Menstruation as punishment

[Santos]

Hi, I have a question..

I was discussing Original Sin and the story of Adam and Eve with a Catholic friend at work the other day. He told me that Eve was 'cursed to bleed once a month' as part of her punishment, along with pain during childbirth.

He then went on to inform me that this was the reason why women have their period. Not because of the whole disposing of the unfertilized egg thing.

I played ball, and asked why do some female animals have their period then? Do they share in Eve's curse? He didn't have an answer at that time, so I thought I'd pose the question to anyone here who shares my beloved friend's belief.

Is there anyone here who believes that women menstruate as part of Eve's curse? Could you explain to me why you believe so?

And if so, could you explain why some female animals menstruate as well?

Thanks for the responses guys!

[Peg]

I feel bad putting an answer here, as I know I am not nearly as educated as others. I could be missing something.

From my understanding, god did not punish Eve with menstruation, but instead with painful child birth.

[center]Genesis 3:16
To the woman he said,
“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;
with painful labor you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you.�
[/center]
I do not see anything else in Genesis 3 regarding her punishment.

In the hebrew language, the expressions used such as 'I will cause this' does not necessarily mean that God will literally cause something to occur....if God does not 'prevent' something from occurring, it is written as if God will cause it. I know thats hard to get your head around, but the hebrew language is very different to our language...they thought about things differently for example in hebrew, the past is the future and the future is the past because the past is already known but the future is not seen so it is as if your back is to the future and therefore rather then the future being ahead of you, its actually behind you because you cant see it. The ancient hebrews thought in concrete terms...their vocabulary is composed of concrete words, words that involve the senses of seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting, and smelling. Thus, they paint mental pictures for the hearer or reader.


I understand the verse in genesis to mean that God would not protect Eve from the consequences that were soon to take hold....imperfection would cause problems for the complicated process of childbirth and because God has not prevented imperfection from taking hold of Adam and Eve, she would have to endure the consequences of difficulty in giving birth. It is written as if God will cause it because he has not prevented it.