Eve

Our first mother. The name is taken from a Hebrew root, signifying life. The name woman seems to be a corruption of womb - man, because taken out of man; for the very reason thus assigned by our first father so explains it. (Gen. 2: 23.) There is a very great beauty and wisdom in the contrivance, as well as grace and favour in the Lord’s ordination in peopling the earth. Both sexes shall have equal honour in the plan of creation and redemption. The man, saith the apostle, Adam was first formed, then Eve, (1 Tim. 2: 13.) Here the man hath the precedency. But in all the after circumstances the woman is to be the womb of creation. And yet to keep up this order, the rib of the man shall be, as it were, the womb for the women. And hence, she shall be called womb - man. But as both the man and the woman are equally involved in sin, in the redemption for both the Lord will make a new thing in the earth, and a woman shall compass a man. (Jer. xxxi, 22.) The man of the earth, therefore, Adam and all his race, shall have no hand in this generation; yea, the womb of the woman only shall be no more than but for the deposit of this Holy Thing. The body the Father prepared for his Son shall be produced by the miraculous overshadowing power of God the Holy Ghost. So that though Christ is of the seed of David, according to the flesh, and the seed of the woman, according to promise, and thus literally and truly belonging to both, yet indeed, and in truth, unconnected with either. So blessed and so wonderful are the ways of our wonder - working God! (Isa. 27.29.)

the first woman. She was called חוה , Gen 3:20, a word that signifies life, because she was to be the mother of all that live. Our translators, therefore, might have called her Life, as the Septuagint, who render the Hebrew word by Ζωη. Soon after the expulsion of the first pair from paradise, Eve conceived and bare a son; and imagining, as is probable, that she had given birth to the promised seed, she called his name Cain, which signifies possession, saying, “I have gotten a man from the Lord.” She afterward had Abel, and some daughters, and then Seth. The Scriptures name only these three sons of Adam and Eve, but sufficiently inform us, Gen 5:4, that they had many more, saying, that “Adam lived, after he had begotten Seth, eight hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.” See ADAM.

Eve (living), the name of the first woman. Her history is contained in that of Adam which see.

The first mother of our race, and the cause of our fall. Her history is so closely connected with that of Adam that the remarks made in the article ADAM apply also to her. Her name Eve is from a word signifying life, Gen 3:20 . She was made, we are told in Gen 2:18-22, both for man and of him; subordinate and weaker, and yet to be loved as his own body. The history of woman in all ages has been a striking fulfillment of the distinct penalties pronounced upon her, Gen 3:16 .\par

Eve. (life). The name given in Scripture to the first woman. The account of Eve’s creation is found at Gen 2:21-22. Perhaps, that which we are chiefly intended to learn from the narrative is the foundation upon which the union between man and wife is built, namely, identity of nature and oneness of origin. Through the subtlety of the serpent, Eve was beguiled into a violation of the one commandment which had been imposed upon her and Adam. The Scripture account of Eve closes with the birth of Seth.

("life".) (See ADAM.) Man’s "help meet," i.e. a helper suited to and matching him. Formed from "one of Adam’s ribs," taken by God from Adam in a deep sleep; type of the church formed from the opened side of her Heavenly Bridegroom (from whence flowed blood and water) in the death sleep, so as by faith in His atoning blood, and by the cleansing water of His Holy Spirit, to be "bone of His bone, and flesh of His flesh" (Eph 5:25-32; 1Jn 5:6). SEe Gen 2:21-22, "the rib built (the usual Hebrew word for founding a family: Gen 16:2; Gen 30:3 margin) He up into a woman"; not as Speaker’s Commentary, "the side He built up," etc. For God "took one of then," therefore "side" (tseelah), "sides," must be used for rib, ribs. So the ancient versions. "Woman was not made out of his head to top him, not out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved.

