Eve

Eve is the first woman, the wife of Adam, and "the mother of all living" (Genesis 3:20). Her life holds both the dignity of being made in God's image and the tragedy of the first human sin — and, woven through it, the first promise of redemption.

Created as a fitting helper

God declared that the man's solitude was "not good" and resolved to make "an help meet for him" (Genesis 2:18). He formed the woman from Adam's side while he slept (Genesis 2:21–22), a picture later writers see as expressing equality and intimate union rather than subordination. Adam's response — "bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh" (Genesis 2:23) — celebrates her as his counterpart.

The temptation

The serpent approached Eve, questioning God's word ("Yea, hath God said…?"), denying its consequence ("Ye shall not surely die"), and impugning God's motives (Genesis 3:1–5). Eve saw that the tree was "good for food," "pleasant to the eyes," and "to be desired to make one wise," and she ate, and gave to her husband (Genesis 3:6). Paul notes that "the woman being deceived was in the transgression" (1 Timothy 2:14), distinguishing her deception from Adam's willful choice.

Judgment and promise

God's words to Eve spoke of pain in childbearing and tension in marriage (Genesis 3:16), yet the curse fell on the serpent, not on her — and within it came the protoevangelium: her "seed" would bruise the serpent's head (Genesis 3:15). It is fitting that the one through whom sin entered would also be the one through whose line the Redeemer would come.

Mother of all living

Outside Eden, Eve bore Cain ("I have gotten a man from the LORD," Genesis 4:1), Abel, and after Abel's death, Seth, saying "God… hath appointed me another seed" (Genesis 4:25). Through Seth's line the promise was carried forward toward Noah, Abraham, and ultimately Christ.