Eve

As you probably all know, the first woman mentioned in the Bible is Eve who incidentally is not called Eve until after the fall.  In the beginning, Eve is just called "the woman." In fact, as I flip through my copy of the New American Bible I am surprised to discover that the first time the man is called Adam is Genesis 4:25. What does Adam mean? Here is the link to an interesting article written by a Rabbi on the meaning of Adam's name: The Meaning of "Adam":Insights into the Hebrew Language.

God creates the woman for the man because "it is not good for the man to be alone" (2:18a). From the beginning, we see that God intends man and woman to be together, complementing each other. It is possible that God is not speaking here only about marriage although he certainly is speaking of that as well. It is possible that God is speaking of life in general. Modern science has proven that men and women think differently. In male dominated nations like China where women are aborted, there are great deficiencies. The same is true in male dominated corporations. Men by themselves are in a handicap. As I write this post on a woman, I find that it is impossible to speak solely on Eve. Humanity only begins when the man and the woman are together. Adam alone is lost. Eve is not just important because of the Fall (after all Adam ate the fruit as well) but because she is the "mother of all the living" (3:20). It is because of the fact that she is the mother of all the living that the Fall is so significant. Eve's choice affects the rest of the world, eternally. What a powerful role it is then to be a mother!

Genesis 1-3

It is amazing how rereading a story in the Bible can reveal hidden truths. These two Creation stories are truly rich with symbolism amongst other things. Here is an interesting verse:

"Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden" (Genesis 3:8). God was walking in the garden. Interesting. Sounds like Jesus to me.

The Creation story makes me think about the cost of knowledge in a world that is constantly seeking to know more and more about the world. We could argue that when Adam and Eve were truly happy, they were ignorant. Ignorance is bliss. But is it? In a sense, this is what the serpent asks the first humans. After all, it is because of knowledge that Adam and Eve fall. Knowledge can be good and evil. When do we stop searching and rest content with the amount of information we already have about the world? The knowledge of cures for diseases is wonderful, but what about cures that involve stem cell research: embryo stem cell research? How about decoding the DNA so that we know the lifespan of a person as soon as they are born? What if I know that the child that I have conceived has Huntington's Disease because of the state-of-the-art testing available for pregnant women? Do I abort the child? But if I kill my child I will break God's commands. It is only with God that we can discern what is right and wrong. With the help of the Spirit we know when we have gone too far.

After all, the serpent is Satan, and God makes a promise to Satan and the woman---a promise that was conceived in the womb of Mary of Nazareth 2,000 years ago:

And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel" (Genesis 3:15).

Satan's offspring is sin and death. The woman's offspring is of course Jesus: eternal life.

(Tomorrow's reading is Genesis 4-6)