EVE

The picture of God creating Eve from Adam’s rib is taken as an article of faith even though the physiology of it is impossible to grasp.

Genesis 2:15-23   The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.” 18 Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” 19 So out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper fit for him. 21 So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh; 22 and the rib which the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.”

We would not say categorically that this did not happen  as was reported, but we are inclined to think that this is another difficult parable for us to understand. Creating a wife for Adam is seen as a predictable step in the creation story because anyone can relate to lonliness and the need to have both sexes to procreate. That simplistic, natural, interpretation, however, misses the greater spiritual intent.

The way we see it, the story of the creation of Eve prophetically anticipates the creation of Israel and the church. To appreciate this interpretation, it is critical to recognize that spiritual Israel and the spiritual church are identical.

AUTHORS’ NOTE: See Israel, Jerusalem, Jews and Christianity for more about the relationship of Israel and the church.

Just like we looked beyond the literal creation story to get to the right spiritual interpetation of the creation of man, we must look beyond the literal story of the creation of Eve to get to the spiritual understanding: It is all about a bridegroom and his bride.

Prepared for this alternative interpretation, we can then view the story of Eve differently. Now we can see the story with its symbolic intent:

Once alerted to this concept of bridegroom and bride, we find numerous examples of it throughout scripture. For Christians, New Covenant scriptures are the first place to look:

• John 3:29 The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete.
• Revelation 19:7  Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready.
• Revelation 21:9  One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”

For Jews, the first place to look is Mt Sinai when the covenant was cofirmed. This event is commonly called Pentecost. Jews consider it to be like a wedding ceremony that joined God and Israel. Jews will also look to the stories of how God provided a wife for Isaac and how he provided a wife and children for Jacob. Other places to look for insights about God’s bride are: Book of Ruth; Book of Esther; Psalm 31; Hosea, and the Song of Solomon. These are all stories of God’s relationship to his bride. In fact, it can be reliably said the the entire Bible is a story of God’s up and down relationship with his bride.

Although the symbolism appears often in Old/First Covenant scriptures, it is clarified in terms that suggest that the church is the bride of Christ  in New Covenant scriptures. It would be wrong of course, to suggest that only the Gentile church is the bride of  Christ. Israel is the original bride and the church is adopted into that relationship by virtue of its status as spiritual Israel. The  story continues, of course, in New Covenant books where God continues to rebuke his unfaithful bride for her many adultries, and sends the Messiah to mediate reconciliation between God and man and restore the relationship to the way God intended it to be.

At the most shallow level of interpretation, New Covenant  scriptures about adultery appear to caution people regarding fidelity in marriage. Upon closer inspection, we see that some New covenant scriptures that mention adultery are not concerned with fidelity between men and women. Indeed there is always room for the interpretation that abhors natural adultery, but these scriptures clearly suggest another, deeper kind of adultery.

It is important to remember when reading anywhere in the Bible that God uses natural terms to communicate spiritual truth. This is also true with respect to marriage and unfaithfulness. Thus, the story of the creation of Eve and her relationship (i.e. marriage) to Adam prophetically forecasts the relationship (i.e. marriage) of God to his chosen people. Like any natural marriage, this marriage is not static. The low points, however, always occur because of Israel’s disobedience to the law — not because of any unfaithfulness on God’s part.

For God, however, Israel’s disobedience is not a minor thing. He does not tolerate it or pretend it did not happen. Time and again he gave Israel time to recognize what it had done by sending prophets to warn them, but Israel would not listen. Finally, God saw fit to send Israel into exile to for discipline.

When Israel is hard hearted and unrepentant, God calls disobedience adultery. That term may seem like hyperbole until we look at it from God’s point of view.  Adultery first refers to unfaithfulness between natural spouses, but in the Bible the more important meaning is unfaithfulness of God’s chosen people (i.e. Israel/church) to its covenant obligations with God.

Whether they recognize it or not, Jews and Christians have made a marriage covenant with God and pledged obedience to his laws. As far as God is concerned, the covenant is for everyone, and no one should consider himself or herself excused from obedience to it.  Whether we realize it or not, unfaithfulness to that covenant agreement is the essence of sin which in Greek is defined as missing the mark. The mark, is nothing more or less than faithfulness to the covenant relationship. However it is not the written law which defines faithfulness. Rather, it is  the law written on the heart as provided in the New Covenant.