He was first formed, then Eve (1Ti 2:13), of the man and for the man (1Co 11:7-9); teaching the subjection and reverence which wives owe their husbands. Yet Eve’s being made after Adam, and out of him, makes her ’the glory of the man.’ If man is the head, she is the crown; a crown to her husband, the crown of the visible creation" (Henry). Her finer susceptibilities and more delicate organization are implied by her being formed, not out of dust as Adam, but of flesh already formed. The oneness of flesh is the foundation of the inseparable marriage union of one man with one woman (Mal 2:15; Mat 19:5). She was made from Adam’s rib, to mark her oneness with him. Their unity is at once corporeal and spiritual of the profoundest kind, of heart as well as of body.

"This is now (Hebrew this time, as contrasted with the creatures heretofore formed besides Adam) bone of my bones," he exclaims in joyful surprise; and, with the intuitive knowledge wherewith he had named the other creatures according to the? natures, he names her "woman" (’ishah) as being taken out of "man" (’ish). She was the complement of man, of one nature, and in free and willing dependence on him. Thus, marriage is the holy appointment of God, based on the relations by creation between man and woman. Celibacy is not a higher, holier state (Heb 13:4). Eve’s greater weakness and susceptibility to temptation appears in Genesis 3 and 2Co 11:3.

Her first error was in harboring mentally for a moment the possibility insinuated by the serpent, of God not having her truest interests at heart ("hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree?"), and of the "other" professing friend being more concerned for her good than God. In her reply to Satan she attenuates God’s gracious permission ("of every tree of the garden thou mayest FREELY eat"; "we may eat of every tree"), she exaggerates the one simple prohibition ("thou shalt not eat of it," and "thou shalt surely (she leaves out the "surely") die "; "ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die"), and omits the certainty of the penalty. Unbelief toward God, credulity towards Satan. Easily deceived, she easily deceives.

Last in being, first in sin. Satan began with "the weaker vessel." She yielded to his deceits; Adam yielded to conjugal love. So, the woman is sentenced next after Satan, and Adam is sentenced last. In Rom 5:12 Adam is made the transgressor; but there Eve is included, he representing the sinning race as its head. "She shall be saved (though) with childbearing," i.e. though suffering her part of the primal curse in childbearing; just as man shall be saved though having to bear his part, the sweat of the brow.

Yea, the very curse will be a condition favorable to her salvation, by her faithfully ("if they ... the women ... shall continue in faith and charity") performing her part, childbearing and home duties, her sphere, as man’s is public teaching and public duties (1Ti 3:11-15). (See ABEL; CAIN; SETH.) Her name Chawah, "life", implies both her being mother of all living and her being mother of the promised "Seed of the woman" who should give LIFE to the human race now subjected to death. Adam as a believer fitly gives her this name directly after God’s promise of life through "the Seed of the woman." Otherwise her name ought to have implied death, which she had caused, not life.

(Hebrews Chavvah’, חִוָּה, life or living, so called as the progenitor of all the human family; Sept. accordingly translates Ζωή in Gen 3:20, elsewhere Εὔα, N. Test. Ε῏υα, Josephus Εὐέα, Ant. 1:1, 2, 4), the name given by Adam to the first woman, his wife (Gen 3:20; Gen 4:1). B.C. 4172. The account of her creation is found at Gen 2:21-22. It is supposed that she was created on the sixth day, after Adam had’ reviewed the animals. Upon the failure of a companion suitable for Adam among the creatures which were brought to him to be named, the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon him, and took one of his ribs (according to the Targum of Jonathan, the thirteenth from the right side!), which he fashioned into a woman, and brought her to the man (comp. Plato, Sympos. pages 189, 191). The Almighty, by declaring that "it was not good for man to be alone," and by providing for him a suitable companion, gave the divine sanction to marriage and to monogamy. "This companion was taken from his side," remarks an old commentator, " to signify that he was to be dear unto him as his own flesh. Not from his head, lest she should rule over him; nor from his feet, lest he should tyrannize over her; but from his side, to denote that species of equality which is to subsist in the marriage state" (Matthew Henry, Comment. in loc.). Perhaps that which is chiefly adumbrated by it is the foundation upon which the union between man and wife is built, viz. identity of nature and oneness of origin. Through the subtlety of the serpent (q.v.), Eve was beguiled into a violation of the one commandment which had been imposed upon her and Adam. She took of the fruit of the forbidden tree and gave it her husband (comp. 2Co 11:3; 1Ti 2:13). SEE ADAM. The apostle seems to intimate (1Ti 2:14-15) that she was less aware than her husband of the character of her sin; and that the pangs of maternity were to be in some sort an expiation of her offense. The different aspects under which Eve regarded her mission as a mother are seen in the names of her sons. At the birth of the first she said "I have gotten a man from the Lord," or, as some have rashly rendered it, “I have gotten a man; even the Lord," mistaking him for the Redeemer. When the second was born, finding her hopes frustrated, she named him Abel, or vanity. When his brother had slain him, and she again bare a son, she called his name Seth, and the joy of a mother seemed to outweigh the sense of the vanity of life: "For God," said she, "hath appointed ME another seed instead of Abel, for Cain slew him." SEE ABEL.

