Difference between revisions of "Adam and Eve" - New World Encyclopedia

From New World Encyclopedia
 
(63 intermediate revisions by 11 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
−
{{claimed}}{{started}}
+
{{Ebcompleted}}{{approved}}{{Images OK}}{{submitted}}{{Paid}}{{copyedited}}{{2Copyedited}}
−
{{main|Adam|Eve (Bible)}}
+
[[Image:Durer Adam and Eve.jpg|250px|thumb|''Adam and Eve'', by [[Albrecht Dürer]] (1507).]]
−
[[Image:Durer Adam and Eve.jpg|300px|thumb|''Adam and Eve'', by [[Albrecht Dürer]] ([[1507]]).]]
+
'''Adam''' ({{lang-he|אָדָם}}, ''Adam,'' "man") and '''Eve''' ({{lang-he|חַוָּה}}, ''{{Unicode|Ḥavva}},'' "living one") were the first man and woman created by [[God]], according to the [[Bible]] and the [[Qur'an]]. The story of Adam and Eve is central to the widely held belief that God created human beings to live in a [[Paradise]] on earth, although they fell away from that state and formed the present world full of suffering and injustice. It provides the basis for the belief that humanity is in essence a single family, with everyone descended from a single pair of original ancestors. It also provides much of the scriptural basis for the doctrine of [[Original Sin]], an important belief in [[Christianity]], although not shared by [[Judaism]] or [[Islam]].
−
'''Adam''' ({{lang-he|אָדָם}}, ''Adam'', "man";  and '''Eve''' ({{lang-he|חַוָּה}}, ''{{Unicode|Ḥavva}}'', "living one") were the [[First man or woman|first man and woman]] created by [[God]], according to the [[Bible]] and the [[Qur'an]].
+
{{toc}}
 +
The story of Adam and Eve is told in the early chapters of the [[Book of Genesis]], which describes the creation of man and woman, the [[temptation]] and [[Fall of Man|the Fall]], the expulsion from [[Garden of Eden|Eden]], the story of the first murder, and the subsequent peopling of the world outside the Garden of Eden. It is the source of many of the most important symbols in Western culture, including the Garden of Eden, the [[Tree of Life]] and the [[Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil]], the [[forbidden fruit]], and the [[serpent (symbolism)|serpent]] as [[Satan]].
  
−
The story of Adam and Eve is told in the early chapters of the book of [[Genesis]]. The main story elements are the creation of man and woman; the [[temptation]] and [[The Fall of Man|the Fall]]; the expulsion from [[Garden of Eden|Eden]]; and the subsequent peopling of the world outside the [[Garden of Eden]].
+
Adam and Eve's story underwent extensive elaboration in later [[Abrahamic religions|Abrahamic]] traditions, and has been extensively analyzed by modern biblical scholars.
−
 
 
−
The story of the first human couple underwent extensive elaboration in later [[Abrahamic religions|Abrahamic]] traditions, and modern [[documentary hypothesis|textual scholarship]] continues to analyze the it several layers and demonstrate its relationship with eariler [[Sumerian mythology]]. The story has provided many of the most important symbols in Western culture, including the [[Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil]], the [[forbidden fruit]], and the [[serpent (symbolism)|serpent]] as [[Satan]]. It also provides much of the scriptural basis for the doctrine of [[original sin]], a central doctrine in Christianity which is not shared by Judaism and Islam.
 
  
 
==Biblical account==
 
==Biblical account==
 
===The creation of man and woman===
 
===The creation of man and woman===
−
[[Image:God2-Sistine Chapel.png|400px|thumb|right|[[Michelangelo]]'s ''[[Creation of Adam]]'', from the [[Sistine Chapel]]. Michelangelo shows God creating Adam, with Eve cradled under His arm.]]
+
[[Image:God2-Sistine Chapel.png|400px|thumb|right|Michelangelo shows God giving life to Adam, with Eve cradled under His arm, from the [[Sistine Chapel]] in Rome.]]
−
The story of Adam and Eve begins in the first chapter of the [[Book of Genesis]], but they are not refered to here by name. Instead, the text refers to God's deciding to "make man in our image, in our likeness." The creation of man takes place after six "days" of creation in which God first brings into being the heavens and the earth, light, day and night, sky and sea, dry land, trees and other vegetation, the sun and the moon, sea creatures and birds, and finally livestock and wild animals. The manifestation of God's image in "man" is both masculine and feminine:
+
In the [[Book of Genesis]], the creation of man and woman takes place after six "days" of [[creation]] in which God first brings into being the heavens and the earth, light, day and night, sky and sea, dry land, trees and other vegetation, the sun and the moon, sea creatures and birds, and finally livestock and wild animals. Then later on the sixth day, God decides to "make man in our image, in our likeness." The manifestation of God's image in "man" is both masculine and feminine:
  
 
:So God created man in his own image,  
 
:So God created man in his own image,  
 
:in the image of God he created him;  
 
:in the image of God he created him;  
−
:male and female he created them. — Gen. 1:27
+
:male and female he created them.—Gen. 1:27
−
 
 
−
God proceeds to bless the couple to "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground." (Gen. 1:28) God gives them "every tree that has fruit with seed in it" to eat. At the conclusion of this sixth day of creation God declares His work to be "very good" and proceeds to rest on the seventh day.
 
−
 
 
−
The account of Genesis 2 is seen by many scholars as a distinct narrative from a different source. Among several differences between the two accounts, God is no longer called [[Elohim]] here, but is referred as [[Yahweh]], translated as "the Lord" in most English versions. Here, for the first time, the man and woman are named. Also, in this account, no tree or shrub has yet been made to grow yet. God creates [[Adam]] out of [[clay]] and places him in the [[Garden of Eden]]. Then he causes all kinds of trees to grow in the Garden, including two special trees: the [[Tree of Life]] and the [[Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil]]. Here, Adam is not free to eat of any tree he wishes, as in chapter one. Instead God tells Adam that he must not eat of the [[Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil]], warning him that  "In the day you eat of it, you will die."  (Gen. 2:17).
 
−
 
 
−
Seeing that Adam is alone, God then creates Eve out of his rib (Gen. 2:22). Adam then names the animals, and calls Eve "woman." They are both "naked and unashamed."
 
  
−
===The fall of man===
+
God proceeds to bless the couple to, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground." (Gen. 1:28) God gives them, "every tree that has fruit with seed in it" to eat. At the conclusion of this sixth day of creation God declares His work to be "very good" and proceeds to rest on the seventh day.
  
−
[[Image:Michelangelo Buonarroti 022.jpg|thumb|350px|left|Michaelango's depection of the Fall and the expulsion from Eden]]
+
In the Jewish and Islamic traditions, the creation of humanity out of a single pair signifies the moral unity and equality of humanity:
  
−
For an unspecified period of time, Adam and Eve obey the one commandment they have been given, to refrain from eating of the [[forbidden fruit]]. However, one day, a [[serpent]] comes to Eve and seduces her into partaking of it. "God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened," he tells her, "and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." The serpent shows Eve that the fruit is "good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom," so she eats it. She then gives some of the fruit to Adam, and he, too, eats. Adam and Eve immediately realize that they are naked, and become of ashamed of this, using fig leaves to cover their sexual organs.
+
:But a single man [Adam] was created for the sake of peace among mankind, that none should say to his fellow, “My father was greater than your father” (Mishnah, Sanhedrin 4.5).
  
−
Soon, God walks through the Garden looking for Adam and Eve, but he cannot find them, because they are hiding from Him. God calls out to Adam: "Where are you?" (Gen. 3:9) Adam responds, "I heard your voice, and I was afraid, because I was naked." God then replies: "How did you know you were naked? Did you eat of the fruit of the tree I told you not to eat of?" Adam admits his disobedience but blames it on Eve, and Eve in turn blames it on the serpent.
+
:O mankind! We created you from a single pair of a male and a female and made you into nations and tribes, that you might know each other [not that you might despise each other]. Verily the most honored among you in the sight of God is he who is the most righteous (Qur’an 49.13).
  
−
As a result of these events, God curses all three of the characters in the drama: the serpent must crawl on his belly and eat dust; the woman must suffer increased pain in childbearing and be ruled by her husband; and the man must now labor for his food instead of eating freely of what grows in the Garden, for the land too is cursed.
+
Genesis 2 contains a second account of the creation of human beings. However, unlike the first account which is chronological, the second one focuses on the theological significance of Adam and Eve. God forms [[Adam]] out of [[clay]] and breathes into him the "breath of life" (Gen. 2:7). Receiving this divine breath makes the man unique among all God's creations, which are made from the earth only. This verse provides a theological basis for making a qualitative distinction between human beings and animals, as only humans possess an eternal spirit. For some Protestants, the verse is also relevant to the [[abortion]] debate by providing a rationale for seeing the fullness of human life as beginning at [[birth]] when the baby takes its first [[breath]], rather than, as Catholics believe, at [[conception]] when the "clay" has not yet been infused with spirit.
  
−
God recognizes that the serpent's prophecy has come true: "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil." (Gen 3:21) To prevent Adam from also partaking of the Tree of Life and living forever, God casts him out of the Garden, posting [[cherubim]] and a flaming sword to guard the entrance.
+
===Institution of the family===
 +
[[Image:Adam-eve-priest-animals-river.jpg|thumb|250px|God's creation of Eve from Adam's rib]]
 +
God places Adam in the [[Garden of Eden]]. The Garden represents the world of God's love and care, where there is harmony among all creatures. It is described in the prophets as a place where "the wolf shall dwell with the lamb" (Isa. 11:6), and where there are riches and jewels in abundance (Ezek. 28:13). Yet what good is abundance if a man is dwelling alone? God seeks companions for Adam, and so creates the animals and brings them to Adam to give them names. As naming signifies dominion, this indicates human beings are a higher order of being than animals (compare Gen. 1:28). Yet Adam's relationship with the [[environmentalism|environment]] is also characterized as stewardship, as indicated by his purpose "to till the garden and to keep it" (Gen. 2:15). However, none of the animals are fit to be Adam's companion.  
  
−
===Life outside of paradise===
+
To create a fitting life companion, God forms a woman out of Adam's rib (Gen. 2:22). This means that woman is of the same substance as man. On this point, [[Thomas Aquinas]] wrote:
−
[[Image:Adam-travaille.jpg|250px|thumb|left|Adam after the Fall. Fresco from the monastery of Cantauque, Provence.]]
+
<blockquote>It was right for woman to be made from a rib of man. First, to signify the social union of man and woman, for the woman should neither use authority over man, and so she was not made from his head; nor was it right for her to be subject to man’s contempt as his slave, and so she was not made from his feet.<ref>''Summa Theologica'' 1.1.92.3</ref></blockquote>
−
Adam and Eve now begin their lives outside of Eden and begin to raise a family. Their first child is called [[Cain]], and their second is called [[Abel]]. After the grow up to the point of establishing a livelihood for themselves, Cain becomes a farmer, while Abel is a shepherd. Later, the two brothers each offers a sacrifice to God: Cain brings an offering of his crops, while Abel brings an offering of his flocks. God accepts Cain's offering but rejects Abel's. As a result, Cain becomes dejected. God warns Cain that he must overcome his feelings, for he too will be accepted. However, Cain is unable to change his outlook. Instead, he lures Abel into the field and kills him. Cain moved toward the east, where his wife—not previously mentioned—gave birth to Adam and Eve's first grandson, Enoch.
+
A Jewish tradition, also found in some Gnostic texts, holds that God originally created Adam as a [[hermaphrodite]] (Midrash Rabbah, Genesis 7:1) so that Adam was both male and female. God later decided that "it is not good for 'it' to be alone," and brought the feminine Eve out of Adam, leaving Adam as masculine only.
  
−
After this, Adam and Eve themselves have another son, Seth, and Eve declares "God has granted me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him." After Seth grew to maturity, he became the father Enosh.
+
With the creation of woman, Adam and Eve are complete, and after God brings the woman to the man, their oneness is confirmed: "This at last is the bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh" (Gen. 2:23). This leads to the ordaining of the institution of marriage and family: "Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh." (Genesis 2:24)
 +
Some Jewish traditions interpret this verse as suggesting that Adam and Eve enjoyed married life in the Garden, and the traditional Jewish wedding prayer refers to the joyous marriage of Adam and Eve. According to one midrashic account, when God blessed Adam and Eve in marriage, the angels danced and beat timbrels and stood guard over their bridal chamber (Pirḳe R. El. 12-13). However, most Christian interpreters do not believe that this marriage was consummated in the Garden of Eden; rather it was after the couple had been expelled that "Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived…" (Gen. 4:1).
  
