Quote Originally Posted by krinklebearcat View Post
Ever wonder WHY early christians chose the snake in the story of the garden of Eden? In pagan religions the snake was a symbol of feminine power/wisdom. The early Catholic church chose the snake purposefully as a means of establishing women as second class citizens. Choosing a pagan symbol made sense since the Church grew by converting pagans.
My mom studied theology for a while and told me about this. Pretty interesting I think.
In academics, it is important to point out that which is documented or which is theory. As has been explained, this story predates christianity......by quite some time. Now, it may be interesting how this connection can be made, but without further explanation, it seems unfounded. I'm sure your mother learned that the christians did not write the Old Testament.
I don't think that I would specifically label the early christian church, up to maybe 100 CE as being more suppressive than the general cultures at the time. A great respect was clearly present for women mentioned in the New Testament. As far as the Catholic church under the Romans later on, I don't think they had need of suppressing women more so than was already common practise. But I guess it would come down to opinions in the end.
I also appreciated the mention that a very important symbol of Jesus from the old testament was the serpent in the time of Moses. Along with that, I believe it was Christ who encouraged people to be, "wise as serpents and harmless as doves".
(Sorry for hijacking the thread).