Character history
Eve is the foremother of all people, the wife of Adam, created by God from the rib of the first man. Mother of Cain, Abel and Seth - the first people born outside the Garden of Eden. Seduced by the serpent, she gave her husband Adam a taste of the forbidden fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, which in Christian mythology became the cause of the fall of the first people.
When Adam and Eve needed clothes
So, there was no need for a person in Paradise to ensure the vital functions of his mortal body. The most banal and stupid idea of “heavenly life” is that a person should only walk through a beautiful garden in idleness and idleness and enjoy the wonderful fruits. Many even say: “What’s good in Paradise, you can go crazy there from doing nothing.” But they forget about the incessant spiritual work of self-improvement that a person was obliged to carry out.
To get closer to the Creator, to know the world, to improve the Universe through spiritual works - this is the benefit God gave to man. He gave him this world and made him like Himself. Even angels, incorporeal beings, were not given power over the world, but man was given power.
Theophilus of Antioch wrote that initially man was not created either mortal or immortal. He was put at a crossroads, he was given the opportunity to go in any direction and choose immortality and further improvement of himself and the world or decay. He could not resist and chose the second, and now, in order to return to the Creator, he needs to prove his “suitability” in a different way - through earthly tests. Learn to live in such a way as to ensure the existence of the body (hard work), and at the same time educate the soul so that it can return to the Creator and reunite with Him. Or die, now completely.
Earthly life is a chance for every person to escape the sin of their forefathers and atone for it.
If the Almighty had initially created man immortal, he would have made him God, and if mortal, he would have been the cause of his death. No, God gave man the opportunity to choose for himself what to become. The Monk Simeon the New Theologian said that Adam was created with an incorruptible, albeit material, body, and was made king over the entire material world. Adam and Eve appeared perfect, however, this was only the initial stage, then they had to continue to improve even their incorruptible nature and the whole world. A huge field of activity for the first people and their descendants! What heights a person could have achieved in transforming the world if not for betrayal of God, one can only guess.
Most theologians, in particular Pavel Florensky, say that space and time existed in Paradise, but it flowed in the direction of improvement, rather than destruction and decay. Sin affected the whole world, and time began to flow differently.
God demanded from man only one proof of love for Himself, a single sacrifice: not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Man did not make even this one sacrifice in the name of the Creator, but became proud and wanted to become like God. The Fall changed the whole world. People could no longer remain naked. The church fathers do not deny the literal meaning of the fact that the Creator put “skin garments” on people, that is, clothing made from animal skins. However, it also has deep symbolic meaning.
Having dressed himself in clothes made from animal skins after the crime, the man took on bestial nature, the bestial nature. In other words, he changed his biological nature, becoming like cattle.
Creation of Man
God created the first people, Adam and Eve, in his own image and likeness. It was assumed that the ancestors of mankind would rule over everything living on earth. God was the first to create Adam “from the dust of the ground” and breathe life into him through his nostrils. Then God put Adam to sleep and took his rib, and from this material he created Eve, the first woman.
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Adam, Eve and God
The meaning of the name is associated with the Hebrew word “hava” - “life-giving.” In Islam, the first woman is called Hawwa.
The creation of Eve was associated with Adam’s loneliness and his need for a society of equals, for “it is not good for man to be alone.” She became Adam's wife. Both lived in the Garden of Eden, walked “naked and not ashamed.” The "canonical" story of Adam and Eve is found in the book of Genesis. However, there are also apocrypha, according to which Eve is not the second person created after Adam, but the third, because the second was Lilith, the first woman of Adam, whom God created earlier. This is described in the book of Zohar.
Lilith can be called the first feminist in mythological history to vote in favor of equal rights for men and women. Lilith refused to submit to Adam, declaring that God created woman equal to him. Lilith flew away from Adam, uttering the secret name of God, and Adam went to God to complain.
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Adam and Eve with an apple
Three angels were sent after the fugitive, who overtook Lilith at the Red Sea. The woman refused to return to her husband and was punished. Lilith turned into an evil demon who kills babies, and according to Kabbalah, into a she-devil who comes to young bachelors in their dreams and seduces them.
The first clothes of the first people - what are they like?
The very first consequence of a sin is always a feeling of shame. Adam and Eve also knew him. As soon as they betrayed the Creator, their perfect nature was lost, they saw the imperfection of their own bodies and were ashamed of it. Hiding from the Creator in the thickets of Eden, the first people covered the “shameful” places with leaves. Adam's costume for Eve consisted of woven fig leaves with which she girded herself. Her husband did the same. their nakedness with fig leaves , Adam and Eve probably felt more comfortable.