−
A separate account of Adam's lineage is given in Genesis 5. Here, neither Cain's nor Abel's lineage is mentioned. It is therefore presumed that Abel died without children. Here it is specified that Adam was 130 years old when he became the father of Seth. It is also claimed that Adam lived 930 years before he himself died. Although Eve is not mentioned in this genealogy, in Gen. 3:20 she is given the title "the mother of all living." Genesis 5:4 refers to other sons and daughters, but does not name them.
+
===The human fall===
 +
[[Image:Strang, The Temptation.jpg|thumb|250px|left|A modern depiction of Eve tempting Adam]]
 +
God had caused all kinds of trees to grow in the Garden of Eden, including two special trees: The [[Tree of Life]] and the [[Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil]]. Adam is told that he is free to eat of any tree he wishes, except one. God commands that he must not eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, warning him that, "in the day you eat of it, you shall die" (Gen. 2:17). For a time, Adam and Eve obeyed the one commandment they have been given. However, one day, a [[serpent]] came to [[Eve]] and persuaded her to eat it. "God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened," he told her, "and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." The serpent showed Eve that the fruit was, "good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom," and so she ate it. She then gave some of the fruit to [[Adam]], and he too ate. Adam and Eve immediately realized that they were naked, and became of ashamed of this, using fig leaves to cover their private parts.
  
−
== Later Abrahamic traditions ==
+
In all the Abrahamic faiths, the serpent is linked with the figure of [[Satan]], as in this New Testament verse: "That ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world…" (Revelation 12:9). As to what action is symbolized by eating the forbidden fruit, Christian theologians are generally vague. After all, it makes no sense that eating a literal physical fruit could damage what is spiritual—one's relationship with God and the integrity of his lineage. Rather, the focus is entirely on the disobedience that the deed entailed. Thus [[Calvin]] taught that Adam and Eve's disobedience stemmed from their [[pride]] and [[egoism]], which turned their souls away from God.  
−
=== Jewish traditions ===
 
−
Even in ancient times, the presence of two distinct accounts was noted, and regarded with some curiosity. The first account says ''male and female [God] created them'', whereas the second account states that God created Eve from Adam's rib because Adam was lonely. Thus to resolve this apparent discrepancy, some rabbis suggested that Eve and the "woman" of Gen. 1 were two separate individuals.
 
−
[[Image:Lilith (John Collier painting).jpg|thumb|left|Lilith, thought in some Jewish traditions to have been the first wife of Adam]]
 
−
Preserved in the [[Midrash]], and the mediaeval [[Alphabet of Ben Sira]], this rabbinic tradition held that the first woman, called [[Lilith]], refused to take the [[missionary position|submissive position]] to Adam in [[sexual intercourse|sex]], and eventually fled from him, consequently leaving him lonely.  
 
  
−
In the [[Talmud]], which contains numerous and sometimes contradictory rabbinical traditions, Adam is said to have separated from Eve for 130 years, during which time his [[ejaculation]]s gave rise to ''ghouls, and demons''. Elsewhere, Lilith is identified as the mother of these creatures. The demons were said to prey on newborn males before they had been [[circumcised]], and so a tradition arose in which a protective amulet was placed around the neck of newborns. Traditions in the Midrash concerning Lilith, and her sexual appetite, have been compared to [[Sumerian mythology]] concerning the demon ''ki-sikil-lil-la-ke'', by scholars who postulate an intermediate [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]] [[folk etymology]] interpreting the ''lil-la-ke'' portion of the name as a corruption of ''lîlîtu'', a female storm demon originating in Sumer.
+
Jewish tradition, on the other hand, is quite explicit that Satan (either in person or utilizing a serpent) seduced Eve. The ''Slavonic Book of Baruch,'' xcvii, says that the serpent had infused lust into the fruit, and when Eve ate it sexual desire was awakened in her. The ''Bahir,'' a Kabbalistic text, states: "The serpent followed Eve, saying, 'Her soul comes from the north, and I will therefore quickly seduce her.' And how did he seduce her? He had intercourse with her." (Bahir 199). In the ''Pirke d'Rab. Eliezer,'' Satan persuaded the serpent to act on his behalf and "Be my instrument, and through thy mouth will I utter a word which shall enable thee to seduce man" (Pirḳe R. El. xiii). In another tradition, Eve became the lover of Satan in the Garden of Eden, and Satan impregnated Eve to become the father of Cain (Pirḳe R. El. 13). The [[New Testament]] contains an echo of this idea in Jesus' statement, "You are from your father the Devil." (John 8:44) According to [[Unification Church|Unificationist]] teachings, the tragedy of the Fall was that by uniting in a sexual relationship with Satan, Adam, Eve and all humankind, who should have become God's family, were yoked instead to Satan's lineage and could therefore no longer recognize God as their Father. From the union with Satan they also inherited elements of his "fallen nature."
  
−
The ''Alphabet of Ben Sira'' identifies a third wife, created after Lilith deserted Adam but before Eve. This unnamed wife was purportedly made in the same way as Adam, from the "dust of the earth," but the sight of her being created proved too much for Adam to take and he refused to go near her.
+
Soon after, God walked through the Garden looking for Adam and Eve, but he could not find them, because they were hiding from him. God called out to Adam: "Where are you" (Gen. 3:9). Adam responded, "I heard your voice, and I was afraid, because I was naked." God replied: "How did you know you were naked? Did you eat of the fruit of the tree I told you not to eat of?" By asking a question instead of judging and condemning him, God gave Adam the opportunity to own up to what he had done and repent. However Adam did not take responsibility for his action and instead put the blame on Eve. When God asked Eve a question, she too failed to take responsibility and instead she blamed the serpent. Since freedom and responsibility go hand in hand, when Adam and Eve denied they were responsible for their own actions, they denied they were free beings. In this way they put themselves under the dominion of Satan.
  
−
[[Image:Eve-created.jpg|thumb|220px|The creation of Eve]]
+
[[Image:Cranach.jpg|thumb|350px|God speaks to Adam and Eve, with various other scenes from their story in the background.]]
 +
As a result of these events, God cursed all three of the characters in the drama: The serpent must crawl on his belly and eat dust; the woman must suffer increased pain in childbearing and be ruled by her husband; and the man must labor for his food instead of eating freely of what grows in the Garden, for the land too is cursed. (Gen. 3:14-19) These curses can be seen as analogues to the blessings given earlier in Gen. 1:28.
  
−
Genesis does not say how long Adam and Eve were in the [[Garden of Eden]], but the [[Book of Jubilees]] states that they were removed from the garden on the new moon of the fourth month of the eighth year after creation (Jubilees 3:33). Other Jewish sources, however, assert that it was less than a day.
+
However, the curse upon the serpent contains what Christian exegetes have long regarded as a hidden prophecy of [[Jesus Christ|Christ]] to come in the words, "He (the woman's seed) will bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." (Gen. 3:15) This is said to foretell the [[crucifixion]], by which Christ will strike the head of Satan while taking damage in his flesh.
  
−
Another Jewish tradition — also used to explain "male and female He created them" line, is that God originally created Adam as a [[hermaphrodite]] (Midrash Rabbah, Genesis 7:1) and in this way was both male and female. God later decided that "it is not good for him to be alone," and brought the feminine Eve out of Adam, leaving Adam as masculine only and thus creating the idea of two people joining together to achieve a union of the two separate spirits.
+
God then confirmed the serpent's prophecy to Eve: "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil" (Gen 3:21). To prevent Adam and Eve from also partaking of the [[Tree of Life]] and living forever, God cast them out of the Garden, posting [[cherubim]] and a flaming sword to guard the entrance. The death that Adam and Eve underwent when they ate the fruit was a spiritual death—separation from God and His blessings. Physically, they lived for many more years.
  
−
Only three of Adam's children ([[Cain]], [[Abel]], and [[Seth]]) are explicitly named in Genesis. In [[Book of Jubilees|Jubilees]], two daughters are named: Azûrâ and Awân. Nine other sons are also mentione, besides Seth, Cain, Abel, making 12 sons and two daughters in all. Jubilees goes on to state that Cain later married Awân and Seth married Azûrâ. However, according other Jewish traditions, Cain had a twin sister named Lebuda, and Abel a twin sister named Qelimath. In the [[Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan]], Cain's twin sister is named Luluwa, and Abel's twin sister is named Aklia. Other apocrypthal accounts give further details of Adam and Eve's life outside of Eden, in particular, the [[Life of Adam and Eve]] (also known as the ''Apocalypse of Moses'').
+
===Life outside paradise===
 +
Adam and Eve then began their lives outside Eden and raised a family. Their first child was called [[Cain]], and their second was named [[Abel]]. When they grew up, Cain became a farmer and Abel became a shepherd. Later, the two brothers each offered a sacrifice to God: Cain brought an offering of his crops, while Abel offered a sacrifice from his flocks. God accepted Abel's offering but rejected Cain's. As a result, Cain became dejected. God asked Cain why he was angry and told him that if he did well, he too would be accepted. On the other hand, if he does not, "sin is crouching at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it." This phrase indicates that human beings are not determined. On the contrary, each person has the freedom to choose and is thus responsible for their actions. However, Cain did not change his outlook. Instead, he lured Abel into the field and killed him. Cain fled to the east, where his wife—not previously mentioned—gave birth to Adam and Eve's first grandson, [[Enoch]].
  
−
As the first man, Adam was traditionally a significant figure to whom was attributed prophecy and wisdom. Some traditions hold that Adam and Eve are currently buried in the [[Cave of Machpelah]], in [[Hebron]], along with many of the great Jewish patriarchs and matriarchs.
+
[[Image:William Blake's Cain and Abel.jpg|thumb|350px|Eve and Adam mourn for Abel as Cain flees, by [[William Blake]]]]
 +
After this, Adam and Eve had another son, [[Seth]], and Eve declared, "God has granted me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him." After Seth grew to maturity, he became the father Enosh. It was Seth's line that produced [[Noah]], through whom humanity's lineage was perpetuated after the [[Great Flood]].
  
−
=== Christianity ===
+
A separate account of Adam's [[genealogy]] is given in Genesis 5. Here, neither Cain's nor Abel's lineage is mentioned. It is therefore assumed that Abel died without children. This account specifies that Adam was 130 years old when he became the father of Seth. It also claims that Adam lived 930 years before he died. Although Eve is not mentioned in this genealogy, she is given the title "the mother of all living" (Gen. 3:20).  
−
[[Image:B Escorial 18.jpg|thumb|175px|right|Depiction of the ''original sin''. Illuminated parchment, Spain, circa 950-955 A.D.]]
 
−
The story of Adam and Eve forms the basis for the Christian doctrine of [[original sin]]:  "Sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned," said [[Paul of Tarsus]] in his [[Epistle to the Romans]], writing in Greek about 58 C.E.<ref>[http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/k/kjv/kjv-idx?type=citation&book=Romans&chapno=5&startverse=12&endverse= Romans 5:12]</ref><ref>Later theological commentators characterised Adam and Eve's disobedience to God's word as the foundation of sin. Nevertheless, Chapter 3 of Genesis does not use the word "sin", and Genesis 3:24 makes clear that they are expelled "lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever".</ref> [[St Augustine of Hippo]] (354-430), working with a Latin translation of the epistle, understood Paul to have said that Adam's sin was hereditary: "Death passed upon (i.e. spread to) all men because of Adam, [in whom] all sinned".<ref>For a brief overview see [[Robin Lane Fox]], "The Unauthorized Version", 1991, pp15-27 passim</ref> Original sin, the concept that man is born in a condition of sinfulness and must await redemption, became a cornerstone of Christian theological tradition, primarily in Western-rite churches, but is not shared by Judaism, the Orthodox churches,<ref>[http://www.stmaryorthodoxchurch.org/orthodoxy/articles/2004-hughes-sin.php Orthodox beliefs]</ref> nor by post-Reformation churches such as the Congregationalist churches, nor [[The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]].
 