The Eastern people have paid honors to Adam and Eve as to saints, and have some curious traditions concerning them (see D’Herbelot, Bibliothieque Orientale, s.v. Havah; Fabricius, Pseudepigr. V. Test. 1:103 sq.). There is a remarkable tradition preserved among the Rabbis that Eve was not the first wife of Adam, but that previous to her creation one had been created in the same way, which, they sagaciously observe, accounts for the number of a man’s ribs being equal on each side. Lilith, or Lilis, for this was the name of Adam’s first consort, fell from her state of innocence without tempting, or, at all events, without successfully tempting her husband. She was immediately ranked among the fallen angels, and has ever since, according to the same tradition, exercised an inveterate hatred against all women and children. Up to a very late period she was held in great dread lest she should destroy male children previous to circumcision, after which her power over them ceased. When that rite was solemnized, those who were present were in the habit of pronouncing, with a loud voice, the names of Adam and Eve, and a command to Lilith to depart (see Eisenmenger, Entdecktes Judenthum, 2:421). She has been compared with the Pandora of classic fable (Bauer, Mythol. 1:96 sq.; Buttmann, Mythologus, 1:48 sq.; Hasse, Entdeckung. 1:232).

See Olnmsted, Our First Mother (N.Y. 1852); Reineccius, De Adamo androgyno (Weissenf. 1725); Thilo, Filius matris viventium in virum Jehovam (Erlangen, 1748); Kocher, Comment. philol. ad Gen 2:18-20 (Jen. 1779); Schulthess, Exeget. theolog. Forschungen, 1:421 sq.; Bastard, Doctrine of Geneva, 2:61; Hughes, Female Characters, page 1.

Eve (çve), life. The wife of Adam, and mother of mankind. Her formation, her yielding to the tempter, and inducing Adam to join her in disobedience to the divine command, the promise in respect to her seed, and the names she imposed on three of her sons, indicating her expectations and feeling in regard to them, are narrated in Gen 2:1-25; Gen 3:1-24; Gen 4:1-26. See also 2Co 11:3; 1Ti 2:13-14.

A name given by Adam to his wife after they had fallen, and after God had spoken of ’her seed,’ and had told her that in sorrow she should bring forth children. The Hebrew name is chavvah, which signifies ’life,’ Adam adding that at she was ’the mother of all living.’ Gen 3:20; Gen 4:1. Eve being formed from a rib taken out of Adam, which God ’built’ into a woman, and hence called by him Isha, is a beautiful type of the church being of Christ and presented to Him: cf. Eph 5:31-32.

Eve is twice mentioned in the N.T. A woman is to be silent in the church: she is not to exercise authority over the man, for Adam was formed before Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but she was. This deception is further explained by showing that it was the serpent who beguiled Eve by his subtilty, and it is the same enemy who seeks now to ensnare the saints. 2Co 11:3; 1Ti 2:13.

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By: Emil G. Hirsch, Solomon Schechter, Hartwig Hirschfeld

—Biblical Data:

The wife of Adam. According to Gen. iii. 20, Eve was so called because she was "the mother of all living" (R. V., margin, "Life" or "Living"). On the ground that it was not "good for man to be alone" God resolved to "make him an help meet for him" (ib. ii. 18), first creating, with this end in view, the beasts of the field and the fowl of the air and then bringing them unto Adam. When Adam did not find among these a helpmeet for himself, Yhwh caused a deep sleep to fall upon him, and took one of his ribs, from which He made a woman, and brought her unto the man (ib. ii. 22). Upon seeing her, Adam welcomed her as "bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh" (ib. ii. 23), declaring that she should be called "ishshah" because she was taken out of "ish" (man.)

