Eve, a symbol of equality and creation in the Abrahamic tradition
The story of Eve, known as Hawa in Arabic and ẫặẫ in Hebrew, occupies a central place in the Book of Genesis. According to the original account, Eve is considered the first woman, although some controversy within Judaism grants Lilith this status as well. Eve, also known as Adam's wife.
According to the second chapter of Genesis, God (Jehovah) created Eve by taking her from Adam's rib and making her his companion. Adam was charged with guarding and maintaining Paradise before Eve was created, and she was not present when God commanded Adam not to eat of the forbidden fruit - although it is implied that she knew about it. Eve was convinced by the serpent's argument that eating the forbidden fruit would not kill her but would bring her knowledge, so she chose to eat the fruit. She shared it with Adam, and before they could eat of the tree of life, they were cast out of the Garden of Eden. Christian churches differ in their interpretation of Adam and Eve's disobedience to God (often referred to as the Fall) and its consequences for humanity. Christian and Jewish teachings sometimes attribute different levels of responsibility for the "Fall" to both Adam (the first man) and Eve.
In addition to Adam, the Catholic Church, based on ancient traditions, recognizes Eve as a saint. The religious feast day of Saints Adam and Eve has been celebrated on December 24 since the Middle Ages in many European countries, including Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Lithuania and the Nordic countries.
Origin of name
In Arabic, Eve was named because she was created from a living being, in reference to her creation from Adam's rib.
In Genesis:
In Genesis 2:18-22, woman was created to be a helper to man. The term used, *ezer kenegdo*, is difficult to translate and carries an active intervention on behalf of the other person. The woman is called *Asha* because it is taken from *Ash*, meaning the man. These words are not actually connected to the Hebrew language. Later, after the story of Paradise was completed, she was named Eve, meaning "serpent" in Hebrew, which can also be interpreted as "serpent." The ancient interpretive tradition suggests that the use of the rib emphasizes the equal dignity of both man and woman, since woman was created from the same material as man and given life through the same processes. In fact, the word translated "rib" in English usually also means "side", "piece", or "support". Rib is a pun in Sumerian, where *ti* means "rib" and "life".
God created Eve from Adam's silent sighs, which is usually translated as "one of his ribs." The rib carries connotations of bending, weakness, hardship, and dependence. Feminist theology has recently challenged this traditional reading, suggesting that Eve is half Adam, and supporting the idea of women's equality with men rather than their subordination. Such readings reflect elements of Aristophanes' tale of the origin of love and the separation of the sexes in Plato's Symposium. Based on these observations, men and women have the same number of ribs. Recent proposals speculate that the rib from which Eve was created was the beak, a small structure found in the penis of many mammals but not in humans.
The expulsion from Aden is a story of wisdom
The story of Eve's expulsion from Eden, found in Genesis 3, has been described as an allegory or "wisdom tale" in the wisdom tradition. This narrative section is attributed to Yahweh by documentary hypothesis, due to the use of Yahweh's name.
In the story of the expulsion from Eden, a dialogue occurred between the serpent and the woman (3: 1-5). The serpent, previously identified in 2:19 as a creature made by the Lord among the beasts of the field, addresses the woman who responds to the creature's taunt despite the Lord's prohibition in 2:17. The serpent directly contradicts the Lord's command. Adam and the woman both sin (3:6-8). The Lord questions Adam, who in turn blames the woman (3:9-13). The Lord then challenges the woman to explain herself, blaming the cursed serpent crawling on her stomach and losing her limbs.
The divine pronouncements are followed by the issuance of three judgments on all sinners (3:14-19). The rule of the spiritual medium and the nature of the crime fall first on the serpent, then on the woman, and finally on Adam. After God curses the serpent, the woman receives punishment that affects two primary roles: childbearing and her submissive relationship with her husband. Adam's punishment follows. Adam's reaction, the naming of Eve, and how the Lord made garments of skin for them are briefly described (3:20-21). The Eden story concludes with a divine discourse that determines the couple's expulsion and carries out those deliberations (3:22-24).
Mother of humanity
Eve (and by extension the women) was condemned to a life of grief and labor during childbirth, and to submit to the authority of her husband. Adam and Eve had two sons, Cain and Abel, the first a farmer and the other a shepherd. After Abel's death, Eve gave birth to a third son, Seth, from whom Noah (and thus all of humanity) descended. According to the Book of Genesis, Seth was born when Adam was 130 years old, “in his likeness and image.” Genesis 5:4 states that Eve gave birth to other sons and daughters after Cain, Abel, and Seth.
In other works
Concepts such as the identification of the serpent as Satan, or Eve's sin as sexual temptation, or Adam's first wife being Lilith, come from literary works found in many Jewish apocrypha, but not found in Genesis or the Torah itself. They are mentioned in connection with famous women in Giovanni Boccaccio's literary work Famous Women, a collection of biographies of historical and legendary women written by the Florentine author in 1361-1362. It is noteworthy that this was the first collection devoted exclusively to the biographies of women in Western literature.
