Eve

Oversimplified

• The first woman, drawn from Adam's side as "a helper fit for him"; deceived by the serpent, she ate first and gave to Adam.
• The Fathers see her both as our first mother and as the type answered by the Theotokos, the "New Eve" whose obedience undoes her disobedience.

Her Story

Eve (Hebrew Chavvah, "life," "because she was the mother of all living," Genesis 3.20) is the first woman, formed by God from the side of Adam in Eden (Genesis 2.21-22). The serpent tells her she will "be like God," and she eats from the forbidden tree and shares the fruit with Adam (Genesis 3.1-6). With him she is exiled from the garden, and to her is spoken both the sorrow of childbearing and the first promise of redemption — the seed who will crush the serpent's head (Genesis 3.15). She becomes the mother of Cain, Abel, and Seth; Scripture does not record her death, only that through her the human family begins.

The New Eve

St. Irenaeus draws the parallel the Church still sings: "the knot of Eve's disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary." Irenaeus[^1] As Eve's "yes" to the serpent brought death, the Theotokos' "let it be to me" brought life. See The Incarnation, Recapitulation.

[^1]: St. Irenaeus, Against Heresies III.22 (the Eve–Mary parallel).