Adam and Eve
- For other uses of Adam or Eve, see Adam (disambiguation) and Eve (disambiguation). For the orchid species commonly called Adam and Eve, see Aplectrum hyemale.
According to the Book of Genesis in Judaism's Torah and the Christian Bible, and Islam's Qur'an, Adam was the first man created by God. At Genesis 1:27, Adam's female mate is said to have been created with Adam, and at Genesis 2:21-22 Adam's wife is named as Eve (or Chava-חוה) and was created from his side. Hence, in modern times Eve has been thought of as the first woman, though classical traditions recorded in the Midrash make her the second.
The Qur'an tells the story of Adam and Eve mainly in 2:30-39, 7:11-25, 15:26-44, 17:61-65, 20:115-124, 38:71-85., and the Book of Genesis tells the story at chapters 2-3. Also, in the Scriptures of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the story of Adam and Eve is explained in better detail in the Book of Mormon in the Second Chapter of 2nd Nephi, and in Chapters 2-5 in the Book of Moses and Chapters 3 through 4 in the Book of Abraham. The latter two is found in the Pearl of Great Price.
Interpretation of names
Adam—אָדָם in Standard Hebrew, ʾĀḏām in Tiberian Hebrew, آدم (ʾĀdam) in Arabic, አዳም ('Adam) in Geez (Ethiopic), and Adamus in Latin — translates literally as red earth. In the ancient cultures of the fertile crescent, people were thought to have been created from the earth itself, and so the term red earth was used to refer to mankind generally. This is true today for the Kazak language, in which Adam means human and Adamshylyk is mankind, and for most other Turkic languages, in which Adam also means man or human.
However, in the Sibylline Oracles, the name Adam is explained as a notaricon composed of the initials of the four directions; anatole (east), dusis (west), arktos (north), and mesembria (south). The Jews had their own acrostic interpretation of the name Adam. In the 2nd century CE, Rabbi Yohanan used the Greek technique of notarichon to explain the name אָדָם as the initials of the words afer, dam, and marah, being dust, blood, and gall.
Eve—חַוָּה (Ḥavva) in Standard Hebrew, Ḥawwāh in Tiberian Hebrew, حواء (Hawwāʾ) in Arabic, ሕይዋን (Hiywan) in Geez, and Eva/Eua or Geva in Latin — means simply living one, or life. Hence these names are literal descriptions of the purported parents of humanity.
Adam and Eve of the Torah, Pseudepigraphic Books and other Jewish Traditions
Adam is said, in the Torah, to have been created from the dust of the earth, and in the Talmud (Tractate Sanhedrin 38b) is, more specifically, described as having initially been a golem kneaded together from mud. In the Torah, God is initially described, at Genesis 1:26, as breathing the breath of life into the nostrils of the first man, and this is usually interpreted in Judaeo-Christian circles as having brought life immediately to the first man.
Eve's creation
At this point, in the Torah, Yahweh is described as causing a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and removing part of his body, usually interpreted as a rib (though a more literal translation is non-specific), referring to "side". From this body part, Eve is subsequently created, as a companion to alleviate Adam's loneliness.
Traditions regarding Adam and other wives
Thus in Genesis, there are two separate accounts of the creation — one at Genesis 1-2:3, when woman was created with man and another after Genesis 2:4 giving the account of the creation of Eve from Adam's rib. While the more traditional view holds these to be written by the same author as a fuller account supplementing the earlier one, most modern scholars support the documentary hypothesis, which claims each account derived from separate source texts that were later combined, with Eve's name and story being present only in the Yahwist text. 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, which has been assumed by critical scholars to imply simultaneous creation, whereas the second account states that God created Eve from Adam's rib because Adam was lonely. Thus to resolve this apparent discrepancy, mediaeval rabbis suggested that Eve and the woman of the first account were two separate individuals.
