High One". 

Hathor’s tree was regarded as a ‘tree of life.’ The drink made from the fruit was said to make one wise. This is the tradition behind Genesis 3:6:  "When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desireable for gaining knowledge, she took some and ate it."

The fruit taken by Eve might have been a fig from the Sycamore Fig tree (Ficus sycomorus) which grew in abundance along rivers in the region of Eden. This tradition is represented in paintings by the fig leaves covering Adam and Eve's private parts (Gen. 3:7). G. E. Post (1902), a botanist specializing in the fauna of Syria and Palestine, believes that the leaves used by the first couple were from the common fig. It ranged from the Atlantic coast of Nigeria to the Indian Ocean and was cultivated along the Nile, the Red Sea and in Trye and Sidon.

Present range of the Sycamore Fig Tree

In Palestine and North Africa some fig trees bear a first crop in June. These are usually so ripe that they are easily shaken from the trees. Likely, this is behind the warning of Nahum 3:12, “All thy strongholds shall be like fig trees with the first-ripe figs: if they be shaken, they shall even fall into the mouth of the eater.”

The edible fig was called tena in Aramaic and tin in Arabic. The Hebrew word teena signifies the fig tree near which another is planted, as the fig and the caprifig (wild fig). It also refers to the union of male and female such as results from caprification. Caprification is a technique in which flowering branches of the wild fig are hung in the orchards of cultivated fig trees. This allows wasps to carry pollen from the flowers of the caprifig to those of the edible varieties to pollinate the cultivated trees.

In Deuteronomy 8:8, Yahweh brings the Israelites into a land of olive oil, honey, wheat, barley, vines, pomegranates and fig trees. The importance of figs may be judged from the account of Abigail, who went out to meet David with an offering of two hundred fig cakes.


The Failure to Produce Fruit

In its natural habitat, the Sycamore Fig bears large yellow or red fruit year round, peaking from July to December. Jesus “cursed” the fig tree that failed to produce fruit. All fruit bearing trees were created to produce fruit, but this particular tree failed to do what it was created to do.

The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard him say it. (Mark 11:12-14)

Jesus uses this to instruct His disciples that they were created to bear fruit and failure to do so would mean sharing the destiny of a dead tree. What does not produce fruit is eventually cut down and thrown into the fire.

Related reading:  Theories About the Tree of Life; Trees in Genesis; Antarctica Once Had Baobab Trees; Congo Basin Tree Study; The Ra-Horus-Hathor Narrative; African Religion Predates Hinduism

The Biblical Meaning of Eve

Eve is above Adam and yet subject to Adam. This is the mystery of Christ's relationship to the Church to which St. Paul points. Christ elevates the Church and yet she is subject to Him.

Rembrant's Adam and Eve

Alice C. Linsley

To understand the meaning of Eve we must consider her story in the context of the hierarchy that the ancient Afro-Asiatics saw in creation. In this hierarchical order Eve is the crown, being the last created.  If we think of a pyramid, God would be above the peak and below him would be Eve. She is the perfect companion of Adam and the two share the same essence as creatures made in the Creator's image.

As heaven and earth are binary opposites in the biblical framework, so Adam and Eve represent the binary opposites of male and female. Further, male virtues are associated with east and north and female virtues with the west and south.  The dominance of each depends on a counter-clockwise cycle, as the Sun rises from the east and crosses through high noon to the west, making its daily circuit.


Gender Reversal

Likewise, Adam and Eve reverse dominance.  Eve, being made from Adam's rib, has Adam as her head.  Eve, being the last created, has Adam at her feet. So Eve is both above Adam, as the crown of creation, and below Adam, as one subject to him.  Eve is Adam's crown and Adam is Eve's crown.  (I'm reminded how crowns are worn by the bride and the groom in the Orthodox wedding ceremony.)

His his 17th century Commentaria in Scripturam Sacram, Cornelius a Lapide noted that there is “frequent exchange of gender in Hebrew: the masculine being used in place of the feminine and vice-versa, especially when there is present some cause or mystery.” Eve's creation speaks of a gender reversal which in the Bible signals a sacred mystery.


