Alice C. Linsley
Savvy, a reader of Just Genesis, has asked this question: "Are you saying that men carry blood guilt and women do not? So a priest representing Christ has to be male, to atone for this guilt. But, did Jesus not come to save both men and women."
Blood guilt and anxiety is in all people. It was very acutely felt by people in earlier times because they believed in the Creator and knew that the One who gives life is the only One who can take life. Since they associated blood with life, any shed blood was a cause for anxiety and had to be accounted for.
The priest stands at the altar as the icon of the Great High Priest, of which there is really only one: Jesus Christ. All priests are mere reflections of Him. The reflection is marred when priests are not pure. The reflection is corrupted when a woman stands at altar as a priest.
Further, women were never priests because the priest took the life of the animal. The life-taking work of the priest and the life-giving work of women are binary opposites and the life-giving work is superior. This understanding is lost when women serve as priests.
Jesus is the only way to salvation for both males and females. Jesus' kenotic act was to join himself fully to the human creature, and the human creature - both male and female - is "other" in reference to the Trinity.
In the biblical worldview, the Creator is always number one and the Referent by which all other entities derive meaning. The oldest system of communication probably employed only 1 and 2, allowing for mutual understanding before the development of more complex languages built upon a binary foundation. This would include the Divine and Other, and would apply to fixed observable entities that are binary opposites. This is suggested by comparison of the spelling sign language systems for the deaf used worldwide in which the first and second signs are almost universally the same.
For example, in Japanese signing, two index fingers held up with the palms facing represent two people facing each other. Slowing bending the fingers toward each other makes the sign of two persons bowing to each other in the typical Japanese greeting. There is a universal logic to the first and second positions in the various sign languages for the deaf.
The universal application of the binary sequence, whether it be letters (A-B) or numbers (1-2), suggests an inherent logic common to all human communications.
The greatest love is shown when A submits to B or when 1 bows to 2. Whether that love is reciprocated matters not. So it is the great love of God that is demonstrated in the incarnation of Christ our Lord. It goes against every message that the world declares and it goes against the instinct of the individual ego. Our Lord Jesus showed the full extent [eis telos] of his love when He stooped to become human, when He bowed to the creature, when He washed the disciples' feet. There can be no question that His condescension was an expression of divine love for all both males and females.
The Creator condescends to grant to the lesser a greater role. So it is that a young maiden, from the least of the tribes of Israel, should become the unwedded Bride of God and the ever-virgin Mother of Christ.
The biblical revelation of Jesus, whose coming as the Seed of the Woman was promised to Abraham's ancestors (Gen. 3:15), has a definite pattern. The first to sin or to be lost are the first to recieve the message of redemption. The woman, who with the man was created just beneath the Creator, lowered herself to the status of a creature that goes with its belly on the ground. In doing so, she caused the inversion of the hierarchy of creation. God restores the original hierarchy in the incarnation of His Son by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary. God redeems the whole creation and gives life to the redeemed through the Blood of His Son.
Related reading: Gender Reversal and Sacred Mystery; The Importance of Binary Distinctions; Blood and Binary Distinctions; God as Male Priest; C.S. Lewis' Priestesses in the Church?
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6 comments:
Thanks for answering my question Alice. If the blood-giving life is superior and the blood of Christ gives life. Why can't a woman represent the blood of Christ that gives life, if life-giving blood work is found in women?
Savvy
There is only one Priest and one Blood. Gender distinctions are helpful in understanding this. It is important not to focus too much on the difference between males and females and their blood work, because the deeper meaning is in the relationship of the two.
Among women, only the Theotokos can be said to represent the blood of Christ that gives life. Her body and blood gave life to Jesus.
The woman, who with the man was created just beneath the Creator, lowered herself to the status of a creature that goes with its belly on the ground.
Alice, Genesis indicates that the serpent was only cursed to go with it's belly on the ground after the whole deception of Eve/forbidden fruit eating episode was accomplished. I don't know what status it had before, except that of the deceiver.
Lydia
Lydia, Abraham's Kushite ancestors were very familiar with serpents, living along the Nile and the reed-filled wetlands. The "curse" to which you refer appears to involve a change in habitat rather than an anatomical change. The well-watered region of Eden began to dry up and both man and serpent began to eat dust.
You might find this interesting:
http://biblicalanthropology.blogspot.com/2010/12/hierarchy-in-creation-biblical-view.html
Thank you, Alice, for your response. I believe you regard Adam and Eve as mythical people, if I remember correctly. As you put "curse" in quotation marks, do you believe the curse is also mythical.
Lydia
I regard Adam and Eve as the archetypal first couple of Abraham's Kushite ancestors. That is quite different from mythological or allegorical figures.
The curse is real. We live it every single day. It is in quotes because that it what people call the outcome of disobedience. It could also be called self-inflicted suffering, since presumably the first couple was free to obey. It could also be called divine correction since God separated them from the Tree of Life lest they stretch out their hand and eat of that fruit. In an unredeemed state eating of Him brings condemnation, not blessing. There is a reason Holy Communion is not to be received unless one recognizes the Body and Blood.
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