Biblical scholar and feminist Marinella Perroni, 78, wrote for the July issue of L'Osservatore Romano's monthly supplement Donne Chiesa Mondo.
She claims that "in the Genesis account there is no devil"; rather,
"the serpent is simply the most cunning animal in the eyes of the desert
nomads." She argues
- that belief in evil spirits entered Jewish
theology only at a relatively late stage through contact with other
ancient religions,
- that the devil as a distinct figure appears only in the late and strongly Hellenized Book of Wisdom, and
- that St. Paul and the First Letter to Timothy linked "the serpent, the woman, and the fruit" to "the devil, women, and sin," thereby reinforcing a patriarchal understanding of sexual difference.
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