According to Ephraim the Syrian, when sending our first parents from Eden to Earth, God dressed them in “leather garments” so that they would see themselves in the guise of animals, and, eating their meat, would understand what they had turned their original nature into. As St. Maximus the Confessor said about a man after his crime: “His body was completely subordinate to the laws of a voluntarily chosen bestial life.” This is also mentioned by St. Gregory of Sinaite, who said that just as the soul was free to sin, so the body acquired the freedom to undergo corruption. Thus, the corruption of the soul and the corruption of the body are interrelated concepts.
The Fall
Created from a rib, Eve no longer considered herself equal to her husband, but she also brought him trouble. When creating the Garden of Eden, God “included in the project” two special trees - the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life. The fruits from the second gave eternal life, but the Lord forbade the fruits from the first to be tasted. The punishment for those who violate the ban will be death. The rest of the flora in Eden was at the complete disposal of Adam and Eve.
At first, people observed the Lord's prohibition, until the serpent, who was “more cunning than all the beasts of the field,” turned to Eve. The serpent began to persuade Eve to taste the forbidden fruit. At first, Eve refused to obey the serpent and said that God had forbidden anyone to approach that tree and try the fruits from it under threat of death.
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The serpent convinced Eve that they were not threatened with death; on the contrary, by eating the fruit, people themselves would become like gods. Fascinated by the speeches of the devilish reptile, Eve tried the fruit, which in popular culture is considered to be an apple. In fact, the type of fruit in the Bible is not specified, and there are different opinions about what exactly Eve ate - from a fig or fig in the version of the Jews to a peach in the version of the Armenians.
Having tasted the fruit, Eve fed it to her husband. After tasting the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve suddenly noticed that they were both naked, became embarrassed and tried to hide from God. The Lord punished each participant in the events. He cursed the snake to always crawl on its belly and eat dust. And he expelled Adam and Eve, who committed the original sin, from Eden.
After such a fatal turn in his biography, the man had to work hard all his life and cultivate the land, and Eve was doomed to obey her husband and “bear children in illness.” People lost the immortality that was characteristic of them in the Garden of Eden, and after death they were doomed to return to dust - to the earth. To prevent people from sneaking back into Eden and tasting the fruits of the Tree of Life, which give immortality, the Lord placed a cherub at the entrance - a many-winged angel with a fiery sword.
After being expelled from paradise, people began to be fruitful and multiply. Eve gave birth to her first son, Cain, followed by her second, Abel. The third son, Seth, was born to Eve when she was already 130 years old. From the family of Seth came Noah, the Old Testament patriarch who was saved in the ark during the Flood along with a small group of chosen righteous people. The descendants of Eve's other sons - Cain and Abel - died in the flood. Thus, Seth is considered the ancestor of modern humanity.
Leafing through the archives: Adam and Eve, the ancestors of humanity, who are they?
Adam and Eve, the ancestors of humanity. What is known about them? How were their lives reflected by artists in ancient times? Let's try to answer these questions in our article. Children of Adam and Eve
There is a belief, also based on a biblical legend, which says that brownies and their “relatives” - courtyards, banniks, barnkeepers, etc. - are the children of the first people, Adam and Eve, born after their fall. The legend says that these children were so ugly that Adam, horrified, wanted to drown them. But Eve took pity on them and persuaded Adam not to kill the children, but to hide them. After this, the first people hid their children in secluded places all over the world. These creatures do not show themselves to people, and most of them do not like humans. However, the brownie lives in peace with people and even helps them.
Adam, Eve and Lilith
According to the official version of the Old Testament, the first people were Adam and Eve, who ate the forbidden fruit and were expelled from paradise. And from the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Talmud and even the original source of the Bible in Aramaic, you can find out a different version. Eve was Adam's second wife, and before her he had already “tasted the forbidden fruit.” With his first wife Lilith.
Later, the text of the Old Testament was rewritten, and the story of Lilith was removed.
There is also a version that Eve received her name, meaning Life, only after the Fall and expulsion from Paradise. Perhaps she was previously called Lilith...
God created Lilith and Adam from clay. (According to one version, Lilith was created from fire). And then the controversy began. Lilith claimed that they were equal since both were made of clay. She did not want to submit to Adam, but, speaking in modern language, defended her gender equality and her rights.
Unable to convince Adam, she flew to the Red Sea, where she was overtaken by three angels sent by God. Lilith refused to return. Then the angels took an oath from her that she would not enter the house in which she would see them or their names.
Simply put, it turns out that Eve is Adam’s second wife, created (cloned) from Adam’s DNA, and Adam’s first equal wife was Lilith...
According to biblical verses, it turns out that if this is Adam (a man just created by God, without specifying his gender), then he is a very literate person and knowledgeable about earthly life. He knows the meaning of the words “husband, wife” and he knows that he will cleave to his wife and forget his parents. By the way, what kind of parents are we talking about? After all, Adam has no one except his Parent-God.