  
−
Over the centuries, a system of uniquely Christian beliefs has developed from the Adam and Eve story. [[Baptism]] has become understood as a means of washing away the stain of hereditary sin in some churches. In other branches of Christianity, baptism is a means of washing away sins that were actually committed by the person being baptised. It is an identification with the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is a ceremony of spiritually washing one in the blood of the Savior, which was shed on the cross. In still other Christian traditions, this process is merely seen as a symbol of faith and also an initiation, or a public declaration of faith.<ref>[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11312a.htm Original Sin]</ref>  Additionally, the serpent that tempted Eve was interpreted by some to have been [[Satan]], although there is no mention of this identification in the Torah.  Christian interpretations of the Scripture are often considered more literal than Jewish interpretations.
+
The biblical account requires that there be daughters in order to provide wives for the sons. The Bible refers to other sons and daughters of Adam (Gen. 5:4), but they are not named. Post-biblical literature sought to remedy this lack. The [[Jubilees, Book of|Book of Jubilees]], a pseudepigraphic text from the second century B.C.E.., names two daughters: Azûrâ and Awân, plus nine other sons, making 12 sons and two daughters in all. Jubilees goes on to state that Cain later married Awân, and Seth married Azûrâ. According to other Jewish traditions, Cain had a twin sister named Lebuda, and Abel had a twin sister named Qelimath. In the ''Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan,'' Cain's twin sister is named Luluwa, and Abel's twin sister is named Aklia.
  
−
Because Eve had tempted Adam to eat of the fatal fruit, some early [[Fathers of the Church]] held her and all subsequent women to be the first sinners, and especially responsible for the Fall. "You are the devil's gateway," [[Tertullian]] told his female listeners in the early 2nd century, and went on to explain that they were responsible for the death of Christ: "On account of your desert _ that is, death - even the Son of God had to die."<ref>[http://www.tertullian.org/anf/anf04/anf04-06.htm Tertullian, "De Cultu Feminarum", Book I Chapter I, ''Modesty in Apparel Becoming to Women in Memory of the Introduction of Sin Through a Woman'' (in "The Ante-Nicene Fathers")]</ref> In 1486 the [[Dominicans]] Kramer and Sprengler used similar tracts to justify the ''[[Malleus Maleficarum]]'' ("Hammer of the Witches") that led to three centuries of persecution of "witches".  
+
Other pseudepigraphic texts give further details of Adam and Eve's life outside of Eden, notably the [[Life of Adam and Eve]] (also known as the ''Apocalypse of Moses'').
  
−
[[Eastern Orthodox Church|Eastern Orthodox]] tradition holds that the sword placed at the entrance to [[Paradise]] to prevent humankind from returning to the Garden was removed once [[Jesus]] was born.
+
== Adam and Eve in the Qur'an ==
 +
[[Image:Adam and Eve from a copy of the Falnama.jpg|thumb|right|210px|Islamic portrayal of Adam and Eve from the "Book of Omens."]]
 +
The [[Qur'an]] tells of '''آدم''' ''({{Unicode|ʾĀdam}})'' in the surahs [[al-Baqara]] 2:30-39, [[al-A'raf]] 7:11-25, [[al-Isra]] 17:61-65, and [[Ta-Ha]] 20:115-124, where he is mentioned by name. In addition, the Qur'an repeatedly describes the creation of human beings from a single pair, sometimes with an allusion to the biblical narrative of the creation of Eve from Adam's rib:
 +
:O mankind! Fear your Lord, who created you of a single soul, and from it created its mate, and from the pair of them scattered abroad many men and women. (Qur’an 4.1)
 +
:O mankind! We created you from a single pair of a male and a female and made you into nations and tribes, that you might know each other [not that you might despise each other]. Verily the most honored among you in the sight of God is he who is the most righteous. (Qur’an 49.13)
 +
As mentioned above, this is the basis for the Islamic belief in human equality and the essential unity of the human race.
  
−
[[Liberal Christianity#Liberal Christian beliefs|Liberal Christians]] teach that many parts of the Bible should not be  taken literally. The story of Adam & Eve may be included.
+
Adam in the Garden of Eden is portrayed a glorious being, endowed with wisdom, and higher than the angels. When God orders the angels to bow to Adam, one of those present, the ''[[Jinn]]i''  [[Iblis]] refuses, due to his pride, and assumes the role of [[Shaitan]], the Tempter. This introduces the Qur'anic narrative of the temptation of Adam and his wife, their eating of the forbidden fruit, their subsequent expulsion from the Garden and their shame over their private parts, just as in the biblical account:
−
{{seealso|Harrowing of Hell}}
 
  
−
=== Gnostic and Manichaean traditions ===
+
<blockquote>So by deceit [Satan] brought about their fall: when they tasted of the tree, their shame [private parts] became apparent to them, and they began to sew together the leaves of the Garden over their bodies. And their Lord called unto them: “Did I not forbid you that tree, and tell you that Satan was an avowed enemy unto you both?” They said: “Our Lord! We have wronged our own souls. If You do not forgive us and do not grant us Your mercy, we shall certainly be lost.” God said, “Get you down, with enmity between yourselves. On earth will be your dwelling place and your means of livelihood—for a time. Therein shall you live, and therein you shall die; but from it shall you be brought forth at last. (7:22-25)<ref>Abdullah Yusuf Ali (trans.), ''The Holy Qur'an'' (Wordsworth Editions Ltd, 2001, ISBN 978-1853267826).</ref></blockquote>
  
−
[[Image:William Blake sata amor adao eva.jpg|thumb|250px|William Blakes depiction of Adam and Eve was influence by Gnostic concepts.]]
+
The Qur'an recognizes that there was a fall from grace, indicated by the expulsion from the Garden and the resultant state of "enmity." The dominant interpretation is that Garden was in heaven and Adam before his fall was a heavenly being, only to be expelled to the earth. Others dispute that, citing other verses that God's original purpose was to create humanity to live on earth, and there be God's vicegerent: "The Lord said to the angels: 'I will create a vicegerent on earth'" (2:29-30).  
−
In certain forms of Christian [[Gnosticism]] the creation of Adam as ''Protanthropos''— the original man, had a very important place. As in some rabbinial traditions, the [[Apocalypse of Adam]] suggests that man and woman were originally conjoined in a single androgynous being both male and female, greater than the eternal [[angels]] and higher even than [[Samael]], the god of the Aeon and Powers that had created them. Samael, the then separated Adam from Eve, causing their superior knowledge of God to flee from them.
 
  
−
The ''Protanthropos'' is also sometimes seen as a result of a non-material [[emanation]] from God, called the [[Son of God]] and seen as the prefigurement for the appearance of [[Jesus]]. In the [[Manichaean]] belief that the ''Protanthropos'' is seen as "the World Soul," ([[Anima mundi (spirit)|Anima Mundi]]), sent to fight against darkness. The "Fall" is then seen as the primordial man being and swallowed in darkness, with the Universe as a whole now existing as a means of delivering the primordial Adam.
+
Eve is not mentioned by name in the Qur'an, but her [[Arabic]] name '''حواء''' ''({{Unicode|Hawwāʾ}})'' is frequent in Islamic tradition.  
  
−
Some Gnostics adtopted the [[Marcion]]ite belief that the rrathful [[Yahweh]] of the Old Testament and the Loving Father of Jesus were two separate divinities. [[Gnostic]] accounts—particularly those of the [[Ophite]]s—also turned the identification of the serpent with Satan on its head, seeing the serpent was seen as the hero who was trying to help the couple gain knowledge to defeat evil Samael, whom some Gnostics saw as the jealous [[demiurge]] of the creation.
+
In the Qur'an, Adam and Eve eat of the forbidden fruit, but unlike the Bible story, they immediately repent of their sin:
 +
:And their Lord called unto them: “Did I not forbid you that tree, and tell you that Satan was an avowed enemy unto you both?” They said: “Our Lord! We have wronged our own souls. If You do not forgive us and do not grant us Your mercy, we shall certainly be lost” (7:22-23).
  
−
=== Islamic tradition ===
+
:Then his Lord chose him, and relented toward him, and guided him (20:122).
−
{{see also|Adam (prophet of Islam)}}
+
God forgives them but asks them to leave paradise and go to live on earth. Adam and Eve become separated from each other for many years. Eventually they prayed a sincere prayer of repentance and were reunited with God and each other on the Mount of Mercy on the Plain of Arafat. Adam was guided by the angel Gabriel to the site where the Ka'ba was to be. After walking round the site seven times, he built a shrine. Adam and Eve were then guided by Gabriel to perform Hajj. So Adam is seen as a [[Prophets of Islam|prophet in Islam]], the first example of true repentance. Islam has no concept of Original Sin, nor did the sin of the first couple create a "fallen nature" in their descendants.  
−
The [[Qur'an]] tells of آدم (''{{Unicode|ʾĀdam}}'') in the [[surah]] [[al-Baqara|al-Baqara (2)]]:30-39, [[al-A'raf|al-A'raf (7)]]:11-25, [[al-Hijr|al-Hijr (15)]]:26-44, [[al-Isra|al-Isra (17)]]:61-65, [[Ta-Ha|Ta-Ha (20)]]:115-124, and [[Sad (sura)|Sad (38)]]:71-85.  
 
  
−
The early Islamic commentator [[Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari]] adds a number of details to the Torah, based on claimed [[hadith]] as well as specific Jewish traditions (so-called ''[[isra'iliyyat]]'').<ref>[http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Hadith/Ulum/israel.html On The Transmitters Of Isra'iliyyat]</ref>  Tabari records that when it came time to create Adam, God sent [[Gabriel (archangel)|Gabriel]] (Jibril), then [[Michael (archangel)|Michael]] (Mika'il), to fetch clay from the earth; but the earth complained, saying ''I take refuge in God from you, if you have come to diminish or deform me'', so the angels returned empty-handed. Tabari goes on to state that God responded by sending the [[Death (personification)#Death .28angels.29 in religion|Angel of Death]], who took clay from all regions, hence providing an explanation for the variety of appearances of the different races of mankind.
+
The Qur'an also recounts the story of Adam's two sons Cain and Abel—named ''Qabil'' and ''Habil'' in Islamic tradition.
  
−
According to Tabari's account, after receiving the breath of God, Adam remained a dry body for 40 days, then gradually came to life from the head downwards, sneezing when he had finished coming to life, saying ''All praise be to God, the Lord of all beings''{{Fact|date=February 2007}}. Having been created, Adam, the first man, is described as having been given dominion over all the lower creatures, which he proceeds to name. As one of the people to whom God is said to have spoken to directly, Adam is seen as a [[Prophets of Islam|prophet in Islam]].
+
Islamic commentators have embellished the Qur'an's account with additional details. [[Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari]] wrote that after receiving the breath of God, Adam remained a dry body for 40 days, then gradually came to life from the head downwards, sneezing when he had finished coming to life.
 +
<ref> [http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Hadith/Ulum/israel.html On The Transmitters Of Isra'iliyyat] Islamic Awareness, 2000. Retrieved August 16, 2018.</ref> The Shiite commentator [[al-Qummi]] records the opinion that [[Garden of Eden|Eden]] was not entirely earthly. Having been sent to earth after eating the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve first arrived at mountain peaks outside [[Mecca]]—Adam on [[Safa]], and Eve on [[Marwa]]. In this tradition, Adam remained weeping for 40 days, until he repented, at which point God rewarded him by sending down the [[Kaaba]] and teaching him to perform the Islamic duty of the [[Hajj]].
  
−
At this point, Adam takes a prominent role in Islamic traditions concerning the fall of [[Satan]], which is not recorded in the Torah, but in the [[Book of Enoch]] which is used in [[Oriental Orthodox]] churches. In these, when God announces his intention of creating Adam, some of the angels express dismay, asking why he would create a being that would do evil. Teaching Adam ''the names'' reassures the angels as to Adam's abilities, though commentators dispute which particular names were involved; various theories say they were the names of all things animate and inanimate, the names of the angels, the names of his own descendants, or the [[99 Names of God in the Qur'an|names of God]].  
+
== Original Sin ==
 +
[[Image:B Escorial 18.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Depiction of the ''original sin''. Illuminated parchment, Spain, circa 950-955 C.E.]]
 +
The story of Adam and Eve forms the basis for the important Christian doctrine of [[Original Sin]]: "Sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned," said [[Paul of Tarsus]] in his [[Epistle to the Romans]], writing in about 58 C.E. Later theological commentators directly connected Adam and Eve's disobedience to God's word as the foundation of mankind's sinful nature. St. [[Augustine of Hippo]] (354-430 C.E.) understood Paul to have taught that Adam's sin was hereditary. He held that Original Sin passed on from generation to generation through the father's sperm in the act of sexual intercourse:
 +
:"Behold I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me" (Psalm 51:5).
  
