| <p> 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 ( <i> ezer kenegdo </i> ), 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. </p> <p> [[Subordination ]] is not inherent in the use of the term, <i> ezer </i> [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). </p> <p> 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). </p> <p> 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 ). </p> <p> [[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, <i> hawwa </i> [חַוָּה], is apparently a derivative of, or a paronomasia on, the verb <i> haya </i> [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. </p> <p> When [[Eve]] is next mentioned by name it is in relation to her conception and delivery of [[Cain]] ( <i> qayin </i> [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. </p> <p> 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 ). </p> <p> [[Robert]] J. V. Hiebert </p> <p> <i> See also </i> [[Adam]]; [[The Fall]]; [[Headship Head]]; [[Woman]] </p> <p> <i> Bibliography </i> . H. Blocher, <i> In the Beginning </i> ; W. Brueggemann, <i> Genesis </i> ; C. Brown, <i> NIDNTT, I, </i> pp. 87-88; U. Cassuto, <i> A [[Commentary]] on the [[Book]] of Genesis </i> ; I. M. Kikawada, <i> JBL </i> 91 (1972): 33-37; W. E. Phipps, <i> [[Theology]] Today </i> 33 (1976): 263-73; M. L. Ronzenweig, <i> [[Judaism]] </i> 139 (1986): 227-80; A. P. Ross, <i> [[Creation]] and Blessing </i> ; G. von Rad, <i> Genesis </i> ; G. J. Wenham, <i> Genesis 1-15 </i> ; C. Westermann, Genesis: <i> A [[Practical ]] Commentary </i> . </p> | | <p> 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 ( <i> ezer kenegdo </i> ), 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. </p> <p> Subordination is not inherent in the use of the term, <i> ezer </i> [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). </p> <p> 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). </p> <p> 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 ). </p> <p> [[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, <i> hawwa </i> [חַוָּה], is apparently a derivative of, or a paronomasia on, the verb <i> haya </i> [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. </p> <p> When [[Eve]] is next mentioned by name it is in relation to her conception and delivery of [[Cain]] ( <i> qayin </i> [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. </p> <p> 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 ). </p> <p> [[Robert]] J. V. Hiebert </p> <p> <i> See also </i> [[Adam]]; [[The Fall]]; [[Headship Head]]; [[Woman]] </p> <p> <i> Bibliography </i> . H. Blocher, <i> In the Beginning </i> ; W. Brueggemann, <i> Genesis </i> ; C. Brown, <i> NIDNTT, I, </i> pp. 87-88; U. Cassuto, <i> A [[Commentary]] on the [[Book]] of Genesis </i> ; I. M. Kikawada, <i> JBL </i> 91 (1972): 33-37; W. E. Phipps, <i> [[Theology]] Today </i> 33 (1976): 263-73; M. L. Ronzenweig, <i> [[Judaism]] </i> 139 (1986): 227-80; A. P. Ross, <i> [[Creation]] and Blessing </i> ; G. von Rad, <i> Genesis </i> ; G. J. Wenham, <i> Genesis 1-15 </i> ; C. Westermann, Genesis: <i> A Practical Commentary </i> . </p> |
| <p> ADAM WAS FIRST FORMED, THEN EVE </p> <p> ACCORDING to Moses, and taking [[Moses]] as he has come down to us, Eve, the mother of mankind, was, so to speak, an afterthought of her Maker. And it is surely something remarkable that four of the devoutest, boldest, and most original writers that have ever lived have taken and have gone out upon the same view. The creation of this world was the work of love, for [[God]] is Love. God so loved the very thought of this world that lie created it and made it the exquisitely lovely world that we read of in Moses. But love is full of afterthoughts, of new ideas, and of still better intentions and performances. And thus it is that Moses is very bold to write as if God in His growing love for this world had found out a still better way of peopling this world than the way He had at first intended-had finished, indeed, and had pronounced very good. A new kind of love; a love such as even heaven itself had never seen nor tasted anything like it; a love sweet, warm, tender, wistful, helpful, fruitful; a love full of a 'nice and subtle happiness';-the mutual love of man and woman,-took our Maker's heart completely captive as a still better way of replenishing earth with its children than even that noble and wonderful way by which heaven had been replenished with its angels. And thus it is that Moses, in his second chapter, lets us see our [[Maker]] coming back to earth; lets us hear Him finding fault with His first work in Adam, very good as it was; and lets us watch Him re-touching His work, till He takes [[Eve]] out of [[Adam]] and gives her back to Adam a woman to be his married wife, to be an help meet for him, and to be the mother of his children. So Moses in Genesis. And then, [[Plato]] in his [[Symposium]] teaches his [[Greeks]] the same thing; that man cannot live alone, that love is the true and only good of man, and that the best love of earth is but a foretaste and an assurance of the love of heaven. And then, [[Jacob]] Behmen has a doctrine all his own of the origin of woman; of the sphere and the functions of sex in this life, as well as of its absence from the life to come: a doctrine to enter on which would lead us too far away from our proper work tonight. [[Suffice]] it to say that for philosophical depth, for speculative power, for imaginative suggestiveness, and for spiritual beauty there is nothing better in Moses the [[Hebrew]] Plato, or in Plato the [[Attic]] Moses, than Behmen's doctrine of Adam and Eve. Behnien's reading of Moses leads him to believe that there must have been something of the nature of a stumble, if not an actual fall, in Adam while yet he was alone in Eden. Adam, at his own and alone creation, was pronounced to be 'very good. There must therefore, Behmen holds, have been some sort of slip or lapse from his original righteousness and obedience and blessedness before his Maker would have said of Adam that he was now in a condition that was 'not good.' And thus it was that Eve was created to 'help' Adam to recover himself, and to establish himself in paradise, and in the favour and fellowship and service of his Maker. 'It is not good that man should be left alone. This shows us,' says Jacob Behmen's best [[English]] interpreter, 'that Adam had somehow altered his first state and had brought some beginnings of evil into it, and had made that not to be good which God at one time had seen to be very good. And, therefore, as a less evil, and to prevent a greater, God divided- [[Genesis]] 2:21 -the first perfect human nature into two parts, into a male and a female creature; and this, as you will see by-and-by, was a wonderful instance of the love and the care of God toward our new humanity. Adam was at first the total humanity in one creature, who should, in that state of perfection, have brought forth his own likeness out of himself in such purity of love and in such divine power as he himself had been brought forth by God. But Adam stood no longer in the perfection of his first estate as the image and the likeness of God. The first step, therefore, towards the redemption and recovery of Adam beginning to fall was to take Eve out of him, that he might have a second trial and probation in paradise; in which, if he failed, an effectual [[Redeemer]] might then arise out of the seed of the woman. Oh! my friends, what a wonderful procedure is there to be seen in the [[Divine]] Providence, always turning all evil, as soon as it appears, into a further display and an opening of new wonders of the wisdom and the love of God!' But you will start up as if you had been stung by the old serpent himself, and will angrily demand of me-Do I believe all that? My confident and overbearing friend, I neither believe it nor disbelieve it; for I do not know. But I believe about the first Adam, as I believe about the Second, that had it all been written even the world itself could not have contained the books. And the longer I live and listen and learn, the more slow I become of saying that I disbelieve anything that men like Moses hint at, and that men like Plato and Behmen and Law speak out: all three, all four, men whose shoe latchet neither you nor I are worthy to unloose. But, as [[Bishop]] Martensen quotes: 'The time has not yet come, and our language has not yet acquired the requisite purity, clearness, and depth to permit us to speak freely, and without, in some respect or other, provoking misunderstanding, upon a subject in which the deepest enigma of human existence is concentrated.' </p> <p> But listen, and without interrupting him, to Moses on Eve, the mother of mankind. 'And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. And the Lord God made a woman, and brought her unto the man. Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And the serpent said to the woman, [[Ye]] shall not surely die. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave to her husband with her, and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened.' Eve gave to Adam that day, and Adam took at Eve's hand, what was not hers to give nor his to take. And any woman who gives to any man what is not hers to give nor his to take, their eyes, too, will be opened! </p> Out of my sight, thou serpent! That name bestBefits thee with him leagued, thyself as falseAnd hateful; nothing wants, but that thy shape,Like his, and colour serpentine may showThy inward fraud, to warn all creatures from theeHenceforth … [[Hate]] hard by lust. <p> O Eve, Eve! fatal mother of so many fatal daughters since! [[Would]] God thou hadst resisted the devil for thyself, for thy husband, and for us thy hapless children! O Eve, Eve, mother of all flesh! 