Eve

Baker's Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology

All four passages in the Bible that contain the name "Eve" refer to the wife of the original man, Adam ( Genesis 3:20;  4:1; 2Col 11:3;  1 Timothy 2:13 ). Her creation takes place after God's assertion that "it is not good for the man to be alone" ( Genesis 2:18 ), his announcement that he will make the man a helper who corresponds to him ( ezer kenegdo ), his peer and complement, and the observation that no other creature yet formed is suitable (vv. 18-20). All this illustrates the innate human need for community. Indeed, the marriage relationship involving these first two humans (vv. 24-25) typifies all forms of human coexistence designed to satisfy the primal yearning for fellowship.

Subordination is not inherent in the use of the term, ezer [2:18,20), as is clear from the fact that it is frequently used of God in relation to humans (e.g.,   Exodus 18:4;  Deuteronomy 33:7;  Psalm 33:20;  70:5; [6] 115:9,10, 11; 146:5). The description of the woman being created from the man's rib ( Genesis 2:21-22 ) highlights the kind of affinity between man and woman that is not possible between humans and other creatures. That fact is emphasized in the man's joyful cry of recognition when God presents the woman to him: "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh" (v. 23). Some detect evidence of male headship in the prefall narrative (e.g., the man's prior creation, the woman's derivation from the man, his designation of her as woman, and the focus on a man's initiative in the establishment of a marriage relationship [2:7,21-24]). Others suggest the idea of man's subjugation of woman is introduced only after the fall when God describes the various forms of humiliation, enmity, pain, and drudgery that result from human rebellion against him (3:14-19).

The woman's role in the narrative about the fall is significant, not least because it is she who has the exchange with the serpent, the agent of temptation. The focus on the conversation is the covenant that God initially establishes with the man (2:15-17). Although that covenant subsequently includes her (3:2-3), she is not an original party to it. Some commentators suggest that this makes her more vulnerable than the man to the serpent's intrigue in this regard, and that he addresses her specifically for this reason. In the course of the conversation she does, in fact, misrepresent the terms of the covenant by diminishing the generosity of the Creator's provision (3:2; "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden"; cf. 2:16: "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden"), adding to the covenantal prohibition (3:3: "You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it"; cf. 2:17: "but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil") and weakening the statement about the consequences of disobedience (3:3: "or you will die"; cf. 2:17: "you will surely die"). In the final analysis, however, both she and her husband challenge the Creator's prerogative to establish moral absolutes of right and wrong by eating the forbidden fruit (3:6; cf. 2:17) and both are held equally accountable (3:9-19).

The only positive prospect mentioned by God as he spells out the fall's consequences is that, in the context of the ongoing enmity between the woman and her offspring, on the one hand, and the serpent and his offspring, on the other, the woman's offspring will dominate the serpent's (3:15). In the immediate setting this statement is probably intended to represent humanity's continuing struggle with evil and to anticipate the eventual vanquishment of evil. From the perspective of the New Testament the ultimate realization of that hope is to be found in the triumph of God and his kingdom over evil and the evil one ( Luke 10:17-19;  Romans 16:20;  Hebrews 2:14;  Revelation 12 ).

 Genesis 3:20 describes Adam assigning his wife the name, Eve, "because she would become the mother of all the living." The original Hebrew form of the name, hawwa [חַוָּה], is apparently a derivative of, or a paronomasia on, the verb haya [חֲיָה], which means "live." Adam's comment reinforces the idea that all of humanity constitutes a family, a family for which the unsavory consequences of human transgression and the possibility of human redemption are a common heritage.

When Eve is next mentioned by name it is in relation to her conception and delivery of Cain ( qayin [4:1). Thus she who was derived from man now demonstrates her creative capacity in partnership with her Creator (cf.   1 Corinthians 11:8-9,11-12 ). Incidentally, she also has the distinction of being the first individual portrayed in the Genesis narrative as pronouncing that name by which God typically reveals himself to people with whom he binds himself in covenant.

In the New Testament, Eve is remembered for being created after Adam and for being deceived. Paul, in  2 Corinthians 11:3 , expresses his fear that, as the serpent cunningly deceived Eve, the thoughts of the Corinthians "may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ." The theme of Eve's deception is also present in  1 Timothy 2:14 following the mention of her creation after Adam (v. 13) in the statement which, by means of analogy, provides the rationale for the prohibition against a woman teaching or having authority over a man (v. 12). This injunction must be seen against the backdrop of the situation in Ephesus, Timothy's location (1:3), where certain women in the church were creating problems (see 5:11-15). It cannot be used to support the idea that no woman may ever teach or exercise leadership in the church (see   Acts 18:26;  Romans 16:1,7 ).