−
When God orders the angels to bow to Adam one of those present, Satan [Lucifer] ([[Iblis]] in Islam, a [[Djinn]] who said "why should I bow to man, I am made of pure fire"), refuses due to his pride, and is summarily banished from the Heavens. [[Liberal movements within Islam]] have viewed God's commanding the angels to bow before Adam as an exaltation of humanity, and as a means of supporting [[human rights]], others view it as an act of showing Adam that the biggest enemy of humans on earth will be their ego.<ref>[[Javed Ahmed Ghamidi]], Mizan, Lahore: Dar al-Ishraq, 2001</ref>
+
Christian belief connects the Original Sin to the atoning work of Christ, which cleanses it. The New Testament teaches that Jesus is the new Adam, who brings regenerating life to Christians. As Saint Paul wrote:
 +
:The first man Adam became a living being; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven (1 Cor. 15:45-47).
 +
As the second Adam, [[Jesus]] succeeded where the first Adam failed. Thus, Jesus was obedient to the point of death on the cross, restoring Adam's disobedience of the commandment which held the penalty of death (Gen. 2:17)—or as [[Saint Paul]] put it, "For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive" (1 Cor. 15:22). Jesus overcame Satan through his forty days on the Mount of Temptation thus restoring Adam, who succumbed to Satan's temptation in the Garden. Based on Christ's redemption, [[baptism]] is understood in Catholic and some Protestant traditions as the means eradicating the Original Sin. (In other branches of Christianity, baptism is a means of cleansing only the sins that were actually committed by the person being baptized.) Furthermore, the Catholic sacrament of [[marriage]] is said to restore the chastity lost at the fall.
  
−
More extended versions of the fall of Satan also exist in works such as that of Tabari, and the [[Shia]] commentator al-[[Qummi]]. In these explanations Iblis is sent against the jinn, who had angered God by sin and fighting. In such versions where Satan leads the battle on God's behalf, rather than his own, it is the pride and conceit resulting from his victory which results in his expulsion, since pride is seen as a sin. Islamic traditions further record that, in vengeful anger, Iblis promises God that he will lead as many humans astray as he can, to which God replies that it is the choice of humans - those who so desire will follow Satan, while those who so desire will follow God.
+
Because Eve had tempted Adam to eat of the fatal fruit, several of the early [[Fathers of the Church]] held her, and all subsequent women, to be especially responsible for the Fall. "You are the devil's gateway," [[Tertullian]] told his female listeners in the early second century. <ref> [http://www.tertullian.org/anf/anf04/anf04-06.htm Tertullian, "De Cultu Feminarum," Book I Chapter I, ''Modesty in Apparel Becoming to Women in Memory of the Introduction of Sin Through a Woman'' (in "The Ante-Nicene Fathers")]. ''Tertullian Project''. Retrieved August 16, 2018.</ref> Although there is no mention of a new Eve in the New Testament, in Catholic tradition, [[Mary]], the mother of Jesus, is seen as restoring Eve's sin by her giving birth to Jesus as a [[virgin]]. [[Justin Martyr]], (165 C.E..) wrote, "Christ became a man by a virgin to overcome the disobedience caused by the serpent … in the same way it had originated" ''(Dialogue with Trypho)''.  [[Irenaeus of Lyon]] stated: "The knot of Eve's disobedience was loosened by Mary's obedience" (Adv. haereses, 3:22).  And [[Ambrose of Milan]] (397 C.E.) said, "It was through a man and woman that flesh was cast from paradise; it was through a virgin that flesh was linked to God."
  
−
Eve is not mentioned by name in the Qur'an, she is nevertheless referred to as Adam's spouse, and Islamic tradition refers to her by an etymologically similar name - حواء  (''{{Unicode|Hawwāʾ}}'') . In fact, although her creation is not recounted in the Qur'an, Tabari recounts the biblical tale of her creation, stating that she was named because she was created from a ''living'' thing (her name means ''living''). The torah gives an etymology for ''woman'', or rather the Hebrew equivalent (''ish-shah''), stating that she should be called ''woman'' since she was taken out of man (''ish'' in Hebrew). The etymology is regarded as implausible by most semitic linguists. Interestingly, Quran blame both, Adam and Eve for eating the forbidden fruit. Some Muslims therefore interpret that this even does not pose a problem of women inferiority to men intrinsically. However, two hadiths seem to cast women differently:
+
===The beginnings of evil without the concept of Original Sin===
 +
As mentioned above, Islam has no concept of Original Sin, nor did the sin of the first couple create a "fallen nature" in their descendants. Rather, Adam is an exemplary figure as the first to repent and receive God's mercy. However, the Qur'an does recount the fall of Adam and Eve from a heavenly state in the Garden to a worldly state of struggle. Moreover, the story of Adam and Eve is bound up with the origin of Satan, the tempter who lies in wait to deceive and corrupt human beings. Thus does the story point to the origin of human rebellion against God—by depicting the origin of Satan and his stratagems to deceive, waylay, and corrupt human beings, as well as man's susceptibility to Satan's schemes.
  
−
{{cquote|Woman has been created from a rib and will in no way be straightened for you; so if you wish to benefit by her, benefit by her while crookedness remains in her. And if you attempt to straighten her, you will break her, and breaking her is divorcing her. ([[Sahih Muslim]] 3466[http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/hadithsunnah/muslim/008.smt.html])}}
+
With some exceptions, Jewish tradition does not teach that Adam and Eve's sin was inherited by their descendants. Rather, the tendency to sin, called the ''[[yezer harah]]'' or "evil inclination," is part of mankind's original nature. Some traditions trace the origin of the evil inclination to the creation itself, to the "breaking of the vessels" in [[Kabbala|Kabbalistic]] teachings; others teach that God gave humans the evil inclination for their own good, to encourage procreation or to provide an opportunity for choice. In any case, where God gives a challenge, he also gives a solution: His commandments to humankind, which are to guide them to overcome this tendency and act righteously.
  
−
{{cquote|Had it not been for Bani Isra'il, food would not have become stale, and meal would not have gone bad; and had it not been for Eve, a woman would never have acted unfaithfully toward her husband. ([[Sahih Muslim]] 3472 [http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/hadithsunnah/muslim/008.smt.html])}}
+
One such exception is the notion that the fall of Adam and Eve increased the propensity to sin, adding to the power of the evil inclination:  
  
−
Al-[[Qummi]] records the opinion that Eden was not entirely earthly, and so, having been sent to earth, Adam and Eve first arrived at mountain peaks outside [[Mecca]]; Adam on [[Safa]], and Eve on [[Marwa]]. In this Islamic tradition, Adam remained weeping for 40 days, until he repented, at which point God rewarded him by sending down the [[Kaaba]], and teaching him the [[hajj]]. Other Islamic traditions hold that Adam was moved to [[Sri Lanka]], as the next best thing to Eden, and, viewing Adam as having been a giant, human size having shrunk drastically before the [[great flood]], [[Adam's Peak]] is said to contain his giant footprint.
+
:If Adam had not sinned, he would not have begotten children from the side of the evil inclination, but he would have borne offspring from the side of the Holy Spirit. But now, since all the children of men are born from the side of the evil inclination, they have no permanence and are but short-lived (Zohar, Genesis 61a).
  
−
The Qur'an also describes the two sons of Adam (named Qabil and Habil in Islamic tradition, but not mentioned by name in the Qur'an) that correspond to Cain and Abel.
+
In the [[Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints|Latter-day Saints]] tradition, the fall of Adam and Eve is considered to be a blessing, a ''felix culpa'' or "happy fault." According to the [[Book of Mormon]], if Adam and Eve had not transgressed, they would have lived forever in Eden in a state of innocence, never having sexual relations and never having children (2 Nephi 2:22-26). Without the fall, humanity would never have multiplied on the earth, enjoying the pleasures of family life. Furthermore, the fall was necessary that people might exercise moral agency, to know the joys of ethical living. Finally, the fall was necessary that humankind would know the grace of the redemption of Christ. For these reasons, Mormons consider the fall of Adam and Eve to have been within God's plan.
  
−
==Historicity==
+
==Historicity and modern critical views==
−
[[Image:Piero della Francesca 036.jpg|260px|thumb|right|''The Death of Adam'', by [[Piero della Francesca]] ([[1452]]-[[1466]]).]]
+
[[Image:Piero della Francesca 036.jpg|260px|thumb|right|''The Death of Adam'', by [[Piero della Francesca]] (1452-1466).]]
−
Many Biblical scholars consider Adam and Eve as an example of a story focusing on the teaching of perceived fundamental truths.  In their interpretation, the narrative's purpose is to convey the importance and truth of sin and human rebellion in their traditions, regardless of historical accuracy. All, some, or none of the actual events of the narrative may have actually happened, or been [[embellishment|embellished]], although there is no real evidence of embellishment of this narrative in the [[Masoretic Text]].
+
Adam and Eve are considered in traditional [[Christianity]] and Orthodox [[Judaism]] as real historical people. Genesis 5:4 records [[Adam]] within a genealogy, and in the [[New Testament]], the [[Gospel of Luke]] (chapter 3) traces [[Jesus]]' lineage back to Adam. Thus, in the biblical tradition, all human beings are descended from Adam and Eve.  
  
−
Adam and Eve are considered in evangelical Christianity and Orthodox Judaism as real historical people, as [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=gen%205.3&version=31 Genesis 5:4] records Adam within a genealogy. In the [[New Testament]], [[Paul]] references Adam and Eve many times, especially contrasting Adam with Jesus where Paul writes in the 5th chapter of Romans "12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned— 13 (For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. 15 But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many." This is taken to support a historical Adam by fundamentalists as some theologians interpret [[Original sin|Adam's sin]] as a historical event that changed humankind. Others argue that Paul could be merely using the myth as a teaching method, or that Paul believed in Adam and Eve but was mistaken on this count. However, [[Jesus]] also made reference to the story of Adam and Eve, in Matthew 19:4,5. Adam is also listed in Jesus' genealogy in Luke 3. Others view Adam and Eve as metaphorical for every person when they first sin and God seeks them out. Those who hold this view point out that ''adam'' can also be translated ''humankind.''
+
In [[Modern Age|modern times]] the theory of [[evolution]] has challenged the Christian belief in the historicity of Adam and Eve. Biblical scholars who add the dates to the lineages described in the Bible put Adam and Eve at about 4,000 B.C.E.. However, anthropologists have found human remains of much earlier ''[[homo sapiens]],'' dating to around  130,000 B.C.E. for modern humans and much earlier than that for more primitive "human" species. Further, some interpret Genesis as speaking of other people living at the time of Adam and Eve. Cain is worried that people will kill him when he is sent away. He flees to the land of Nod, where he takes a wife and has children. While biblical literalists insist that this woman must have been his sister, others are led to conclude that in ancient times Adam and Eve were the special forebears of a special tribe or race who intermarried with other primitive humans. Many denominations no longer insist that Adam and Eve were the literal parents of humankind.
  
−
[[Thomas Paine]]'s [[The Age of Reason]] prompted some Christians to interpret the Bible as strict history; [[William Whiston]] was one such early scholar.  [[James Ussher]] calculated Adam and Eve's life at approximately 4,000 B.C.E., basing on the [[Genealogies of Genesis]] and [[Table of Nations]].
+
Some see a confirmation of the biblical account in the recent identification by  geneticists of prehistoric individuals dubbed "[[Y-chromosomal Adam]]" and "[[Mitochondrial Eve]]." However, these two individuals are not thought by the scientific community to be the biblical Adam and Eve. Indeed, Mitochondrial Eve—the common matrilineal ancestor of all humans alive today—lived many millennia before Y-chromosomal Adam.
  
−
In [[Modern Age|modern times]] the theory of [[evolution]] has challenged the Christian belief in the historicity of Adam and Eve. Many denominations have rejected the historicity of Adam and Eve; others have retained it (at least officially), including [[The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]] and some conservative Christian denominations.
+
Thus, many moderns consider the story of Adam and Eve as a ''[[myth]],'' whose importance is in the lessons it conveys rather than the historical reality it supposedly describes. As a myth it is rich with metaphor and symbolism which can be understood at many different levels and many different ways. It expresses in narrative form a type of [[theology]] that touches on the deepest human questions. As a narrative type of [[theodicy]] it tries to explain how it is possible to still believe in the goodness of God despite the human experience of evil and suffering because it is not God's fault that there is evil and suffering. It does this by telling a story in which the first two human beings are responsible, by freely choosing to disobey God and creating an abusive and dysfunctional family tradition that was passed on to succeeding generations. Indeed, theologians return to the story of Adam and Eve time and again, capturing new theological insights to further illuminate these questions.  
  
