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| Marble relief by Lorenzo Maitani, Orvieto Cathedral, Italy. |
The story of the first woman begins with Eve in the Garden of Eden, where she first discovered that she bore a unique relationship to God, the supreme power in the universe. The great reality is not that she came from the rib of Adam but that God created her and brought her womanly nature into being.
The divine purpose relative to woman is found in the first part of the first story of the Creation: "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them" (Gen. 1:27). Here we have warranty for woman's dominion. The fact that God did not give man dominion until he had woman standing beside him is evidence enough of her exalted place in the Creation.
Various theories regarding the origin of Genesis and of the story concerning Eve, the first woman, have been evolved. Some scholars believe that parts of Genesis are based on myths and fables. Others call it a "legend wrapped around fundamental spiritual truths.''
The divine purpose relative to woman is found in the first part of the first story of the Creation: "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them" (Gen. 1:27). Here we have warranty for woman's dominion. The fact that God did not give man dominion until he had woman standing beside him is evidence enough of her exalted place in the Creation.
Various theories regarding the origin of Genesis and of the story concerning Eve, the first woman, have been evolved. Some scholars believe that parts of Genesis are based on myths and fables. Others call it a "legend wrapped around fundamental spiritual truths.''
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All Bible scholars concede that the story of Creation was conceived by an ancient people, to whom great truths about the spiritual universe in which they lived were becoming known. How these truths became known and why, scholars cannot answer. Nor do they try to answer all the questions concerning the creation of the first woman. The significant fact is that this first woman was set in a pattern of sublime religious truths.
The magnificent theme of the story is that God, seeing the incompleteness of man standing alone, wanted to find a helper for him. Not having found this helper in all created things, such as the birds of the air or the beasts of the field, God was obliged to make for man a helper who was his equal and who shared in the same processes of creation in which he shared. And so God created this helper Eve, whose name means "life" not from the animal kingdom, but from the rib of Adam himself.
The symbolism of the rib is that it was taken from the place nearest to Adam's heart, thus indicating the close relationship of man and woman. The real essence of the story is that man and woman were made for each other, that woman is bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh; therefore they are not all that God intended them to be until they are together.
The oneness of man and women in true marriage comes into its fullest meaning in Genesis 2:24: "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh." Marriage emerges, not as a civil contract, but as a divine institution. In this union of Adam and Eve all marriages become coeval with Creation, fully demonstrating that the laws of morals and the laws of nature are coincident.
Eve herself, like all of us, came into a universe that was immeasurable and orderly, and her creation takes on the same wonder as that of the stars, the sun, the moon, and all other things which God created and called good.
In the Genesis account Eve is elevated to ethereal beauty and lofty dignity. As a great sculptor might strike a beautiful figure out of Parian marble, Eve arises from the rib of Adam beautiful of form and figure and with Paradise as her birthplace. Milton, in his Paradise Lost, has called her Queen of the Universe and Fairest of the Fair. By poet and artist alike she has usually been pictured with gleaming golden hair, with a face celestial in loveliness and a form strong and immortal.
All of the great epochs in a woman's life, her marriage, mating, and motherhood, unfold in all of their completeness in the Genesis account of Eve. The family, too, with all its joys and heartaches comes into being, with Eve as the center of it. In Eve all the elemental questions of life, birth, and death, even sin and temptation, are shown in their human dimension.
When Eve listened to the serpent, representing temptation, she followed, not the will of God, but the path of evil. When she ate the fruit from the Forbidden Tree, she acted independently of God, in whose image she had been created. From God, who watched over her truest interests, she turned to a serpent, which distorted the truth regarding the fruit God had forbidden. The serpent beguiled Eve by telling her that if she would eat of the forbidden fruit she would gain for herself new delights.
After she had partaken of the forbidden fruit, she also gave it to Adam, and he too ate it, thus sharing in her guilt. In this act we have an excellent example of woman's impulsiveness and man's inclination to follow woman wherever she leads, even into sin. Eve with Adam "hid from the presence of God'' for they knew they had done wrong. Afterward, when Eve told God that "the serpent beguiled me, and I did eat," she displayed the natural tendency of woman to blame, not herself for her wrongdoings, but those around her.
