Why was Eve not given a name until after the Fall?

[CrystalDragon]

Something I noticed was that Adam was named right away, but Eve was just called "the woman". From however long it was between Eve's creation to the Fall (assuming you take Genesis as literal), Eve was just called "the woman".

Why? Is it yet another example of the Bible seeming to see men as inferior (especially prevalent in the Old Testament)? Why not name them at the same time?

 

[mcarmichael]

It's the same word in Greek or something.

 

[gordonhooker]

Something I noticed was that Adam was named right away, but Eve was just called "the woman". From however long it was between Eve's creation to the Fall (assuming you take Genesis as literal), Eve was just called "the woman".

Why? Is it yet another example of the Bible seeming to see men as inferior (especially prevalent in the Old Testament)? Why not name them at the same time?

Because it was the sabbath and they had to wait for the Registry of Births, Marriages and Deaths to open.

 

[Citizen of the Kingdom]

Something I noticed was that Adam was named right away, but Eve was just called "the woman". From however long it was between Eve's creation to the Fall (assuming you take Genesis as literal), Eve was just called "the woman".

Why? Is it yet another example of the Bible seeming to see men as inferior (especially prevalent in the Old Testament)? Why not name them at the same time?

Because her name was Adam. And He created them male and female and named them Adam Genesis 5:2

 

[JackRT]

I do not read the Genesis myth as a fall from an original state of perfection into sin and death. The first couple were completely innocent and naive creatures. They were certainly capable of making a mistake but, without knowing good from evil, they lacked even the ability to sin. That ability came only with them eating of the "Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil". To me the story is a "coming of age story". Our mythical first couple graduated from animal status into to fully self aware human beings capable of making moral judgements. This is not an Original Sin story but rather an Original Blessing story that should be celebrated. We are not a people fallen from an original state of perfection into sin and death. What we are is a people that is still evolving. We are no longer "just animals" but something more.

Why the expulsion from Eden? In the mythology, I believe it to be symbolic that mankind was no longer a naïve creature living in moral ignorance but had become real men and women living in a world where there was real good and evil.

In the words of John Spong: "Every living thing, plant and animal is programmed to survive. What is true of all these living things is also true of human life. The only difference is that we human beings are self-conscious, while plants and animals are not. If survival is our highest goal, self-centeredness is inevitable and thus this quality becomes a constant part of the human experience. Traditionally, the church has called this "original sin" and has explained it with the myth of the fall. That was simply wrong. Survival is a quality found in life itself. There was no fall. Self-centered, survival driven, self-conscious creatures is simply who we are. There is thus no such thing as "original sin" from which we need to be rescued by a divine invader. So much of traditional Christianity assumes this false premise."

BTW, ha'adam is not a proper name. It is a noun describing what he was --- "the earth creature".

 

[mcarmichael]

BTW, ha'adam is not a proper name. It is a noun describing what he was --- "the earth creature".

Told you.

 

[Winken]

Something I noticed was that Adam was named right away, but Eve was just called "the woman". From however long it was between Eve's creation to the Fall (assuming you take Genesis as literal), Eve was just called "the woman".

Why? Is it yet another example of the Bible seeming to see men as inferior (especially prevalent in the Old Testament)? Why not name them at the same time?

Genesis 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

27 So God created man (them) in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. ("Him" is male and female).

See, as well, Genesis 5:2.

Adam named Eve "because she was the mother of all living." (Eve. not Judy).

These two were one until God extracted Eve from Adam.

Difficult to understand? Give your life to Jesus. The Holy Spirit has a HUGE file of answers.

 

[JackRT]

These two were one until God extracted Eve from Adam.

I agree!

Most of us would claim to be very familiar with the Biblical story of the creation, temptation and fall found in Genesis 2. Some fundamental Christians might rejoice in it as a proof text for the inferiority of women and their continued suppression both in the church and in society at large. More liberal Christians might condemn it as an irredeemably patriarchal and mythological account. However when carefully examined without dogmatic preconceptions and with the help of competent scholarship, the story loses much of it's imagined patriarchy and opens into fresh insights.

