Inside My Velvet Rope

I grew up understanding it as a judgement against Eve, too. It was only in the very late 90s that I began to read biblical scholars who were more versed in the original languages and cultures, who questioned the traditional translations and interpretations. They discovered those translations and the resulting interpretations were often based more on the prejudices of the translators than on a real understanding of the language and the culture and political climate in which that language existed. They also pointed out that in the New Testament, the message attributed to God's will usually went, "There is no male or female in God's eyes." That is to say, women and men are equal in God's eyes. When I began to look at the Old Testament through the lens of the New Testament, as my church encouraged us to do, I realized God was warning Eve, not punishing her.