Dwelling in the Garden of Eden with Adam, Eve is approached and tempted by the serpent. She yields to the reptile's seductive arguments, and partakes of the forbidden fruit, giving thereof to her husband, who, like her, eats of it. Both discover their nakedness and make themselves aprons of figleaves. When God asks for an accounting Adam puts the blame on Eve. As a punishment, the sorrows of conception and childbirth are announced to her, as well as subjection to her husband (ib. iii. 16). Driven out of Eden, Eve gives birth to two sons, Cain and Abel; herself naming the elder in the obscure declaration "I have gotten a man with the help of Yhwh" (ib. iv. 1, R. V.). Later, after the murder of Abel, she bears another son, to whom she gives the name "Seth," saying that he is given to her by Yhwh as a compensation for Abel (ib. iv. 25).

E. G. H.—In Rabbinical Literature:

Eve was not created simultaneously with Adam because God foreknew that later she would be a source of complaint. He therefore delayed forming her until Adam should express a desire for her (Gen. R. xvii.). Eve was created from the thirteenth rib on Adam's right side and from the flesh of his heart (Targ. Pseudo-Jonathan to Gen. ii. 21; Pirḳe R. El. xii.). Together with Eve Satan was created (Gen. R. xvii.). God adorned Eve like a bride with all the jewelry mentioned in Isa. iii. He built the nuptial chamber for her (Gen. R. xviii.). According to Pirḳe R. El. xii., as soon as Adam beheld Eve he embraced and kissed her; her name , from , indicates that God () joined them together (see also Ab. R. N. xxxviii.). Ten gorgeous "ḥuppot" (originally, "bridal chambers"; now, "bridal canopies"), studded with gems and pearls and ornamented with gold, did God erect for Eve, whom He Himself gave away in marriage, and over whom He pronounced the blessing; while the angels danced and beat timbrels and stood guard over the bridal chamber (Pirḳe R. El. xii.).

Samael, prompted by jealousy, picked out the serpent to mislead Eve (Yalḳ., Gen. xxv.; comp. Josephus, "Ant." i. 1, § 4; Ab. R. N. i.), whom it approached, knowing that women could be more easily moved than men (Pirḳe R. El. xiii.). Or, according to another legend, the serpent was induced to lead Eve to sin by desire on its part to possess her (Soṭah 9; Gen. R. xviii.), and it cast into her the taint of lust (; Yeb. 103b; 'Ab. Zarah 22b; Shab. 146a; Yalḳ., Gen. 28, 130). Profiting by the absence of the two guardian angels (Ḥag. 16a; Ber. 60b), Satan, or the serpent, which then had almost the shape of a man (Gen. R. xix. 1), displayed great argumentative skill in explaining the selfish reasons which had prompted God's prohibition (Pirḳe R. El. l.c.; Gen. R. xix.; Tan., Bereshit, viii.), and convinced Eve by ocular proof that the tree could be touched (comp. Ab. R. N. i. 4) without entailing death. Eve thereupon laid hold of the tree, and at once beheld the angel of death coming toward her (Targ. Pseudo-Jon. to Gen. iii. 6). Then, reasoning that if she died and Adam continued to live he would take another wife, she made him share her own fate (Pirḳe R. El. xiii.; Gen. R. xix.); at the invitation of the serpent she had partaken of wine; and she now mixed it with Adam's drink (Num. R. x.). Nine curses together with death befell Eve in consequence of her disobedience (Pirḳe R. El. xiv.; Ab. R. N. ii. 42).

Eve became pregnant, and bore Cain and Abel on the very day of (her creation and) expulsion from Eden (Gen. R. xii.). These were born full-grown, and each had a twin sister (ib.). Cain's real father was not Adam, but one of the demons (Pirḳe R. El. xxi., xxii.). Seth was Eve's first child by Adam. Eve died shortly after Adam, on the completion of the six days of mourning, and was buried in the Cave of Machpelah (Pirḳe R. El. xx.). Comp. Adam, Book of.

