Nigeria, July 6 -- For centuries, women have borne a measure of blame for the failures of men that neither Scripture nor history always places upon them. The idea has become so familiar that it is rarely examined. Repeated often enough, it has acquired the appearance of settled truth, even where the text tells a different story.

In the Garden

No Biblical passage has done more to entrench that idea than the story of Adam and Eve. Many Christians can recount the story without opening a Bible. Eve encountered the Serpent while Adam was somewhere else in the garden. She listened, she ate, and when Adam returned she persuaded him to do what he would otherwise have refused. It has passed from sermons and catechisms to religious art, from chil...