And Eve, if not his clone, is more likely a sister than a wife, since she is made of the same material as himself. There is only one answer - God himself says all this, either anticipating future events, or when the Fall has already happened.
THE NAME OF THE SERPENT THAT WAS REMOVED FROM THE BIBLE. His name was Phallus. This is the fruitful spirit of the angel of Earth, Satan. And events in Paradise developed differently, and not as they are set out in the modern version of the BIBLE. Alone, without the help of Adam, the serpent was never able to tempt the woman. Then the Phallus invited Adam to first taste the forbidden fruit, and then together seduce Eve.
The truth was removed from the BIBLE, but both seducers, Adam and Phallus, in a pair, stuck to each other (a clear example of the sequence of events in Paradise), and to this day are engaged in the “paradise fall” on earth, continuing to involve Eve in it. It is the young man who initiates intimacy and inclines the girl to it, and not vice versa.
A reminder of God’s command not to eat fruit from the Tree of Good and Evil is the hymen, which blocks the entrance to the fruit-bearing paradise of EDEN. The hymen is a sign of PROHIBITION and a warning to man against further sin and God’s punishment. And while this entrance is closed, female flesh is free from the tempter, from lust. A woman is free to make her own choice - to accept the phallus’s persuasion or not. When a girl commits a fall on earth of her own free will, that is, neglecting the divine prohibition, she goes towards the temptations of a male phallus, then the following biblical lines come into force:
… «He said to his wife: I will multiply your sorrow during your pregnancy; in illness you will give birth to children; and your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you
"... (Chapter 3:16)
And a man is dominated by his heavenly mentor-tempter, who is constantly with him and on whom he is completely dependent. The phallus subjugates a man from his youth, awakens his flesh, leading him to Eden with sweet dreams. Moreover, the man appreciates this mentor and honors him, sometimes more than GOD.
God foresaw this too, and therefore said to Adam:
…« …cursed is the earth for your sake: you will eat from it in sorrow all the days of your life
"... (Chapter 3:17)
He said almost the same thing to the Serpent:
… «…Because you have done this, you are cursed above all cattle and above all the beasts of the field; on your belly you will go, and you will eat dust all the days of your life
"... (Chapter 3:14)
These two verses talk about curses.
Yes, Adam and the Phallus “worked hard” in the Garden of Eden “to glory.” And on Earth they managed to discredit Eve, making her the culprit of the Fall. Adam and Eve. Lost heaven
The offense was followed by punishment: the Serpent was cursed and doomed to crawl on its stomach; a woman has to give birth in pain and submit to a man, and a man has to work in the sweat of his brow. After this, God made clothes for the people and expelled them from the Garden of Eden, fearing that they would not receive eternal life. To prevent man from returning and tasting the fruits of the Tree of Life, a cherub with a flaming sword was placed at the entrance to Paradise.
“ And the Lord God said: Behold, Adam has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil;
and now, lest he stretch out his hand, and also take from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever. And the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he had been taken. And he drove out Adam, and placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubim and a flaming sword that turned to guard the way to the tree of life " (Gen. 3:22-24)
Adam and Eve after expulsion from paradise
Adam met his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain. Then Eve conceived again and gave birth to a second son, Abel (Gen. 4:1-2). At the age of 130, their third son was born - Seth (Sheta), who, being the ancestor of Noah, thereby became one of the ancestors of all humanity; the descendants of the other sons of Adam and Eve died during the Flood.
The image of Eve in culture
Being the foremother of people, Eve was depicted in icons, for example, in the famous work of Andrei Rublev “The Descent into Hell”. There she stands among the righteous saved from fiery hell, and her red outfit symbolizes the Resurrection and the beginning of a new life.
In illustrations to the Bible, Eve and Adam are traditionally depicted naked - their bodies are only slightly covered with leaves of tropical vegetation. After the Fall, they received “leather clothes” from God, but artists in scenes of expulsion from paradise prefer to replace them with animal skins or linen tunics. In Eden, the first people are surrounded by animals, fruits of paradise and strange flowers, and on earth they are depicted with the traditional attributes of agriculture and crafts - a plow, ears of grain, a basket of bread. Eve is often depicted pregnant or surrounded by babies, with a spinning wheel or sewing in her hands.
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The Creation of Eve
In the 11th episode of the first season of the series "The X-Files", the name of Eve is borne by women and girl clones artificially created during a genetic experiment. These lab-enhanced babies were supposed to become super soldiers. But something went wrong, and Eva’s test subjects began to “fly off the rails” in their teens, turning into psychopathic killers.
In 2014, the biblical epic film Noah was released. The image of Eve was embodied by actress Ariane Rinehart.