Preserved in the Midrash, and the mediaeval Alphabet of Ben Sira, this rabbinic tradition held that the first woman refused to take the submissive position to Adam in sex, and eventually fled from him, consequently leaving him lonely. This first woman was identified in the Midrash as Lilith, a figure elsewhere described as a night demon.
The word liyliyth can also mean "screech owl", as it is translated in the King James Version of Isaiah 34:14, although some scholars take this to be a reference to the same demonic entity as mentioned in the Talmud.
In the Talmud, Adam is said to have separated from Eve for 130 years, during which time his ejaculations gave rise to ghouls, and demons. Elsewhere in the Talmud, 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 folk etymology interpreting the lil-la-ke portion of the name as a corruption of lîlîtu, literally meaning female night demon.
The Alphabet of Ben Sira Midrash goes even further and 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. It is also said that she was created from nothing at all, and that God created into being a skeleton, then organs, and then flesh. The Midrash tells that Adam saw her as "full of blood and secretions," suggesting that he may have actually witnessed her creation and was horrified at seeing a body from the inside out. Ben Sira does not record this wife's fate. She was never named, and it assumed that she was allowed to leave the Garden a perpetual virgin, or was ultimately destroyed by God in favor of Eve, who was created when Adam was asleep and oblivous. It should be noted here, that both Lilith and the Second Wife are free from any curse of the Tree of Knowledge, as they left long before the event occurred.
The Fall of Man
- Main article: Fall (religion)
The main story concerning Adam is traditionally regarded as extremely important in the major "Abrahamic religions". This recounts how Adam and Eve are placed in the Garden of Eden, and are allowed to cultivate and enjoy its fruit, living innocently. However, there was one tree they were explicitly forbidden from touching - the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil - a tree otherwise unidentified, but it has been interpreted as a fig, apple, or pomegranate tree, or even a grape (see #Cultural influence). The Torah then records that a serpent, a creature described as having legs at that point, approached Eve and cajoled her into eating the forbidden fruit, saying you won't die. Later, Adam also ate.
They both became disturbed by their nudity, making aprons of fig leaves to cover themselves. The Torah goes on to state that God personally questioned them about this, and on discovering they had disobeyed, expelled them from Eden & did not allow them to access the tree of life, which grants immortality, and cursed the serpent to lose its legs so that it has to crawl, and to have mutual hatred for mankind.
East of Eden
The Torah states that Adam was expelled to the East, and that at the eastern entrance of the garden, God placed Cherubim and a flaming sword "which turned every way".
Genesis does not tell for 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 8th year after creation (Jubilees 3:33); other Jewish sources assert that it was less than a day. Shortly after their expulsion, Eve brought forth her first-born child, and thereafter their second — Cain and Abel, respectively.
Only three of Adam's children (Cain, Abel, and Seth) are explicitly named in Genesis, although it does state that there were other sons and daughters as well (Genesis 5:4).
In Jubilees, two daughters are named - Azûrâ being the first, and Awân, who was born after Seth, Cain, Abel, nine other sons, and Azûrâ. Jubilees goes on to state that Cain later married Awân and Seth married Azûrâ, thus, despite the incest, accounting for their descendants. However, according to Genesis Rabba and other later sources, either Cain had a twin sister, and Abel had two twin sisters, or 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 pseudepigrapha give further details of their life outside of Eden, in particular, the Life of Adam and Eve (also known as the Apocalypse of Moses) consisting entirely of a description of their life outside Eden. As the first man, Adam was traditionally a significant figure to whom was attributed prophecy and wisdom.
After Cain killed Abel, and was cursed to wander, Adam and Eve conceived a third child named Seth, who, with Cain, gave rise to the two family lines of the Generations of Adam. According to the Bible, Adam finally died at the age of 930 years, the traditional Jewish view being that he and Eve are currently buried in the Cave of Machpelah, in Hebron.
Separate Adam and Eve Traditions in Christianity
Some branches of Christianity fully accept the tradition of Adam and Eve as portrayed in the Torah, and although some hold various views expressed in the Pseudepigrapha, they do not accept the later Jewish Midrash. For example, the serpent is generally equated with Satan, although this is not explicitly mentioned in the Torah.
