A Hermeneutical Method for Reading Demotion Logic as Evidence of Eve's Primordial Status in Genesis 3, With Implications for Feminist Theology

Abstract

This article presents a hermeneutical argument asserting that the creation narrative in Genesis 2–3 implies Eve's ontological and social superiority over Adam before the Fall. The central interpretive claim is based on a logical analysis of the structure of divine punishment: specifically, that God's pronouncement in Genesis 3:16, stating that Eve's husband will rule over her, constitutes a demotion intelligible only if Eve previously held a position of superiority or equality that predates patriarchal ordering. By examining the grammatical structure of the Hebrew text and the logic of punitive demotion evident in other biblical literature such as the Lucifer/Satan tradition in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28, the Davidic kings in Psalms 89, Miriam in Numbers 12, and the nations in Genesis 11 this article constructs a comparative framework in which divine punishment consistently involves the removal of a subject from a previously held position of privilege. Within this framework, the Edenic curse is interpreted not as the establishment of an original order but as the disruption of an existing one. The article engages with feminist biblical scholarship, Hebrew linguistic analysis, and theological anthropology to argue that the subordination of women, as encoded in Genesis 3:16, is penal and historical rather than creational and normative, with significant implications for feminist theological ethics and hermeneutics.