As the story goes…………….ancients have it and with fiction spun
I’m not religious but this is what was written/said,
“1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.” (John 1:1)
From this comes the assumption, not feast of, that laws were (are, on a percentage basis) made by men, who thought/think they might be channelling some leader (of men).
They carved these laws on stone tablets and worshipped them. Used them to make other men subservient and women goods and chattels to be “owed” and “sold” by men, as Levi-Strauss.
But the law makers grew careless and left their stone tablets lying around.
Enter women
“Yes, you could use the stone tablet to ‘club’ him while he slept……”
Those carvings had symbols that kept repeating and forming patterns. Was it code? Ah, to break the code!
There were lots of symbols for ‘good’, ‘evil’ and ‘power’.
The code seemed to relate to how people should live: rules and laws. Yet, nowhere in this code could the women find reference to their power.
As the women came to understand it more, they saw that the code inferred that the men had power over them! And this made them angry….
….all the more reason for using the stone tablets as weapons on sleeping men.
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Through the ages
Men have used these laws to abuse and enslave other men and women.
The property of women – well, they had none because it was their fathers’, brothers’, uncles’.
If women wanted to inherit any family estate, she had to marry a man and get him to do it for her.
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Time moved slowly
Women began to organise themselves and discuss how they could undermine the rules and power of men.
They got educated; took jobs; and formed secret societies.
Men became frightened and tried to write new laws ….
But the women had learned the language used to frame these statutes that the men thought mighty and fought back using the same language.
Present
Women use their knowledge to continue fighting to have the laws applied equally.
A tricky thing has happened, though.
The ideas and ways of sharing information, using the Internet – first developed by the United State Military – led people [They were originally only men.] to starting making information even more available.
Governments wanted to publish their laws and rules.
Guess what?
Women already had computers: for organising workplaces, families and social threads.
Now they could access laws!
They could read laws and know when the makers of laws – men – were breaking them.
Women, thus, found that “Knowledge is Power”
They used their knowledge of laws to form “watch-dogs” and organisations to make men follow the law.
With knowledge and change came respect from others and new laws were writ.
Aaah, the powerful combination of women and knowledge over powers thousands of years of rule by men and laws.
………if only it could occur!
References
John 1:1, “The Deity of Jesus Christ”, 2007. On-line Parallel Bible http://bible.cc/john/1-1.htm (Accessed: 16 April 2007)
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1 comment:
Firstly, I think I have a very different understanding of this passage. 1 John 1:1-2 states "1 The one who existed from the beginning is the one we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is Jesus Christ, the Word of life. 2 This one who is life from God was shown to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and announce to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was shown to us."
Relating this to the passage you quoted from John 1:1 (below) It can be understood that "He (who) was in the beginning with God" was Jesus, not man. If this were true then the assumption you made about laws being made by men would be changed to laws being made by God (or Jesus).
I would also disagree with what you say about men putting these laws on tablets. In Exodus chapter 19 in th Bible it is written several times that God instructs his people. He called out to his people, he gives them a message, tells them, lets himself be heard, calls them, instructs them, urges them, warns them, prepares them, commands, punishes and rewards, rescues them, Promises them and guides them.And in turn he asks them to obey, to listen, to keep his commandments, to trust him, to believe what he says, allows them to respond, let's them answer back, lets them choose.
If the bible is true them God made and gave the Laws to everyone to "the people". He did'n't just give them to men or man but to "the people". Everyone. And I know I certainly don't worship these laws - for the God who created them is far greater then these laws would or could ever be. These laws are nothing compared to God.
From what I understand the stone Tablets were broken once by Moses because he was so unpset that the people had already disobeyed the laws even before he had got back down from mount sinai. Then God made them a second time and they were stored in the Ark of the covenant and was probably destroyed by Alexander the great when he ransacked the Jewish temple and scattered the Israelite people.
I'm not sure that it says anywhere in the bible that men have power over women. It does say in Ephesians 5:21 in reference to Husbands and wives "21 And Further, you will submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. 22 You wives will submit to your husbands as you do to the Lord. 23 For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of his body, the church; he gave his life to be her saviour. 24 As the church submits to Christ, so you wives must submit to your husbands in everything.
25 And you husbands must love your wives with the same love Christ showed the church. He gave up his life for her 26 to make her holy and clean, washed by baptism and God's word. 27 He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. 29 In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man is actually loving himself when he loves his wife. 29 No one hates his own body but lovingly cares for it, just as Christ cares for his body, which is the church. 30 And we are his body."
In no way does this passage say that a man has power over a womans body and in no way does this say that a woman has power over a mans' body. If a man loves his wife appropriately then she will be willing o submit to him because she knows that he will not get her to do anything that he wouldn't do himself or for himself. And she will know that he will look after her as he does himself. I believe Marriage to be a partnership - as the first line of the quote says "you will submit to one another out of reverence to Christ".
I agree that God's laws and the partnership God created between men and women have been abused greatly. This is seen again and again throughout time.
Perhaps this partnership has been abused from the start and women are slowly fighting their way back to this trusting partnership. Even if we do become equal with men in the power roles within society and relationships - what next. Will this gaurantee that this partnership will stop being abused?
Perhaps knowledge is power and by keeping women less educated and giving us less freedoms gave them more power making it harder to fight for equality.
Even if equality is gained between men and women. There will always remain the struggle within the human heart of sin and all that is bad within this world. Will equality fix the pain that we (humans) continue to cause each other?
Reference
John 1:1
"1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being."
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