−
===Ancestry and evolutionary biology===
+
===Historical-critical biblical scholarship===
−
{{Unreferenced|date=October 2006}}
+
[[Biblical Criticism|Biblical critics]] employ historical-critical methods to understand the original provenance of a text: Who wrote it, when it was written, for what purpose, and how it was understood by its audience. The biblical story of Adam and Eve in Genesis 2-3 is widely regarded has having been written by the [[Yahwist]], or J, who lived in the tenth century B.C.E.. around the time of King [[Solomon]]. The story was most likely composed in opposition to [[Canaan]]ite mother-[[goddess]] worship, which employed sacred prostitutes in fertility rituals to induce the heavens to provide rain and abundant crops.<ref>J. Alberto Soggin, ''Old Testament and Oriental Studies'' (Biblica et Orientalia 29) (Rome: Biblical Institute, 1975).</ref> The goddess [[Asherah]] was central to this cult, and her worship, always denounced by the biblical prophets, was associated with trees (or wooden poles) and cultic sex (Deut. 23:17-18; 1 Kgs. 14:23-24; Hos. 4:12-14; Jer. 2:20). Thus, many scholars favor a sexual interpretation of the story, not as a condemnation of sexuality per se (God sanctions the marriage bed in Gen. 2:18-24), but of sexual relations outside of marriage, specifically associated with the Canaanite [[fertility cult]].
−
{{main|Mitochondrial Eve|Y-chromosomal Adam}}
 
−
The idea of a single male and female human ancestor is contradictory to [[evolutionary theory]]. According to this theory, the population of humans gradually evolved from other [[hominan]]s, and the [[population size]] was never two (indeed if the population size had been just two, humans would almost certainly have become extinct). Somewhat confusingly however, geneticists have identified individuals dubbed "[[Y-chromosomal Adam]]" and "[[Mitochondrial Eve]]". Mitochondrial Eve is the common matrilineal ancestor of all humans alive today whilst Y-chromosomal Adam is the common patrilineal ancestor who lived many millennia after Mitochondrial Eve.
 
  
−
==Cultural influence==
+
Scholars have identified the term "knowledge of good and evil" as meaning sexual experience, notably in the [[Qumran]] text, the ''[[Rule of the Community]]:'' "He shall not come near to a woman, in order to have sexual relations with her, until his completing twenty years, when he knows good and evil" (1.9-11).<ref>Robert Gordis, ''Poets, Prophets and Sages'' (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University, 1971, ISBN 978-0253166555), 199-201.</ref> Several times in Genesis, the verb "to know" implies carnal knowledge (Gen. 4:1, 19:5, 24:16). An important extrabiblical parallel is the Mesopotamian epic of [[Gilgamesh]], in which the hero's companion Enkidu is a type of Adam: Innocent and living wild among nature, he is seduced by a prostitute, after which he can no longer return to the wild, as the animals run away. Instead he gains a type of wisdom—she says to him, "Thou art wise, Enkidu, art become like a God" (1.4.35). Enkidu becomes ashamed of his body and enters the human world. Ultimately he dies, cursing the harlot who brought him out from his primordial state (7.3.10-30).
−
[[Early Renaissance art]]ists used the theme of Adam and Eve as a way to represent female and male nudes. Later, the nudity was objected to by more modest elements, and fig leaves were added to the older pictures and sculptures, covering their [[genital]]s. The choice of the [[fig tree|fig]] was a result of Mediterranean traditions identifying the unnamed ''Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil'' as a fig tree, and since figs leaves were actually mentioned in Genesis as being used to cover Adam and Eve's nudity.
 
  
−
Another issue was whether they should be depicted with [[navel]]s. Since they were created fully grown, and did not develop in a uterus, they would not have had the umbilical scars possessed by all born humans. However, paintings without navels looked unnatural.
+
Furthermore, in the fertility cult, Asherah was sometimes symbolized by a serpent. On Syrian and Egyptian plaques and statuettes of the goddess, she is depicted nude, her hair in flowing curls, standing on a lion and holding in her hands flowers and/or serpents.<ref>James B. Pritchard (ed.), ''Ancient Near East in Pictures Relating to the Old Testament'' (Princeton University Press, 1974), plates 469-477.</ref> As Asherah is the mother-goddess, Eve is called "mother of all the living" (Gen. 3:20), and her name, ''Ḥawwâ'' is related to an Aramaic word for serpent ''(ḥiwyat)''. Was Eve one of Asherah's names? One [[Carthage|Punic]] inscription begins "O Lady ''Ḥawwat,'' Goddess." In a Ugaritic text that illuminates the connection between serpents and the fertility cult, RS 24.244, a goddess has shut herself in her house and demands of the god Horan that he give her serpents as a "bride price" ('tnn), which in the Hebrew Bible is ''etnān,'' the term for a harlot's hire. Only after he has offered her serpents does he enter her temple, and together they fulfill the sacred marriage to bring healing and fertility to the land. In this text, the serpent can bring either death (through snake-bite) or life and healing. The symbol of medicine to this day is the [[Caduceus]], a pole with entwined serpents.  
  
−
In Northern Europe, the unnamed "Forbidden fruit" became considered a form of [[Apple (fruit)|apple]], because of a misunderstanding of the Latin "malum", where malum as an adjective means evil, but as a noun means apple. The [[larynx]] in the human throat, noticeably more prominent in males, was consequently called an ''[[Adam's apple]]'', from a notion that it was caused by the forbidden fruit sticking in Adam's throat as he swallowed, and the name has stuck.  
+
In the story of Adam and Eve, all these aspects of the fertility cult are brought together and turned upside-down, becoming the source of all human corruption. The scene in Genesis 3 contains all the elements of the sacred marriage: The sacred ground of Eden, the tree as the cult-place of Asherah and source of healing and fertility, the serpent as symbol and mediator of the cult, as well as of the male sexual organ, a woman called by one of Asherah's titles, and the man. Together they do something which is supposed to make the couple like God, thus seeking what all those engaged in the ritual sex of the fertility cult were promised: Participation in the numinous power of uniting the cosmic male and female principles, mingling the human and divine energies to bring healing and fertility to the world. But just as in Numbers 25:1-15, where the Canaanite fertility cult promised healing but brought death, in Genesis 3 the results of the ritual sex are curses: Infertility, barren land, pain in childbirth, and death.
  
−
Some [[Old Church Slavonic|Slavonic]] texts state that the "forbidden fruit" was actually the [[grape]], that was later changed in its nature and made into something good, much as the serpent was changed by losing its legs and speech.
+
The Yahwist is inspired to place this story at the beginning of human history, as the original evil that caused humanity to be driven out of paradise. Set in primordial time, it is the opposite of creation. The chain of ever increasing evils continues through the opening chapters of Genesis as the Yahwist narrates Cain's murder of Abel, the violent generation of the Flood, and the hubris of the [[Tower of Babel]], until in Genesis 12:2-3 God's blessing can enter the world anew through [[Abraham]].
  
−
Other [[Eastern Christianity|Eastern Christians]] sometimes assume that the "forbidden fruit" was the [[fig]], from the account of their using leaves of this tree to cover themselves.
+
== Alternative traditions about Adam and Eve ==
  
−
John Milton's [[Paradise Lost]] is a famous 17th century epic poem written in blank verse which explores the story of Adam and Eve in great detail. Notably, the character of Satan is portrayed almost sympathetically.
+
[[Image:Lilith (John Collier painting).jpg|thumb|right|150px|Lilith, thought in some Jewish traditions to have been the first wife of Adam]]
 +
=== Lilith ===
 +
Even in ancient times the presence of two distinct accounts of the creation of humanity in [[Genesis]] chapters one and two was noted with some curiosity. The first account says "male and female He created them," whereas in the second account God created Adam first and later brought Eve forth from Adam's body, because Adam was lonely. To resolve this apparent discrepancy between the two chapters, some rabbis suggested that chapter one's "woman" and chapter two's "Eve" were two separate individuals.
  
−
[[Jules Verne]]'s ''[[The Eternal Adam]]'' presents a catastrophe that submerges all dry land and raises some submarine terrain.
+
Preserved in the ancient [[midrash]]ic accounts and the medieval ''[[Alphabet of Ben Sira]],'' this Jewish tradition held that Adam's first wife, called [[Lilith]], refused to take the [[missionary position|submissive position]] to Adam in sexual intercourse, and eventually fled from him, consequently leaving him lonely. In some accounts, she goes on to become a demon responsible for much mischief throughout history.
−
Among the survivors there are one Adam and one Eve.
 
−
The resulting mankind holds them mythical.
 
−
It is revealed that mankind has passed several times through a new creation, reproducing itself from pairs of Adams and Eves.
 
  
−
In [[C.S. Lewis]]' ''[[The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe|The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe]]'' of ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia]]'' series of novels, the kings and queens that sit on Narnia's throne at the castle in Narnia's capital, Cair Paravel, are referred to as "Sons of Adam" and "Daughters of Eve".  In the story, two male and two female humans are to sit on the four thrones of Cair Paravel to signify the return of peace to Narnia.
+
Some rabbis believed that half-human demons arose from Eve's having sex with male spirits (Hag. 16a). In another [[talmud]]ic tradition, ghouls and demons are engendered by Adam's ejaculations during a 130-year period of separation from Eve. Elsewhere, Lilith is also identified as the mother of these satanic creatures. The demons were said to prey on newborn males before they had been [[circumcised]], and so a tradition arose in which a protective amulet was placed around the neck of newborns.
  
−
[[John Steinbeck]]'s [[1952]] novel ''[[East of Eden]]'' is based on the story of Adam, Eve, Cain and Abel. It was later made into a [[East of Eden (1955 film)|film]] starring [[James Dean]].
+
=== Gnostic Adam and Eve ===
 +
[[Image:William Blake sata amor adao eva.jpg|thumb|250px|William Blake's depiction of Adam and Eve was influenced by Gnostic concepts.]]
 +
In certain forms of Christian [[Gnosticism]], the creation of Adam as ''Protanthropos''—the original man—had a very important place. As in some rabbinical traditions, the [[Apocalypse of Adam]] suggests that man and woman were originally conjoined in a single androgynous being, both male and female. This primordial "man" was greater than the eternal [[angels]] and higher even than [[Samael]], the god of the Aeon and Powers that had created them. Samael then separated the male Adam from the female Eve, causing their superior knowledge of God to be lost. The ''Protanthropos'' is also sometimes seen as a spiritual [[emanation]] from God, called the [[Son of God]], which appeared to mankind as [[Jesus]].
  
−
In late [[20th Century]] / early [[21st Century]] politics, the names of Adam and Eve are frequently invoked by those who oppose [[homosexuality]] on a religious basis, in the slogans "God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve" and "God made Adam and Eve, not Madam and Eve."  
+
In a similar vein, though without reference to the above cosmology, the [[Gospel of Thomas]] quotes [[Jesus]] as saying: "When you make the two into one, and when you make the inner like the outer and the outer like the inner, and the upper like the lower, and when you make male and female into a single one… then you will enter [[the kingdom]]."  
  
−
[[Cockney Rhyming Slang]] uses "Adam and Eve" to mean "believe" (e.g. "Would you Adam and Eve it?", meaning "Would you believe it?"). Unlike most cockney rhyming slang, both the rhyming and non-rhyming parts are typically used.
+
Some Gnostics adopted the [[Marcion]]ite belief that the wrathful [[Yahweh]] of the [[Old Testament]] and the loving Heavenly Father of Jesus were two separate divinities. [[Gnostic]] accounts—particularly those of the [[Ophite]]s--also sometimes portrayed the serpent as a hero who was trying to help the first couple gain knowledge to defeat the jealous [[Demiurge]] of the material world.
−
 
 
−
The story of Adam and Eve is parodied in [[The Simpsons]]' episode [[Simpsons Bible Stories]].
 
−
 
 
−
In the television series ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' and its film sequels ''[[Evangelion: Death and Rebirth]]'' and ''[[The End of Evangelion]]'', the first [[Angel (Neon Genesis Evangelion)|Angel]] is named Adam and all but one of the [[Evangelion (mecha)|Evangelion]] mecha are created from this being's substance.  As "Evangelion" is usually shortened to "Eva", the form of the name "Eve" in many languages, this creation myth parallels the Old Testament version. Also, one of the possible interpretations of the ending of ''The End of Evangelion'' is that [[Shinji Ikari]] and [[Asuka Langley Soryu]] are slated to play the roles of the post-[[Neon Genesis Evangelion glossary#Third Impact|Third Impact]] Adam and Eve.
 
−
 
 
−
The opening view of ''[[Desperate Housewives]]'' features an allusion to Adam and Eve.
 
−
 
 
−
Prince's song "And God Created Woman" resembles the story of Adam and Eve
 
−
 
 
−
British-based Metal band [[Cradle of Filth]] used the story of Adam and Eve for the music video to their cover of [[Heaven 17]]'s song "Temptation." In the video, frontman [[Dani Filth]] portrays Adam, while contributing vocalist [[Victoria Harrison]], known by her stage name Dirty Harry, portrays Eve.
 
