the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Eve
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
or ("life".) (See ADAM.) Man's "help meet," i.e. a helper suited to and matching him. Formed from "one of Adam's ribs," taken by God from Adam in a deep sleep; type of the church formed from the opened side of her Heavenly Bridegroom (from whence flowed blood and water) in the death sleep, so as by faith in His atoning blood, and by the cleansing water of His Holy Spirit, to be "bone of His bone, and flesh of His flesh" (Ephesians 5:25-32; 1 John 5:6). SEe Genesis 2:21-22, "the rib built (the usual Hebrew word for founding a family: Genesis 16:2; Genesis 30:3 margin) He up into a woman"; not as Speaker's Commentary, "the side He built up," etc. For God "took one of then," therefore "side" (tseelah ), "sides," must be used for rib, ribs. So the ancient versions. "Woman was not made out of his head to top him, not out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved.
He was first formed, then Eve (1 Timothy 2:13), of the man and for the man (1 Corinthians 11:7-9); teaching the subjection and reverence which wives owe their husbands. Yet Eve's being made after Adam, and out of him, makes her 'the glory of the man.' If man is the head, she is the crown; a crown to her husband, the crown of the visible creation" (Henry). Her finer susceptibilities and more delicate organization are implied by her being formed, not out of dust as Adam, but of flesh already formed. The oneness of flesh is the foundation of the inseparable marriage union of one man with one woman (Malachi 2:15; Matthew 19:5). She was made from Adam's rib, to mark her oneness with him. Their unity is at once corporeal and spiritual of the profoundest kind, of heart as well as of body.
"This is now (Hebrew this time, as contrasted with the creatures heretofore formed besides Adam) bone of my bones," he exclaims in joyful surprise; and, with the intuitive knowledge wherewith he had named the other creatures according to the? natures, he names her "woman" ('ishah ) as being taken out of "man" ('ish ). She was the complement of man, of one nature, and in free and willing dependence on him. Thus, marriage is the holy appointment of God, based on the relations by creation between man and woman. Celibacy is not a higher, holier state (Hebrews 13:4). Eve's greater weakness and susceptibility to temptation appears in Genesis 3 and 2 Corinthians 11:3.
Her first error was in harboring mentally for a moment the possibility insinuated by the serpent, of God not having her truest interests at heart ("hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree?"), and of the "other" professing friend being more concerned for her good than God. In her reply to Satan she attenuates God's gracious permission ("of every tree of the garden thou mayest FREELY eat"; "we may eat of every tree"), she exaggerates the one simple prohibition ("thou shalt not eat of it," and "thou shalt surely (she leaves out the "surely") die "; "ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die"), and omits the certainty of the penalty. Unbelief toward God, credulity towards Satan. Easily deceived, she easily deceives.
Last in being, first in sin. Satan began with "the weaker vessel." She yielded to his deceits; Adam yielded to conjugal love. So, the woman is sentenced next after Satan, and Adam is sentenced last. In Romans 5:12 Adam is made the transgressor; but there Eve is included, he representing the sinning race as its head. "She shall be saved (though) with childbearing," i.e. though suffering her part of the primal curse in childbearing; just as man shall be saved though having to bear his part, the sweat of the brow.
Yea, the very curse will be a condition favorable to her salvation, by her faithfully ("if they ... the women ... shall continue in faith and charity") performing her part, childbearing and home duties, her sphere, as man's is public teaching and public duties (1 Timothy 3:11-15). (See ABEL; CAIN; SETH.) Her name Chawah , "life", implies both her being mother of all living and her being mother of the promised "Seed of the woman" who should give LIFE to the human race now subjected to death. Adam as a believer fitly gives her this name directly after God's promise of life through "the Seed of the woman." Otherwise her name ought to have implied death, which she had caused, not life.
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Fausset, Andrew R. Entry for 'Eve'. Fausset's Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/fbd/e/eve.html. 1949.
