A LEGACY IN QUOTES
Example of the structure of a Patriarchal Society
It came across my desk in the late 1980’s. It was a legal-size paper that listed some patriarchal quotes related to women.
My closer examination of the authors of those quotes left me stunned.
I have not found similar lists that relate to the Earth in a parallel way—that is, as a list of quotes that outrightly disparage the Earth in the way that the quotes below disparage women.
Perhaps patriarchal attitudes toward the Earth are more insidious and much too covertly assumed to be garnered into a large list of quotes.
However, there is this one very significant quote related to the Earth. It is powerful in that it has affected, in a damaging way, how humans have treated the Earth, precisely because of the common translation of the word “dominion” as domination or “power over.”
Here is the quote:
Hebrew Testament: Genesis 1:27-28
God created man in his image; in the divine image he created them; male and female he created them.
God blessed them, saying: “Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all the living things that move on the earth.
The better understanding of “dominion” would be as “care”. Be a caretaker over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all the living things that move on the earth.
Since ecofeminism holds that the patriarchal order sees both the Earth and women in the same way—as instruments of production to use and abuse at will by those at the top of the patriarchal pyramid—it behooves us to examine the following:
PATRIARCHAL RELIGION AND WOMEN
—by WOMEN IN SPIRIT OF COLORADO, Co-founder Kay Horton Haughey, Estes Park, CO. (Theirs was the original list that had been given to me.)
and
—by Meg Bowman who teaches sociology at San Jose State University. Meg gathered patriarchal quotations together in 1988 for her Dramatic Readings on Feminist Issues.
and
—by FREETHINKERS OF COLORADO SPRINGS, PO BOX 62946, Colorado Springs 80962-4506, EMAIL: FreethinkersCS@FreethinkersCS.org
and
—by Simone de Beauvoir who included the Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas quotes in her 1949 book The Second Sex.
”Of course few people, even Christian clergy would agree with these quotations today, but they represent the history of the deep seated religious attitudes that lead to the still prevalent demeaning and ill treatment of women.”
—Meg Bowman
So, without further ado, here are the quotes:
"…the female is a female by virtue of a certain lack of qualities—a natural defectiveness.” —Aristotle (384-322 BCE)
“Do you know that each of your women is an Eve? The sentence of God — on this sex of yours — lives in this age; the guilt must necessarily live, too. You are the gate of Hell, you are the temptress of the forbidden tree; you are the first deserter of the divine law.” —Tertullian (22 AD)
“In childhood a woman must be subject to her father; in youth, to her husband; when her husband is dead, to her sons. A woman must never be free of subjugation.”
— Hindu Code of Manu
“Woman is defective and accidental…a male gone awry…the result of some weakness in the father’s generative power….” —Thomas Aquinas, 13th century AD
“Any woman who acts in such a way that she cannot give birth to as many children as she is capable of, makes herself guilty of the many murders…” —St. Augustine (345-430)
”Men are superior to women.” —the Koran (Qur’an 4:34)
“Women should remain at home, sit still, keep house and bear and bring up children…. If a woman grows weary and, at last, dies from childbearing, it matters not. Let her die from bearing, she is there to do it.” — Martin Luther (1483-1545)
“Woman in her greatest perfection was made to serve and obey man, not rule and command him. —John Knox (1505-1572)
Daily prayer of the Orthodox Jewish Male (still in use today): "Blessed art thou, 0 Lord our God and King of the Universe, that thou didst not create me a woman.
This next quote is one on which you might want to pause and to pay close attention.
The first rendition is commentary as it appears in the lists; the second is as it appears in the Bible.
Hebrew Testament: Exodus 22:15-16 declares as law that if a man seduces a virgin who is not betrothed (thus damaging the father's property), he (the rapist) shall marry her.
(Can you imagine having to marry your rapist?!) If the father doesn't wish this, the rapist shall pay money equivalent to the marriage/bride price for virgins.
—The commentary above is spot on.
It lays bare, directly within the content of the biblical passage, the business nature of a patriarchal wedding, a marriage, as the sale of property (the virgin bride)—an exchange by its current owner (the father) to its new owner (the husband), for the cost of the “bride price.”
Especially important for the success of the transaction was that the property (the bride) be unused!
Below is the direct Exodus 22:15-16 quote without commentary. (NRSV) (1)
Exodus 22:15-16: “When a man seduces a virgin who is not engaged to be married, and lies with her, he shall give the bride-price for her and make her his wife. But if her father refuses to give her to him, he shall pay an amount equal to the bride-price for virgins.”
Interesting fact: As couples have become aware of the patriarchal nature of some wedding ceremony rituals, they have adopted alternative forms.
For example, some couples walk down the aisle together, or the bride walks alone or with both parents in joy, rather than the father-of-the-bride walking with her and “giving her away.”
An internet search for patriarchal wedding ceremony traditions turns up some intriguing information, including alternative suggestions for modern weddings.
Hebrew Testament: Leviticus 12:1-2, 5: "And the Lord spake unto Moses saying: speak unto the children of Israel, saying: if a woman be delivered, and bear a man-child then she shall be unclean for seven days .... But if she bear a maid-child, then she shall be unclean for two weeks..."
(Leviticus is one of the five books of the sacred Jewish Torah.)
In 1847, a British obstetrician, Dr. Simpson, used chloroform as an anesthetic in delivering a baby. A scandal followed, and the holy men of the Church of England prohibited the use of anesthetic in childbirth, citing Genesis 3:16: "God said to woman Eve, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy pain in childbearing. In pain thou shalt bring forth children ... and thy desire shall be to thy husband and he shall rule over thee."
