This has been a topic that I have studied probably more than any. Being the father of a little girl, a little boy and married to a wonderful woman I want to understand the truth about men and women. With the frequency the story is told in our scriptures, in the temple, and in conference talks it must be extremely important. I do not have a full understanding of this but I have found some resources that have helped me understand a little better. One is by Hugh Nibley entitled Patriarchy and Matriarchy. If you want to read it follow the link Hugh W. Nibley: "Patriarchy and Matriarchy" The other is a book written by Beverly Campbell called Eve and The Choice Made in Eden. Here are a few quotes from various people on the subject that I find helpfull. This is a topic that we cannot look at through human eyes. The world has poluted our thinking and at first glance many times we come to the wrong conclusions. Women have been degraded and thought of as property for far too long. As many have pointed out we were all created in the image of God, male an female. Encyclopedia of Mormonism for EVE “Eve, first woman of earthly creation, companion of Adam and mother and matriarch of the human race, is honored by Latter-day Saints as one of the most important, righteous, and heroic of all the human family. Eve’s supreme gift to mankind, the opportunity of life on this earth, resulted from her choice to become mortal.” Elder McConkie reminds us that “we cannot doubt that the greatest of all female spirits was the one then chosen and foreordained to be ‘the mother of the Son of God, after the manner of the flesh {Mary}.’ (1 Nephi 11:18.) Nor can we do other than suppose that Eve was by [Adam’s] side, rejoicing in her own foreordination to be the first woman, the mother of men, the consort, companion, and friend of mighty Michael. “Christ and Mary, Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah and a host of mighty men and equally glorious women composed that group of the ‘noble and great ones,’ to whom the Lord Jesus said: ‘We will go down, for there is space there, and we will take of these materials, and we will make an earth whereon these may dwell.’” President Gordon B. Hinkley said: “Then as his final creation, the crowning of his glorious work, He created woman. I like to regard Eve as His masterpiece after all that had gone before, the final work before He rested from His labors.” Elder John A. Widtsoe taught: “Such was the problem before our first parents: to remain forever at selfish ease in the Garden of Eden, or to face unselfishly tribulation and death, in bringing to pass the purposes of the Lord for a host of waiting spirit children. They chose the latter. This they did with open eyes and minds as to consequences. The memory of their former estates may have been dimmed, but the gospel had been taught them during their sojourn in the Garden of Eden. They could not have been left in complete ignorance of the purpose of their creation.” Elder B. H. Roberts “Let it be observed that the tree of knowledge, even though the tree of death, is nowhere called an evil tree, or its fruit bad…. Rather to the contrary: it is included among the trees ‘pleasant to the sight, and good for food,’ in the same verse in which it is named (Genesis 2:9) Elder Oaks taught us that “her act, whatever its nature, was formally a transgression but eternally a glorious necessity to open the doorway toward eternal life. Adam showed his wisdom by doing the same. And thus Eve and ‘Adam fell that men might be’ (2 Nephi 2:25) President Spencer W. Kimball “Eve was neither a silent partner nor a silenced partner, nor, should Latter-day Saint women be any less. C. S. Lewis “The homemaker has the ultimate career. All other careers… exist for one purpose only – and that is to support this ultimate career.”
