Page:Woman-1949.djvu/4

132

The WATCHTOWER

Brooklyn, N.Y.

and the earth would be teeming with perfect men and women, living in blissful wedlock and with children born in righteousness and perfection. Sin and death would not now be the inheritance of such children from birth. Wherever people dwelt, there paradise would be, or the process of converting their land to a part of paradise would be under way. The fear of mankind would be upon all the lower animals, and these would yield to the dominion of man as their recognized master.

⁶ Responsibility for this desirable condition's failing to be true on earth today God's Word lays at the feet of the proper one. No; not at the feet of the woman. True, she was the first on earth to yield to the tempter and to disobey God and thus sin. But sin could not pass to all humankind by Eve alone as a sinner. Why not? Because the woman could not of herself give life to children. God had not constructed woman that way. He made her to provide the fleshly body for offspring and to nurse them. But to the man it was that God gave the power to impart the sperm of life to his offspring which he could have by woman. It was therefore only the man Adam that could cause sin and death to pass down to all his offspring. How? By choosing the way of sin before ever becoming their father. Suppose Adam used the deceived and sinful Eve as his wife to mother the children he wanted. Yet if he refrained from sin, his offspring would not necessarily be shaped in iniquity and born in sin because of being born from Eve. Jesus was born from the Jewess Mary under the Mosaic law which condemned her and all Jews as sinners. Still he was not born a sinner, condemned to die. (Gal. 4: 4, 5) No, it was not the condition of the mother, but that of the father, which determined whether the offspring would be free from imperfection, sin and condemnation to death. What, then, if Adam joined his wife Eve in sinful disobedience to God and came under the death sentence and, after that, became father to our race? Why, he would cause sin and death to spread to all his offspring.

⁷ Hence the state of the future race lay, not with the woman, but with the man. To the man, not to the woman, the Bible charges the responsibility, saying: "Through one man sin came into the world, and death followed sin, and so death spread to all men, because all men sinned." "For since it was through a man that we have death, it is through a man also that we have the raising of the dead. For just as because of their relation to Adam all men die, so because of their relation to Christ they will all be brought to life again." (Rom. 5: 12 and 1 Cor. 15: 21, 22, An Amer. Trans.) It was not because Adam was deceived by the tempter, as his wife Eve had been. It was because of willful selfishness that Adam broke God's law and took the way that brought sin to a world of people

---

6-7 Cui atribuie Biblia responsailitatea pentru eșec? De ce?

and consequently death. For this reason divine justice, if it was to release Adam's offspring from the condemnation and death they inherited, must demand that another perfect man like the original Adam die for them to cancel the penalty. That is what Jesus Christ did, being born, indeed, of an imperfect Jewish virgin, but with the perfect Life-giver, Jehovah God, as his Father, not Adam.

INFLUENCE

⁸ When explaining to God why she ate the forbidden fruit, the woman said: "It was the serpent that misled me, and so I ate it." Did God her Judge excuse her for being deceived and did he overlook her running ahead of her husband, eating, and then speaking to him to induce him to eat? We can judge from the divine sentence. "To the woman he said, 'I will make your pain at child-birth very great; in pain shall you bear children; and yet you shall be devoted to your husband, while he shall rule over you.' And to the man he said, 'Because you followed your wife's suggestions, and ate from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat, Cursed shall be the ground through you, in suffering shall you gain your living from it as long as you live; ... By the sweat of your brow shall you earn your living, until you return to the ground, since it was from it that you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you must return.'" -Gen. 3: 13, 16-19, An Amer. Trans.

⁹ For Adam and Eve and their offspring that meant the loss of the paradise garden. To the woman it also meant painful childbearing. At the same time the man she would cleave to as husband would rule and act the master over her in a way that Adam would never have done had they remained innocent and perfect in the paradise of Eden. This has meant for the woman not only suffering as a mother but also much unjust suffering at the hands of the man. He has often exercised an oppressive rule over her and displayed his mastery in a tyrannical way. But what about the woman's seed who is to bruise the Serpent's head? (Gen. 3: 15) Would its birth and the introduction of Christianity result in any relief from man's rule and mastery over the weaker human vessel? We shall see.

¹⁰ Ca răspuns la provocarea Diavolului, Dumnezeu i-a lăsat pe Adam și Eva să trăiască pentru a naște copii în afara Edenului. Aceasta a fost pentru a testa credința copiilor lor în Dumnezeu și pentru a dovedi integritatea acestor copii față de Dumnezeu în mijlocul unei lumi ispititoare sub conducerea invizibilă a marelui ispititor, înșelătorul Șarpe Satan Diavolul. Cei care arată credință și își păstrează integritatea față de Dumnezeu îi vor face plăcere. Acestea ar oferi o tulpină a familiei umane de care Eliberatorul, sămânța

---

8-9 A fost femeia scuzată pentru că a fost înșelată? Ce arată dacă?

10-11 (a) De ce i-a lăsat Dumnezeu pe Adam și Eva să trăiască în afara Edenului? (b) De ce și cum trebuie să se ferească fiicele Evei împotriva regulii sale de acțiune?