Adam and Eve

The Fall of Man by Peter Paul Rubens, 1628–29

Adam and Eve, according to the creation myth^{[Note 1]} of the Abrahamic religions,^[1][2] were the first man and woman. They are central to the belief that humanity is in essence a single family, with everyone descended from a single pair of original ancestors.^[3] They also provide the basis for the doctrines of the fall of man and original sin, which are important beliefs in Christianity, although not held in Judaism or Islam.^[4]

In the

Neither Adam nor Eve is mentioned elsewhere in the Hebrew scriptures apart from a single listing of Adam in a genealogy in 1 Chronicles 1:1,^[5] suggesting that although their story came to be prefixed to the Jewish story, it has little in common with it.^[6] The myth underwent extensive elaboration in later Abrahamic traditions, and it has been extensively analyzed by modern biblical scholars. Interpretations and beliefs regarding Adam and Eve and the story revolving around them vary across religions and sects; for example, the Islamic version of the story holds that Adam and Eve were equally responsible for their sins of hubris, instead of Eve being the first one to be unfaithful. The story of Adam and Eve is often depicted in art, and it has had an important influence in literature and poetry.

Hebrew Bible narrative

The opening chapters of the Book of Genesis provide a mythic history of the infiltration of evil into the world.^[7] God places the first man and woman (Adam and Eve) in his Garden of Eden, whence they are expelled; the first murder follows, and God's decision to destroy the world and save only the righteous Noah and his sons; a new humanity then descends from these and spreads throughout the world, but although the new world is as sinful as the old, God has resolved never again to destroy the world by flood, and the History ends with Terah, the father of Abraham, from whom will descend God's chosen people, the Israelites.^[8]

Creation narrative

Adam and Eve are the Bible's first man and first woman.^[9][10] Adam's name appears first in Genesis 1 with a collective sense, as "mankind"; subsequently in Genesis 2–3 it carries the definite article ha, equivalent to English 'the', indicating that this is "the man".^[9] In these chapters God fashions "the man" (ha adam) from earth (adamah), breathes life into his nostrils, and makes him a caretaker over creation.^[9] God next creates for the man an ezer kenegdo, a "helper corresponding to him", from his side or rib.^[10] The word 'rib' is a pun in Sumerian, as the word ti means both 'rib' and 'life'.^[11][12] She is called ishsha, "woman", because, the text says, she is formed from ish, "man".^[10] The man receives her with joy, and the reader is told that from this moment a man will leave his parents to "cling" to a woman, the two becoming one flesh.^[10]

The Fall

The first man and woman are in God's Garden of Eden, where all creation is vegetarian and there is no violence. They are permitted to eat the fruits of all the trees except one, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The woman is tempted by a talking serpent to eat the forbidden fruit, and gives some to the man, who eats also.^[10] (Contrary to popular myth she does not beguile the man, who appears to have been present at the encounter with the serpent).^[10] God curses all three, the man to a lifetime of hard labour followed by death, the woman to the pain of childbirth and to subordination to her husband, and the serpent to go on his belly and suffer the enmity of both man and woman.^[10] God then clothes the nakedness of the man and woman, who have become god-like in knowing good and evil, then banishes them from the garden lest they eat the fruit of a second tree, the tree of life, and live forever.^[13]

Expulsion from Eden

The story continues in Genesis 3 with the "expulsion from Eden" narrative. A

The expulsion from Eden narrative begins with a dialogue between the woman and a serpent,^[15] identified in Genesis 3:1^[16] as an animal that was more crafty than any other animal made by God, although Genesis does not identify the serpent with Satan.^[17] The woman is willing to talk to the serpent and respond to the creature's cynicism by repeating God's prohibition against eating fruit from the tree of knowledge (Genesis 2:17).^[18][19] The woman is lured into dialogue on the serpent's terms which directly disputes God's command.^[20] The serpent assures the woman that God will not let her die if she ate the fruit, and, furthermore, that if she ate the fruit, her "eyes would be opened" and she would "be like God, knowing good and evil" (Genesis 3:5).^[21] The woman sees that the fruit of the tree of knowledge is a delight to the eye and that it would be desirable to acquire wisdom by eating the fruit. The woman eats the fruit and gives some to the man (Genesis 3:6).^[22] With this the man and woman recognize their own nakedness, and they make loincloths of fig leaves (Genesis 3:7).^[23][24]

In the next narrative dialogue, God questions the man and the woman (Genesis 3:8–13),^[25][15] and God initiates a dialogue by calling out to the man with a rhetorical question designed to consider his wrongdoing. The man explains that he hid in the garden out of fear because he realized his own nakedness (Genesis 3:10).^[26][27] This is followed by two more rhetorical questions designed to show awareness of a defiance of God's command. The man then points to the woman as the real offender, and he implies that God is responsible for the tragedy because the woman was given to him by God (Genesis 3:12).^[28][29] God challenges the woman to explain herself, and she shifts the blame to the serpent (Genesis 3:13).^[30][31]

Divine pronouncement of three judgments is then laid against all the culprits (Genesis 3:14–19).