S. S. E. G. H.—In Arabic Literature:

Eve is a fantastic figure taken from the Jewish Haggadah. In the Koran her name is not mentioned, although her person is alluded to in the command given by Allah to Adam and his "wife," to live in the garden, to eat whatever they desired, but not to approach "that tree" (suras ii. 33, vii. 18). According to Mohammedan tradition, Eve was created out of a rib of Adam's left side while he was asleep. Riḍwan, the guardian of paradise, conducted them to the garden, where theywere welcomed by all creatures as the father and mother of Mohammed.

Iblis, who had been forbidden to enter paradise and was jealous of Adam's prerogative, wished to entice him to sin. He asked the peacock to carry him under his wings, but, as the bird refused, he hid himself between the teeth of the serpent, and thus managed to come near Adam and Eve. He first persuaded Eve to eat of the fruit, which was a kind of wheat that grew on the most beautiful tree in the garden, and she gave some to Adam. Thereupon all their ornaments fell from their bodies, so that they stood naked. Then they were expelled from the garden. Adam was thrown to Serendib (Ceylon), and Eve to Jidda (near Mecca).

Although Adam and Eve could not see each other, they heard each other's lamentations; and their repentance restored to them God's compassion. God commanded Adam to follow a cloud which would lead him to a place opposite to the heavenly throne, where he should build a temple. The cloud guided him to Mount Arafa, near Mecca, where he found Eve. From this the mount derived its name.

Eve died a year after Adam, and was buried outside Mecca, or, according to others, in India, or at Jerusalem.

Bibliography:

Weil, Biblische Legenden der Muselmänner.

—Critical View:

The account of the creation of woman—she is called "Eve" only after the curse—belongs to the J narrative. It reflects the naive speculations of the ancient Hebrews on the beginnings of the human race as introductory to the history of Israel. Its tone throughout is anthropomorphic. The story was current among the people long before it took on literary form (Gunkel, "Genesis," p. 2), and it may possibly have been an adaptation of a Babylonian myth (ib. p. 35). Similar accounts of the creation of woman from a part of man's body are found among many races (Tuch, "Genesis," notes on ch. ii.); for instance, in the myth of Pandora. That woman is the cause of evil is another wide-spread conceit. The etymology of "ishshah" from "ish" (Gen. ii. 23) is incorrect ( belongs to the root ), but exhibits all the characteristics of folk-etymology. The name , which Adam gives the woman in Gen. iii. 20, seems not to be of Hebrew origin. The similarity of sound with explains the popular etymology adduced in the explanatory gloss, though it is W. R. Smith's opinion ("Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia," p. 177) that Eve represents the bond of matriarchal kinship ("ḥayy"). Nöldeke ("Z. D. M. G." xlii. 487), following Philo ("De Agricultura Noe," § 21) and the Midrash Rabbah (ad loc.), explains the name as meaning "serpent," preserving thus the belief that all life sprang from a primeval serpent. The narrative forms part of a culture-myth attempting to account among other things for the pangs of childbirth, which are comparatively light among primitive peoples (compare Adam; Eden, Garden of; Fall of Man). As to whether this story inculcates the divine institution of Monogamy or not, see Gunkel, "Genesis," p. 11, and Dillmann's and Holzinger's commentaries on Gen. ii. 23-24.

EVE (Heb. Chawwâh; the name probably denotes ‘life’: other proposed explanations are ‘life-giving,’ ‘living,’ ‘kinship,’ and some would connect it with an Arah. word for ‘serpent’).—1. Eve is little more, in Genesis, than a personification of human life which is perpetuated by woman. See Adam. 2. In the NT Eve is mentioned in 2Co 11:3, 1Ti 2:13-15. The former is a reference to her deception by the serpent. The latter teaches that since ‘Adam was first formed, then Eve,’ women must live in quiet subordination to their husbands. And a second reason seems to be added, i.e. that Adam was ‘not deceived,’ in the fundamental manner that Eve was, for ‘the woman being completely deceived has come into [a state of] transgression.’ Here St. Paul distinctly takes Eve to be a personification of all women. The personification continues in 1Ti 2:15, which is obscure, and must be studied in the commentaries.

