Harlots And Heroes Sparknotes

The story of Adam and Eve has remained well known in Western Society to both Christians and non-Christians alike. Due to its presence in public though, it is immensely important to understand the the traditional consensus of the story, and how it has evolved into the the indictment of women many see it as today. Challenging the traditional thought is just as critical and understanding its identity and origins. Alice Ogden Bellis in her book Helpmates, Harlots, and Heroes analyzes the popular consensus and presents alternative views on the true meaning of the story. In the second chapter of her book, Bellis traces the origin of the traditional consensus about Eve through its origins to her view of the form it has taken contemporarily. Maintaining
Between the writing of the Old and New Testaments many works relating to the Hebrew Bible were produced, much of it failed to achieve any long term theological relevance. However a work that did remain relevant was a writing by Ben Sira containing the passage, “From a woman sin had its beginning, and because of her we all die” (Bellis, 38). In Bellis’ mind this planted the seed that grew to become the pre-feminist notion of the message behind the Adam and Eve story. Before that time, the blame for the original sin fell on Adam in the popular mind and so the idea that Ben Sira put forth didn’t begin to take over theological thought for another hundred years. After that time, another work was produced in which Eve as a character implicated herself, bringing the blame down upon her. By the time of Jesus, blame of Eve had infiltrated popular thought, being mentioned in the New Testament (1st Timothy 2:13-14) and they idea expanded beyond just blaming Eve for the original sin, she became wrapped up in sexuality as well as her sin. As these idea become more widespread they began to become ingrained in translations of the original story as well. Bellis asserts