To begin with, Genesis 2 is completely unlike the other Biblical creation accounts such as in Genesis 1, Proverbs 8, Psalm 104 or Job 38. It is a "stand alone" account. It begins with God creating ha'adam from ha'adama. This Hebrew pun literally means "the earth creature from the earth". It is usually quite difficult to preserve a pun in translation from one language to another but in English we might say, "the human from the humus".

Note that ha'adam is not yet at this point a proper name but merely indicates what it is. In Hebrew it is a nephesh or "living creature". Note also "it" is not yet a creature with a sexual identification of any kind. We should further note that God's creative action here might be thought of as a form of evolution from a lower state to a higher.

God continues the creative process by producing a "garden" of all vegetation and places the ha'adam there to tend and till it. The care of the garden is entrusted to the care of the earth creature whom we might even think of as the patron saint of the environmental movement. The ha'adam is informed that it may eat of the fruit of any plant except the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil".

This suggests two things. Firstly, the ha'adam is a totally naïve and innocent creature. Without the knowledge of good and evil it lacks even the capability of sin. This would seem to me a crucial defect in the storyteller's development of this mythology.

Now we are informed that our androgynous ha'adam is lonely. Would not an omniscient God have foreseen this from the beginning? To remedy this lack of foresight God creates the animals and brings them to the ha'adam who names them, thus attaining symbolic power over them. However the ha'adam does not find another creature that would be suitable to overcome it's loneliness. Once again it seems odd that God could not have foreseen this as well.

God now intervenes to cast the ha'adam into a deep sleep so as to perform the world's first "sex change operation". The rib taken from the ha'adam is formed into a woman and what remains of the ha'adam is now male. Both sexes came into being simultaneously!

The woman is now described as a suitable "helpmate" to the man who is still referred to as ha'adam even though he is now a sexual creature. The Hebrew word that translates as "helpmate" seems to us in our language to infer a degree of inferiority. This is primarily a translation problem since the same word is used in many instances to refer to God as the helpmate of Israel. This hardly could suggest inferiority! It could in fact be suggestive that the female is superior to the male at this point.

 

[Citizen of the Kingdom]

....
To begin with, Genesis 2 is completely unlike the other Biblical creation accounts such as in Genesis 1, Proverbs 8, Psalm 104 or Job 38. It is a "stand alone" account. It begins with God creating ha'adam from ha'adama. This Hebrew pun literally means "the earth creature from the earth". It is usually quite difficult to preserve a pun in translation from one language to another but in English we might say, "the human from the humus".

Note that ha'adam is not yet at this point a proper name but merely indicates what it is. In Hebrew it is a nephesh or "living creature". Note also "it" is not yet a creature with a sexual identification of any kind. We should further note that God's creative action here might be thought of as a form of evolution from a lower state to a higher.....

Here also is an example of God's play on words. The wordplay comes into effect in the words Ishi and Baal
Hosea 2:16
"At that time," declares the Lord,
"you will call, My husband
you will never again call me My master.

That thou shalt call me Ishi; or, "my husband"

Immanuel God with us in human nature points to Christ standing in relation as that of Husband to His people. As defender of the weaker vessel Christ is the strength of His saints, in Whom they have His righteousness and strength, through Whose strength they can do all things: Because we are the church that is One with Him.

Isaiah 45:5
I am the Lord. There is no other God;
I am the only God.
I will make you strong,
even though you don't know me,

and shalt call me no more Baali; which means "my master" "Baali" represents lordship and fear.
Saints don't have the spirit of bondage to fear, but the spirit of adoption, whereby they call God their Father, and Christ their Husband. It shouldn't be mentioned because it may led to thinking of that idol, and remember him, which the Lord would not be linked to.

Hosea 2:17
I will never let her say the names of Baal again;
people won't use their names anymore.
Exodus 23:13
"Be sure to do all that I have said to you. You must not even say the names of other gods; those names must not come out of your mouth.
Zechariah 13:2
The Lord All-Powerful says, "At that time I will get rid of the names of the idols from the land; no one will remember them anymore. I will also remove the prophets and unclean spirits from the land.
"And it comes to pass in that day, is the saying of Jehovah, thou wilt call, My husband; and thou wilt no more call to me, My Baal."