2024-09-18_Adam Called His Wife Eve

Genesis 3:20: And Adam called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.

The Hebrew word for Eve, Havvah, means mother of all living. Interestingly, the word used here is an even more archaic version of Hebrew than Biblical Hebrew. The pronunciation is pre-Hebraic and suggests a primordial origin. The author is deliberately using a word which his contemporaries would have understood but would have regarded as “ancient.” The idea is not simply that we are talking about an event well in the past, but, more importantly, that we are talking about “first things.” God has rendered judgment in that Adam and Eve will be leaving Eden, but He has also shown them mercy in that God will not be leaving them. That God will stay with them as they travel into the world beyond Eden manifests on God’s part a covenantal relationship. Adam responds by reasserting that rightful dominion over Eve that he had squandered when she brought him the forbidden fruit. He exercises dominion when he names her. Adam also exhibits hope in this new covenantal relationship. His first name for her had been simply Ish, the feminine form of his own name, but now in naming his wife Havvah, Adam makes it clear that he hopes for future life through her womb going forward, notwithstanding their sin. Therefore, when talking about “first things,” we see that God will combine judgment with mercy, that God will never leave His people, and that people may hold onto hope even when sin is palpable.

Keil & Delitzsch Biblical Commentary: As justice and mercy were combined in the divine sentence; justice in the fact that God cursed the tempter alone, and only punished the tempted with labor and mortality, mercy in the promise of eventual triumph over the serpent: so God also displayed His mercy to the fallen, before carrying the sentence into effect. It was through the power of divine grace that Adam believed the promise with regard to the woman's seed, and manifested his faith in the name which he gave to his wife. 

Genesis 3:21: Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them.

Barnes’ Notes on the Holy Bible: This act is also suitable to the present circumstances of man, and at the same time strikingly significant of the higher blessings connected with restoration to the divine favor. He had discovered his nakedness, and God provides him with a suitable covering. He was to be exposed to the variations of climate, and here was a durable protection against the weather. But far more than this. He had become morally naked, destitute of that peace of conscience which is an impenetrable shield against the shame of being blamed and the fear of being punished; and the coats of skin were a faithful emblem and a manifest guarantee of those robes of righteousness which were hereafter to be provided for the penitent in default of that original righteousness which he had lost by transgression. And, finally, there is something remarkable in the material out of which the coats were made. They were most likely obtained by the death of animals; and as they do not appear yet to have been slain for food, some have conjectured that they were offered in sacrifice - slain in prefiguration of that subsequent sacrifice which was to take away sin.

Isaiah 61:10: I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garment of salvation, he hath covered me with a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.

When we read Genesis 3:21 in the context of Isaiah 61:10, which we are invited to do given how God in both instances clothes the person, we then see that in making coats of skin for Adam and Eve, God in essence is reestablishing their marriage. Now, they are married for a post-Edenic world, but it is nevertheless a marriage blessed by God in that He has clothed them appropriately.

Revelation 6:11: And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.

In Revelation 6:11, Jesus Himself clothes the saints with their white robes, so this is the other instance of God clothing His people for what is about to be fulfilled. In the case of Genesis 3:21, Adam and Eve are being clothed for their life outside of Eden. In Revelation 6:11, the saints are being clothed for their return from the life lived outside of Eden, for the white robes symbolize the purity of martyrdom (dying to sin and so being reborn to grace).

Genesis 3:22-23: And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever: Therefore, the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.

Keil & Delitzsch Biblical Commentary: Likeness to God is predicated only with regard to the knowledge of good and evil, in which the man really had become like God…. It follows that the man had not yet eaten of the tree of life. Had he continued in his fellowship with God by obedience to the command of God, he might have eaten of it, for he was created for eternal life. But after he had fallen through the sin into the power of death, the fruit which produces immortality could only do him harm. For immortality in any state of sin is not the eternal life which God designed for man, but rather is an endless misery, which the Scriptures call "the second death.” The expulsion from paradise, therefore, is a punishment inflicted for man's good, intended, while exposing him to temporal death, to preserve him from eternal death. 

