The Rev. Wilda “Wil” C. Gafney PhD is an Episcopal priest, biblical scholar, and professor of Hebrew Bible. For today’s devotional, I am excited to share a selection from her book, Womanist Midrash: A Reintroduction to the Women of the Torah and the Throne. According to the book, womanist midrash is “a set of interpretive practices, including translation, exegesis, and biblical interpretation, that attends to marginalized characters in biblical narratives, especially women and girls, intentionally including and centering on non-Israelite peoples and enslaved persons. Womanist midrash listens to and for their voices in and through the Hebrew Bible while acknowledging that often the text does not speak, or even intend to speak, to or for them, let alone hear them.” In her research and writing, Dr. Gafney draws on her experiences as a black woman from a multicultural family (Korean, Mexican, Native American, Irish, German, and African American). You can read more about her work and publications here.

The English name “Eve” seems to come from discarding the first and last consonants in the Chavah. The adjective chaiy, “living,” refers to all life and not just human life. God is “the living God” in Jeremiah 10:10 and many other places. The title becomes ironic with the death of Abel; [Eve] remains the mother of the living in the text, but is now also the mother of the dead.

As the story unfolds, the biblical authors focus on Adam and subordinate Eve… she is not even mentioned in the story of one of her sons killing the other and God’s banishment of the killer (Genesis 4). She is not mentioned in connection with the marriage of her sons… Eve is not mentioned when her grandchildren are born. She is not mentioned by name again (until the book of Tobit)…

Eve names her [third] son Seth, “placed,” whom God placed with her in place of her murdered son Hevel, Abel. Eve never speaks again in the Scriptures. In these last words she and the text acknowledge her sense of loss for her son. God has given her Seth; Adam is not mentioned…

The story of Chavah, Eve, west of Eden is left to the imagination of the reader. What womanist wisdom did she pass on to her daughters and daughters-in-law that has been lost to indifference? How much of the work necessary to survive in the new world did she do with her own hands? Did she build a home, plant a farm or garden, do herding, go hunting? What recipes did she hand down to her daughters that recalled the memory of the garden’s delights?

Womanist Midrash: A Reintroduction to the Women of the Torah and the Throne by The Rev. Wil Gafney, PhD