  
 
== Notes ==
 
== Notes ==
−
<div class="references-small">
 
 
<references />
 
<references />
−
<!-- No longer referenced:  #{{note|JE}}[http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=527&letter=E&search=Eve Jewish Encyclopedia]—>
 
−
<!-- No longer referenced:  #{{note|ecceveritas2}} [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11312a.htm Original Sin]—>
 
−
<!-- No longer referenced:  #{{note|sumer1}} [[Enki]] (from En = Lord, Ki = Earth) and [[Ninhursag]] (from Nin = Lady, (K)hur = Mountain, Sag = Sacred)—>
 
−
<!-- No longer referenced:  #{{note|sumer2}} (called by the Sumerians, the Anunaki from Anu = Heaven, Na = And, Ki = Earth)—>
 
−
<!-- No longer referenced:  #{{note|sumer3}} See Dr Gwendolyn Leick — Assyriology PhD (Univ. Graz - Austria), lecturer at Richmond College and Univ. Glamorgan —>
 
−
<!-- No longer referenced:  #{{note|sumer4}} [http://www.meta-religion.com/World_Religions/Ancient_religions/Mesopotamia/Epic_of_gilgamesh/biblical_parallels_in_sumerian_l.htm Biblical parallels in Sumerian mythology]—>
 
−
</div>
 
  
 
==References==
 
==References==
−
<div class="references-small">
+
* Ali, Abdullah Yusuf (trans.). ''The Holy Qur'an''. Wordsworth Editions Ltd, 2001. ISBN 978-1853267826
−
* Mahmoud Ayoub, ''The Qur'an and its Interpreters'', SUNY: Albany, 1984.
+
* Cassuto, Umberto. ''From Adam to Noah''. Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1978. ISBN 965223480X
−
* R. Patai, ''The Jewish Alchemists'', Princeton University Press, 1994.
+
* Gordis, Robert. ''Poets, Prophets and Sages''. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University, 1971. ISBN 978-0253166555
−
* Fazale Rana and [[Hugh Ross (creationist)|Ross, Hugh]], ''Who Was Adam: A Creation Model Approach to the Origin of Man'', 2005, ISBN 1-57683-577-4
+
* Kikawada, Isaac M. & Arthur Quinn. ''Before Abraham was – The Unity of Genesis 1-11''. Ignatius Pr; Repr. ed., 1989. ISBN 9780898702392
−
* ''Sibylline Oracles'', III; 24-6. This Greek acrostic also appears in 2 Enoch 30:13.
+
* Lacocque, Andre. ''The Trial of Innocence: Adam, Eve, and the Yahwist''. Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2006. ISBN 978-1597526203 
−
* David Rohl, ''Legend: The Genesis of Civilisation'', 1998
+
* [[Morris, Henry M.]] ''The Genesis Record: A Scientific and Devotional Commentary on the Book of Beginnings''. Baker Books, 1995. ISBN 9780801060045
−
* Bryan Sykes, ''The Seven Daughters of Eve''
+
* Pagels, Elaine.''Adam, Eve, and the Serpent''. Vintage, 1989. ISBN 978-0679722328
−
* C.S. Lewis, ''The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe"
+
* Pritchard, James B. (ed.). ''Ancient Near East in Pictures Relating to the Old Testament''. Princeton University Press, 1974. ISBN 978-0691035024
−
* Adam Mackie, The Importance of being Adam - Alexo 1997 (only 2000 copies published)
+
* Ratzinger, Joseph Cardinal (now [[Pope Benedict XVI]]). ''In the Beginning''. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co, 1995. ISBN 978-0802841063
−
* [[Robin Lane Fox]], "The Unauthorized version", Penguin, 1991 (no ISBN available)
+
* Schearing, Linda S. ''Eve & Adam: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Readings on Genesis and Gender''. Indiana University Press, 1999. ISBN 978-0253212719 
−
</div>
+
* Soggin, J. Alberto. ''Old Testament and Oriental Studies'' (Biblica et Orientalia 29). Rome: Biblical Institute, 1975. {{ASIN|B0040064KG}}
−
 
+
* Zornberg, Avivah Gottlieb. ''Genesis, The Beginning of Desire''. Jewish Publication Society of America; 1st ed., 1995. ISBN 9780827605213
−
==See also==
 
−
{{wikiquote}}
 
−
{{Wiktionary}}
 
−
{{commoncat|Adam and Eve}}
 
−
*[[Adam (prophet of Islam)]]
 
−
*[[Adam and Eve (Mormonism)]]
 
−
*[[Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan]]
 
−
*[[Creation narrative]]
 
−
*[[Garden of Eden]]
 
−
*[[Generations of Adam]]
 
−
*[[Kaliyan]]
 
−
*[[Mitochondrial Eve]]
 
−
*[[Pre-Adamite]]
 
−
*[[Similarities between the Bible and the Qur'an]]
 
−
*[[Tree of Life]]
 
−
*[[Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil]]
 
−
*[[Y-chromosomal Adam]]
 
−
*[[The Holy Bible]]
 
−
 
 
−
==External links==
 
−
*[http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/world/human.html First Human Beings] ([[Library of Congress]])
 
−
*[http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~humm/Topics/Lilith/alphabet.html The Story of Lilith in ''The Alphabet of Ben Sira'']
 
−
*[http://www.islamfrominside.com/Pages/Podcasts/Fall%20of%20Adam%20podcast.html Islamic view of the fall of Adam (audio)]
 
−
*[http://www.reasons.org/resources/apologetics/chromosome.shtml Chromosome dating]
 
  
 +
[[Category:philosophy and religion]]
 
{{credit|152046352}}
 
{{credit|152046352}}

Latest revision as of 16:02, 20 August 2018

Adam and Eve, by Albrecht Dürer (1507).

Adam (Hebrew: אָדָם, Adam, "man") and Eve (Hebrew: חַוָּה, Ḥavva, "living one") were the first man and woman created by God, according to the Bible and the Qur'an. The story of Adam and Eve is central to the widely held belief that God created human beings to live in a Paradise on earth, although they fell away from that state and formed the present world full of suffering and injustice. It provides the basis for the belief that humanity is in essence a single family, with everyone descended from a single pair of original ancestors. It also provides much of the scriptural basis for the doctrine of Original Sin, an important belief in Christianity, although not shared by Judaism or Islam.

The story of Adam and Eve is told in the early chapters of the Book of Genesis, which describes the creation of man and woman, the temptation and the Fall, the expulsion from Eden, the story of the first murder, and the subsequent peopling of the world outside the Garden of Eden. It is the source of many of the most important symbols in Western culture, including the Garden of Eden, the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, the forbidden fruit, and the serpent as Satan.

Adam and Eve's story underwent extensive elaboration in later Abrahamic traditions, and has been extensively analyzed by modern biblical scholars.

Biblical account

The creation of man and woman

Michelangelo shows God giving life to Adam, with Eve cradled under His arm, from the Sistine Chapel in Rome.

In the Book of Genesis, the creation of man and woman takes place after six "days" of creation in which God first brings into being the heavens and the earth, light, day and night, sky and sea, dry land, trees and other vegetation, the sun and the moon, sea creatures and birds, and finally livestock and wild animals. Then later on the sixth day, God decides to "make man in our image, in our likeness." The manifestation of God's image in "man" is both masculine and feminine:

So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.—Gen. 1:27

God proceeds to bless the couple to, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground." (Gen. 1:28) God gives them, "every tree that has fruit with seed in it" to eat. At the conclusion of this sixth day of creation God declares His work to be "very good" and proceeds to rest on the seventh day.

In the Jewish and Islamic traditions, the creation of humanity out of a single pair signifies the moral unity and equality of humanity:

But a single man [Adam] was created for the sake of peace among mankind, that none should say to his fellow, “My father was greater than your father” (Mishnah, Sanhedrin 4.5).
O mankind! We created you from a single pair of a male and a female and made you into nations and tribes, that you might know each other [not that you might despise each other]. Verily the most honored among you in the sight of God is he who is the most righteous (Qur’an 49.13).

Genesis 2 contains a second account of the creation of human beings. However, unlike the first account which is chronological, the second one focuses on the theological significance of Adam and Eve. God forms Adam out of clay and breathes into him the "breath of life" (Gen. 2:7). Receiving this divine breath makes the man unique among all God's creations, which are made from the earth only. This verse provides a theological basis for making a qualitative distinction between human beings and animals, as only humans possess an eternal spirit. For some Protestants, the verse is also relevant to the abortion debate by providing a rationale for seeing the fullness of human life as beginning at birth when the baby takes its first breath, rather than, as Catholics believe, at conception when the "clay" has not yet been infused with spirit.

Institution of the family

God's creation of Eve from Adam's rib

God places Adam in the Garden of Eden. The Garden represents the world of God's love and care, where there is harmony among all creatures. It is described in the prophets as a place where "the wolf shall dwell with the lamb" (Isa. 11:6), and where there are riches and jewels in abundance (Ezek. 28:13). Yet what good is abundance if a man is dwelling alone? God seeks companions for Adam, and so creates the animals and brings them to Adam to give them names. As naming signifies dominion, this indicates human beings are a higher order of being than animals (compare Gen. 1:28). Yet Adam's relationship with the environment is also characterized as stewardship, as indicated by his purpose "to till the garden and to keep it" (Gen. 2:15). However, none of the animals are fit to be Adam's companion.

To create a fitting life companion, God forms a woman out of Adam's rib (Gen. 2:22). This means that woman is of the same substance as man. On this point, Thomas Aquinas wrote:

It was right for woman to be made from a rib of man. First, to signify the social union of man and woman, for the woman should neither use authority over man, and so she was not made from his head; nor was it right for her to be subject to man’s contempt as his slave, and so she was not made from his feet.[1]

A Jewish tradition, also found in some Gnostic texts, holds that God originally created Adam as a hermaphrodite (Midrash Rabbah, Genesis 7:1) so that Adam was both male and female. God later decided that "it is not good for 'it' to be alone," and brought the feminine Eve out of Adam, leaving Adam as masculine only.

With the creation of woman, Adam and Eve are complete, and after God brings the woman to the man, their oneness is confirmed: "This at last is the bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh" (Gen. 2:23). This leads to the ordaining of the institution of marriage and family: "Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh." (Genesis 2:24) Some Jewish traditions interpret this verse as suggesting that Adam and Eve enjoyed married life in the Garden, and the traditional Jewish wedding prayer refers to the joyous marriage of Adam and Eve. According to one midrashic account, when God blessed Adam and Eve in marriage, the angels danced and beat timbrels and stood guard over their bridal chamber (Pirḳe R. El. 12-13). However, most Christian interpreters do not believe that this marriage was consummated in the Garden of Eden; rather it was after the couple had been expelled that "Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived…" (Gen. 4:1).

The human fall

A modern depiction of Eve tempting Adam

God had caused all kinds of trees to grow in the Garden of Eden, including two special trees: The Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Adam is told that he is free to eat of any tree he wishes, except one. God commands that he must not eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, warning him that, "in the day you eat of it, you shall die" (Gen. 2:17). For a time, Adam and Eve obeyed the one commandment they have been given. However, one day, a serpent came to Eve and persuaded her to eat it. "God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened," he told her, "and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." The serpent showed Eve that the fruit was, "good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom," and so she ate it. She then gave some of the fruit to Adam, and he too ate. Adam and Eve immediately realized that they were naked, and became of ashamed of this, using fig leaves to cover their private parts.

In all the Abrahamic faiths, the serpent is linked with the figure of Satan, as in this New Testament verse: "That ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world…" (Revelation 12:9). As to what action is symbolized by eating the forbidden fruit, Christian theologians are generally vague. After all, it makes no sense that eating a literal physical fruit could damage what is spiritual—one's relationship with God and the integrity of his lineage. Rather, the focus is entirely on the disobedience that the deed entailed. Thus Calvin taught that Adam and Eve's disobedience stemmed from their pride and egoism, which turned their souls away from God.