Genesis 3:24: So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

Revelation 22:2: In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

1 Corinthians 15:26: The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

God drives man away from the Tree of Life to protect man from the “second death,” which is immortality as experienced by a sinner. At the end of time, men who are redeemed in Christ Jesus, and thus freed from sin, are invited back to the Tree of Life. This time, the Tree of Life is in the New Jerusalem. This Tree of Life is for “the healing of the nations,” which means all descendants of Eve who embrace salvation.

Keil & Delitzsch Biblical Commentary: Hence there appeared by the Cherubims’ side the flame of a sword, apparently in constant motion, cutting hither and thither, representing the devouring fire of the divine wrath, and showing Cherubim to be ministers of judgment. With the expulsion of man from the garden of Eden, paradise vanished from the earth. God did not withdraw from the tree of life its supernatural power, though, nor did He destroy the garden before their eyes, but simply prevented their return, to show that it will be preserved until the time of the end, when all sin should be rooted out by the final judgment, and then all death abolished by the Conqueror. Upon the new earth the tree of life will flourish again in the New Jerusalem, and bear fruit for the redeemed.

Thus, even in removing Adam and Eve from Eden, God is establishing the form of the New Jerusalem – the coats of skin becoming the white robes, and the protection from “second death” becoming the enjoyment of eternal life. God not only combines His judgments with mercy. He also imposes judgment now with an eye to the fullness of salvation later.

Genesis 4:1: And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord.

Genesis 21:6-7: And Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me. And she said, Who would have said unto Abraham, that Sarah should have given children suck? for I have born him a son in his old age.

Eve is as grateful to God for bearing her first son, Cain, as Sarah is in bearing her son, Isaac. There is no indication that Eve is elderly when she bears Cain, let alone that she has had to endure a lifetime of infertility like Sarah did. Nevertheless, in reading the two verses, we see the deeper connection between sin and barrenness. Eve knows that she contributed to the introduction of sin into the world, though as stated she is more the first victim of Adam’s sin than the first sinner. She will carry with her always her vivid memories of Eden, and life lived outside of Eden can only be barren in comparison. And yet, for all of that guilt and sadness, Eve experiences no greater moment of joy than when she gives birth the first time – and that is something that takes place after sin entered into her life and outside of Eden. God makes possible the greatest joy in a moment vividly contrasted from the barrenness of sin, and it is God alone who can do that. Joy like this enables a sinner to get outside of the pride she has in her capacity to outsmart others through manipulative lies. Joy like this enables the sinner to get a glimpse of a soulful contentedness that self-defeating pride can never produce. For this moment at least, Eve gives up on the false god, the projection of her own manipulative mind, and finds joy in the Lord who had made this possible. That the first indication of joy in the world outside of Eden is in the act of childbirth made possible by God is no coincidence given what will follow. For who else but God can enable a sinner to give birth (Eve), an older, infertile wife to give birth (Sarah), and a virgin to give birth (Mary)? God is with us even when we suffer outside of Eden, and God is the author of the joy we can experience even with sin.

Genesis 4:2-7: And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering: But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. And the Lord God said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.

Cain comes from the Hebrew word meaning “a lance,” which in being a weapon of war here suggests that Cain is a strong man prone to violent rage. Abel comes from the Hebrew word meaning “fleeting vanity.” Abel’s life will be fleeting in that he will die prematurely, but there is a deeper insight here of the fleetingness of a vain life. The presumption is that Abel keeps the sheep to be alone much of the time in his own mind. The connotation is that he is bright and reserved but also prideful in his mindfulness. He is smart enough to know the kind of a sacrifice that will be favorable to God, but his vanity gets in the way of the humility which he should exhibit when making that sacrifice. We can infer that Cain is jealous of his brother’s vain intelligence. That his brother even when motivated by vanity should find any favor with God, when Cain does not, pushes Cain over the edge.

