Wife to an Elder

How a Wife Shows Deep Respect for Her Husband

In Jesus, Christian wives have a perfect model of submission to authority. What a difference there is between his [Jesus] view of authority and the attitude displayed by the first human wife! Eve failed to provide a good model for wives to follow. She had a divinely commissioned head through whom Jehovah communicated instruction. Yet, Eve did not respect this arrangement. She failed to accept the instruction that Adam conveyed to her. (Gen. 2:16, 17; 3:3; 1 Cor. 11:3) Granted, Eve was deceived; yet she should have consulted her husband as to the propriety of heeding the voice that claimed to tell her what “God knows.” Instead, she presumed to direct her husband. -Gen. 3:5, 6; 1 Tim. 2:14.

Christian Families – Follow Jesus’ Example. Watchtower Bible and Tract Society: New York, July 15 2009.

My first reading of this passage helped me think that Jehovah was confusing. Though Eve didn’t follow her decision or possibly revised her actions, she felt a certainty that Jehovah was satisfied each time she attempted to do his will. This is good that Eve wanted to submit to that authority.

The second reading of this passage was a little harder for me to accept because I thought that Eve never made it to actually connect to Adam. That all she really did was to make a difference for him to be a better man.

My last reading would probably be the one a girl would think. There is an effort on the part of the author to show their relationship was legitimate in the eyes of God on the basis that there was a physical container for which the iterations of Jehovah’s will were to be understood. This must have been confusing for Eve the first human wife. Could you possibly conceive that Jesus instigated that confusion in his time? Jesus might have had that kind of relationship with Jehovah.