Eve

EVE (life)- The name was applied by Adam to his wife because "she was the mother of all living." Gen 3:20. She was formed out of a rib of Adam, taken while he slept — a fact which teaches the identity of nature and the oneness of the origin of man and woman, and stamps the divine disapproval upon any degradation of women. In the language of Matthew Henry, "the woman was made of a rib out of the side of Adam; not made out of his head to top him, not out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, from under his arm to be protected, and from near his heart to be beloved." Eve was Adam's helpmeet and his equal in sinless purity. But her weaker nature afforded Satan's opportunity. Overcome by his sophistry, she ate of the forbidden fruit, and then in turn became a tempter, by her persuasion inducing Adam to share her sin, and thus brought death into the world and all our woe. For her prominent part in the Fall, God said to her, "I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and, he shall rule over thee." Gen 3:16. But it was the seed of Eve which was to bruise the serpent's head, and thus the unhappy author of human sin was to be the blessed mother of sin's destroyer. The remarkable sayings of Eve's at the birth of her three known sons have been preserved, and make up all that is known of her. She welcomed the first, Cain (Heb. possession), as the promised one: "I have gotten a man, even the Lord." But, soon undeceived, she said of Abel (vanity), "Vanity;" and while her heart was made heavy by the experience of crime, she said of Seth (compensation): "God hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew." The Scripture account of Eve closes with the birth of Seth. She is twice mentioned by Paul, once as the subject of the serpent's guile, 2 Cor 11:3, and once as the second created, in an argument for the silence of women. 1 Tim 2:13.