Christian (New) Testament: I Corinthians 11:7-9: Man is the image of God ... whereas woman reflects the glory of man. For man did not originally spring from woman, but woman was made out of man; and man was not created for woman's sake, but woman for the sake of man."
(First letter of St. Paul to the people of Corinth.)
Christian (New) Testament: I Corinthians 14:34: It is shameful for a woman to speak in church. Wives should regard their husbands as they regard the Lord. Women are not permitted to speak, but should be subordinate. If there is anything they desire to know, let them ask their husbands at home. (First letter of St. Paul to the people of Corinth.)
Christian (New) Testament: I Timothy 2:9-12,15: I desire that "women should adorn themselves modestly and sensibly ... not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly attire ... Let a woman learn in silence with all submissiveness.
I permit no woman to teach or have authority over men; she is to keep silent. Yet women will be saved through bearing children, if she continues in faith and love and holiness, with modesty." (First letter of St. Paul to Timothy)
French philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712- 1778): “The whole education of women ought to be relative to men. To please them, to be useful to them ... to make life sweet and agreeable to them.”
How to conclude?
I think it would be beneficial to conclude this post with a more positive quote by St. Paul in his letter to the Galatians who were a group of people, primarily Gentile Christians, living in the Roman province of Galatia in central Asia Minor, (modern-day Turkey).
Christian (New) Testament: Galatians 3:28
“There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” (NRSV) (1)
Analyses of Galatians 3:28:
A footnote in the New American Bible (NAB) states that it is “likely a formula used at baptism that expresses racial, social-economic, and sexual equality in Christ.” [2]
Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza’s has some views on this verse, as expressed in her book In Memory of Her, Chapter 6: “Neither Male Nor Female Galatians 3:28—Alternative Vision and Pauline Modification (pages 211-236) (3).
She offers this analysis of Galatians 3:28:
No longer male and female” is best understood…in terms of marriage and gender relationships.
As such Gal 3:28c does not assert that there are no longer men and women in Christ, but that patriarchal marriage…is no longer constitutive of the new community in Christ.
Irrespective of their procreative capacities and of the social roles connected with them, persons will be full members of the Christian movement in and through baptism.
I have a question: Are you, by any chance, wondering how we make sense of Paul’s apparent contradictions (regarding women) between his letters to the Corinthian people and to Timothy (in our list above) and his letter to the Galatian community in Chapter 3, verse 28?
Below is a partial summary of Schüssler Fiorenza’s analysis regarding this question:
…Paul’s impact on women’s leadership in the Christian missionary movement is double-edged.
On the one hand, he affirms Christian equality and freedom. … On the other hand, he subordinates women’s behavior in marriage and in the worship assembly to the interests of Christian mission…and restricts their rights…as women, for we do not find such explicit restrictions on the behavior of men…in the worship assembly. (page 236)
…[H]e silences wives’ public speaking, according to traditional Roman sentiment, as being against ‘law and custom.’ (page 236).
Paul’s major concern…is not the behavior of women but the protection of the Christian community. He wanted to prevent the Christian community from being mistaken for one of the…cults in the Corinthian community that undermined public order and decency. (page 232).
On page 241 (note 99), Schüssler-Fiorenza writes: ‘If this practical tension in Paul’s writing is overlooked, then Paul is alternately condemned as a “chauvinist” or hailed as a “liberationist.”
She concludes her Chapter 6 by stating that “[t]he post-Pauline and pseudo-Pauline tradition will draw out these restrictions in order to change the equality in Christ between women and men, slaves and free, into a relationship of subordination in the household….”
I, Anne, prefer the original text of Galatians 3:28, which upholds the division dissolutions that were a major part of the Jesus movement.
…to be continued
RESOURCES:
(1) The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocryphal Deuterocanonical Books, New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), Oxford University Press, 1991.
(2) The New American Bible (NAB), Saint Joseph Edition, Catholic Book Publishing Co., New York, 1970.
(3) Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, In Memory of Her: A Feminist Theological Reconstruction of Christian Origins, 1983, Crossroad Publishing Co.
IN YOUR OWN WORDS:
Re: Preview of current post—”A Legacy in Quotes”
—I really like it! I love quotes! They are disturbing but invite the reader to a call to action. The Egyptian pyramid reminds me of the Indian caste system that Gandhi fought to change: —M.A.
—Thank you M.A. for finding—and sending us—this information and chart on the Hindu Caste System. —Anne Andersson
—Heavy and depressing but it is our heritage. —E.
Re: Previous Post—”Summer Solstice 2025,” by Anne Andersson, June 17, 2025
—”Thank you. I have learned a great deal.” —R.E.
—”Again, great info, Anne. Blessings of Solstice.” —E.
—”I was inspired by your blog post about the solstice and have intentionally spent lots of time outside today.” —I.A.
—Re: Previous Post—”Ecofeminism—First Stop: What really is the Earth?,” by Anne Andersson, May 29, 2025
— “Tack Anne, du din. värdinna skriver så fint om viktiga saker.” 😊 —S.J.
Translation from Swedish: “Thank you Anne, the writing is done so beautifully about important things.”
Re: Previous Post—”The #Me Too Movement And Beyond,” by Anne Andersson, May 13, 2025
—”Thanks Anne.” —R.E.
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