A. H. M‘Neile.

(Hebrew: hawwah, living, life)

The name of the first woman, the wife of Adam, the mother of Cain, Abel, and Seth.

Life giver

(Heb. hawwah).The name of the first woman, the wife of Adam, the mother of Cain, Abel, and Seth. The name occurs only five times in the Bible. In Gen., iii, 20, it is connected etymologically with the verb meaning "to live": "And Adam called the name of his wife Eve [hawwah]: because she was the mother of all the living". The Septuagint rendering in this passage is Zoe (=life, or life-giver), which is a translation; in two other passages (Genesis 4:1 and 25) the name is transliterated Eua. The Biblical data concerning Eve are confined almost exclusively to the second, third, and fourth chapters of Genesis (see ADAM).The first account of the creation (Gen. i, "P") sets forth the creation of mankind in general, and states simply that they were created male and female. The second narrative (Genesis 2: "J") is more explicit and detailed. God is represented as forming an individual man from the slime of the earth, and breathing into his nostrils the breath of life. In like manner the creation of the first woman and her relation to man is described with picturesque and significant imagery. In this account, in which the plants and animals appear on the scene only after the creation of man, the loneliness of the latter (Genesis 2:18), and his failure to find a suitable companion among the animals (Genesis 2:20), are set forth as the reason why God determines to create for man a companion like unto himself. He causes a deep sleep to fall upon him, and taking out one of the ribs, forms it into a woman, who, when she is brought to him, is recognized at once as bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. A discussion of the arguments in favor of the historical, or the more or less allegorical character of this narrative would be beyond the scope of the present notice. Suffice it to say that the biblical account has always been looked upon by pious commentators as embodying, besides the fact of man’s origin, a deep, practical and many-sided significance, bearing on the mutual relationship established between the sexes by the Creator.Thus, the primitive institution of monogamy is implied in the fact that one woman is created for one man. Eve, as well as Adam, is made the object of a special creative act, a circumstance which indicates her natural equality with him, while on the other hand her being taken from his side implies not only her secondary rôle in the conjugal state (1 Corinthians 11:9), but also emphasizes the intimate union between husband and wife, and the dependence of the latter on the former "Wherefore a man shall leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they shall be two in one flesh." The innocence of the newly created couple is clearly indicated in the following verse, but the narrator immediately proceeds to relate how they soon acquired, through actual transgression, the knowledge of good and evil, and with the sense of shame which had been previously unknown to them. In the story of the Fall, the original cause of evil is the serpent, which in later Jewish tradition is identified with Satan (Wisdom 2:24). He tempts Eve presumably as the weaker of the two, and she in turn tempts Adam, who yields to her seduction. Immediately their eyes are opened, but in an unexpected manner. Shame and remorse take possession of them, and they seek to hide from the face of the Lord.For her share in the transgression, Eve (and womankind after her) is sentenced to a life of sorrow and travail, and to be under the power of her husband. Doubtless this last did not imply that the woman’s essential condition of equality with man was altered, but the sentence expresses what, in the nature of things, was bound to follow in a world dominated by sin and its consequences. The natural dependence and subjection of the weaker party was destined inevitably to become something little short of slavery. But if woman was the occasion of man’s transgression and fall, it was also decreed in the Divine counsels, that she was to be instrumental in the scheme of restoration which God already promises while in the act of pronouncing sentence upon the serpent. The woman has suffered defeat, and infinitely painful are its consequences, but henceforth there will be enmity between her and the serpent, between his seed and her seed, until through the latter in the person of the future Redeemer, who will crush the serpent’s head, she will again be victorious.Of the subsequent history of Eve the Bible gives little information. In Gen., iv, 1, we read that she bore a son whom she named Cain, because she got him (literally, "acquired" or "possessed") through God--this at least is the most plausible interpretation of this obscure passage. Later she gave birth to Abel, and the narrative does not record the birth of another child until after the slaying of Abel by his older brother, when she bore a son and called his name Seth; saying: "God hath given me [literally, "put" or "appointed"] another seed, for Abel whom Cain slew".Eve is mentioned in the Book of Tobias (viii, 8; Sept., viii, 6) where it is simply affirmed that she was given to Adam for a helper; in II Cor., xi, 3, where reference is made to her seduction by the serpent, and in I Tim., ii, 13, where the Apostle enjoins submission and silence upon women, arguing that "Adam was first formed; then Eve. And Adam was not seduced, but the woman being seduced, was in the transgression".As in the case of the other Old Testament personages, many rabbinical legends have been connected with the name of Eve. They may be found in the "Jewish Encyclopedia", s.v. (see also, ADAM), and in Vigouroux, "Dictionnaire de la Bible", I, art. "Adam". They are, for the most part, puerile and fantastic, and devoid of historical value, unless in so far as they serve to illustrate the mentality of the later Jewish writers, and the unreliability of the "traditions" derived from such sources, though they are sometimes appealed to in critical discussions.----------------------------------- PALIS in VIGOUROUX, Dictionnaire de la Bible, II, 2118; BENNETT in HASTINGS, Dict. of the Bible, s. v.; Encyclopedia Biblica, s. v. Adam and Eve; GIGOT, Special Introduction to the Study of the Old Testament, Part I, p. 162; Jewish Encyclopedia, s. v., V, 275. JAMES F. DRISCOLL Transcribed by Dennis McCarthy For my godmother, Eva Maria (Wolf) Gomezplata The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VCopyright © 1909 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, May 1, 1909. Remy Lafort, CensorImprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York

