The Old Testament contains many passages that dictate the status of women. The very first book, Genesis, establishes women as inferior to men in creation and in social position. As a creation story the words of Genesis are sacred and are attributed directly to God.
Although the first chapter of Genesis describes God as creating both the male and female at the same time, suggesting equality between the two, the second chapter says that man was made first and that woman was made from a part of man to be his helper. The term helper may be seen as suggesting either an equal or an inferior status for Eve.
Her inferiority is firmly established in Genesis 3:16 when God discovers that she has eaten from the tree of knowledge. “Unto the woman He said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee” (KJV, Genesis 3:16). The word rule used in Genesis 3:16 comes from the Hebrew ma^shal, which can mean to rule, to have, reign and to have power.
Different translations of the bible translate the word differently but the meaning remains similar. For instance, the Living Bible translates the word as "master" and the Modern Language Bible translates it as "dominate". This single word, “rule”, powerfully communicates Eve’s position beneath Adam. Because Eve committed a transgression against God she is punished by being made totally subservient to Adam’s will.
Eve is transformed from Adam’s helper into Adam’s slave or property. This curse will be passed down to all the daughters of Eve. All these women will be inferior at birth and will inherit Eve’s subservient role.
Obviously these concepts are of man, not a loving God. A loving God would not create a woman's body and all that comes with child birth and menstruation just to call it dirty, unclean. This is man's thoughts. It is quite intimidating when the love canal turns into the birth canal. God is not intimidated by this, his own creation, man is.

Well, we have come a long way since Genesis. Imagine what it must have been like before Genesis. Evolution takes time. What can I say.

I love the history channel!
Those who don't see the bible as man made take it quite literally.
The bible can be very dangerous in the hands of an abuser.

That by no means makes a woman "inferior" to a man. Can a boss run a business without employees? Can the president run a country all by himself? Without the employees the boss would be a boss of nothing, reducing them to being not important. A president without a country and or the people of the country is reduced to nothing without the people. Yes God made the man the head of the house hold, but this is to bring prosperity and reduce fighting and or confrontations. That by no means makes a woman "inferior". A woman has their job(s) in the relationship, in the world. And men has their job(s) in a relationship, in the world. Both are equally important. Without one the other becomes useless.

lol.... religion.

I have spoken with people who have read the Scripture of Judas which paints a wholly different picture of Jesus and Judas. Judas claims that Jesus and Mary were lovers. Also it alludes to Mary being the Holy Grail because she and Jesus did bear a child, something a "PURE" savior would not do in Christendom. It also says Jesus came up with the idea to die on a cross to prove his point. And on one last not, according to Judas Mary was Apostle #1! She was the one teaching women. Jesus commandment "Do unto others as you would have done unto you," applied directly to both men and women equally according to Judas.

Likewise Judas hated Jesus's plan to die. Judas and Jesus were best of best friends. Judas's love of Jesus was a "love without measure, a love that was unbound and without limit." Jesus put Judas up to his betrayal because Judas was the only one who would A) do it if Jesus asked, and B) He was not a drunken screw up and the one person Jesus could count on to get things done the way he wanted. The Apostles were party animals.

Amazing how most of the new testament was written by only three men and not all 12 let alone any mention of the Scripture according to Judas. Even more funny was when a copy of the Judas scripture surfaced a HOST of historians were super hot to read it. The copies the Church has are buried in secrecy and treated as Heresy!

I always found Judas's suicide an act of a man so guilty with what he had done he could not live with himself. I was always offended at the idea of the Church condemning Judas because in the Bible it says "God Compelled Judas to betray Jesus." How could Judas go on living with himself if God made him kill his best friend? Judas was, according to the bible forced by God to commit a sin that would have condemned him to hell anyways.

The bible is a seriously FUQUED up story book and God is a sadistic evil manipulative piece of crap! Who needs a devil when you got an evil God who plays both sides of the argument. God is not Good unless it serves God's purpose! I am so amazed people are not smart enough to see that.

All the education we get and all we do is tear of the covers of books and eat the pages!

I being a PAGAN! Woo Hoo!

Ahhhh, but you straw-manned the argument with this sentence here:

And I'd say that if you followed that so-called "Church", you'd still be Pagan....




Same crap, different name...

ok, noted.

The Christians I know personally have said they believe Genesis to be sacred and attributed directly to God.

Also, one should credit the source...


http://www.reneemattila.com/Women in the Bible.htm

thank you

At least I am not worshiping a Jewish Carpenter! WERTLEY WOO HOO!!



May you be touched by his Noodley appendage, Slathered in the Marinara of his love.

Neither am I...


Got anything that is not a strawman?

I wanted to use this essay throughout the thread for discussion on women being inferior..according to the bible.

This isn't the first time I've started this thread. You guys start name calling and straying off the subject and it gets locked.

Can we be nice since it's almost a holiday?

Women are not inferior to men, just different with different jobs and obligations. Takes both to make a family, without anyone of them, there is not family.

Human race can not reproduce or progress without men
Human race can not reproduce or progress without women.

A family is not a family without a woman
A family is not a family without a man.

And so forth and so forth.

I was thinking along these lines, that different doesnt mean inferior or superior and that women were created differently from men with different biological traits and cultural roles which correlated to those traits.

It is woman that carries life into the world, which I think is pretty amazing and anything but second class,,for instance.

Exactly.

Women were taken from the rib of the man to be equal. They were not created with the head of the man, they are not above the man. They were not created with the foot of the man, they are not below the man. They were created by the rib, which is right in the middle, right next to the man, right by his side.

NO!

Just kidding. Of course, you do realize that that is a pretty tall order for this group.

But any argument presented against the bible's interpretation can always be construed as a straw man attack. The problem is that evidence is suppressed by the very church people should have faith in...