Genesis 3: 20 Commentary

Post #2: “Before God called his wife’s name Eve, she was called Adam.”

Acknowledgement of unintentional error: When I posted this I was in a hurry to travel out of town and was being interrupted. What I intended to write was this:

Before ADAM called his wife’s name Eve, she was called Adam (Gen 5:2)

By Roland G (wrote 1414 Bible Commentaries - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 5/5/2011 22:20 pm

What is that Roland G? Your post no. 2 is out sync with God’s Word…if what you mean is this:
before God created Eve, she was a part of Adam….the way you constructed your sentence would lead people to have other interpreatations….what are you doing…are you joking? Or are you serious?

By TIUCHE (wrote 2756 Bible Commentaries - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 5/3/2011 15:52 pm

Roland G, are you kidding? Can you come with some proof of your statement?

By Jeremy Sündholm (wrote 45 Bible Commentaries - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 5/3/2011 05:39 am

Before God called his wife’s name Eve, she was called Adam.

By Roland G (wrote 1414 Bible Commentaries - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 5/3/2011 05:03 am

Adam called his wife’s Eve to refer to her as being mother of all mankind and of the promised Savior.
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 labour 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.
That though much misery and death should have a long and universal empire, yet One should in the fullness of time spring from the woman, who should destroy death, and bring life and immortality to light, 2 Timothy 1:10. Therefore Adam called his wife’s name Life, because she was to be the mother of all human beings, and because she was to be the mother of Him who was to give life to a world dead in trespasses, and dead in sins, Ephesians 2:1, etc.
This verse and the next one record two very significant acts consequent upon the judgment: one on the part of Adam, and another on the part of God.
The man here no doubt refers to two expressions in the sentences he had heard pronounced on the serpent and the woman. “He,” the seed of the woman, “shall bruise thy head.” Here it is the woman who is to bear the seed. And this seed is to bruise the serpent’s head; that is, in some way to undo what had been done for the death of man, and so re-invest him with life. This life was therefore to come by the woman. Again, in the address of the judge to the woman he had heard the words, “Thou shalt bear children.” These children are the seed, among whom is to be the bruiser of the serpent’s head, and the author of “life”. And in an humbler, nearer sense, the woman is to be the mother of children, who are the living, and perpetuate the life of the race amid the ravages which death is daily committing on its individual members. These glimmerings of hope for the future make a deep impression upon the father of mankind. He perceives and believes that through the woman in some way is to come salvation for the race. He gives permanent expression to his hope in the significant name which he gives to his wife. Here we see to our unspeakable satisfaction the dawn of faith - a faith indicating a new beginning of spiritual life, and exercising a salutary influence on the will, faintly illuminating the dark bosom of our first parent. The mother of mankind has also come to a better mind. The high and holy Spirit has in mercy withdrawn the cloud of misconception from the minds of both, and faith in the Lord and repentance have sprung up in their new-born souls.
So Eve would be not, only the mother of all men living in succeeding generations, but particularly, or however one descending from her, would be the mother of him that should bring life and immortality to light, or be the author of all life, natural, spiritual, and eternal; and who is called “the life”, which is the same word by which the Greek version renders Eve in the preceding clause. It was with pleasure, no doubt, that Adam gave her this name; and it appears that this affair of her being seduced by the serpent, and of drawing him into the transgression, did not alienate his affection from her; and the rather he must needs cleave unto her, and not forsake her, since her seed was to break the serpent’s head, and procure life and salvation for them; and by means of her there would be a race of living men produced, which would propagate his species to the end of time: for all living can only respect them.
The conquest of Satan through the woman’s son in Revelation 12 with the “woman’ clothed with the sun.” One can trace development from the “seed of the woman” and painful birth in Genesis 3:15-16 to the concept of the “woman in travail” in Revelation 12:2-5. Note that the word “offspring” in Revelation 12:17 is the same word used in Genesis 3:15 for the “seed” of the woman who would crush the head of the serpent. One may see in an overview that the first book of the Bible, the Book of Genesis, and the last book of the Bible, the Book of Revelation, serve as bookends to the whole of salvation history, the triumph of God through his Son Jesus Christ.

By Mark Roser (wrote 1 Bible Commentary - permalink to this Commentary)
Posted on: 5/2/2011 17:14 pm