The question is: Why does God find favor with Abel’s offering, when Abel exhibits vanity in his deed rather than humility?

Keil & Delitzsch Biblical Commentary: The sacrifices offered by Adam's sons, and that not in consequence of a divine command, but from the free impulse of their nature as determined by God, were the first sacrifices of the human race. The origin of sacrifice, therefore, is neither to be traced to a positive command, nor to be regarded as a human invention. To form an accurate conception of the idea which lies at the foundation of all sacrificial worship, we must bear in mind that the first sacrifices were offered after the fall, and therefore presupposed the spiritual separation of man from God, and were designed to satisfy the need of the heart for fellowship with God. This need existed in the case of Cain, as well as in that of Abel; otherwise he would have offered no sacrifice at all, since there was no command to render it compulsory. Yet it was not the wish for forgiveness of sin which led Adam's sons to offer sacrifice; for there is no mention of expiation, and the notion that Abel, by slaughtering the animal, confessed that he deserved death on account of sin, is transferred to this passage from the expiatory sacrifices of the Mosaic law. The offerings were expressive of their gratitude to God, to whom they owed all that they had, and were associated also with the desire to secure divine favors and blessings. The reason the two offerings were not equally acceptable to God was that Abel's thanks came from the depth of his heart, whilst Cain merely offered his to keep on “good enough” terms with God – a difference that was manifested in the choice of the gifts, which each one brought from the produce of his occupation.

Notwithstanding Abel’s vanity, he exhibits genuine gratitude to God. Cain is not a vain man like his brother, but he is just as prideful in his strength and earthiness. The difference here that matters is that Abel is able to be grateful to God, in spite of his vanity, but Cain at best is only superficially grateful. The lesson is that we are all prideful in some manner. That is a legacy from sin. If we can exhibit gratitude to God from the depth of our hearts, though, we can be receptive to His grace and made better than we are. Without gratitude to God, ours is a heart impervious to grace.

Sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him: There is a terrible tension in Cain’s heart. He is full of rage. If he can get control over his rage, the sin that lieth at the door will not enter. If he succumbs to his rage, the sin will enter, and the sin will rule over him, when he should be the one ruling over it. Sin is desiring Cain like a lustful beast. He must keep the sin outside of himself – outside his door, so to speak – or it will be tempting him as the serpent had tempted his mother’s conscience. Perhaps, as first born, if Cain can push back on sin’s temptation, then he can undo his parents’ fall from grace, for as a curse falls upon the first born, so may the curse be vanquished by the first born. Or at least, Cain may present unto mankind an example of godly self-restraint. What is telling is that though Abel gave the better sacrifice, God focuses His attention on Cain, for God still wants to get mankind on a better track than where it is headed now on account of Adam’s sin. God remains the concerned and loving Father more than anything else.

Genesis 4:8: And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.

Cain’s sin begins in turning away from God’s counsel. He makes a deliberate decision thus to open the door where sin lieth on the other side. This is a conscious embrace of what he knows is wrong. He knows, for God Himself told him directly. The sin exacerbates in Cain’s mind. When Cain talks to Abel, he persuades him to go out to the field alone with him. This is premeditated, manipulative betrayal of brotherly trust. The sin exacerbates even more in Cain emulating Satan. For Satan rose up against God, who is forever greater than him, in an attempt to take the throne from God. Similarly, Cain is rising up against Abel who, though his younger brother, has found favor with God, where he did not, and thus is higher at that moment than him. His violence is a kind of sedition against higher authority, for assaulting Abel is really assaulting the God who found favor with Abel. The murder is what inevitably flows from this sin, for death is the wage of all sin. Cain’s birth is the occasion of the first moment of joy outside of Eden that is recorded in the Holy Bible, but this same Cain now brings murder into the fallen world. Notwithstanding God’s patience, man continues to be falling away from Him into greater depths of wretchedness