Primary Document: Gender and Society
Men and Women in Renaissance Society
Ludovico to Isotta on the Sin of Adam and Eve
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Ludovico begins: If it is in any way possible to measure the gravity of human sinfulness, then we should see Eve's sin as more to be condemned than Adam's (for three reasons). (First), she was assigned by a just judge to a harsher punishment than was Adam. (Second), she believed that she was made more like God, and that is in the category of unforgivable sins against the Holy Spirit. (Third), she suggested and was the cause of Adam's sin - not he of hers; and although it is a poor excuse to sin because of a friend, nevertheless none was more tolerable than the one by which Adam was enticed.
Isotta: But I see things - since you move me to reply - from quite another and contrary viewpoint. For where there is less intellect and less constancy, there there is less sin; and Eve (lacked sense and constancy) and therefore sinned less. Knowing (her weakness) that crafty serpent began by tempting the woman, thinking the man perhaps invulnerable because of his constancy. (For it says in ) Sentences 2: Standing in the woman's presence, the ancient foe did not boldly persuade, but approached her with a question: "Why did God bid you not to eat of the tree of paradise?" She responded: "Lest perhaps we die." but seeing that she doubted the words of the Lord, the devil said: "You shall not die," but "you will be like God, knowing good and evil." (Adam must also be judged more guilty than Eve, secondly) because of his greater contempt for the command. For in Geneses 2 it appears that the Lord commanded Adam, not Eve, where it says: "The Lord God took the man and placed him in the paradise of Eden to till it and to keep it," (and it does not say, "that they might care for and protect it") "...and the Lord God commanded the man" (and not "them"): "From every tree of the garden you may eat" (and not "you" (in the plural sense)), and, (referring to the forbidden tree), "for the day you eat of it, you must die," (again, using the singular form of "you"). (God directed his command to Adam alone) because he esteemed the man more highly than the woman. Moreover, the woman did not (eat from the forbidden tree) because she believed that she was made more like God, but rather because she was weak and (inclined to indulge in) pleasure. Thus: "Now the woman saw that the tree was good for food, pleasing to the eyes, and desirable for the knowledge it would give. She took of its fruit and ate it, and also gave some to her husband and he ate," and it does not say (that she did so) in order to be like God. And if Adam had not eaten, her sin would have had no consequences. For it does not say: "If Eve had not sinned Christ would not have been made incarnate," but "If Adam had not sinned." Hence the woman, but only because she had been first deceived by the serpent's evil persuasion, did indulge in the delights of paradise; but she would have harmed only herself and in no way endangered human posterity if the consent of the first - born man had not been offered. Therefore Eve was no danger to posterity but (only) to herself; but the man Adam spread the infection of sin to himself and to all future generations. Thus Adam, being the author of all humans yet to be born, was also the first cause of their perdition. For this reason the healing of humankind was celebrated first in the man and then in the woman, just as (according to Jewish tradition), after an unclean spirit has been expelled from a man, as it springs forth from the synagogue, the woman is purged (as well). Moreover, that Eve was condemned by a just judge to a harsher punishment is evidently false, for God said to the woman: "I will make great your distress in childbearing; in pain shall you bring forth children; for your husband shall be longing, though he have dominion over you." But to Adam he said: "Because you have listened to your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I have condemned you not to eat" (notice that God appears to have admonished Adam alone (using the singular form of "you") and not Eve) "Cursed be the ground because of you; in toil shall you eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to you, and you shall eat the plants of the field. In the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, since out of it you were taken; for dust you are and unto dust you shall return." Notice that Adam's punishment appears harsher than Eve's; for God said to Adam: "to dust you shall return," and not to Eve, and death is the most terrible punishment that could be assigned. Therefore it is established that Adam's punishment was greater than Eve's. |
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