The Fascination with Eve
I have always loved to delve deeper into Scripture and receive further revelation from God, but I think that it is kind of sad when people, let alone Christians, read the Word and believe those black and white words are it
Whilst the written Word is beautiful and powerful in itself; nothing can quite prepare you for when logos becomes rhema. Rhema is where the words within the Bible become “alive” to you because God is speaking into the very depths of your soul – and that is where I want to drink the Word from!
Yet, recently, I have been fascinated with Eve, and this morning, I now understand why. You see, Eve is a great example of why we need to desire to go deeper within Scripture, especially as she was the first woman in history, but in the English language, we refer to her as Eve. Yet, that is not her Hebrew name, and the English translation, unfortunately, doesn’t carry with it any of the significance of her real name: Chavah
How many times have people blamed Eve for bringing evil into the world due to the sin of eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (I have!). Yet Chavah, according to the Torah, is a positive figure, and the sin, while a complicated discussion in itself, is most often explained to be the reason for Christ to come down so that we could rise up and be with God
What does Chavah mean?
According to the Jewish traditions, there are a few concepts connected to the Hebrew name Chavah, but the explanation given in the Torah itself is because she is em kol chai – the mother of all life (Genesis 3:20)
“Then the man—Adam—named his wife Eve, because she would be the mother of all who live.”
Genesis 3:20
The commentator Rashi explains this phrase:
The name Chavah is a derivative of the Hebrew word chayah, meaning “living one.”
Chavah embodies both the essence of life itself and the creative ability to grant that life to others. The idea of “mother of all life” expresses not only the ability to physically give birth but also to create, nourish, and enhance all factors of life. This is the ability of a mother – to take something from the state of potential, develop it, and bring it to fruition through her creative abilities
I have never thought of pregnancy or birth as this, but the Hebrew language gives this concept that delivery not just being about the physical but about also birthing new realities into this world
Experience of Life
Chavah also focuses on its connection to the word chavayah, which means “experience”. In other words, Chavah is not only the mother of life but also represents the experience of life
The marriage of the first couple, Adam and Chavah, helps us to understand the relationship between her and her husband. The name Adam is not merely a first name whose literal meaning is man but also refers to mankind or humanity in general. Therefore, we need to remember that the marriage of the first couple, Adam and Chavah, is that of the representation of human experience, that of the human condition, and ultimately what we need to look too within our marriages today because that is what God created marriage to be
Categories: Genesis