The early Christian movement showed a toleration of women, although in the 2nd century, such Church Fathers as Tertullian held Eve especially responsible for the expulsion from Paradise. In "Memory of the Introduction of Sin into the World Through a Woman", he wrote:
- "If there dwelt upon earth a faith as great as is the reward of faith which is expected in the heavens, no one of you at all, best beloved sisters, from the time that she had first "known the Lord," and learned (the truth) concerning her own (that is, woman's) condition, would have desired too gladsome (not to say too ostentatious) a style of dress; so as not rather to go about in humble garb, and rather to affect meanness of appearance, walking about as Eve mourning and repentant, in order that by every garb of penitence she might the more fully expiate that which she derives from Eve,-the ignominy, I mean, of the first sin, and the odium (attaching to her as the cause) of human perdition. "In pains and in anxieties dost thou bear (children), woman; and toward thine husband (is) thy inclination, and he lords It over thee." And do you not know that you are (each) an Eve? The sentence of God on this sex of yours lives in this age: the guilt must of necessity live too. You are the devil's gateway: you are the unsealer of that (forbidden) tree: you are the first deserter of the divine law: you are she who persuaded6 him whom the devil was not valiant enough to attack. You destroyed so easily God's image, man. On account of your desert-that is, death-even the Son of God had to die."
The Dominicans Kramer and Sprengler used similar tracts to justify the Malleus Maleficarum ("Hammer of the Witches") published in 1486, that led to three centuries of persecution of "witches".
With the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the garden, Eastern Orthodox tradition holds that the sword preventing anyone from entering Paradise again was removed once Jesus was born, in order to allow humanity to return to Paradise.
Adam and Eve in Gnostic and Manichaean Traditions
- Main article: Gnostics
The Role of Androgynic Adam
While the Gnostics used scriptural texts as teaching devices, rather than viewing them to be literal accounts genuinely written by early patriarchs, this was the converse of what was true of what became official Christianity. The Gnostic's Nag Hamadi text "Apocalypse of Adam", for instance contains the account of the enlightenment Adam received, for which certain angels became jealous. The "Testament of Adam", for example takes a further step to produce a faked ancient prophecy, of events that had supposedly already occurred by the time it was published.
In certain forms of Christian Gnosticism the creation of Adam as Protanthropos - the original man, had a very important place. The Apocalypse of Adam suggests that Adam and Eve were originally conjoined in a single androgynous being both male and female and greater than the eternal angels and higher than Samael, the God of the Aeon and Powers that had created them. This seems to be what Irenaeus (I, xxix, 3) refers to when he states that the Aeon Autogenes (self-created Aeon) creates a true and perfect human Anthrôpos, also called Adamas, who has "Perfect Knowledge. In wrath of Samael, the God of the Aeon then separated Adam from Eve, causing their superior knowledge of God to flee from them.
The Perfection of 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, who, even in Conventional Christian literature is often referred to as "The Second Adam". According to the Naassenes it is only when Adam and Eve are separated that they "sink" into material form. The Genesis verse, that "according to the image of God he made them, male and female he made them", implied that the first account of the creation of man and woman, according to Theodotus (c.160 CE), that both man and God were anthropogynous beings, later separated by God, the Father/Mother. As Pagels shows "The followers of Valentinus suggested that the Mother herself had encouraged the God of Israel to think he was acting autonomously, but as they explain, "It was because he was foolish and ignorant of his Mother that he said, 'I am (the only) God; there is noone beside me'"". (p.69) In the Secret Book of John, the creator of Adam and Eve, when he said
- "'I am a jealous God and there is no other God besides me.' But by announcing this he indicated to the angels ... that another God does exist; for if there were no other one, of whom would he be jealous?... Then the Mother began to be distressed."
