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The Garden of Eden: Imagine primal chaos, a vast abyss of confusion and disorder. Out of this hellish void comes kosmos: order, symmetry, nature, beauty: the Garden. It has an inherent harmony and order, with everything in its natural place -  and the potential for a right and ordered way to structure society and government. 










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What were families like in ancient Israel?
How were they different?

Bible Women: Major Events
Finding a husband, getting married, having a baby, death and burial 

Bible Top Ten Bad Women
Eve gets the blame

Bible Archaeology: Adam 
 What do we really know about Adam?

Family, Work, Religion
Women in ancient religions 

Bible Archaeology: Agriculture
 Farming in ancient times

Bible Men and Women: Adam  
Adam's Story

The First Murder
Cain and Abel 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

                      
            EVE - THE FIRST WOMAN

 

Names in the Bible   often say something about the person:
At first Eve was called  Ishah, 'woman'. Later she was called Eve, the 'life-bearer'.
Adam comes from the Hebrew Adham, meaning 'dust of the earth'.
In ancient societies, giving something a name was a way of showing power over it. Adam named her 'Eve', showing power over her - but only after they disobeyed God and fell into sin. 
Eve is a mythic figure, the primordial first mother/Everywoman - but also a person in her own right.

 

WOMEN IN THE BIBLE:EVE: CREATIONWhat the story is about

The story  of Eve is much more complex than people think. It is about the complementary and competing natures of man and woman. This mythic story also describes the creation of humanity and the universe. It explains how the world we live in came to be the way it is. 

In a way it is similar to modern Science, which searches for answers to the age-old question of how the earth came to be.

At a deeper level, it explores the nature of God: 

  • What is 'God'? What do we mean when we use the term? 

  • What does it mean to be human? What are our qualities and limitations?  

  • How are we made 'in God's image'?

Eve has something in common with other mythic women like Helen of Troy and Guinevere. They too are seen as the cause of unwanted or destructive change. The story of Pandora describes how she let all the world's evils out of a box. Can you see the connection with the story of Eve?



Idyllic forest scene with tall trees reaching to the skyThere are two creation stories in Genesis:
1 The first story of creation: Genesis 1:1-31 and 2:1-4a. 
God created the universe. The earth and everything on it came into being. 
Mesopotamian stories also told of life emerging from the earth or mud, and of a great destructive flood, as the Bible relates in Genesis 7 and 8.

2 The second story of creation: Genesis 2:4b-24 and 3:1-24. 
God planted a garden in Eden with every good thing. All was as it should be, ordered and calm, but this idyll was destroyed by the actions of people.

In many religions in the ancient world, Evil was seen as a powerful force that preyed on mankind. 

But for the Hebrew people, God was the most powerful force in the universe, more powerful than Evil. Evil could challenge but never conquer God. 

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God Creates the Universe

Read Genesis 1:1-31 and 2:1-4a

In this elegantly structured story, the creation of the universe unfolds. There is a surprising resemblance to modern theories about the beginnings of the universe. The story begins with an empty void, then energy appears, the planets are born, the continents emerge. Finally, vegetation, animals and humans appear.
WOMEN IN THE BIBLE:EVE: photograph of the cosmos
'So God created humankind in his image,
In the image of God he created them;
Male and female he created them,
God blessed them, and God said to them
'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.'
Read Genesis 1:1-31 and 2:1-4a

God in the Old Testament is a spirit, without gender. Despite this, we use words such as  'he' and 'his' to describe God. Strictly speaking this is incorrect, since God is neither male nor female, but we are echoing the ancient practice of anthropomorphism, when gods were portrayed as male or female with human personalities and characteristics. 

In the biblical story of creation, God is neither male nor female, but majestically 'I Am'.

At the supreme moment of creation, God conceives a creature 'in his own image'. What does the phrase 'in his own image' mean? Theologians suggest that people, like God, have a nature that is essentially creative. It is natural for them to imagine, invent and change the world around them, as God does in the Genesis story. Humans are part of, expressions of, the creative energy of God.

The Bible poses the question: how is this creativity to be used? For good or evil?
In this first telling of the story of creation, men and women are created at the same time. They are spoken of in equal terms: 'male and female he created them'. They form part of the harmony of all creation.

                                                                                                     

Adam, Eve and the Serpent

Try telling the story from the point of view of each character, one at a time. You'll see how the scenario becomes richer, more complex.

See Bible text Genesis 2:4b-25 and 3:1-24

In this section of the story, God creates Adam but sees that there is something lacking.

'So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.'
So God created Eve, and completed the creation of the universe.
Read Genesis 2:4b-25

Eve is formed from the rib of Adam. They are of the same flesh and the same bone. From the moment of creation neither man nor woman can be complete without the other. Working together, they form the basic unit of society, the family. 

