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Easton's Bible Dictionary
life; living, The name given by Adam to his wife ( Genesis
3:20 ; 4:1
). The account of her creation is given in Genesis
2:21 ,
2:22 . The Creator, by declaring that it was not good for man to be alone,
and by creating for him a suitable companion, gave sanction to monogamy. The commentator
Matthew Henry says: "This companion was taken from his side to signify that she
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."
And again, "That wife that is of God's making by special grace, and of God's bringing
by special providence, is likely to prove a helpmeet to her husband." Through
the subtle temptation of the serpent she violated the commandment of God by taking
of the forbidden fruit, which she gave also unto her husband ( 1
Timothy 2:13 - 15
; 2
Corinthians 11:3 ). When she gave birth to her first son, she said, "I have
gotten a man from the Lord" (RSV, "I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord,"
Genesis
4:1 ). Thus she welcomed Cain, as some think, as if he had been the Promised
One the "Seed of the woman."
Hitchcock's Dictionary of Bible Names
living; enlivening
Smith's Bible Dictionary
(life) The name given in Scripture to the first woman. The account of Eves creation
is found at ( Genesis
2:21 ,
2:22 ) 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, viz., 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.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
(1) Eve in the Old Testament
ev, (chawwah, "life"; Eua; the name given, as the Scripture writer says, Genesis
3:20 (Zoe), from her unique function as "the mother of all living"): The first
created woman; created secondarily from Adam (or man) as a "help meet for him"
(Genesis
2:18 -
22), and later named and designated as the mother of the human race.
For the literary type and object of the story of Eve, see under ADAM,
i, 2.
1. The Names Given to Her:
Two names are given to her, both bestowed by the man, her mate. The first, ishshah,
"woman" (literally, "man-ess"), is not strictly a name but a generic designation,
referring to her relation to the man; a relation she was created to fulfill in
default of any true companionship between man and the beasts, and represented
as intimate and sacred beyond that between child and parents (Genesis
2:18 - 24).
The second, Eve, or "life," given after the transgression and its prophesied results,
refers to her function and destiny in the spiritual history or evolution of which
she is the beginning (Genesis
3:16 , 20).
While the names are represented as bestowed by the man, the remarks in
Genesis 2:24 and 3:20b
may be read as the interpretative addition of the writer, suited to the exposition
which it is the object of his story to make.
2. Her Relation to Man:
As mentioned in the article ADAM, the distinction of male and female, which the
human species has in common with the animals, is given in the general (or P) account
of creation (Genesis
1:27); and then, in the more particularized (or J) account of the creation
of man, the human being is described at a point before the distinction of sex
existed. This second account may have a different origin, but it has also a different
object, which does not conflict with but rather supplements the other. It aims
to give the spiritual meanings that inhere in man's being; and in this the relation
of sex plays an elemental part. As spiritually related to the man-nature, the
woman-nature is described as derivative, the helper rather than the initiator,
yet equal, and supplying perfectly the man's social and affectional needs. It
is the writer's conception of the essential meaning of mating and marriage. To
bring out its spiritual values more clearly he takes the pair before they are
aware of the species meanings of sex or family, while they are "naked" yet "not
ashamed" Genesis
2:25, and portrays them purely as companions, individual in traits and tendencies,
yet answering to each other. She is the helpmeet for him (ezer keneghdo, "a help
answering to him").
3. Her Part in the Change of Condition:
True to her nature as the being relatively acted upon rather than acting, she
is quicker than the man to respond to the suggestion initiated by the serpent
and to follow it out to its desirable results. There is eagerness of desire in
her act of taking the fruit quite different from the quasi matter-of-course attitude
of the man. To her the venture presents itself wholly from the alluring side,
while to him it is more like taking a desperate risk, as he detaches himself even
from the will of God in order to cleave to her. All this is delicately true to
the distinctive feminine and masculine natures. A part of her penalty is henceforth
to be the subordinated one of the pair (Genesis
3:16), as if for her the values of life were to be mediated through him. At
the same time it is accorded to her seed to perpetuate the mortal antipathy to
the serpent, and finally to bruise the serpent's head (Genesis
3:15).
4. In Subsequent History:
After these opening chapters of Genesis, Eve is not once mentioned, nor even specifically
alluded to, in the canonical books of the Old Testament. It was not in the natural
scope of Old Testament history and doctrine, which were concerned with Abraham's
descendants, to go back to so remote origins as are narrated in the story of the
first pair. The name Eve occurs once in the Apocrypha, in the prayer of Tobit
(Tobit 8:6): "Thou madest Adam, and gavest him Eve his wife for a helper and a
stay; of them came the seed of men"; the text then going on to quote Genesis
2:18. In 1 Esdras 4:20 , 21 there is a free quotation, or rather paraphrase,
of Genesis
2:24. But not even in the somber complaints of 2 Esdras concerning the woe
that Adam's transgression brought upon the race is there any hint of Eve's part
in the matter. |
(see under \ADAM IN THE OLD TESTAMENT, iii, 2\)
John Franklin Genung
(2) Eve in the New Testament
(Eua; Westcott and Hort, The New Testament in Greek, Heua):
"Eve" occurs twice in the New Testament and both references are in the Pauline
writings. In 1
Timothy 2:12 - 14
woman's place in teaching is the subject of discussion, and the writer declares
that she is a learner and not a teacher, that she is to be in quietness and not
to have dominion over a man. Paul elsewhere expressed this same idea (see 1
Corinthians 14:34 , 35).
Having stated his position in regard to woman's place, he used the Ge account
of the relation of the first woman to man to substantiate his teaching. Paul used
this account to illustrate woman's inferiority to man, and he undoubtedly accepted
it at its face value without any question as to its historicity. He argued that
woman is inferior in position, for "Adam was first formed, then Eve." She is inferior
in character, for "Adam was not beguiled, but the woman being beguiled hath fallen
into transgression."
See CHILD-BEARING.
In 2
Corinthians 11:3, Paul is urging loyalty to Christ, and he uses the temptation
of Eve to illustrate the ease with which one is corrupted. Paul seems to have
had no thought but that the account of the serpent's beguiling Eve should be taken
literally.
A. W. Fortune
Tags:
adam, bible commentary, bible history, bible reference, bible study, cain, define, eden (garden of), eve, first woman, forbidden fruit, serpent
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