The Role of Eve as the opener of Adam's Eyes
Eve too has different roles within Gnosticism. For example she is often seen as the embodiment of the supreme feminine principle, called barbelo, barbeloth, or barthenos. As such she is equated with the Light-Maiden of Sophia (Wisdom), creator of the word (Logos) of God, the "thygater tou photos" or simply the Virgin Maiden, "parthenos". Again, in conventional Christianity, this is a prefigurement of Mary, also sometimes called "the Second Eve". In other Gnostic texts, such as The Hypostasis of the Archons, (The Reality of the Rulers), the Pistis Sophia is equated with Eve's daughter, Norea, the wife of Seth.
As a result of such Gnostic beliefs, especially amongst Marcionites, women were considered equal to men, being revered as prophets, teachers, travelling evangelists, faith healers, priests and even bishops.
- Main article: Manichaeans
This is taken up in Manichaean belief the Protanthropos is seen as "the World Soul", (Anima Mundi), sent to fight against darkness. The "Fall" is then seen as the primordial man being delivered up to evil and swallowed in darkness, with the Universe as a whole now existing as a means of delivering the primordial Adam from Darkness. Here too the intercourse between Adam and Eve was seen as the way in which darkness overcame the light.
- "Mani said, 'Then Jesus came and spoke to the one who had been born, who was Adam, and explained to him (about) the gardens (of Paradise), the deities, Gehenna, the satans, earth, heaven, sun, and moon. He also made him fear Eve, showing him how to suppress (desire) for her, and he forbade him to approach her, and made him fear to be near her, so that he did (what Jesus commanded). Then that (male) archon came back to his daughter, who was Eve, and lustfully had intercourse with her. He engendered with her a son, deformed in shape and possessing a red complexion, and his name was Cain, the Red Man. Then that son had intercourse with his mother, and engendered with her a son of white complexion, whose name was Abel, the White Man. Then Cain again had intercourse with his mother, and engendered with her two girls, one of whom was named Hakimat al-Dahr and the other Ibnat al-Hirê . Then Cain took Ibnat al-Hirê as his wife and presented Hakimat al-Dahr to Abel, and he took her as his wife.'" [[1]]
Role of Satan
Gnostics seem to have taken the Marcionite belief that the Wrathful Yahweh of the Torah and the loving Father of Christianity were two separate divinities. In their book "The Origin of the World" for instance it states:-
- The heaven and his earth were destroyed by the troublemaker that was below them all. And the six heavens shook violently; for the forces of chaos knew who it was that had destroyed the heaven that was below them. And when Pistis (Faith) knew about the breakage resulting from the disturbance, she sent forth her breath and bound him and cast him down into Tartaros. Since that day, the heaven, along with its earth, has consolidated itself through Sophia (Wisdom) the daughter of Yaldabaoth, she who is below them all.
- Now when the heavens had consolidated themselves along with their forces and all their administration, the prime parent became insolent. And he was honored by all the army of angels. And all the gods and their angels gave blessing and honor to him. And for his part, he was delighted and continually boasted, saying to them, "I have no need of anyone." He said, "It is I who am God, and there is no other one that exists apart from me." And when he said this, he sinned against all the immortal beings who give answer. And they laid it to his charge.
- Then when Pistis saw the impiety of the chief ruler, she was filled with anger. She was invisible. She said, "You are mistaken, Samael," (that is, "blind god"). "There is an immortal man of light who has been in existence before you, and who will appear among your modelled forms; he will trample you to scorn, just as potter's clay is pounded. And you will descend to your mother, the abyss, along with those that belong to you.
Gnostic accounts also turned the identification of the serpent with Satan on its head, and the serpent was seen as the hero, particularly to Ophites, who was trying to help the couple gain knowledge to defeat evil Samael, whom the Gnostics saw as the jealous demiurge of the creation.
There is also the tradition that Satan refused to bow to Adam as a result of his exclusive love of God, and felt that bowing to humankind was a form of idolatry. This tradition informs the treatment of Satan in some forms of Christian gnosticism.