There are writings dealing with these topics in Greek, Latin, Slavic, Syriac, Armenian, and Arabic, dating back to ancient Jewish thought. Their influential concepts were later adopted in Christian theology but not in modern Judaism, marking a fundamental division between the two religions. Some of the earliest Jewish apocrypha are known as the Book of Adam literature, which later became part of Christian works. Examples of Christian works include the Book of Adam and Eve, known as The Struggle of Adam and Eve with Satan, which was translated from the Ethiopian Ge'ez by Solomon Caesar Malan (1882), and an original Syriac work entitled The Cave of Treasures that is closely related to the conflict as August Dielmann noted.
In the Jewish book Ben Sira, Eve is referred to as “the second wife of Adam,” and Lilith was the first. In this alternative version, which entered Europe from the East in the 6th century, Lilith was created at the same time, from the same clay (the Sumerian ki), as Adam, who resembles the Babylonian Lilithu, and the Sumerian Ninlil, Enlil's wife. Lilith refuses to sleep or serve Adam's orders. When Adam tries to force her to take a lower position, she flies away from Eden and deals with demons, executing hundreds of times each day (derived from the Arabic for jinn). Then God sent three angels to threaten her with the death of her offspring if she refused to return to Adam. She refuses to return, prompting God to create a second wife for Adam, this time from his own rib.
Eve in Islam
Eve's name is not mentioned in the Qur'an even once. Rather, he calls her his wife without explicitly mentioning her name. But her name was mentioned in the Sunnah of the Prophet. After God created Adam without a mother or father, God created Eve from Adam to be his home and helper in life. It is He who created you from one soul and made of it its mate to dwell with it. When he had intercourse with her, she became pregnant. It was not light, so she passed by it, but when it was heavy, they called on God, their Lord, “If You give us what is right, we will certainly be among those who are thankful.” (Surat Al-A’raf, verse 189).
The sons of Adam inhabit the earth, until they succeed each other in it. God made Adam and Eve dwell in Paradise, and We said, “O Adam, dwell you and your wife in Paradise, and eat from it abundantly wherever you wish, but do not approach this tree, lest you be among the wrongdoers.” Then Satan caused them to slip from it, and brought them out of the state they were in. And We said, “Go down, some of you enemies of one another.” And you will have a place of rest and enjoyment on earth for a while.” (Surat Al-Baqarah, verses 35-36) Likewise, He created you from a single soul, then made from it its mate and sent down to you from the cattle eight pairs. He created you in your mothers' wombs. After creating three people in darkness.
That is God, your Lord. He has the kingdom. There is no god but Him. How will you get away? (Surat Az-Zumar, verse 6) So he gave them permission. They ate from the trees of Paradise except one tree, and Satan whispered to them, and they claimed that whoever ate from this tree would be eternal in Paradise, worshiping God like the angels. Satan continued to whisper to Adam and Eve until they ate from it after Satan swore to them by God that he was one of their sincere advisors, so Satan whispered to them. To reveal to them what was hidden from them of their secrets, and say: Your Lord has not forbidden you from this tree except that you be angels or that you be others. Religion and what was divided with them.
I am truthful to you both. He treated them with deception. When they tasted the tree, their sins became apparent to them, and they began to decorate themselves with jinn’s leaves. Then their Lord called to them: “Did I not forbid you from that tree and tell you that Satan is an open enemy to you?” They said, “Our Lord, we have wronged ourselves, and if You do not forgive us and have mercy on us, we will certainly be among the losers.” He said, “Go down. Indeed, some of you are enemies to one another, and for you on earth is a place of rest and enjoyment for a while” (Surat Al-A’raf, verses 20-24). Eve and Adam bore the consequences of disobeying God’s command, so they descended to earth, and Eve remained with Adam, praying to God, saying: They said, “Our Lord, we have wronged ourselves, and if You do not forgive us and have mercy on us, we will certainly be among the losers against us” (Surat Al-A’raf, verse 23), so God turned to them, and a new stage began for Eve and Adam. They worshiped God and saved Eve from many stomachs. For Adam, each womb had a male and a female, and Eve remained in obedience to God until Adam died, then she died a year later.
At the Sunnah
Sunni Muslims believe that God created him from Adam’s rib in Paradise. God Almighty said: O people, fear your Lord, who created you from a single soul and created from it its mate and dispersed from them many men and women, and fear God through whom you will ask for relatives. Indeed, God is a Watcher over you (Surat An-Nisa, Verse 1)
Among the Shiites
Most Shiites believe that the idea of creating Eve from Adam's rib is one of the ideas mentioned in the Torah. They believe that Eve was created from the remains of Adam's clay.