Eve is the first woman, formed by God from Adam's rib in the creation narrative, and named the mother of all living; she experienced the temptation and fall in Eden and, after expulsion, became the origin of the human family line.
Books
Life & Story
Eve's story begins at the climax of God's creative work. The LORD God fashioned a woman from the rib He had taken from the man and brought her to Adam, establishing marriage and human community within God's design (see Genesis 2:22). At first she had no personal name; Adam called her "woman," for she was taken out of man, and the two became one flesh. In Eden, however, she faced the cunning tempter. God had placed her and Adam in the garden to till and keep it, free to eat of every tree except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. When the serpent's appeal came, she listened, looked, reached out, took the fruit, and ate; she also gave some to Adam, who was with her, and he ate. Through this act, sin entered the world. Together with Adam she was driven from Eden, to bear the pain of childbearing and the desire for her husband, while Adam would toil amid thorns. After the fall, Adam named his wife "Eve," for she was the mother of all living (see Genesis 3:20). Eve's legacy lies in the continuation of life and in hope. She conceived and bore Cain—a name meaning "acquired"—and declared that she had gotten a man with the help of the LORD (see Genesis 4:1). She later bore Abel and Seth. Although the transgression of the first parents brought sin and death into the world, God's promise did not fail: as announced in Genesis 3:15, the serpent would ultimately be crushed by the woman's offspring, a foreshadowing of final victory over evil. Eve's account is therefore both a marker of tragedy and the starting point of humanity's hope.