More extended versions of the fall of Satan exist in which he leads a divine war, which, while in works such as the Book of Enoch is recorded as being in heaven after Satan turns away from God.
Adam and Eve in Islamic Tradition
The important early Islamic commentator Tabari adds a number of details to the Torah, based on claimed hadith as well as specific Jewish traditions (so-called isra'iliyyat). Tabari records that when it came time to create Adam, God sent Gabriel (Jibril), then 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 Angel of Death, who took clay from all regions, hence providing an explanation for the variety of appearances of the different races of mankind.
Aaccording 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. 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 prophet in Islam.
The fall of Satan
At this point, Adam takes a prominent role in Islamic traditions concerning the fall of Satan, which is not recorded in the Torah, or in Christianity though is present in the historically important Book of Enoch. 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 names of God.
When God orders the angels to bow to Adam one of those present, Satan (Iblis in Islam, regarded as a jinn rather than an angel, and hence avoiding questions about angels having free will), 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.
More extended versions of the fall of Satan also exist in works such as that of Tabari, and the Shia commentator al-Qummi, is explained where he 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 here 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 desire to will follow Satan, while those who desire to will follow God.
The Creation of Eve in Islam
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 - Hawwa. 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.
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.
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.
Historicity
Many Jewish scholars in the ancient world and today and some modern Christians consider Adam and Eve as an example of religous myth where the focus is on fundamental truths. In their interpretation, the story conveys the truth of sin and human rebellion, regardless of historical accuracy. All, some, or none of the actual events of the narrative may have actually happened.
Adam and Eve are usually considered as real historical people as Genesis 5:4 records Adam in a geneaology. In the New Testament, Paul references Adam and Eve many times, especially contrasting Adam with Jesus where Paul writes "just as sin entered the world through one man." This seems to support a historical Adam as many theologians interpret Adam's sin as a historical event that changed humankind. However, Paul could be merely using the myth as a teaching method. 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.
The Age of Reason prompted Christians to interpret the Bible as strict history rather than historical myth; William Whiston was one such early scholar. James Ussher calculated Adam and Eve's life at approximately 6,000 BCE, basing on the Genealogies of Genesis and Table of Nations.
In modern times, with the advent of archaeological discoveries, the theory of evolution, and genetic science, Christians believing in the historicity of Adam and Eve were challenged. Many denominations have rejected the historicity of Adam and Eve; others have retained it, including the Roman Catholic Church[2] and evangelicals. Several controversal organizations have formed that view the Bible as strict history and try to backup their beliefs through science.
Ancestry and evolutionary biology
- Main article: Mitochondrial Eve
A theory of a single male and female human ancestor is almost completely contradictory to most modern synthesis of the theory of evolution, which posits that humans evolved from ape-like creatures, gradually. Nevertheless, modern genetic studies has identified a single female, Mitochondrial Eve, as the ancestor of every human. Similarly, a single male ancestor has been identified, Y-chromosomal Adam, living many millennia after Mitochondrial Eve.
The Sumerian connection
Tales involving Enki (from En = Lord, Ki = Earth) and Ninhursag in Sumerian mythology (from Nin = Lady, (K)hur = Mountain, Sag = Sacred), and Adapa in later mythology, has been put forward by several scholars as a likely candidate for large parts of the story of Adam and Eve, most controversially by David Rohl in 2005, but also by established scholars of Sumeria such as Samuel Noah Kramer, in 1981. In the Sumerian myth, Ninhursag creates at Dilmun a beautiful garden full of lush vegetation and fruit trees called Edinu (Sumerian = Wilderness), a name remarkably similar to Eden. Ninhursag creates the garden for herself, but fearing for its protection while she is absent, charges Enki, her lover, with the responsibility to control wild animals, and tend the garden.
