Press Releases
Infamous EVe,
A History
Most biblical history has been written about the men…heroes…even though those heroes were war mongers, taking land that belonged to others, murders to get or keep their heart’s desires, and without a doubt control freaks. Biblical women’s stories get little press except those supporting the status quo. In the biblical stories the women…even those important enough to be named…are rather silent. Not a circumstance commonly held about females__ever. Eve has a rather short conversation with the serpent in the Book of Genesis, but what she did say has been used by theologians throughout the ages to decry the chattiness of women. But since a great deal of
The story of Eve ad Adam in the Garden of Eden has been one of the most popular stories ever since it was first written.
What you will find in:
InfamousEve, A History
Rabbinic literature reports that Adam had a wife prior to Eve named Lilith. Lilith was Adam’s equal, but she abandoned him because he did not accept her equality.
The Garden of Eden story has so many corresponding elements that are found within the Persian’s Bundahishn, meaning creation; that it may have effected the biblical author around 580 to 450 BCE.
A story written in the 3rd century BCE reports that the boundless Pistis, meaning faith, sent a heavenly likeness of herself named Sophia, meaning wisdom, out of the void of Chaos. Sophia created a spiritual female image of herself__Eve. Sophia entered the Tree of Knowledge, leaving a physical likeness of herself with the intention that Eve would know the difference between good and evil. The serpent, the wisest creature, was used to embody spiritual Eve and then guide physical Eve not to be afraid as she ate the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge.
Eve and Adam had five children: three sons, Abel, Cain, and Seth as well as two
her part in that story is implied rather than said it is likely Eve and her daughters would be condemned without her uttering a single word. Award-winning author May Sinclair in her book, Infamous Eve, A History scrutinizes the silence of biblical women.
daughters, Luluwa and Aklia.
Until 200 BCE the paradisiacal story was used to imply that humanity had inherited a moral taint transmitted through physical heredity.
From the point of Christianity becoming an accepted faith in the 4th century CE there have been countless volumes written to examine how, if, and why sex was experienced in the Garden of Eden.
In the 4th century of the current era, one of the Christian Fathers, Tretullian pronounced that Eve was a deceiver and temptress to sexual sin, further saying that all women, in that regard, are just like Eve.
Not until the 19th century of the current era did pregnancy and menstruation become illnesses. Chloroform was at that time available for childbirth, but some physicians refused to use it because of the continuing belief that a woman’s suffering was first Eve’s and then all women’s punishment from God.
Prior to 1900 the scientific opinion that the father gave his children life, spirit, and soul while the mother only provided flesh was magnified by medical men declaring the characteristics of the parents blended together in their child, becoming diluted. Not until the mind-1950’s would genetic inheritance research finally give women the undisputed right to be known as a major contributor to their children’s genetic heritage.
The biblical Eve is considered by many to be the mother of everyone. As theological convictions were being contradicted by scientific evidence in the late 19th century religious groups were forced to say that Neanderthal man was the Adam created by God prior to being given a soul. They further suggested Adam was supernaturally produced through the womb of an ape, which would make Eve, the mother of all living, to be, rather than supernaturally created like Adam, just an ape. The belief in Eve’s universal motherhood has been used to both honor women and to defame them, which is a testament of humankind’s paradoxical ability to hold and believe two completely separate and opposed, even contradictory, views in their minds at the same time. But that does not mean people are inevitably experiencing emotional or mental health. Award-winning author May Sinclair in her book, Infamous Eve, A History scrutinizes the basis of current beliefs about Eve and her daughters__women.
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS/ANSWERS
- Why did you write the book?
Two reasons. The first was that I found several stories about Eve that I’d never heard of before and wanted everyone to know about them too. The second reason concerns the issue of free-will. Because I teach Dream Interpretation and Analysis I discover many of the inner conflicts people have that disturb their daily lives. Far too many people are plagued by an uneasy responsibility for exercising their free-will to experience life__wordly pleasures__rather than being good. Like Eve and Adam they do not choose to be ignorant. They willfully make choices that they believe are bad. I wrote the book to show that life can be good when fear is removed.
2. What is the difference between polytheistic goddess and monotheistic god religions?
There are several differences, but the main issue covered in this book is that of the goddesses offering their worshipers the intimacy of birth while the monotheistic God is fickle and unforgiving. But the most import fact is that the harshness of war has been used to gloss over the fear based genetic imprints along with the relentless initiation of conflict over who has the right to establish and control the
The biblical stories were edited often. The Egyptians believed that words were made up of cosmic material. So changing the written word actually changed the event. That belief on dissimilar traditions that were cut apart and reassembled to represent and conform to a patriarchal life-style that had an exacting male god in charge of everyone. Those women__and men__who did not agree with the sentiments of that moral position where always denigrated and often killed. The word Qedeshah means a scared woman. Zonah can mean either prophetess or prostitute. The biblical prophets often described the women who worshipped a goddess with those terms; however, neither of those words were used until after 550 BCE.
