James Hastings Dictionary of the Bible: Eve

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James Hastings Dictionary of the Bible: Eve


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EVE (Heb. Chawwâh; the name probably denotes ‘life’: other proposed explanations are ‘life-giving,’ ‘living,’ ‘kinship,’ and some would connect it with an Arah. word for ‘serpent’).—1. Eve is little more, in Genesis, than a personification of human life which is perpetuated by woman. See Adam. 2. In the NT Eve is mentioned in 2Co_11:3, 1Ti_2:13-15. The former is a reference to her deception by the serpent. The latter teaches that since ‘Adam was first formed, then Eve,’ women must live in quiet subordination to their husbands. And a second reason seems to be added, i.e. that Adam was ‘not deceived,’ in the fundamental manner that Eve was, for ‘the woman being completely deceived has come into [a state of] transgression.’ Here St. Paul distinctly takes Eve to be a personification of all women. The personification continues in 1Ti_2:15, which is obscure, and must be studied in the commentaries.

A. H. M‘Neile.