BBC's new face of religion claims Eve has been 'unfairly maligned as the troublesome wife'

[Ed: Wow, an organization already known to practice ageism amongst its female presenters chooses someone young and pretty (and of course 'controversial') to present a series on the Bible. Incredible!]

The BBC's new face of religion is an atheist who claims that God had a wife and Eve was "unfairly maligned" by sexist scholars.

Dr Francesca Stavrakopoulou has been given a primetime BBC Two series, The Bible's Buried Secrets, in which she makes a number of startling suggestions.

She argues in the programme that Eve was not responsible for the Fall of Man and was not even the first woman, as the story of the Garden of Eden did not belong in the first book of the Old Testament.

"Eve, particularly in the Christian tradition, has been very unfairly maligned as the troublesome wife who brought about the Fall," Dr Stavrakopoulou said. "Don't forget that the biblical writers are male and it's a very male-dominated world. Women were second-class citizens, seen as property."

The idea that God had a wife is based on Biblical texts that refer to "asherah". According to Dr Stavrakopoulou, Asherah was the name of a fertility goddess in lands now covered by modern-day Syria, and was half of a "divine pair" with God. Read more