There is no denying that the Bible has had a profound influence on the history of women in the West. For centuries, the Holy Scriptures have been interpreted and used to clearly define male and female identities, relegating women to subordinate roles, established by hierarchical and patriarchal models. Roles characterized by a presumed female inferiority that, however, the countless figures present in the Bible - from Sarah to Mary, from Esther to Mary Magdalene - as well as biblical studies of recent decades seem to deny.
In the essay Le radici del mondo (Mondadori, 2025, Euro 21.00, pp. 216) the historian and theologian Adriana Valerio proposes the fruit of over forty years of work by proposing a rereading of the female figures of the Bible that goes beyond traditional interpretations. With wisdom and knowledge, going beyond the simple reading of the text, she unmasks historical prejudices and investigates the complex relationship between the sacred and gender issues, with particular reference to the reinterpretation of the myth of Eve. But why Eve? Adriana Valerio explains it with words that open the way to new, at times disconcerting reflections: «Because the first woman is an archetype with a thousand facets and many meanings, many still to be explored: a symbolic representation of the human in search of its own autonomy. He is the archetype of our experience whose story does not offer answers, but questions, does not close in on the past, but opens to the future, and the evocative power of his figure invites us to think about the ambiguities of life and the enigma of human relationships".
These few lines make us understand how the themes that emerge in the pages of Adriana Valerio's book do not belong to the past nor are they confined to historical-academic curiosities. On the contrary, they deeply question current events. The figure of Eva invites us, in fact, to reflect on themes such as being in relationship, generating life, caring for creation, commitment to peace, being foreigners, the exercise of doubt, the pain of motherhood and much more.
As Valerio writes: «Symbolically, Eve with her choice set history in motion, allowing humanity to enter time, to recognize its own partiality in the relationship and to take responsibility for life and the world; she indicated that Eden is not in the remote past, but before us as a place of awareness and happiness to be reached».
Here, then, the myth of Eve, like the stories of the many female figures that populate the biblical text, has an extraordinary echo in the present and at the same time is an invitation to look to the future, an unprecedented future that must be awaited and built, and shakes because it calls us to the depths of our being: to the roots of the world and of our history.