Green snake

The story recognizes that men's and women's lives interlock so completely in economic and social matters, that neither can survive without the other.

Verse 25 makes a curious observation: neither the man nor the woman are aware of their own nakedness, as animals are unaware of their nakedness. Is this a hint that Adam and Eve are not yet 'human' in the way we understand the word? And that only events in the following chapter will make them human in the way that we are?

Eve and Adam are given a perfect world, but they are also given the power of choosing, making decisions. 

One of the creatures in the Garden speaks to Eve, suggesting that God has duped her. If she eats the fruit that has been forbidden to her she will gain new understanding and wisdom -- so profound that it will rival God's.     
Read Genesis 3:1-24 

Because she has no experience of deceit, Eve believes the snake and makes her choice, deciding to seek knowledge of good and evil rather than be obedient. As humans, we continually test boundaries and try new ideas. In the Genesis story woman as 'life-giver' is the one who initiates this process. 

'Eve, it seems, was even more creative (and therefore God-like?) than her mate Adam. When a reptile in the Garden of Eden spoke to her, suggesting she try something new, she was intrigued.' 
Bad Women of the Bible

It is a dangerous choice, reminding us that the quest for knowledge should always be balanced by wisdom. Eve will soon realize her mistake.

WOMEN IN THE BIBLE:EVE: MINOAN PRIESTESS

Minoan priestess holding two snakes, fertility symbols of 
death and rebirth


Adam eats the fruit without thinking or arguing. Like Eve, he misuses his ability to make decisions, never pausing to consider the consequences. Again, the quest for knowledge should go hand in hand with careful judgment. 
For archaeological finds related to this story, see 
Bible Archaeology: Adam 

Why is the snake used as a symbol of evil? 

It was an important image in ancient pagan religions. The goddess Astarte, who represented the fertility of nature, was often portrayed with snakes. People saw the dead skins shed by snakes, and assumed that the snake had in some way died but then come alive again. 

They saw the seasons of the year following the same pattern: in winter all things died, but in spring Nature mysteriously sprang back to life. So the image of a snake was used in fertility rituals, especially those relating to the seasonal cycles. 

Cain and Abel are the sons of Adam and Eve, who commit the first sin. 
Cain murders Abel, and this is the second sin. Now people have sinned against God, and against each other. 

At the heart of the story is a new idea: that lawlessness is contrary to the will of God, and when it happens, the good as well as the wicked suffer.

See  Cain murders his brother Abel

To the Hebrew people, the snake was a symbol of polytheism and paganism, the natural enemy of Jahweh and monotheism.

As the story continues, the original harmony between humanity and nature is disrupted. Both sexes become locked in fixed roles. In a fit of jealousy Cain murders his brother Abel.

In a perfect world, a world without sin, inequality, violence and injustice do not exist. 

But the Garden of Eden has been lost.                                              Return to top

                                                                                                                        

Summary

In Genesis 3, Eve is the central human character in the story. She is the mover and shaker, the active person. She explores the Garden, she meets and interrogates the snake, she makes a decision then returns to Adam and makes suggestions for a course of action. People in ancient times saw women as active and inquiring, as shapers of society. 

The Bible begins with the story of an independent and strong-minded woman who is, like all humans, both creative and destructive, clever but short-sighted. 

Eve initiates change.  She moves humanity out of the Garden. If we had stayed there, we would have been children forever. Was it a good thing, or bad?

Michelangelo, Sistine Chapel ceiling. The Serpent tempts Eve, 
and the Angel of God drives Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden

 

Read about other fascinating women of the Bible

 

How to use this material? Go to Activities for Bible Study Groups & Schools

 

Some Extra Snippets

About the Creation Narrative
 'The style of the prologue (in Genesis 1) is amazing for its deliberate simplicity, its ascetic style. It shows not the slightest trace of rhetoric.... it manages to give the impression of restrained power. .... Is it prose or poetry?' 
'Theological thought in Genesis 1 moves not so much between the poles of nothingness and creation as between the poles of chaos and cosmos.' 
'In the Beginning', Henri Blocher, p31,66.

About the Creation of Woman
 'It is not good that the man should be alone' (Genesis 2:18). The remark amazes us. It is the only negative assessment in the creation narrative, and it is emphatically negative. By this divine reason of the creation of the woman, Scripture could not underline better the degree to which solitude contradicts the calling of humanity. From the very beginning, the human being is a Mitsein, a being-with; human life attains its full realization only in community. No man is an island, and everyone must discover himself to be his neighbor's neighbor.'
'In the Beginning', Henri Blocher, p96.

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                Eve - Bible Woman - Women of the Old Testament; Bible  Study Resource
                           Adam, Eve, the Tree of Knowledge and the Garden of Eden

 

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