In the Supernatural series, Eve is the mother of monsters, a powerful being who appeared long before angels and humans. She lived in Purgatory until she escaped from there to Earth, where, in the guise of a mortal woman, she gathers her own army to confront angels, demons and everyone in general.
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Eve and the Serpent
In 2013, Jim Jarmusch's film Only Lovers Left Alive was released, which is about a couple of vampires - an underground musician (Tom Hiddleston), who lives in half-abandoned Detroit and is contemplating suicide, and his stylish wife, played by the owner of an unusual appearance Tilda Swinton.
Both vampires are named after the biblical ancestors - Adam and Eve.
Was clothing necessary in Paradise?
According to St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov), the land was originally “elegant,” ideal, devoid of flaws. All the descendants of Adam and Eve saw the earth as already doomed and have no idea what it was like before the Fall. It is only known that the Lord created it beautiful, not requiring cultivation: everything grew by itself. In other words, it was spirituality and spiritual work that were placed at the forefront, and the need to work physically appeared in man after the Fall in order to ensure the vital activity of the body that had become mortal. But, as they say, not by bread alone...
No matter how necessary work is for the sake of material wealth, spiritual self-improvement should under no circumstances be put off for the sake of it. You can create an idol for yourself from everything that does not concern the desire for spiritual reunification with the Creator, even from labor. The Almighty understands perfectly well the need of earthly man for material goods and carnal pleasures, but man began to abuse this.
So, people in Paradise did not need to provide themselves with food and, as we call them, household items. Man also had no need to cover up his nature. Man created by God was beautiful and initially virtuous. There was no sinfulness in him, there was no concept of vice. Adam was not naive and stupid like a child - after all, a child is not trusted with power over the world. Adam was created smart and wise, but he was a child in relation to sin - man did not know it. And he could improve both himself and the whole world further if he had asserted the right to do so that gave him, that is, passed the test of temptation. But the first people betrayed the Creator, wanting to become equal to him.
What was the weather like in Paradise?
St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov) wrote that initially on Earth there were no seasons or weather changes. Everything was most favorable. It didn’t rain, so sources of moisture came from the ground and nourished it. All creatures lived in harmony with each other and ate the fruits of the earth. God cursed the Earth because of man's actions: “Cursed is the earth because of your deeds” (Book of Genesis). Everything was upset, there were storms and hurricanes, rain and snow, floods, fires and earthquakes. Man lost his love for the Creator and obedience to Him, and the animals stopped obeying man, changed their nature, and began to devour each other.
Interesting Facts
- The creation of man and the images of Adam and Eve have been played out in art many times. The images of the ancestors of mankind on the diptych of the German artist Albrecht Dürer and on the doors of the Ghent Altarpiece by the van Eyck brothers are famous throughout the world. Hieronymus Bosch depicted Adam and Eve on the left wing of the famous triptych “The Garden of Earthly Delights”, which shows the last three days of the creation of the world.
- Molecular biologists have dubbed "mitochondrial Eve" the woman who became the last common maternal ancestor of all living people and lived about two hundred thousand years ago. The mitochondrial DNA of this hypothetically existing lady is shared by all human women, but this does not mean that she was the only “foremother” of humanity, like the biblical Eve. Other women lived at the same time as the so-called “mitochondrial Eve” and also made their own contribution to the gene pool of humanity. Discovery's two-part film "The Real Eve" is dedicated to this discovery.
- In Peterhof there are paired fountains “Adam” and “Eve”, sculpted by the Italian Giovanni Bonazza commissioned by the Russian diplomat Raguzinsky during the time of Peter I. Over the three centuries of their existence, the fountains have not changed and have retained their original appearance.
- In Abrahamic religious traditions, it is believed that Old Testament characters have very real burial places. The ancestress Eve, according to Judaism, is buried in the Cave of the Patriarchs, also known as the Cave of Machpelah, in the ancient part of the city of Hebron on the banks of the Jordan River. Along with Eve, Sarah, the wife of Abraham, Rebekah, the wife of Isaac, and Leah, the wife of Jacob, rest there. And according to the Islamic version, Eve’s grave is located in the city of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, where there is a place called Hawwa’s Tomb, or Mukbarat umna Hawwah.
- In the Muslim tradition, Eve is called Havva. The Koran says nothing about Adam's wife, she is only mentioned without details. But the details are present in the hadiths, or legends, that tell about the life of the Prophet Muhammad. In this version, the Lord sent Adam and Hawwa to different parts of the world: the man, after the Fall, ended up in India, and the woman in the Arabian Peninsula. It is believed that Havva gave birth not three times, but twenty, and each time - twins. The last thing Havva gave birth to was one son. In total, Havva, according to the Islamic version, had 39 children.
- Asteroid 164, discovered in 1876, is named after Eve.
