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Eve | Biography |
Here are Eve's greatest moments, told in the Bible's own words...
While Adam was sleeping...
Eve, snake, fruit
God punishes Eve
Goodbye to Eden |
2-Minute biog
According to the famous Garden of Eden story in the Bible, Eve was not so much born as sprouted, growing from a rib that the Lord took from Adam's side, after Adam had failed to get along in any meaningful way with other species.
Tempted by a talking snake to eat fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil – the one forbidden tree in the Garden of Eden – she ate and persuaded Adam to join her. The snake had promised that they would be like God, but in fact the only difference was that they realised they had no clothes on.
God had threatened they would die if they ate the fruit, but in fact he only expelled them from Eden, even going so far as to make them some clothes.
And this, it has been said, "brought death into the world and all our woes."
Trivia
In the early days of the church, Eve was considered a symbol prefiguring the church, because the church was said to be founded in the blood that came out of Christ's side at the crucifixion, just as Eve came from Adam's side.
"Would you Adam and Eve it?" is popular Cockney rhyming slang for "Would you believe it?"
Meanwhile, on the other side of the pond, "Adam and Eve on a raft" is said to be Americna diner staff slang for two poached eggs on toast.
Some medieval paintings of Eve covered her navel with a figleaf (as well as more obvious areas of controversy) to avoid the issue of whether she had one or not.
In Islam, Adam and Eve's departure from paradise was considered an honour rather than a punishment, because God was making them guardians of the earth.
Quotations
"Whilst Adam slept, Eve from his side arose:
Strange his first sleep should be his last repose."
Anon
"Eve was not taken from the feet of Adam to be his slave, or from his head to be his Lord, but from his side, to be his partner."
Peter Lombard, medieval theologian
"O fairest of creation! last and best
Of all God's works! creature in whom excell'd
Whatever can to sight or thought be form'd
Holy, divine, good amiable, or sweet!"
John Milton
"Adam was beguiled by Eve, not she by him. It is right that he whom she led into wrongdoing should have her under his direction, so that he may not fail a second time through female levity."
Gratian, 12th-century
"Women should be silent and not be allowed to teach or to tell men what to do. After all, Adam was created before Eve, and the man Adam wasn't the one who was fooled. It was the woman Eve who was completely fooled and sinned."
St Paul (in 1 Timothy 2:12-14)
"God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve."
Homophobic slogan |
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