Though Eve fell far short of the ideal in womanhood, she rose to the dream of her destiny as a wife and mother. Paradise had been lost. She knew that, but something wonderful, maternal care, had been born. In Eve, motherhood became a great sacrifice and a sublime service. The winged creatures and the animals of the Garden of Eden achieved their motherhood lightly, but for Eve, though motherhood often was achieved at the price of anguish, it became her sacred responsibility.
In the birth of her first son Cain and her second son Abel, Eve experienced all the pains of childbirth, never forgetting perhaps what God had said when she ate of the forbidden fruit, "I will multiply your pain in childbirth."
When her first son was born, we know that Eve, like all mothers, also experienced great joy. The whole world had been re-created, and she could exclaim, "I have gotten a man from the Lord." Here are the sublimest words from the lips of Eve, who named her first son Cain, meaning "gotten" or "acquired." Eve realized that her child came not merely from her flesh but from God himself. Her positive assertion of this makes us certain that God, and not the serpent, now ruled over her life.
Later Eve gave birth to a second son, Abel, meaning "breath" or "fading away." The first mother saw her sons grow to be as different in nature as in interests. Early she discerned signs of jealousy between them. Finally Cain, her first son and most beloved, killed his brother Abel. Though the story does not furnish details, we can picture this first mother as experiencing all the anxieties, heartaches, and torments suffered by other mothers of wicked sons down the centuries of time.
Yet Eve knew that God was still in this universe which He had created. In a few years she was to see the fulfillment of His plan in her own life. Cain married and Eve had a grandchild, Enoch, as well as other heirs. A long interval elapsed. Adam, we are told, was 130 years old when Eve, who could not have been much younger, gave birth to Seth, his name meaning "to appoint" or "to establish." And she took new courage in the fact, we know, for she said, "God hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew. A great seed this was to be, for the ancestry of Jesus Christ was to be traced back to the line of Seth.
Other sons and daughters were born to Adam of Eve, though the other children's names are not listed. But after her time for childbearing passed. Eve's story merged into that of her children. She lived on in Seth, the strongest of her children, and in the great line of Seth's descendants, who called "upon the name of the Lord."
The magnificent theme of the story is that God, seeing the incompleteness of man standing alone, wanted to find a helper for him. Not having found this helper in all created things, such as the birds of the air or the beasts of the field, God was obliged to make for man a helper who was his equal and who shared in the same processes of creation in which he shared. And so God created this helper Eve, whose name means "life" not from the animal kingdom, but from the rib of Adam himself.
The symbolism of the rib is that it was taken from the place nearest to Adam's heart, thus indicating the close relationship of man and woman. The real essence of the story is that man and woman were made for each other, that woman is bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh; therefore they are not all that God intended them to be until they are together.
The oneness of man and women in true marriage comes into its fullest meaning in Genesis 2:24: "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh." Marriage emerges, not as a civil contract, but as a divine institution. In this union of Adam and Eve all marriages become coeval with Creation, fully demonstrating that the laws of morals and the laws of nature are coincident.
Eve herself, like all of us, came into a universe that was immeasurable and orderly, and her creation takes on the same wonder as that of the stars, the sun, the moon, and all other things which God created and called good.
In the Genesis account Eve is elevated to ethereal beauty and lofty dignity. As a great sculptor might strike a beautiful figure out of Parian marble, Eve arises from the rib of Adam beautiful of form and figure and with Paradise as her birthplace. Milton, in his Paradise Lost, has called her Queen of the Universe and Fairest of the Fair. By poet and artist alike she has usually been pictured with gleaming golden hair, with a face celestial in loveliness and a form strong and immortal.