Enki, however, becomes curious, and desires to know about the plants. His assistant Adapa, selects seven plants (Akkadian "Shappatu", hence Hebrew "Sabbath") offering them to Enki, who eats them. In other versions of the same story, he seduces seven generations of the offspring of his divine marriage with Ninhursag, in turn. This enranges Ninhursag, and she causes Enki to fall ill. Enki becomes increasingly ill, feeling pain in seven parts of his body, the eighth part of which is his rib (Sumerian = Ti, meaning "Life"). The other gods realise he is dying and so persuade Ninhursag to relent. In response Ninhursag creates a new goddess named Ninti (Nin = Lady, Ti = Life/Rib), a name which translates both as Lady of Living and Lady of the Rib, to cure the sickness.
One of Ninhursag's other names was Nintu, and most scholars hence view the story of Ninti as deriving from a pun on her name, arising after Nintu became corrupted to Ninti. Ninhursag has the epithet mother of all living offspring, and hence holds the same position as Eve - mother of all living (Genesis 3:29). Another significant connection is in the name of Ninti, as Eve's name means living, and Eve is produced from Adam's rib. If one story were derived from the other, because the pun with rib is present only in Sumerian, linguistic criticism places the Sumerian as the more original account.
Enki himself was both the divine lover of Ninhursag, who brought fertility to the earth, and both he and Ninhursag were the 6th generation of the Gods (called by the Sumerians, the Anunaki from Anu = Heaven, Na = And, Ki = Earth), hence having parallels with Adam in addition to the story of the rib, and his charge over the garden. Mankind was created in the 7th generation in order that the younger Igigi Gods could rest from their labours and is additionally described as being fashioned from clay in Sumerian myth, though by the Babylonian era, the clay was said to have had the added blood of Kingu, who was captured by Marduk son of Enki and Ninhursag, and slain. This supernatural importance of blood is not present in early Sumerian myth, but is recorded in certain sections of the torah, for example Leviticus records that the life is in the blood. While the Sumerian/Babylonian myth involves multiple deities in the creation of man, in the monotheist account in the torah, this is not possible.
Knowledge generally was viewed in Sumerian myth as deriving from trees. This is explicitly present in a myth of Inanna and Utu, explaining how Inanna, goddess of lust, initially gained knowledge about sex by descending to earth and eating from various plants and trees, in particular Cedars. The merging of this motif, with that of forbidden fruit in the story of Enki and Ninhursag, to produce that of genesis, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, has been suggested by scholars of ancient near eastern mythology, such as Leick.
By the Babylonian era, Enki had become viewed as more removed from humanity, and his place as the first leader of man was taken by an individual named Adapa U-an (the Oannes of Berossus), who was a human, but created by Enki as advisor (Apkallu, Akkadian for the Sumerian Abgallu, from Ab = Water, Gal = Great, Lu = Man) to the first king of Enki's city of Eridu. One 14th century BC tablet in fact refers to Adapa as the seed of humankind. One myth recounts that Adapa broke the wings of the south wind of the desert (Sumerian Ninlil, from Nin = Lady, Lil = Wind, wife of the King of the Gods, Enlil, in Akkadian times called Lilitu) in anger at being disturbed fishing, and so was called to the heavens to answer for doing so. Once there, he was warned by Enki to apologise for his actions, but not to touch the food, in case it had been poisoned in revenge. But the Gods, impressed by his repentence set the food and drink of immortality before him, but heeding Enki's warning, he refused the food and so lost out on immortality. The god which offered the food and drink of immortality was the wily serpent-god Ningishzida (Hebrew Nehushtan). While in the biblical account it is knowledge which the serpent offers, what the serpent actually remarks to Eve is that she shall not die. The food and drink of the gods originated from the earth, and hence somewhere lay the source of the food and drink of immortality, a Tree of Life.
