| dc.description.abstract | Historically, interpretations of Eve in Genesis 3-4 have been largely limited to matters of sin and gender (in)equality. Consequently, for some communities for whom Genesis has functioned and continues to function as scripture, the beneficial interpretive possibilities of a dialogue with Eve’s maternal pain go underutilized. Eve’s experiences with her reproductive health and child loss appear in Gen 3:16, 20; 4:1-2, 25. Women’s experiences have shown that embodied maternal pain can extend to all aspects of women's reproductive health. Menstruation, conditions causing infertility, sexual intercourse, pregnancy, pregnancy loss, childbirth, breastfeeding, and child loss, are all potentially painful. Experiences with these conditions as they impact women’s bodies offer a lens through which to fill interpretive gaps in readings of Genesis 3-4. In this dissertation, I reignite biblical conversations about lived experiences of maternal pain, beginning with Eve.
Brennan Breed’s reception theory in Nomadic Text emphasizes the potential of what a text can do within interpretive communities, rather than attempting to define what a text is. To this approach to reception theory, I add a feminist lens, valuing women’s experiences as sources for biblical interpretations. Experiences of embodied maternal pain are evident, in various ways, throughout the Hebrew Bible, in texts from across ancient Western Asia, and in the lives of subsequent interpreters of Eve. I place texts as diverse as Lamaštu ritual incantations, biblical blessings of “breasts and womb,” and the correspondence of Heloise and Abelard in dialogue with medical and economic studies. Doing so illuminates significant environmental and sociological factors in maternal pain. Rereading Genesis 3-4 in light of this broader conversation about maternal pain and its associating factors informs cross-disciplinary discourse about its alleviation. Furthermore, just responses to the impacts of maternal pain is necessary for maternal divine imagery to be meaningfully received within interpretive communities marked by systemic patriarchy. | |
