Thomas Aquinas' Twofold Subjection Explained, Part 4

Patristic Church on Genesis 3:16

Jerome knew teshuwqah, found in Genesis 3:16, meant “to turn,” but he understood the woman’s turning to signify her subjection to the man because of her sole guilt. Also Jerome’s contemporary, Chrysostom, believed that the woman was subjected because “she made an ill use of her privilege and she who had been made a helper was found to be an ensnarer and ruined all then she is justly told for the future, ‘thy turning shall be to thy husband.'" An earlier theologian from the third century, Tertullian, believed that each woman was an Eve and therefore thoroughly subjected to men who were solely created in the image of God. Tertullian considered any kind of “glory,” i.e., recognition, to be unlawful for women since they were in a state of probation because of Eve’s sin, and their lot was ”humility of every kind” and modesty. According to Tertullian, men prayed rightly to God with their heads uncovered, for freed from sin they had nothing to be ashamed of.

The subjection that began after sin was based on the sole guilt of Eve, and the concept that not event the death of Christ could redeem from this subjection.

This is found also in the writings of Adam Clarke, the 17th century theologians:

"It is added further, Thy desire shall be to thy husband-thou shalt not be able to shun the great pain and peril of child-bearing, for thy desire, thy appetite, shall be to thy husband; and he shall rule over thee, though at their creation both were formed with equal rights, and the woman had probably as much right to rule as the man, but subjection to the will of her husband is one part of her curse, and so very capricious is this will often, that a sorer punishment no human being can well have, to be at all in a state of liberty, and under the protection of wise and equal laws."

The patristic church taught that the woman could not be redeemed by Christ, and that only the man was created in the image of God in order to subject the woman to the man as a result of sin. The modern church couldn't disagree more.

Sources

The Apology, Ch XXX.The Apology, Ch XXX.

On the Apparel of Women, Book I, Ch. I; On the veiling of virgins, Chapter X.

“And that after displeasing God she was immediately subjected to the man, and began to turn to her husband.” (Against Jovinianus, Book I, 27)

Homilies on 1 Corinthians 11, Homily XXVI.

Adam Clarke's Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by Biblesoft