Jewish tradition, on the other hand, is quite explicit that Satan (either in person or utilizing a serpent) seduced Eve. The Slavonic Book of Baruch, xcvii, says that the serpent had infused lust into the fruit, and when Eve ate it sexual desire was awakened in her. The Bahir, a Kabbalistic text, states: "The serpent followed Eve, saying, 'Her soul comes from the north, and I will therefore quickly seduce her.' And how did he seduce her? He had intercourse with her." (Bahir 199). In the Pirke d'Rab. Eliezer, Satan persuaded the serpent to act on his behalf and "Be my instrument, and through thy mouth will I utter a word which shall enable thee to seduce man" (Pirḳe R. El. xiii). In another tradition, Eve became the lover of Satan in the Garden of Eden, and Satan impregnated Eve to become the father of Cain (Pirḳe R. El. 13). The New Testament contains an echo of this idea in Jesus' statement, "You are from your father the Devil." (John 8:44) According to Unificationist teachings, the tragedy of the Fall was that by uniting in a sexual relationship with Satan, Adam, Eve and all humankind, who should have become God's family, were yoked instead to Satan's lineage and could therefore no longer recognize God as their Father. From the union with Satan they also inherited elements of his "fallen nature."

Soon after, God walked through the Garden looking for Adam and Eve, but he could not find them, because they were hiding from him. God called out to Adam: "Where are you" (Gen. 3:9). Adam responded, "I heard your voice, and I was afraid, because I was naked." God replied: "How did you know you were naked? Did you eat of the fruit of the tree I told you not to eat of?" By asking a question instead of judging and condemning him, God gave Adam the opportunity to own up to what he had done and repent. However Adam did not take responsibility for his action and instead put the blame on Eve. When God asked Eve a question, she too failed to take responsibility and instead she blamed the serpent. Since freedom and responsibility go hand in hand, when Adam and Eve denied they were responsible for their own actions, they denied they were free beings. In this way they put themselves under the dominion of Satan.

God speaks to Adam and Eve, with various other scenes from their story in the background.

As a result of these events, God cursed all three of the characters in the drama: The serpent must crawl on his belly and eat dust; the woman must suffer increased pain in childbearing and be ruled by her husband; and the man must labor for his food instead of eating freely of what grows in the Garden, for the land too is cursed. (Gen. 3:14-19) These curses can be seen as analogues to the blessings given earlier in Gen. 1:28.

However, the curse upon the serpent contains what Christian exegetes have long regarded as a hidden prophecy of Christ to come in the words, "He (the woman's seed) will bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." (Gen. 3:15) This is said to foretell the crucifixion, by which Christ will strike the head of Satan while taking damage in his flesh.

God then confirmed the serpent's prophecy to Eve: "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil" (Gen 3:21). To prevent Adam and Eve from also partaking of the Tree of Life and living forever, God cast them out of the Garden, posting cherubim and a flaming sword to guard the entrance. The death that Adam and Eve underwent when they ate the fruit was a spiritual death—separation from God and His blessings. Physically, they lived for many more years.

Life outside paradise

Adam and Eve then began their lives outside Eden and raised a family. Their first child was called Cain, and their second was named Abel. When they grew up, Cain became a farmer and Abel became a shepherd. Later, the two brothers each offered a sacrifice to God: Cain brought an offering of his crops, while Abel offered a sacrifice from his flocks. God accepted Abel's offering but rejected Cain's. As a result, Cain became dejected. God asked Cain why he was angry and told him that if he did well, he too would be accepted. On the other hand, if he does not, "sin is crouching at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it." This phrase indicates that human beings are not determined. On the contrary, each person has the freedom to choose and is thus responsible for their actions. However, Cain did not change his outlook. Instead, he lured Abel into the field and killed him. Cain fled to the east, where his wife—not previously mentioned—gave birth to Adam and Eve's first grandson, Enoch.

Eve and Adam mourn for Abel as Cain flees, by William Blake

After this, Adam and Eve had another son, Seth, and Eve declared, "God has granted me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him." After Seth grew to maturity, he became the father Enosh. It was Seth's line that produced Noah, through whom humanity's lineage was perpetuated after the Great Flood.

A separate account of Adam's genealogy is given in Genesis 5. Here, neither Cain's nor Abel's lineage is mentioned. It is therefore assumed that Abel died without children. This account specifies that Adam was 130 years old when he became the father of Seth. It also claims that Adam lived 930 years before he died. Although Eve is not mentioned in this genealogy, she is given the title "the mother of all living" (Gen. 3:20).

The biblical account requires that there be daughters in order to provide wives for the sons. The Bible refers to other sons and daughters of Adam (Gen. 5:4), but they are not named. Post-biblical literature sought to remedy this lack. The Book of Jubilees, a pseudepigraphic text from the second century B.C.E., names two daughters: Azûrâ and Awân, plus nine other sons, making 12 sons and two daughters in all. Jubilees goes on to state that Cain later married Awân, and Seth married Azûrâ. According to other Jewish traditions, Cain had a twin sister named Lebuda, and Abel had a twin sister named Qelimath. In the Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan, Cain's twin sister is named Luluwa, and Abel's twin sister is named Aklia.

Other pseudepigraphic texts give further details of Adam and Eve's life outside of Eden, notably the Life of Adam and Eve (also known as the Apocalypse of Moses).

Adam and Eve in the Qur'an

Islamic portrayal of Adam and Eve from the "Book of Omens."

The Qur'an tells of آدم (ʾĀdam) in the surahs al-Baqara 2:30-39, al-A'raf 7:11-25, al-Isra 17:61-65, and Ta-Ha 20:115-124, where he is mentioned by name. In addition, the Qur'an repeatedly describes the creation of human beings from a single pair, sometimes with an allusion to the biblical narrative of the creation of Eve from Adam's rib:

O mankind! Fear your Lord, who created you of a single soul, and from it created its mate, and from the pair of them scattered abroad many men and women. (Qur’an 4.1)
O mankind! We created you from a single pair of a male and a female and made you into nations and tribes, that you might know each other [not that you might despise each other]. Verily the most honored among you in the sight of God is he who is the most righteous. (Qur’an 49.13)

As mentioned above, this is the basis for the Islamic belief in human equality and the essential unity of the human race.

Adam in the Garden of Eden is portrayed a glorious being, endowed with wisdom, and higher than the angels. When God orders the angels to bow to Adam, one of those present, the Jinni Iblis refuses, due to his pride, and assumes the role of Shaitan, the Tempter. This introduces the Qur'anic narrative of the temptation of Adam and his wife, their eating of the forbidden fruit, their subsequent expulsion from the Garden and their shame over their private parts, just as in the biblical account:

So by deceit [Satan] brought about their fall: when they tasted of the tree, their shame [private parts] became apparent to them, and they began to sew together the leaves of the Garden over their bodies. And their Lord called unto them: “Did I not forbid you that tree, and tell you that Satan was an avowed enemy unto you both?” They said: “Our Lord! We have wronged our own souls. If You do not forgive us and do not grant us Your mercy, we shall certainly be lost.” God said, “Get you down, with enmity between yourselves. On earth will be your dwelling place and your means of livelihood—for a time. Therein shall you live, and therein you shall die; but from it shall you be brought forth at last. (7:22-25)[2]

The Qur'an recognizes that there was a fall from grace, indicated by the expulsion from the Garden and the resultant state of "enmity." The dominant interpretation is that Garden was in heaven and Adam before his fall was a heavenly being, only to be expelled to the earth. Others dispute that, citing other verses that God's original purpose was to create humanity to live on earth, and there be God's vicegerent: "The Lord said to the angels: 'I will create a vicegerent on earth'" (2:29-30).

Eve is not mentioned by name in the Qur'an, but her Arabic name حواء (Hawwāʾ) is frequent in Islamic tradition.

In the Qur'an, Adam and Eve eat of the forbidden fruit, but unlike the Bible story, they immediately repent of their sin:

And their Lord called unto them: “Did I not forbid you that tree, and tell you that Satan was an avowed enemy unto you both?” They said: “Our Lord! We have wronged our own souls. If You do not forgive us and do not grant us Your mercy, we shall certainly be lost” (7:22-23).
Then his Lord chose him, and relented toward him, and guided him (20:122).

God forgives them but asks them to leave paradise and go to live on earth. Adam and Eve become separated from each other for many years. Eventually they prayed a sincere prayer of repentance and were reunited with God and each other on the Mount of Mercy on the Plain of Arafat. Adam was guided by the angel Gabriel to the site where the Ka'ba was to be. After walking round the site seven times, he built a shrine. Adam and Eve were then guided by Gabriel to perform Hajj. So Adam is seen as a prophet in Islam, the first example of true repentance. Islam has no concept of Original Sin, nor did the sin of the first couple create a "fallen nature" in their descendants.

The Qur'an also recounts the story of Adam's two sons Cain and Abel—named Qabil and Habil in Islamic tradition.

Islamic commentators have embellished the Qur'an's account with additional details. Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari wrote that after receiving the breath of God, Adam remained a dry body for 40 days, then gradually came to life from the head downwards, sneezing when he had finished coming to life. [3] The Shiite commentator al-Qummi records the opinion that Eden was not entirely earthly. Having been sent to earth after eating the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve first arrived at mountain peaks outside Mecca—Adam on Safa, and Eve on Marwa. In this tradition, Adam remained weeping for 40 days, until he repented, at which point God rewarded him by sending down the Kaaba and teaching him to perform the Islamic duty of the Hajj.

Original Sin

Depiction of the original sin. Illuminated parchment, Spain, circa 950-955 C.E.

The story of Adam and Eve forms the basis for the important Christian doctrine of Original Sin: "Sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned," said Paul of Tarsus in his Epistle to the Romans, writing in about 58 C.E. Later theological commentators directly connected Adam and Eve's disobedience to God's word as the foundation of mankind's sinful nature. St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430 C.E.) understood Paul to have taught that Adam's sin was hereditary. He held that Original Sin passed on from generation to generation through the father's sperm in the act of sexual intercourse:

"Behold I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me" (Psalm 51:5).

Christian belief connects the Original Sin to the atoning work of Christ, which cleanses it. The New Testament teaches that Jesus is the new Adam, who brings regenerating life to Christians. As Saint Paul wrote:

The first man Adam became a living being; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven (1 Cor. 15:45-47).

As the second Adam, Jesus succeeded where the first Adam failed. Thus, Jesus was obedient to the point of death on the cross, restoring Adam's disobedience of the commandment which held the penalty of death (Gen. 2:17)—or as Saint Paul put it, "For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive" (1 Cor. 15:22). Jesus overcame Satan through his forty days on the Mount of Temptation thus restoring Adam, who succumbed to Satan's temptation in the Garden. Based on Christ's redemption, baptism is understood in Catholic and some Protestant traditions as the means eradicating the Original Sin. (In other branches of Christianity, baptism is a means of cleansing only the sins that were actually committed by the person being baptized.) Furthermore, the Catholic sacrament of marriage is said to restore the chastity lost at the fall.

Because Eve had tempted Adam to eat of the fatal fruit, several of the early Fathers of the Church held her, and all subsequent women, to be especially responsible for the Fall. "You are the devil's gateway," Tertullian told his female listeners in the early second century. [4] Although there is no mention of a new Eve in the New Testament, in Catholic tradition, Mary, the mother of Jesus, is seen as restoring Eve's sin by her giving birth to Jesus as a virgin. Justin Martyr, (165 C.E.) wrote, "Christ became a man by a virgin to overcome the disobedience caused by the serpent … in the same way it had originated" (Dialogue with Trypho). Irenaeus of Lyon stated: "The knot of Eve's disobedience was loosened by Mary's obedience" (Adv. haereses, 3:22). And Ambrose of Milan (397 C.E.) said, "It was through a man and woman that flesh was cast from paradise; it was through a virgin that flesh was linked to God."

The beginnings of evil without the concept of Original Sin

As mentioned above, Islam has no concept of Original Sin, nor did the sin of the first couple create a "fallen nature" in their descendants. Rather, Adam is an exemplary figure as the first to repent and receive God's mercy. However, the Qur'an does recount the fall of Adam and Eve from a heavenly state in the Garden to a worldly state of struggle. Moreover, the story of Adam and Eve is bound up with the origin of Satan, the tempter who lies in wait to deceive and corrupt human beings. Thus does the story point to the origin of human rebellion against God—by depicting the origin of Satan and his stratagems to deceive, waylay, and corrupt human beings, as well as man's susceptibility to Satan's schemes.

With some exceptions, Jewish tradition does not teach that Adam and Eve's sin was inherited by their descendants. Rather, the tendency to sin, called the yezer harah or "evil inclination," is part of mankind's original nature. Some traditions trace the origin of the evil inclination to the creation itself, to the "breaking of the vessels" in Kabbalistic teachings; others teach that God gave humans the evil inclination for their own good, to encourage procreation or to provide an opportunity for choice. In any case, where God gives a challenge, he also gives a solution: His commandments to humankind, which are to guide them to overcome this tendency and act righteously.

