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The Serpent's Seed: Difference between revisions
→Proverbs 30:20
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:''She eateth, and wipeth her mouth, | :''She eateth, and wipeth her mouth, | ||
:''And saith, I have done no wickedness.<ref>The Holy Bible: King James Version, Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version. (Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2009), Pr 30:20.</ref> | :''And saith, I have done no wickedness.<ref>The Holy Bible: King James Version, Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version. (Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2009), Pr 30:20.</ref> | ||
Message preachers use this scripture to justify the serpent's seed doctrine by saying that the sexual act is likened to the eating of a fruit. | |||
Unfortunately, there are a couple of problems with this rationale: | |||
#There is NO direct reference to the eating of a fruit and, in particular, the eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. What the author of Proverbs has done in the passage is to associate behavior that is out of bounds with eating; depicting a sexual appetite that knows no restraint. In Proverbs 30:14, the act of eating is associated with the persecution of the poor and needy. The fact is that the author of the book of Proverbs uses the metaphor of eating in other situations and not solely to depict the sexual act.<ref>Paul E. Koptak, Proverbs, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2003), 661.</ref> | |||
#Wiping her mouth after eating means that the adulteress treats sexual liaisons the same way she does eating: she just finishes up and goes home without a care and certainly without a sense of guilt.<ref>Duane A. Garrett, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, vol. 14, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1993), 241.</ref> Again, the author uses the metaphor of eating to illustrate the woman's attitude and not to make a statement about sex being like eating. | |||
#The whole point of the metaphor is to illustrate the way that this woman thinks of her sin. People look at adultery and state, "That is a terrible thing" and ask, "How can she live with herself?" Yet for her it is no big deal. Yes, the first time she did it, it was probably quite something but no longer. Her conscience has been seared.<ref>Gary Brady, Heavenly Wisdom: Proverbs Simply Explained, Welwyn Commentary Series (Darlington, England: Evangelical Press, 2003), 783.</ref> | |||
#There are other metaphors of eating in the Book of Proverbs that have nothing to do with sex: | |||
:''...therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way, and have their fill of their own devices.<ref>The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), Pr 1:31.</ref> | |||
:''A man shall eat good by the fruit of his mouth: But the soul of the transgressors shall eat violence.<ref>The Holy Bible: King James Version, Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version. (Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2009), Pr 13:2.</ref> | |||
:''She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.<ref>The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), Pr 31:27.</ref> | |||
=Eve was an after-thought?= | =Eve was an after-thought?= | ||