All of the great epochs in a woman's life, her marriage, mating, and motherhood, unfold in all of their completeness in the Genesis account of Eve. The family, too, with all its joys and heartaches comes into being, with Eve as the center of it. In Eve all the elemental questions of life, birth, and death, even sin and temptation, are shown in their human dimension.
When Eve listened to the serpent, representing temptation, she followed, not the will of God, but the path of evil. When she ate the fruit from the Forbidden Tree, she acted independently of God, in whose image she had been created. From God, who watched over her truest interests, she turned to a serpent, which distorted the truth regarding the fruit God had forbidden. The serpent beguiled Eve by telling her that if she would eat of the forbidden fruit she would gain for herself new delights.
After she had partaken of the forbidden fruit, she also gave it to Adam, and he too ate it, thus sharing in her guilt. In this act we have an excellent example of woman's impulsiveness and man's inclination to follow woman wherever she leads, even into sin. Eve with Adam "hid from the presence of God'' for they knew they had done wrong. Afterward, when Eve told God that "the serpent beguiled me, and I did eat," she displayed the natural tendency of woman to blame, not herself for her wrongdoings, but those around her.
Though Eve fell far short of the ideal in womanhood, she rose to the dream of her destiny as a wife and mother. Paradise had been lost. She knew that, but something wonderful, maternal care, had been born. In Eve, motherhood became a great sacrifice and a sublime service. The winged creatures and the animals of the Garden of Eden achieved their motherhood lightly, but for Eve, though motherhood often was achieved at the price of anguish, it became her sacred responsibility.
In the birth of her first son Cain and her second son Abel, Eve experienced all the pains of childbirth, never forgetting perhaps what God had said when she ate of the forbidden fruit, "I will multiply your pain in childbirth."
When her first son was born, we know that Eve, like all mothers, also experienced great joy. The whole world had been re-created, and she could exclaim, "I have gotten a man from the Lord." Here are the sublimest words from the lips of Eve, who named her first son Cain, meaning "gotten" or "acquired." Eve realized that her child came not merely from her flesh but from God himself. Her positive assertion of this makes us certain that God, and not the serpent, now ruled over her life.
Later Eve gave birth to a second son, Abel, meaning "breath" or "fading away." The first mother saw her sons grow to be as different in nature as in interests. Early she discerned signs of jealousy between them. Finally Cain, her first son and most beloved, killed his brother Abel. Though the story does not furnish details, we can picture this first mother as experiencing all the anxieties, heartaches, and torments suffered by other mothers of wicked sons down the centuries of time.
Yet Eve knew that God was still in this universe which He had created. In a few years she was to see the fulfillment of His plan in her own life. Cain married and Eve had a grandchild, Enoch, as well as other heirs. A long interval elapsed. Adam, we are told, was 130 years old when Eve, who could not have been much younger, gave birth to Seth, his name meaning "to appoint" or "to establish." And she took new courage in the fact, we know, for she said, "God hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew. A great seed this was to be, for the ancestry of Jesus Christ was to be traced back to the line of Seth.
Other sons and daughters were born to Adam of Eve, though the other children's names are not listed. But after her time for childbearing passed. Eve's story merged into that of her children. She lived on in Seth, the strongest of her children, and in the great line of Seth's descendants, who called "upon the name of the Lord."
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Twice in the New Testament, both times in the Pauline writings, Eve is mentioned. Paul reminds the Corinthians that they, like Eve, are in danger of being led away from the simplicity of Christ's teaching and can be hurt by the "subtilty of the serpent" which brings disunity (2 Corinthians 11:3). Paul expresses his position in regard to woman in a letter to his assistant Timothy. He argues that man is superior, "For Adam was first formed, then Eve." Though he recognizes that "woman being deceived was in the transgression," he declares she can be saved in childbearing, if she continues "in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety‚" (1 Tim. 2:13-15).
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But let us turn back to the Genesis account where we have the scriptural record that male and female were created in His own image. Despite her later transgressions. Eve still stands forth as a revelation of the Father, and as one who can rise above her transgressions. by Edith Deen, 1916
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