In Plato’s book Timaeus there are four types of material from which all things are made. With the discovery of DNA and being able to use mitochondrial DNA sequences we know DNA is composed of only four letters.
Shamanism occurred in both hunting and agricultural societies. The hunter-gatherer’s interpretation of an experience while within a trance state was of their soul traveling to another realm of the cosmos. The more complex agricultural societies believed that the person experiencing the ecstasy within trance was being joined or replaced by a deity coming into their body. Both types of experience and theological perspective are found in biblical texts.
was borrowed by the Hebrews creating a religiously approved and politically expedient perspective from which they could re-write and alter the history of their tribes.
The stories in the Bible were often based
meaning of morality.
3. What difference does it make?
A person’s idea of what is moral is a major part of her or his life. Choices are made on that basis. Should a person believe another’s existence or need is more important, life decisions are made that might be unhealthy for the people involved.
4. You also say that women have been used by society to continue the status quo.
Women teach each other. Also, they are usually the ones who teach small children. As long as they believe the stories that are ever perpetuated they will continue to pass on that information. All people have a strong desire to be thought of as decent and respectable. As long as women believe they are too talkative, not very smart, are nosey, and that their ideas and interests are not as important as those of men, society remains the same.
5. How does the biblical story about Eve effect people today?
Without a doubt that story continues to impact modern society. Even today some Christians say there is no literature available to complement the biblical stories because everything was destroyed during religious wars. As we are shocked by that half-truth which has been refuted by historians for over four hundred years we are confronted by people who firmly believe that menstrual cramps and child-birth pains are the Will of God! While the Bible remains the best selling book of all it is impossible to gape in wonder, shake one’s head, and leave those stories alone so misinformation can be perpetuated for yet another generation.
6. How does the book educate?
It goes right back to when people started to evolve. I examine the influences on the people who wrote and then used the biblical story. I unravel the physical, emotional, psychological, scientific, political, and, economic threads to see how our culture has used and continues to use the story for the benefit of a few.
Some early Reviews:
Jean Parkinson, former Education Advisor, University of East London says, “This book… rich in the history of the position of women in the world…does not lose sight of its…purpose which is to dissect, examine, and question. The author has researched in great depth how all the main religions have used myth and dogma to keep women…subservient...Our attention is continually drawn to the way in which art, literature, and science have been manipulated to affirm the right of a few men to dominate, control, and blame women...May Sinclair is tenacious in her bid to critically examine the evidence and leads…readers to question…and to challenge universally acknowledged truths… based on misinformation and myth…An incredible piece of work…essential reading…for those of both sexes who are really interested to learn about the role of women in society today.”
Rev. Robin C. Treen, of Riverside, California notes, “In this time of spiritual curiosity this book gives answers to many long asked questions. Knowledge is the tool of change and the author delivers the potential for social change in how women are seen by themselves, the Church, and society at large.”
Connie Eager, Careers Guidance Practitioner, Merseyside, England remarks “…it is an intelligent read. The book’s clear historical context shows how it all started…it is thorough, all religions are examined and leaves the thinking woman begging the question—‘How far have we moved on?’ People will start to look at things in a different light after reading this book, they will become more aware.”
AND OTHER REVIEWS:
Tom Ward, New Book Reviews, www.newbookreviews.org
Beth Headrick, Book Fetish www.bookfetish.org
Wanda Keesey, MysteryFiction, www.wandakeesey.com
James A Cox, THE BOOKWATCH, www.midwestbookreview.com
Alan Caruba, Bookviews, www.bookviews.com
Paige Lovitt, Reader Views, www.readerviews.com
REISSUED:
SAME TEXT--NEW COVER
January, 2010
The biblical Eve has been used to constrain women. Even today many religious groups teach that women are to be bound to men, especially, regarding marriage and children. That is a big problem for a very high percentage of women because it lessens their ability to achieve a higher level of self-worth. Both married and unmarried women endure the same inequities in pay and promotions at work, yet the impact is marked by the fact that unmarried women are the largest demographic group in the United States that do not vote. Out of the 160 countries currently allowing women the right to vote there were only 5 prior to 1907. It took an additional 50 years for another 114 countries to acknowledge women’s right to franchise and during the past 50 years there has been a 26% increase in women gaining the right to actually vote for the politicians who control much of their lives. Award-winning author May Sinclair in her book, Infamous Eve, A History scrutinizes the basis of why so many unmarried women have low self-esteem.