Bible Women: The Woman Eve

Genesis 2:20 - 4:25

How many times we have heard mention of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and of the apple and the fall of man. Yet the truth is that Eve is not called Eve until Genesis 3:20 "And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living" before that she is called Woman.  The word apple is never mentioned.  It is called "fruit" Genesis 3:2-3 "...We may eat of the fruit of the trees....." "But of the fruit of the tree ....." Changing the Woman to Eve too soon, and changing fruit to apple may seem insignificant, yet they change the word of God, and changing the word of God is the basis for Woman's downfall.  The history of that downfall is deception, altering the word of God, recognition that something has changed, lost fellowship with God, blame, and then that most blessed, reconciliation with God through His grace and mercy, and not Adam and the woman’s works.  Yet there are consequences to pay, which continue to this day. Because of the disobedience of Adam, sin has passed to every man, Romans 5:12 "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned;" and because sin entered this world, we can only have forgiveness of sin and fellowship with God through the shed blood of our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 2:24 "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed." 1 Peter 1:18-19 "Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot."

The history of Eve begins in Genesis 2:16.  The Lord has put Adam in the Garden of Eden to care for it, and he is given only one command Genesis 2:16-17 "And the LORD God commanded the man, saying Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" This demands obedience, and Adam will be tested on what God said.  In Gen. 2:20, after naming all the animals and birds, Adam has found that in all creation, only he is without a helpmeet. Then 2:21  the intervention of God, Adam is put into a deep sleep, one of his ribs is removed, and in Gen 2:22 "..the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man". Adam is created from the dust of the ground, but the woman was made from his body, and for what purpose? Genesis 2:23-24 is the answer " ...This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh."  The Woman is his counterpart, and they two were made to be together.  This is the definitive answer to homosexuality.  God created the man and woman. Not the man and the man, nor the woman and the woman. Genesis 2:25 shows their purity. "And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed." They lived a beautiful, perfect life in fellowship with their Creator.

Then, on a day destined to forever change the world, the woman is approached by a creature called "the serpent".  We know from Revelation 20:2 that this is none other than Satan "And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years". It is no accident that the serpent approached the Woman, as the bible says that the woman is the weaker vessel.  1 Peter 3:7 "Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life......"

The Woman does not seem to be afraid of the serpent, and he begins a conversation with her.  Instead of immediately leaving and seeking the company of her husband, she makes the fatal mistake of joining him in conversation.  Genesis 3:1 tells us that "..the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made", poor Woman was no match for him, subtlety is a very dangerous quality.  The attack  against God begins with the serpent's first statement 3:1 "Yea, hath God said?"  He questions God's word, and then "Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?" he outright lies.  God as stated earlier in Genesis 2:17 commanded that they not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, lest they die.. And then the Woman makes the grave mistake of misquoting what God said. She first of all subtracts from God's word by leaving out the word "freely" Genesis 2:16 "Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:" and then adds to God's word by stating in Gen 3:3 "..God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it,..."  God said nothing about touching it.  

And now the true deception, Genesis 3:5 "for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil"  At that point, in Genesis 3:6 the Woman is overwhelmed by the lust of the flesh " And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food," the lust of the eyes "..it was pleasant to the eyes," and the pride of life "and a tree desired to make one wise". and she forever changes her life. "She took of the fruit thereof, and did eat," and then, to compound the mistake, she "gave it also unto her husband with her, and he did eat".  Because this is a study about the Woman Eve, we will not go into here the mistake of Adam.  One wonders why this woman would want to know evil as well as good when she had only known the goodness of God.

But now Adam and his wife realize what they have done Genesis 3:7 "And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked:" Before they were not ashamed (Gen 2:25), but now to try and hide the fact, "they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons." This may have hid their nakedness, but it did not restore their fellowship, just as our works cannot please God. Ephesians 2:8-9 "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast".  It must be the LORD God who will restore fellowship.  Adam and Eve have now surely died, not physically which would be later, but spiritually, by their separation from the LORD God.  Later, a very sad occurrence, Genesis 3:8 "And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden."  What a unhappy state they are in now, hiding from the presence of their Creator, with whom they once enjoyed perfect fellowship.

When the LORD God questions the Woman, she places the blame on the serpent Genesis 3:13 "And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat" The LORD God surely knew what had happened, but the Woman must admit what she has done. It may be true that the serpent beguiled her, but she chose to listen to the serpent, and then to disobey the word of God, and there were drastic consequences to be paid.  In Genesis 3:16 "Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children, and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee."  Her desire is to be to her husband, and he is given the position as her head. 

Now, in Genesis 3:20, the woman is named Eve, "because she was the mother of all living."  Then a blessed occurrence. In Genesis 3:21 "Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them" replacing their own efforts.  This would involve the shedding of blood, and is the first mention of blood in the Bible.  It foreshadows the shedding of the precious blood of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.  They are driven out of the beautiful Garden of Eden, lest they eat of the Tree of Life, and live forever in their fallen state.  In Genesis 4:2, Eve bares Cain, and Abel, then lives to learn that her son Abel was murdered by his brother Cain. Genesis 4:8 "...and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.". Surely, the truth of Genesis 3:16 has come true for Eve already.  Genesis 4:25 tells us "And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth.  For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew."   We are not told when she died.

In the new testament book 2 Corinthians 11:3 the apostle Paul speaks of Eve as a warning to believers "But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.".

and a good lesson for all believers:

1 John 2:15-17 "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.  If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.  And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever."

vcg/August 2015