(Åὔá)

Eve was (according to J, Gen_3:20; Gen_4:1) the wife of Adam (q.v. [Note: quod vide, which see.] ) and the mother of the human race. (1) St. Paul recalls the story of her fall as a warning to his young and attractive, but weak and unstable, Corinthian Church, As God presented Eve, a pure virgin, to Adam, so St. Paul as espoused his Church to Christ, and hopes to present her as His bride at His speedy return. He fears, however, that as the serpent beguiled Eve in his craftiness, so the Church may be corrupted from the simplicity and purity of her devotion to Christ. St. Paul’s noun ðáíïõñãßá (craftiness) represents the Heb. òָøåּí of Gen_3:1 better than the adjective öñüíéìïò of the Septuagint does. It was apparently the teaching of the Rabbis that the serpent literally seduced Eve (4Ma_18:6-8; cf. Iren, c. Hœr. i. xxx. 7); and a Church which should let herself be drawn away from Christ, who has the right to His bride’s whole-hearted love, would he guilty of spiritual fornication. The identification of the serpent with the devil, which was far from the thoughts of the writer of Genesis 3, first appears in Wis_2:24, ‘But by the envy of the devil death entered into the world’ (cf. Rom_16:20, Rev_12:9; Rev_20:2).

(2) The writer of 1 Tim. (1Ti_2:13-14) uses the story of the Fall for the purpose of proving woman’s natural inferiority to man. He remarks that man was not beguiled, but that ‘the woman’-a word spoken with the same accent of contempt as in Gen_3:12 -being beguiled, fell into transgression. The writer appears to think, like Milton, that the man knew better, and sinned, not under stress of temptation, but in generous sympathy with his frail partner, whose fate he resolved, to share. This is, of course, a man’s account of the origin of sin, and happily the original story, with all the Rabbinical and other unworthy inferences that have been drawn from it, is no longer among the Christian credenda.

James Strahan.

Gen 3:20 (c) A type of the church as Adam is a type of CHRIST. As she was made out of a part of Adam, so the church is a part of the Lord JESUS. The church is called His Bride as Eve was Adam’s bride.

Originally the name ‘Eve’ was related to the word for ‘life’, and this was why Adam gave the name to his wife. She was ‘the mother of all living’ (Gen 3:20). God gave her to Adam as one equal with him in nature but opposite to him in sex, to be his companion and counterpart (Gen 1:27; Gen 2:18-25). However, she too readily listened to the temptations of Satan and is blamed for leading Adam into sin (Gen 3:1-7; 2Co 11:3; 1Ti 2:13-15; see ADAM).