Eve Spins While Adam Digs

Eve Spins While Adam Digs

Eve spins while Adam digs; thirteenth-century stone relief, Sainte Chapelle, Paris.

As the narrative continues, Eve is tricked by the “crafty” serpent into eating forbidden fruit (Gen. 3:1–7). In part, she apparently believes that if she does so, she will not die, but will become like God, knowing good and evil (a possible figure of speech for “knowing all things”). She also wants to eat the fruit, however, because she sees that it is good for food and a delight to the eyes. After eating the fruit, she gives some to her husband, who the text says “was with her” (i.e., party to the exchange with the serpent, though silent throughout), and he eats as well. As a consequence of this disobedience, both Adam and Eve are suddenly ashamed of their nakedness, and they create garments of fig leaves for themselves. Then, God expels them from the garden and Eve is specifically punished in two ways: she (and apparently, though not explicitly, all women after her) will have to endure (1) increased pain in childbirth; and, (2) subordination to her husband, whom she will desire but who will rule over her (Gen. 3:16). It is only at this point in the story that she receives the name “Eve” (having been called simply “the woman” up to now); this serves as notice that, as a mother, she will produce life (albeit painfully); notably, it is the man who names her (just as he had named the animals, Gen. 3:20; cf. Gen. 2:20). Eve gave birth to Cain, Abel, and Seth as well as other sons and daughters (Gen. 4:1–2, Gen. 4:25; Gen. 5:4). According to one tradition, it is Eve who names the children: Gen. 4:1 says that she named Cain and Gen. 4:25 says she named Seth, though nothing similar is said of Abel and Gen. 5:3 indicates that it was Adam who named Seth.

Eve is not mentioned again in the Hebrew Bible, but in some of the Hellenistic Jewish literature of the Second Temple period she is referenced as the one who brought sin and death into the world: “From a woman, sin had its beginning, and because of her, we all die” (Sir. 25:24; cf. 2 Enoch 30:17; Apoc. Moses 7:1, Apoc. Moses 7:2). This understanding is also evident in the NT, where Eve is mentioned twice. Both 2 Cor. 11:3 and 1 Tim. 2:13–15 refer to her as a person who was “deceived,” and the latter text emphasizes that this distinguishes her from the man: “Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.” This observation about who was deceived is intended to legitimate the position that women should “learn in silence” and not be permitted to have authority over men (2 Tim. 2:11–12). Elsewhere in Paul’s writings, the captivity of humanity to sin and to a dominion of death is attributed to Adam without mention of Eve (Rom. 5:12–21). Also, though Eve is not mentioned by name, she is referenced along with Adam in Jesus’s teaching on the permanence of marriage (Mark 10:6–9; cf. Gen. 2:24). See also Adam; fall, the.

M.A.P.

Powell, Mark Allan. “Eve.” Ed. Mark Allan Powell. The HarperCollins Bible Dictionary (Revised and Updated) 2011 : 266. Print.