'And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard [[Thy]] voice in the garden, and I was afraid, and I hid myself because I was naked. Who told thee that thou wast naked? And the man said, The woman [[Thou]] gavest me to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. I was alone, and Thou hroughtest this woman to me. I rejoiced over her with singing. I blessed [[Thee]] for her. I took her to my heart. I said, This is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. And the Lord God said to the woman, Woman, what is this that thou hast done? So He drove out the man; and He placed at the east of the garden of [[Eden]] cherubim and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.' </p> <p> After the mystics, Milton is by far the best commentator on Moses. Masculine, massive, majestic, magnificent, melodious Milton! [[Hear]] Moses, then, on Eve, our much deceived, much failing, hapless mother, and then hear Milton. </p> MosesAnd the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone: I will make him an help meet for him.Milton-I, ere thou spak' st,Knew it not good for Man to be alone …What next I brine shall please thee, be assuredThy likeness, thy fit help, thy other self,Thy wish exactly to thy heart's desire.MosesAnd the Lord God made a woman, and brought her to the man. And Adam said, [[Therefore]] shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife.MiltonUnder His forming hands a creature grew,Manlike, but different sex, so lovely fair,That what seem'd fair in all the world, seem'd nowMean, or in her summ'd up, in her contain'dAnd in her looks, which from that time infusedSweetness into my heart, unfelt before,And into all thing's from her air inspiredThe spirit of love and amorous delight.On she came,Led by her [[Heavenly]] Maker, though unseen,And guided by His voice; nor uninform'dOf nuptial sanctity, and marriage rites:Grace wag in all her steps, heaven in her eye,In every gesture dignity and love.Hail wedded love, mysterious law, true sourceOf human offspring. By thee,Founded in reason, loyal, just, and pure,Relations dear, and all the charitiesOf father, son, and brother first were known.Perpetual fountain of domestic sweets.Here [[Love]] his golden shaft employs, here lightsHis constant lamp, and waves his purple wings.Sleep on, blest pair!MosesNow the serpent was more subtle than any beast which the Lord God had made.Milton-I now must changeThese notes to tragic; foul distrust, and breachDisloyal on the part of man, revolt,And disobedience: on the part of Heav'nNow alienated, distance and distaste,Anger and just rebuke: sad task, yet argumentNot less but more heroic than the wrathOf stern Achilles.MosesAnd she took of the fruit thereof and did eat, and gave also to her husband with her, and he did eat.MiltonEarth felt the wound, and Nature from her seatSighing through all her work gave signs of woe,That all was lost.Earth trembled from her entrails, as againIn pangs, and Nature gave a second groan;Sky lower'd, and muttering thunder, some sad dropsWept at completing of the mortal sinOriginal.MosesAnd the man said, The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.MiltonTo whom the [[Sovran]] [[Presence]] thus replied,Was she thy God, that her thou didst obeyBefore His voice, or was she made thy guideSuperior, or but equal, that to herThou didst resign thy manhood, and the placeWherein God set thee? Adorn'dShe was indeed, and lovely to attractThy love, not thy subjectionMosesAnd unto Adam He said, In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread.MiltonIdleness had been worse;My labour will sustain me.So spoke our father penitent.To whom thus also th' angel last replied:-Only addDeeds to thy knowledge answerable, and faith,Add virtue, patience, temperance, add love,By name to come called charity, the soulOf all the rest; then thou wilt not be loathTo leave this Paradise, but shalt possessA [[Paradise]] within thee happier far.He ended, and they both descend the hill;The world was all before them, where to chooseTheir place of rest, and [[Providence]] their guide;They hand in hand, with wand ring steps and slow,Through Eden took their solitary way. <p> Great-minded Milton! 'The great number of books and papers of amusement, which, of one kind or another, daily come in one's way have in part occasioned, and most perfectly fall in with, and humour, our idle way of reading and considering things. By this means, time even in solitude is happily got rid of without the pain of attention; neither is any part of it more put to the account of idleness, one can scarce forbear saying, or spent with less thought, than great part of that which is spent in reading.' [[Thus]] Butler. [[Let]] Moses and Milton and [[Butler]] be more read. </p> <p> But it is high time to turn to Paul, who is a far greater authority and commentator on Moses than Plato, or Behmen, or Milton, or Law. Now, [[Paul]] does not say very much about Eve, but what he does say has in it all his characteristic strength, straightforwardness, and evangelical consolation. Adam was the protoplast, says Paul to Timothy, quoting the expression from the [[Wisdom]] of Solomon. Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. 'Of the woman,' says the son of [[Sirach]] in his tremendous attack on women, 'came the beginning of sin, and through her we all die.' How it might have been with us today if the serpent had tried his flattery and his lies on Adam we do not know, and we need not ask. Only, let the truth be told. The devil, as a matter of fact, never spake to Adam at all. He approached Eve with his glozing words. He succeeded with Eve, and then Eve succeeded with Adam. [[Flattery]] led the woman astray. And then love led the man astray. The man could not refuse what the woman offered. 'The woman was deceived,' says Bengel, 'the man was persuaded.' And, because Eve was first in the transgression, Moses put certain special punishments upon her in his day, and Paul put certain other humiliations, repressions, and submissions in his day. God, in Moses, laid on Eve that day </p> <p> The pleasing punishment that women bear; as, also, that her desire should be to her husband, and that he should rule over her. O husbands of women! O young men, to whom is their desire! God help all such women! And, if their desire must so be, let us pray and labour at our tempers and at our characters, at our appetites and at our inclinations, lest their desire be their everlasting loss. 'With my soul have I desired Thee, O God, in the night. [[Delight]] thyself also in the Lord, and He will give thee the desires of thine heart. Because he hath set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him; I will set him on high, because he hath known My name. With long life will I satisfy him, and I will show him My salvation. As for me, I will behold Thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness.' </p> <p> That emancipation of women which they owe to [[Jesus]] [[Christ]] had not had time to work itself fully out in Paul's day. And thus it is that we read in Paul's first [[Epistle]] to Timothy that the women are to learn in silence with all subjection, and that they are not to usurp authority, but are always to be in silence. </p> To whom thus Eve with sad demeanour meek:Ill worthy I such title should belongTo me transgressor, who for thee ordain'dA help, hecome thy snare; to me reproachRather belongs, distrust and all dispraise.So spake, so wished, much humbled Eve. <p> 'Let the women learn in silence,' and, 'I suffer not a woman to teach her husband, but to be in silence.' Yes; truth and beauty, [[Apostle]] Paul. But who is to be her husband? Who is to fill up the silence? All women would be proud to sit in silence if their husbands were like the husbands in Timothy's diocese; that is to say, if they would but speak out in the silence, and would speak out wisely, and advisedly, and lovingly, and always well. And, once in every woman's life she does sit as silent and as teachable as Paul himself would have her sit. When God takes her by the hand and brings her to the man for whom He has made her, then she for a season puts on the ornament of a meek and a quiet spirit. 'Even as [[Sara]] obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement. Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers be not hindered.' </p> <p> 'Notwithstanding, she shall be saved in The Child-bearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.' I am glad to see that the [[Revised]] Version leans to the mystical and evangelical interpretation of Paul's 'childbearing.' For, as Bishop Ellicott says, nothing could be more cold and jejune than the usual interpretation. And Paul is the last man to be cold and jejune on such a subject. Yes, I will believe with the learned revisers, and with some of our deepest interpreters, that Paul has the [[Seed]] of the [[Woman]] in the eye of his mind in this passage, and that he looks back with deep pity and love on his hapless mother Eve; and then, after her, on all women and on all mothers, and sees them all saved, with Eve and with Mary, by the Man that [[Mary]] got from the Lord, if they abide and continue in faith, in love, in holiness, and in sobermindedness. </p>
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| <p> (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]]). </p> <p> 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). </p> <p> 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. </p> | | <p> (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]]). </p> <p> 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). </p> <p> 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. </p> |