Robert J. V. Hiebert

See also Adam; The Fall; Headship Head; Woman

Bibliography . H. Blocher, In the Beginning  ; W. Brueggemann, Genesis  ; C. Brown, Nidntt, I pp. 87-88; U. Cassuto, A Commentary on the Book of Genesis  ; I. M. Kikawada, JBL 91 (1972): 33-37; W. E. Phipps, Theology Today 33 (1976): 263-73; M. L. Ronzenweig, Judaism 139 (1986): 227-80; A. P. Ross, Creation and Blessing  ; G. von Rad, Genesis  ; G. J. Wenham,  Genesis 1-15  ; C. Westermann, Genesis: A Practical Commentary .

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

("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" ( Ephesians 5:25-32;  1 John 5:6). SEe  Genesis 2:21-22, "the rib built (the usual Hebrew word for founding a family:  Genesis 16:2;  Genesis 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 ( 1 Timothy 2:13), of the man and for the man ( 1 Corinthians 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 ( Malachi 2:15;  Matthew 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 ( Hebrews 13:4). Eve's greater weakness and susceptibility to temptation appears in Genesis 3 and  2 Corinthians 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  Romans 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 ( 1 Timothy 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.

Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament

(Εὔα)

Eve was (according to J,  Genesis 3:20;  Genesis 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 πανουργία (craftiness) represents the Heb. עָרוּם of  Genesis 3:1 better than the adjective φρόνιμος of the Septuagintdoes. It was apparently the teaching of the Rabbis that the serpent literally seduced Eve ( 4 Maccabees 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  Wisdom of Solomon 2:24, ‘But by the envy of the devil death entered into the world’ (cf.  Romans 16:20,  Revelation 12:9;  Revelation 20:2).

(2) The writer of 1 Tim. ( 1 Timothy 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  Genesis 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.

Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary

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. ( Genesis 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 Timothy 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. ( Jeremiah 31:22) 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!

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

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   2 Corinthians 11:3 ,   1 Timothy 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   1 Timothy 2:15 , which is obscure, and must be studied in the commentaries.

A. H. M‘Neile.

Morrish Bible Dictionary

A name given by Adam to his wife after they had fallen, and afterGod 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.'  Genesis 3:20;  Genesis 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.  Ephesians 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.  2 Corinthians 11:3;  1 Timothy 2:13 .

Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary

the first woman. She was called חוה ,  Genesis 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,   Genesis 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 .

Bridgeway Bible Dictionary

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’ ( Genesis 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 ( Genesis 1:27;  Genesis 2:18-25). However, she too readily listened to the temptations of Satan and is blamed for leading Adam into sin ( Genesis 3:1-7;  2 Corinthians 11:3;  1 Timothy 2:13-15; see Adam ).

People's Dictionary of the Bible

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  Genesis 2:1-25;  Genesis 3:1-24;  Genesis 4:1-26. See also  2 Corinthians 11:3;  1 Timothy 2:13-14.

King James Dictionary

EVE, n. The consort of Adam, and mother of the human race so called by Adam, because she was the mother of all living. In this case,the word would properly belong to the Hebrew. But the Hebrew name is havah or chavah, coinciding with the verb, to shew, to discover, and Parkhurst hence denominates Eve, the manifester. In the Septuagint, Eve, in  Genesis 3:20 , is rendered life but in  Genesis 4:1 ,

it is rendered Euan or Evan. The reason of this variation is not obvious, as the Hebrew is the same in both passages. In Russ. Eve is Evva. In the Chickasaw language of America, a wife is called awah, says Adair.

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Eve. (Life). The name given in Scripture to the first woman. The account of Eve's creation is found at  Genesis 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.

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

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  Genesis 3:20 . She was made, we are told in  Genesis 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,  Genesis 3:16 .

Holman Bible Dictionary

 Genesis 3:20 Genesis 4:1-2 4:25 Genesis 3:1 2 Corinthians 11:3 1 Timothy 2:13-14 2 Corinthians 11:3Adam And Eve

Webster's Dictionary

(1): ( n.) The evening before a holiday, - from the Jewish mode of reckoning the day as beginning at sunset. not at midnight; as, Christians eve is the evening before Christmas; also, the period immediately preceding some important event.

(2): ( n.) Evening.

Easton's Bible Dictionary

 Genesis 3:20 4:1 Genesis 2:21,22 1 Timothy 2:13-15 2 11:3 Genesis 4:1

Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types

 Genesis 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.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(Hebrews Chavvah', חִוָּה , life or Living, so called as the progenitor of all the human family; Sept. accordingly translates Ζωή in  Genesis 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 ( Genesis 3:20;  Genesis 4:1). B.C. 4172. The account of her creation is found at  Genesis 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.  2 Corinthians 11:3;  1 Timothy 2:13). (See Adam). The apostle seems to intimate ( 1 Timothy 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  Genesis 2:18-20 (Jen. 1779); Schulthess, Exeget. theolog. Forschungen, 1:421 sq.; Bastard, Doctrine of Geneva, 2:61; Hughes, Female Characters, page 1.

Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature

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