Alter ego and alternate personality are not identical, but similar. Abnormal people have pronounced alternate personalities, but many people, including the normal, have alter egos. If the alter ego is pronounced and distinctive it can become an alternate personality in a spiritual sense.
It seems that Eve was accused of having a pronounced alter ego. Psychologists would consider that an abnormality, but I see it as a spiritual dissociation. Isaiah Chapter 34 is a chapter of history and prophecy. Directly, it is the historic doom of Israel by Nebuchadnezzar, but it is also a preview of the great and terrible day of the coming of the Lord (Isa 34:8). The Lord's indignation is upon all nations (Isa 34:2). Eve is the mother of all mankind (Gen 3:20), and hence, she is the lead person in the genogram of all people.
Adam gets his share of the blame for the disorder of sin (Rom 5:12). Eve is often neglected. Her independent spirit is revealed in all her offspring down to this generation and will be thereafter. Eve is what Karl Jung called an "archetype". Both Adam and she were archetypes of mankind. It seems that the propensity to sin and receive pleasure is from Adam, and independence from authority from Eve. If that is so, then the independent nature of mankind was inherited from Eve. Man was created in God's image, and re-created in Eve's. God was the pattern from which Adam was made, and Eve the pattern (archetype) for mankind.
In analytical psychology, everyone is a composite of their antecedents. We are who we are because everyone from which our bloodline came molded who we are - thus archetypes. It should be obvious that Jung as well as Freud borrowed heavily from Holy Scripture but misappropriated it. Moses wrote about that years ago: "The Lord... visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation." (Num 14:18). Of course, "third and fourth" are surely rhetorical, indicating it was to be for perpetuity since all people suffer the sins of Adam and Eve.
Today, though, the intention is to disregard Adam at this time, and take a closer look at Eve. Eve's sin was different than Adam's; hers was by deception and Adam's with eyes wide open. God explained Adam's sin: "And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life" (Gen 3:17).
In that verse are the cause, the effect, consequences, and duration of Adam's sin, "for all the days of his life." Since then, sin is passed down from generation to generation, and life for all mankind has been tribulation. Adam molded who we are today, and because we have his sinful attitude, we still suffer the consequences of his sin. We are Adams.
Likewise, because Eve is the mother of us all, we are Eve's. Our independence comes from her. Typifying modern women, Eve misunderstood what God said by adding to "do not eat" the words "or touch" (Gen 3:3) the Philosophy Tree (My name for it for brevity.)
Men were to have dominion over the animals (Gen 1:26). The role of men was as provider and protector. They were to be the "priests" as such. The Serpent tempted Eve. Adam's role was to respond to the serpent. Years later, we find out that Eve should have remained quiet (1 Cor 14:34). It seems that passage reinforces the idea that men are to be the priests, and certainly that Eve was out of line defending spiritual things with the Devil!
It seems that Eve was not only independent as a person but as a woman as well. She took it upon herself to perform the role of Adam who was to take care of the Garden (Gen 2:15). Eve usurped Adam's manhood. As such, I proclaim her the first feminist. Not to be biased, Adam was the first wus who allowed a woman to do what God assigned to man. The man is to be, by design, the religious leader of the family. However, we have benefitted much from women who do that when the men fail to.
That independent nature of the female of the species comes from Eve's interaction with the Serpent. Adam's sin was because, "He hearkened unto the voice of his wife." Hearkened, in that context, means "to give credibility to what she was saying." Eve misunderstood death: Look Adam; I ate and did not die, so you eat as well! Because she was not privy to all the words God had spoken to Adam, she didn't have a clue what spiritual death is!
Many theologians believe that when Isaiah spoke to the Jews, his speech was to all mankind. Therein is a clue to Eve's alter ego: "The satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest" (Isa 34:14; italics mine). A "satyr" is a lecherous man. Those of Isaiah's time represent sinful Adam. The "screech owl" represents, it seems, Eve, and I'm speaking of both their alter egos, or sinful personalities.
The transliterated word for "screech owl" from the Hebrew is Lilith. The Jewish sect of Kabala believes in two creations; I don't. They believe that Lilith was the first wife of Adam (Gen 1) who left him because of her female independence. In that deception, God was sorry for his "mistake" and created for Adam another wife - Eve - who became the mother of all mankind. Feminists have adopted Lilith as their archetype. Indeed, she surely was!
On the other hand, Lilith was not another wife of Adam, but possibly the sinful nature of Eve, as I believe. She was the "screech owl" inside Eve using her larynx to dissuade Adam from remaining faithful. As such, Lilith may have been the alter ego of Eve, as Freud would say.
Unlike Freud, who believed that only some people have alter egos, the Lord indicates they all do. "For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would" (Gal 5:17). Alter egos are personalities acting contrary to what righteous people want and appear to be.
Think of Christians who sin in secret. It is that contrary spirit of independence from Eve which may be in them. Even Christians, when alone, "do what is right in their own eyes" (Deut 12:8). Freud revealed the hidden person in some, Paul revealed our alter ego in everyone when he wrote, "The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak" (Mat 26:41).
When Eve was misled by the cunning Serpent, she was willing to please God. Because she was deceived, but willing to obey, her sin was less than Adam's. Because she was from Adam, his sin was accounted to her as well. Temptation made Eve weak, The Serpent offered her tantalizing fruit, which may have been oversize figs (from sacred literature), but was symbolically lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, and the pride of life (1 John 2:16). The fruit may have been sexual independence (ala feminism) since they immediately covered their genitals with fig leaves. (I believe that rather than having coitus for reproduction, they did it for pleasure, which is fairly well what the feminist movement is all about. I have that idea because of the command was to reproduce, not pleasure.)
Lilith, Eve's alter ego, is alive and well with the majority of western women. Lilith came out of the closet with the feminist movement. (I'm not disparaging those who want fair wages, respect, and authority - Eves - but the radical feminists - Liltiths - who deceive.) Feminism has lived up to what it is - screech owls - intimidating forgiven Eve's, and men still hearken unto them!
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