One such exception is the notion that the fall of Adam and Eve increased the propensity to sin, adding to the power of the evil inclination:

If Adam had not sinned, he would not have begotten children from the side of the evil inclination, but he would have borne offspring from the side of the Holy Spirit. But now, since all the children of men are born from the side of the evil inclination, they have no permanence and are but short-lived (Zohar, Genesis 61a).

In the Latter-day Saints tradition, the fall of Adam and Eve is considered to be a blessing, a felix culpa or "happy fault." According to the Book of Mormon, if Adam and Eve had not transgressed, they would have lived forever in Eden in a state of innocence, never having sexual relations and never having children (2 Nephi 2:22-26). Without the fall, humanity would never have multiplied on the earth, enjoying the pleasures of family life. Furthermore, the fall was necessary that people might exercise moral agency, to know the joys of ethical living. Finally, the fall was necessary that humankind would know the grace of the redemption of Christ. For these reasons, Mormons consider the fall of Adam and Eve to have been within God's plan.

Historicity and modern critical views

The Death of Adam, by Piero della Francesca (1452-1466).

Adam and Eve are considered in traditional Christianity and Orthodox Judaism as real historical people. Genesis 5:4 records Adam within a genealogy, and in the New Testament, the Gospel of Luke (chapter 3) traces Jesus' lineage back to Adam. Thus, in the biblical tradition, all human beings are descended from Adam and Eve.

In modern times the theory of evolution has challenged the Christian belief in the historicity of Adam and Eve. Biblical scholars who add the dates to the lineages described in the Bible put Adam and Eve at about 4,000 B.C.E. However, anthropologists have found human remains of much earlier homo sapiens, dating to around 130,000 B.C.E. for modern humans and much earlier than that for more primitive "human" species. Further, some interpret Genesis as speaking of other people living at the time of Adam and Eve. Cain is worried that people will kill him when he is sent away. He flees to the land of Nod, where he takes a wife and has children. While biblical literalists insist that this woman must have been his sister, others are led to conclude that in ancient times Adam and Eve were the special forebears of a special tribe or race who intermarried with other primitive humans. Many denominations no longer insist that Adam and Eve were the literal parents of humankind.

Some see a confirmation of the biblical account in the recent identification by geneticists of prehistoric individuals dubbed "Y-chromosomal Adam" and "Mitochondrial Eve." However, these two individuals are not thought by the scientific community to be the biblical Adam and Eve. Indeed, Mitochondrial Eve—the common matrilineal ancestor of all humans alive today—lived many millennia before Y-chromosomal Adam.

Thus, many moderns consider the story of Adam and Eve as a myth, whose importance is in the lessons it conveys rather than the historical reality it supposedly describes. As a myth it is rich with metaphor and symbolism which can be understood at many different levels and many different ways. It expresses in narrative form a type of theology that touches on the deepest human questions. As a narrative type of theodicy it tries to explain how it is possible to still believe in the goodness of God despite the human experience of evil and suffering because it is not God's fault that there is evil and suffering. It does this by telling a story in which the first two human beings are responsible, by freely choosing to disobey God and creating an abusive and dysfunctional family tradition that was passed on to succeeding generations. Indeed, theologians return to the story of Adam and Eve time and again, capturing new theological insights to further illuminate these questions.

Historical-critical biblical scholarship

Biblical critics employ historical-critical methods to understand the original provenance of a text: Who wrote it, when it was written, for what purpose, and how it was understood by its audience. The biblical story of Adam and Eve in Genesis 2-3 is widely regarded has having been written by the Yahwist, or J, who lived in the tenth century B.C.E. around the time of King Solomon. The story was most likely composed in opposition to Canaanite mother-goddess worship, which employed sacred prostitutes in fertility rituals to induce the heavens to provide rain and abundant crops.[5] The goddess Asherah was central to this cult, and her worship, always denounced by the biblical prophets, was associated with trees (or wooden poles) and cultic sex (Deut. 23:17-18; 1 Kgs. 14:23-24; Hos. 4:12-14; Jer. 2:20). Thus, many scholars favor a sexual interpretation of the story, not as a condemnation of sexuality per se (God sanctions the marriage bed in Gen. 2:18-24), but of sexual relations outside of marriage, specifically associated with the Canaanite fertility cult.

Scholars have identified the term "knowledge of good and evil" as meaning sexual experience, notably in the Qumran text, the Rule of the Community: "He shall not come near to a woman, in order to have sexual relations with her, until his completing twenty years, when he knows good and evil" (1.9-11).[6] Several times in Genesis, the verb "to know" implies carnal knowledge (Gen. 4:1, 19:5, 24:16). An important extrabiblical parallel is the Mesopotamian epic of Gilgamesh, in which the hero's companion Enkidu is a type of Adam: Innocent and living wild among nature, he is seduced by a prostitute, after which he can no longer return to the wild, as the animals run away. Instead he gains a type of wisdom—she says to him, "Thou art wise, Enkidu, art become like a God" (1.4.35). Enkidu becomes ashamed of his body and enters the human world. Ultimately he dies, cursing the harlot who brought him out from his primordial state (7.3.10-30).

Furthermore, in the fertility cult, Asherah was sometimes symbolized by a serpent. On Syrian and Egyptian plaques and statuettes of the goddess, she is depicted nude, her hair in flowing curls, standing on a lion and holding in her hands flowers and/or serpents.[7] As Asherah is the mother-goddess, Eve is called "mother of all the living" (Gen. 3:20), and her name, Ḥawwâ is related to an Aramaic word for serpent (ḥiwyat). Was Eve one of Asherah's names? One Punic inscription begins "O Lady Ḥawwat, Goddess." In a Ugaritic text that illuminates the connection between serpents and the fertility cult, RS 24.244, a goddess has shut herself in her house and demands of the god Horan that he give her serpents as a "bride price" ('tnn), which in the Hebrew Bible is etnān, the term for a harlot's hire. Only after he has offered her serpents does he enter her temple, and together they fulfill the sacred marriage to bring healing and fertility to the land. In this text, the serpent can bring either death (through snake-bite) or life and healing. The symbol of medicine to this day is the Caduceus, a pole with entwined serpents.

In the story of Adam and Eve, all these aspects of the fertility cult are brought together and turned upside-down, becoming the source of all human corruption. The scene in Genesis 3 contains all the elements of the sacred marriage: The sacred ground of Eden, the tree as the cult-place of Asherah and source of healing and fertility, the serpent as symbol and mediator of the cult, as well as of the male sexual organ, a woman called by one of Asherah's titles, and the man. Together they do something which is supposed to make the couple like God, thus seeking what all those engaged in the ritual sex of the fertility cult were promised: Participation in the numinous power of uniting the cosmic male and female principles, mingling the human and divine energies to bring healing and fertility to the world. But just as in Numbers 25:1-15, where the Canaanite fertility cult promised healing but brought death, in Genesis 3 the results of the ritual sex are curses: Infertility, barren land, pain in childbirth, and death.

The Yahwist is inspired to place this story at the beginning of human history, as the original evil that caused humanity to be driven out of paradise. Set in primordial time, it is the opposite of creation. The chain of ever increasing evils continues through the opening chapters of Genesis as the Yahwist narrates Cain's murder of Abel, the violent generation of the Flood, and the hubris of the Tower of Babel, until in Genesis 12:2-3 God's blessing can enter the world anew through Abraham.

Alternative traditions about Adam and Eve

Lilith, thought in some Jewish traditions to have been the first wife of Adam

Lilith

Even in ancient times the presence of two distinct accounts of the creation of humanity in Genesis chapters one and two was noted with some curiosity. The first account says "male and female He created them," whereas in the second account God created Adam first and later brought Eve forth from Adam's body, because Adam was lonely. To resolve this apparent discrepancy between the two chapters, some rabbis suggested that chapter one's "woman" and chapter two's "Eve" were two separate individuals.

Preserved in the ancient midrashic accounts and the medieval Alphabet of Ben Sira, this Jewish tradition held that Adam's first wife, called Lilith, refused to take the submissive position to Adam in sexual intercourse, and eventually fled from him, consequently leaving him lonely. In some accounts, she goes on to become a demon responsible for much mischief throughout history.

Some rabbis believed that half-human demons arose from Eve's having sex with male spirits (Hag. 16a). In another talmudic tradition, ghouls and demons are engendered by Adam's ejaculations during a 130-year period of separation from Eve. Elsewhere, Lilith is also identified as the mother of these satanic creatures. The demons were said to prey on newborn males before they had been circumcised, and so a tradition arose in which a protective amulet was placed around the neck of newborns.

Gnostic Adam and Eve

William Blake's depiction of Adam and Eve was influenced by Gnostic concepts.

In certain forms of Christian Gnosticism, the creation of Adam as Protanthropos—the original man—had a very important place. As in some rabbinical traditions, the Apocalypse of Adam suggests that man and woman were originally conjoined in a single androgynous being, both male and female. This primordial "man" was greater than the eternal angels and higher even than Samael, the god of the Aeon and Powers that had created them. Samael then separated the male Adam from the female Eve, causing their superior knowledge of God to be lost. The Protanthropos is also sometimes seen as a spiritual emanation from God, called the Son of God, which appeared to mankind as Jesus.

In a similar vein, though without reference to the above cosmology, the Gospel of Thomas quotes Jesus as saying: "When you make the two into one, and when you make the inner like the outer and the outer like the inner, and the upper like the lower, and when you make male and female into a single one… then you will enter the kingdom."

Some Gnostics adopted the Marcionite belief that the wrathful Yahweh of the Old Testament and the loving Heavenly Father of Jesus were two separate divinities. Gnostic accounts—particularly those of the Ophites—also sometimes portrayed the serpent as a hero who was trying to help the first couple gain knowledge to defeat the jealous Demiurge of the material world.

Notes

  1. ↑ Summa Theologica 1.1.92.3
  2. ↑ Abdullah Yusuf Ali (trans.), The Holy Qur'an (Wordsworth Editions Ltd, 2001, ISBN 978-1853267826).
  3. ↑ On The Transmitters Of Isra'iliyyat Islamic Awareness, 2000. Retrieved August 16, 2018.
  4. ↑ Tertullian, "De Cultu Feminarum," Book I Chapter I, Modesty in Apparel Becoming to Women in Memory of the Introduction of Sin Through a Woman (in "The Ante-Nicene Fathers"). Tertullian Project. Retrieved August 16, 2018.
  5. ↑ J. Alberto Soggin, Old Testament and Oriental Studies (Biblica et Orientalia 29) (Rome: Biblical Institute, 1975).
  6. ↑ Robert Gordis, Poets, Prophets and Sages (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University, 1971, ISBN 978-0253166555), 199-201.
  7. ↑ James B. Pritchard (ed.), Ancient Near East in Pictures Relating to the Old Testament (Princeton University Press, 1974), plates 469-477.

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  • Ali, Abdullah Yusuf (trans.). The Holy Qur'an. Wordsworth Editions Ltd, 2001. ISBN 978-1853267826
  • Cassuto, Umberto. From Adam to Noah. Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1978. ISBN 965223480X
  • Gordis, Robert. Poets, Prophets and Sages. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University, 1971. ISBN 978-0253166555
  • Kikawada, Isaac M. & Arthur Quinn. Before Abraham was – The Unity of Genesis 1-11. Ignatius Pr; Repr. ed., 1989. ISBN 9780898702392
  • Lacocque, Andre. The Trial of Innocence: Adam, Eve, and the Yahwist. Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2006. ISBN 978-1597526203
  • Morris, Henry M. The Genesis Record: A Scientific and Devotional Commentary on the Book of Beginnings. Baker Books, 1995. ISBN 9780801060045
  • Pagels, Elaine.Adam, Eve, and the Serpent. Vintage, 1989. ISBN 978-0679722328
  • Pritchard, James B. (ed.). Ancient Near East in Pictures Relating to the Old Testament. Princeton University Press, 1974. ISBN 978-0691035024
  • Ratzinger, Joseph Cardinal (now Pope Benedict XVI). In the Beginning. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co, 1995. ISBN 978-0802841063
  • Schearing, Linda S. Eve & Adam: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Readings on Genesis and Gender. Indiana University Press, 1999. ISBN 978-0253212719
  • Soggin, J. Alberto. Old Testament and Oriental Studies (Biblica et Orientalia 29). Rome: Biblical Institute, 1975. ASIN B0040064KG
  • Zornberg, Avivah Gottlieb. Genesis, The Beginning of Desire. Jewish Publication Society of America; 1st ed., 1995. ISBN 9780827605213

Credits

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.

Retrieved from https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/p/index.php?title=Adam_and_Eve&oldid=1013906

Content is available under Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License; additional terms may apply. See Terms of Use for details.
Copyright Logo
Powered by MediaWiki