The Seduction of Eve and the Exegetical Politics of Gender * 1

Although various literary methods have shown how the multidimensionality of the Eden story can be explicated in different ways, indeed in competing ways, there is hardly a reading that does not leave a remainder. If no single reading perspective can account for all the data, the only question is whether one reading can account for more of the data than another in a coherent way. In any case, it may take multiple readings to account for all the data. The claim to significance of the following reading lies in its capacity to minimize the remainder by providing a structure for illuminating the narrative that explains its overall thrust, accounts for the interaction of its characters, and sheds light on interpretational difficulties. ² Although the reading is primarily synchronic, focusing on the narrative as a whole, it takes into account literary issues raised by a diachronic reading. ³