The chiasmus structure of the death oracle given to Adam in Genesis 3:19^[38] is a link between man's creation from "dust" (Genesis 2:7)^[39] to the "return" of his beginnings:^[40] "you return, to the ground, since from it you were taken, for dust you are, and to dust, you will return."

The garden account ends with an intradivine monologue, determining the couple's expulsion, and the execution of that deliberation (Genesis 3:22–24).^[41][15] The reason given for the expulsion was to prevent the man from eating from the tree of life and becoming immortal: "Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever" (Genesis 3:22).^{[42][17]: 18 [43]} God exiles Adam and Eve from the Garden and installs cherubs (supernatural beings that provide protection) and the "ever-turning sword" to guard the entrance (Genesis 3:24).^[44][45]

Offspring

Genesis 4 narrates life outside the garden, including the birth of Adam and Eve's first children

In Genesis 2:7 "God breathes into the man's nostrils and he becomes nefesh hayya", signifying something like the English word "being", in the sense of a corporeal body capable of life; the concept of a "soul" in the modern sense, did not exist in Hebrew thought until around the 2nd century BC, when the idea of a bodily resurrection gained popularity.^[56]

Christianity

Some early

Over the centuries, a system of unique Christian beliefs had developed from these doctrines. Baptism became understood as a washing away of the stain of hereditary sin in many churches, although its original symbolism was apparently rebirth. Additionally, the serpent that tempted Eve was interpreted to have been Satan, or that Satan was using a serpent as a mouthpiece, although there is no mention of this identification in the Torah and it is not held in Judaism.

As well as developing the theology of the protoplasts, the medieval Church also expanded the historical narrative in a vast tradition of Adam books, which add detail to the fall, and tell of their life after the expulsion from Eden. These are continued in the Legend of the Rood, dealing with Seth's return to Paradise and subsequent events involving the wood from the tree of life. These stories were widely believed in Europe until early modern times.

Regarding the real existence of the progenitors – as of other narratives contained in Genesis – the Catholic Church teaches that Adam and Eve were historical humans, personally responsible for the original sin. This position was clarified by Pope Pius XII in the encyclical Humani Generis, in which the Pope condemned the theory of polygenism and expressed that original sin comes "from a sin actually committed by an individual Adam". Despite this, the Humani Generis also states that the belief in evolution is not in contrast to Catholic doctrine; this has led to a gradual acceptance of theistic evolution among Roman Catholic and Independent Catholic theologians, a position that has been encouraged by Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis.^{[59][60][61][62]}

The biblical fall of Adam and Eve is also understood by some Christians (especially those in the

Gnostics discussed Adam and Eve in two known surviving texts, namely the "Apocalypse of Adam" found in the Nag Hammadi documents and the Testament of Adam. The creation of Adam as Protoanthropos, the original man, is the focal concept of these writings.

Another Gnostic tradition held that Adam and Eve were created to help defeat Satan. The serpent, instead of being identified with Satan, is seen as a hero by the Ophites. Still other Gnostics believed that Satan's fall, however, came after the creation of humanity. As in Islamic tradition, this story says that Satan refused to bow to Adam due to pride. Satan said that Adam was inferior to him as he was made of fire, whereas Adam was made of clay. This refusal led to the fall of Satan recorded in works such as the Book of Enoch.

In Mandaeism, "(God) created all the worlds, formed the soul through his power, and placed it by means of angels into the human body. So He created Adam and Eve, the first man and woman."^[68]

Islam

In

In Swahili literature, Eve ate from the forbidden tree, thus causing her expulsion, after being tempted by Iblis. Thereupon, Adam heroically eats the forbidden fruit in order to follow Eve and protect her on earth.^[76]

Baháʼí Faith

In the

While a traditional view attributes the Book of Genesis to Mosaic authorship, modern scholars consider the Genesis creation narrative as one of various ancient origin myths.^[83][84]

Analysis like the documentary hypothesis also suggests that the text is a result of the compilation of multiple previous traditions, explaining apparent contradictions.^[85][86] Other stories of the same canonical book, like the Genesis flood narrative, are also understood as having been influenced by older literature, with parallels in the older Epic of Gilgamesh.^[87]

Y chromosomal Adam and Mitochondrial Eve

Scientific developments within the natural sciences have shown evidence that humans, and all other living and extinct species, share a common ancestor and evolved through natural processes, over billions of years to diversify into the life forms we know today.^{[88][89][relevant?]}

In

Mark Twain wrote humorous and satirical diaries for Adam and Eve in both "Eve's Diary" (1906) and The Private Life of Adam and Eve (1931), posthumously published.