Nevertheless, in the biblical account, the food is consumed, not rejected, and the couple are punished for it by being expelled from the garden. Thus any derivation of the biblical account from Sumerian and Babylonian ones involves the confusion of the tale of Adapa and the south wind and that of Enki in the garden. Such a conflation of these two separate tales may have been influenced by a story preserved in the prologue of Gilgamesh, Enkidu and the Underworld. In this, Inanna, transplants the huluppu tree from the Euphrates to her own garden, but a wicked serpent made its nest amongst the roots of the tree, the Anzu bird had nested in the Branches and Lilitu had taken residence in the trunk, and could not be charmed out. This tale connects the serpent to the garden, as well as, due to the presence of Inanna, goddess of love, holding knowledge coming from trees, and the theme of lust. Removing the part about Enki's rib from the story, and moving it to the start, would have allowed the failure to gain immortality being seen as punishment for eating the fruit, rather than a failure to obtain a gift.
Another confusing point is that translation "rib" from the Hebrew text is inaccurate. It was not interpreted as "rib" until after the Septuagint in the first, second, or third centuries B.C.E.
- The Hebrew word translated 'rib'. . . occurs forty-two times in the O. T., and in this instance alone is it translated 'rib.' In the majority of cases it is translated 'side' or 'sides,' in other places 'corners' or, 'chambers,' but never 'rib' or 'ribs.' [3][4]
Vedic (Hindu) Connection
A Vedic story told in Mundakopanisad (Vedic text from about 1000BC) refers to two birds perched on a Pippala (Ficus religiosa) tree. One eats the fruit while the other watches, the one who eats fruit represents the individual self "Jiva" because it has sensual pleasure(taste) the second bird does not eat(denies the senses) and represents the Supreme Reality "Atman" sanskrit. They are both on the same "tree of knowledge" this symbolizes one body. In the Bible "Jiva" becomes Eve "Atman" becomes Adam and Pippala becomes apple. This provides a philosophical interepretation for the origin of Adam and Eve, where Eve incurs sin for eating the fruit. "Jiva" in Sanskrit means "life" could also be the origins of the word "live". In short only the complete control of the five senses leads to the Supreme Reality or God whereas sensual pleasure incurs ultimate unhappiness or sin. This theme runs through all the worlds major religions.
Cultural influence
Early Renaissance artists 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 genitals. The choice of the 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.
In Northern Europe, the unnamed "Forbidden fruit" became considered a form of apple, partly since the Germanic word apple originally meant any kind of fruit, only later becoming specialised. 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.
Some 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.
In Aramaic, the spelling of the name of Eve - חיויה or חיווי - also means snake. Perhaps coincidentally, there are some examples of iconography depicting Lilith with a snake wrapped around her.
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 slogan "God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve".
John Steinbeck's 1952 novel East of Eden is based of the story of Adam, Eve, Cain and Abel. It was later made in to a film starring James Dean.
Cockney Rhyming Slang uses "Adam and Eve" to mean "believe" (e.g. "Would you Adam and Eve it?", meaning "Would you believe it?"). This phrase is atypical, in that unlike most cockney rhyming slang, both the rhyming and non-rhyming parts are used.
In C.S. Lewis' 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.
References
- Mahmoud Ayoub, The Qur'an and its Interpreters, SUNY: Albany, 1984.
- R. Patai, The Jewish Alchemists, Princeton University Press, 1994.
- Fazale Rana and Ross, Hugh, Who Was Adam: A Creation Model Approach to the Origin of Man, 2005, ISBN 1-576-83577-4
- Sibylline Oracles, III; 24-6. This Greek acrostic also appears in 2 Enoch 30:13.
- David Rohl, Legend: The Genesis of Civilisation, 1998
- Bryan Sykes, The Seven Daughters of Eve
- C.S. Lewis, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe"
- Adam Mackie, The Importance of being Adam - Alexo 1997 (only 2000 copies published)
See also
- The Urantia Book, Papers 73 through 78: The Garden of Eden; Adam and Eve; The Default of Adam and Eve; The Second Garden; The Midway Creatures; The Violet Race after the Days of Adam
- The Seven Daughters of Eve
- Kaliyan
- Creation narrative
- Garden of Eden
- Mitochondrial Eve
- Pre-Adamite
- Similarities between the Bible and the Qur'an
- Y-chromosomal Adam
- The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
- The Chronicles of Narnia
