EVE IN THE BIBLE AND THE QUR'AN

Eve in the Bible and the Qur'an



Eve in the Bible and the Qur'an

Introduction

(Heb. 'life') date unknown. The first woman. When Adam had been created and placed in the Garden of Eden, the Lord decided that he should have a helpmate. Adam was put into a deep sleep, and one of his ribs was removed and turned into a woman. Adam declared that 'This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh' (Wheeler, 2002). He called her Eve (in Hebrew 'Chava') because she was 'the mother of all living'.

When the Lord discovered what they had done Eve pleaded that the serpent had 'beguiled' her. The Lord inflicted punishments on the serpent, on Eve and on Adam. Eve's curse was to bear children in pain and sorrow, and to be ruled by her husband.

After Adam and Eve had been expelled from the Garden of Eden she bore him three children - Cain, Abel and Seth (Wheeler, 2002).

Description of Eve in Bible and Quran

In the second chapter of Genesis there is a different account of the Creation, more vivid and detailed. Though it appears after Chapter 1, this version is of earlier origin. It probably derives from the J (Jehovistic) Document, whereas Chapter 1 may be attributed to the P (priestly) Document written several centuries later by priestly writers for whom the Almighty had become a more abstract concept. In the earlier version the creation of Man is overlaid with the story of a particular man, who in Genesis 3:17 is called Adam for the first time. He has a wife called Eve 'because she was the mother of all living' (Kassis, 1982). (Eve in Hebrew is Chava, which means 'life'.)

According to this earlier and more primitive account, 'the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life' (Kassis, 1982). God put Adam in the Garden of Eden and created Eve out of one of Adam's ribs to be a helpmeet for him. Adam had been warned not to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, but the serpent tempted Eve to try the fruit and she gave some to Adam too. As a result they became ashamed of their nakedness, covered it with fig-leaves and hid from the Lord (Watt, 1989).

Then God cursed the serpent saying '... upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life' (McAuliffe, 2001). Human beings and serpents would henceforth be enemies. To Eve God said that she would bring forth children in sorrow, and her husband would rule over her. The Bible states that the Garden was 'in Eden in the east' (McAuliffe, 2001) and the river that flowed from it parted into four: Pishon, Gihon, Tigris and Euphrates. This would place Eden somewhere in Mesopotamia - the ancient Babylonia and the modern Iraq.

Discussion and Analysis

First woman ...