In Ray Nelson's novel Blake's Progress the poet William Blake and his wife Kate travel to the end of time where the demonic Urizen offers them his own re-interpretation of the Biblical story: "In this painting you see Adam and Eve listening to the wisdom of their good friend and adviser, the serpent. One might even say he was their Savior. He gave them freedom, and he would have given them eternal life if he'd been allowed to."^{[citation needed]}

• 
  Early Christian depiction of Adam and Eve in the Catacombs of Marcellinus and Peter
• 
  Detail of a stained glass window (12th century) in Saint-Julien cathedral - Le Mans, France
• 
  Depiction of the Fall in

  Kunsthalle Hamburg, by Master Bertram

  , 1375-1383
• 
  Adam and Eve, engraving by Albrecht Dürer, 1504 (National Gallery of Art)
• 
  Adam and Eve by Albrecht Dürer, 1507
• 
  Adam and Eve in paradise (The Fall), Eve gives Adam the forbidden fruit, by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1533
• 
  Adam and Eve from a copy of the Falnama (Book of Omens) ascribed to Ja'far al-Sadiq, c. 1550, Safavid dynasty, Iran
• 
  Adam and Eve by Titian, c. 1550
• 
  Adam and Eve by Maarten van Heemskerck, 1550
• 
  Adam and Eve Driven From Paradise by James Tissot, c. 1896-1902
• 
  Adam and Eve depicted in a mural in Abreha wa Atsbeha Church, Ethiopia
• 
  1896 illustration of Eve handing Adam the forbidden fruit
• 
  Adam and Eve by Frank Eugene, taken 1898, published in Camera Work no. 30, 1910
• 
  "The Old Adam and Eve" by E. J. Sullivan, 1898, for Sartor Resartus by Thomas Carlyle
• 
  The Woman, the Man, and the Serpent by Byam Shaw, 1911
• 
  Adam and Eve by

  Franz Stuck

  , 1920

See also

• Pre-Adamite
• Meta-historical fall

Notes

References

Bibliography

• Almond, Philip C. Adam and Eve in Seventeenth-Century Thought (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999, 2008)
• ISBN 978-0-393-33393-0
  .
• Ayoub, Mahmoud. The Qur'an and its Interpreters, SUNY: Albany, 1984
• Blenkinsopp, Joseph (2011). Creation, Un-creation, Re-creation: A Discursive Commentary on Genesis 1–11. A&C Black.
  ISBN 978-0-567-37287-1
  .
• Carr, David M. (2000). "Genesis, Book of". In
  ISBN 9789053565032
  .
• Enns, Peter (2012). The Evolution of Adam: What the Bible Does and Doesn't Say about Human Origins. Baker Books.
  ISBN 978-1-58743-315-3
  .
• Galambush, Julie (2000). "Eve". In Freedman, David Noel; Myers, Allen C. (eds.). Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible. Amsterdam University Press.
  ISBN 9789053565032
  .
• Gmirkin, Russell (15 May 2006). Berossus and Genesis, Manetho and Exodus: Hellenistic Histories and the Date of the Pentateuch. Bloomsbury Publishing.
  ISBN 978-0-567-13439-4
  .
• ISBN 978-0-393-24080-1
  .
• Hearne, Stephen Z. (1990). "Adam". In Mills, Watson E.; Bullard, Roger Aubrey (eds.). Mercer Dictionary of the Bible. Mercer University Press.
  ISBN 9780865543737
  .
• Hendel, Ronald S (2000). "Adam". In David Noel Freedman (ed.). Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible. Amsterdam University Press.
  ISBN 9789053565032
  .
• Kissling, Paul (2004). Genesis, Volume 1. College Press.
  ISBN 978-0899008752
  .
• Kramer, Samuel Noah (1963). The Sumerians: Their History, Culture, and Character. University of Chicago Press.
  ISBN 0-226-45238-7
  .
• Mathews, K. A. (1996). Genesis 1–11:26.
  ISBN 978-0805401011
  .
• Mckenzie, John L. (1995). The Dictionary of the Bible. Simon and Schuster.
  ISBN 9780684819136
  .
• ISBN 978-0-19-956414-9
• Patai, R. The Jewish Alchemists, Princeton University Press, 1994.
• Rana & Hugh. Fazale Rana and
  ISBN 1-57683-577-4
• Sailhamer, John H. (21 December 2010). Introduction to Old Testament Theology: A Canonical Approach. Zondervan Academic.
  ISBN 978-0-310-87721-9
  .
• Sykes, Bryan. The Seven Daughters of Eve

External links

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• First Human Beings (Library of Congress)
• The Story of Lilith in The Alphabet of Ben Sira
• Islamic view of the fall of Adam (audio)
• 98 classical images of Adam and Eve Archived 2019-01-03 at the Wayback Machine
• The Book of Jubilees
• Adam and Eve in Medieval Reliefs, Capitals, Frescoes, Roof Bosses and Mosaics Cynistory and Phantamangas of Finceland
• "Adam and Eve" at the Christian Iconography website
• Translation of Grimm's Fairy Tale No. 180, Eve's Unequal Children, a German Fairy Tale about Adam and Eve
• Jewish Encyclopedia