Working it out

I'm Back
I haven't blogged in a while. I guess I haven't had much to say.
 
I wanted to comment on an interpretation of the story of the fall in Genesis by Dr. Scott Hahn. I read this in "First Comes Love". Its been a while since I have read it, so I may not have all the details down.
 
Many people, myself included, get the impression that Satan, commonly thought of as a snake, persuades Eve to take the fruit and eat. Then Eve goes to find Adam and he stupidly goes along with this and eats too. So we have Eve getting most of the blame and Adam being a buffoon that gets duped. But Dr. Hahn doesn't believe this interpretation of the text holds water.
 
First, he says the Hebrew word used, that is commonly translated "serpent", is the same as the words in Job translated as Leviathan and behemoth(?sp?). He says it is probably the same as what John refers to in Revelation as Dragon. So right off the bat, Adam of Eve may not be dealing with a lowly snake, but a huge, intimidating dragon.
 
Second, he deals with the role of Adam. Hahn makes the point that after Eve takes the fruit, she gives it to Adam. Apparently, he was there the whole time. Why was the devil not speaking to him? Dr. Hahn says that Adam's duty as a loving husband was to care for and protect his bride, and he failed miserably. We can infer from the text, that Adam was cowering in fear, leaving his bride, Eve exposed to the deceipt of the devil.
 
So even though Adam and Eve are both to blame, to some extent, Adam bears more of the blame, since it was his job to protect his wife, even if it cost him his life.
 
What I find interesting about this interpretation is the contrast it give it what Jesus does, starting in the garden of Gethsemane and ending on the cross. Jesus is in a garden and is faced with offering Himself for his bride, the Church. In "The Passion of the Christ", Mel Gibson puts Satan there with Jesus. Scripture does not explicitly state this, but it would not be unreasonable to assume that the devil was there taunting Jesus. And while Adam disobeyed God, Jesus does the will of the Father. He suffers and dies for his bride. He reverses the selfishness of Adam, with His selfless love. Offering Himself as the fruit on the tree that was taken. Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. And with this act of obedient suffering, that great Red Dragon is slain and we are made free of sin, fear, and death!
 
There is much more about this issue in the book and I recommend reading it. There has been much controversy around Dr. Hahn's suggestion that somehow the Holy Spirit encompasses the feminine in God. One of his positions in support of this hypothesis(and he goes out of his way to say it is a hypothesis and he would submit to the Magisterium on this issue) is that the Holy Spirit is the spirit of the Church, which is the bride of Christ. And since the spirit is the form of the body and the body is feminine, that would make the Holy Spirit feminine. But I am not defending this position, just merely giving a heads up, in case anyone wanted to read the book.