Order Reversal

There is another layer of reversal in Eve's story.  It involves a reversal of order between Eve, made in the image of God, and the serpent who God put in subjection to humans. Think in terms of a standing ladder with rungs. God in Heaven is at the highest rung of the ladder. Adam and Eve share the second and third rungs, often reversing positions. Lucifer, having been cast down, is at the bottom, symbolized by a creature that slithers with its belly in the dust. In Lucifer's attempt to rise to the top, he seeks to invert the ladder by making Eve subject to him.  John Chrysostom understood Eve's sin in this light: as the exchange of her heavenly crown for the serpent's dust.  Eve exchanged her glory for a baser image.  In submitting to the serpent's will, she allowed the inversion of the divine order in creation.

The inversion of divine order is the demonic inversion of reality. What is real and true is turned on its head and presented to the unsuspecting as the real and true. We live in an age when most people are fooled by the Father of Lies.


Why Eve and not Adam?

Various theories are offered as to why the serpent approaches the woman rather than the man.  Some opine that women are more vulnerable to suggestion or more easily prompted by the sensual. Yet the story doesn't permit this interpretation, as the woman enjoys perfection until after the Fall.  The reason the serpent approaches Eve rather than Adam has nothing to do with an inherent flaw in the woman. Instead the answer rests in the Tempter's character as one who desires to tarnish the crown of God's creation.  Lucifer hates "the Woman" (Gen. 3:15) who as the Mother of God brought forth the Son who crushes the serpent's head.  Eve's story speaks symbolically about the darkness that always seeks to overcome the light or about the evil that continuously seeks to thwart God's plan of salvation.


Eve as Adam's "kind"

In pagan myths there is a suggestion that Adam's first wife (called Lilith) had sexual relations with the serpent.  In many ancient cultures the serpent was a phallic symbol. This is foreign to the Genesis text which speaks of creatures reproducing according to their own "kind".  Bestiality is a serious violation of the order of creation in the biblical worldview. Lucifer attempts to blur the boundaries apparent in the order of creation, so he encourages bestiality and homosex.

Eve is the same kind as Adam as she.is bone of his bone and flesh or his flesh. She is God's unique provision for the man not to feel alone in the world.  Adam is surrounded by living things yet senses that he is alone.  God declares that it is not good for the man to be alone. This is a picture of how “kind” goes with its own kind. The idea of reproducing according to one’s own kind is inherent.  Further, God told the original couple to be fruitful and multiply.  Since Lucifer has no role to play in this, he works doubly hard to tarnish the gift of sex.


Eve's Name Supplies a Clue

The Hivites are descendants Ham (and probably Seth) which means that they are ethnically Kushites (Genesis 10:17). The name Hivite  resembles the name Eve.  Eve is spelled hwh and likely represents a pictograph of the ruler and his two wives. The w or Hebrew vav is a solar symbol designating the ruler.

The Y symbolized a cradle for the sun, the emblem of the Creator.It also designated the ruler's residence and his appointment by the Creator. The ruler's tent was the oholibamah or exalted tent and was represented by the ancient Hebrew and Arabic letter Vaw. This was a solar symbol in the Canaanite script. The urheimat of the Canaanite Y was the Upper Nile Valley.

Tent peg /sun cradle/marks the ruler's residence
This also represents the long horns of the cow worn by Hathor, the mother of Horus, son of Ra. She conceived by the "overshadowing" of the Sun.

It solar symbol for Horite rulers is found in these names: Yaqtan (Abraham's first born son); Yitzak, Yishmael, Yacob, Yosef, and Yeshua. The vav is sometimes referred to as the tent peg. It designated both the residence of the ruler and the ruler's status as one appointed by the Creator.

The marriage pattern of Abraham's ruler-priest ancestors involved two wives living in separate households on a north-south axis. The first wife was a half-sister, as was Sarah to Abraham. The second wife was usually a patrilineal cousin. The first born son of the half-sister wife ascended to the throne of his father and his mother was a queen within his territory. This pattern is evident among the ancient Kushite rulers who united the Nile Valley. It suggests that Eve is the archetypal queen.


Further reading: Adam and Eve: The Blood and the Birther; Hierarchy in creation: The Biblical view; The Meaning and Etymology of the Name Eve; The Pattern of Two Wives; Abraham's Complaint; The Queen Mother in the Kingdom of Kush by Dan'el Kahn