With respect to marriage, the law written on the heart is the manual for the marriage with God/Christ. The Law of Moses is so obscure and difficult to obey that no one could stay faithful it. Thankfully, God never intended for his people to obey the literal rules and regulations specified in The Law of Moses. In his wisdom and mercey, he provided a better way, a possible way to maintain faithfulness: The New Covenant written on the hearts of his people.

Even though Adam and Eve enjoyed a New Covenant relationship with God, they violated their covenant (i.e. they sinned) and were exiled from the Garden. Because God is always faithful to his covenant promises, he always provides a way of forgiveness and redemption. He did that in the case of Adam and Eve by covering them with animal skins that represent the blood of Christ which was shed for the forgiveness of their sins.

We see that theme (i.e. sin and redemption) repeated often in Old/First Covenant scriptures.

These are only a few of the most obvious examples. Everytime you read about an altar, a sacrifice, a sprinkling of blood, or  a  standing stone, you are witnessing another story of redemption following sin. It is a much too common story, but that is how it is with God’s people. As good as it is to be in a solid, New Covenant relationship with God, Satan is always looking for opportunities to tempt God’s people into tasting the fruit on the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Despite the fulfillment available from the Tree of Life, Eve could not resist the temptation to taste the Old/First Covenant religion that the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil offered.

That was the first time Adam and Eve ate from that tree, but it was not the last time. Israel has been cycling through seasons of Old/First Covenant to New Covenant and back to Old/First Covenant and back again to New Covenant since it became a people at Mt. Sinai at the first Pentecost. In fact, within forty days of the marriage ceremony, Israel created and worshiped a Golden Calf representative of idol worship it had observed in Egypt.  Moses, who was a type of Messiah, interceded for Israel to save most of Israel from the plague that God sent on the people because of their infidelity. And this scenario established the pattern (i.e. sin leads to punishment which leads to repentance which leads to forgiveness and reconcilitation) that has been played out between God and his people ever since.

God’s people are prone to infidelity, but we always see their unfaithfulness followed by God’s faithfulness to redeem and restore them to New Covenant relationship. In the Exodus 32:7-35  story we see redemption played out in the second set of tablets of the law.  This second set represents the New Covenant written on the hearts of the people. This is the model of God’s faithfulness to redeem his rebellious children. They are unable to obey the written Law of Moses because it is a Stumbling Block for them. They are able to obey the spirit of the Law of Moses, however, because it is written on hearts of flesh, not on hearts of stone.

Because Israel cycles in and out of New Covenant, it often backslides into Old/First Covenant sin, which, in many Old/First Covenant books, God calls Israel adulterers, harlots and prostitutes. Christians should be careful to think that these provocative labels are applied by God only to Israel. They are similarly applied to the church when is is unfaithful to its covenantal responsibilities.

AUTHORS’ NOTE: See Adultery, Harlotry and Prostitutes for an in-depth study of God’s use of these concepts to describe covenant unfaithfulness. See False Religion for examples of unfaithfulness. And see New Covenant and True Religion for details on what faithfulness looks like

These interpretations with sexual connotations are fully appropriate if the relationship between God and his people is equated to a marriage. A  marriage that is meaningful and satisfying to both parties includes intimacy, fidelity, and transparency. In these modern times we do not often include obedience, except in marriage vows, as a condition for a good marriage. That is not true for God. He places a very high value on obedience to the terms of the Covenant. Therefore he is not out of line when he uses terms that describe sexual infidelity to convey that he responds like a rejected lover or spouse when his bride is unfaithful to her wedding vows (i.e. the Covenant) when she is disobedient.

Unfortunately, Christians do not think of their relationship to God in covenant terms similar to a wedding vow. Instead, they tend to think of being a Christian more from their point of view (i.e. going to heaven or hell after they die), religious activity that they can do, or a prosperous, peaceful life in the meantime. In other words, it is all about them and the good things that accrue to them because they worship God.

Christians do not associate the church in general, or themselves in particular,  with Eve. For most, Eve is the first female, Adam’s wife, and the one who caused trouble for all of  us by listening to the serpent and eating the fruit. Those are all facts, but they are superficial to God’s point of view regarding Eve. To a great degree, this incomplete perspective results from lack of understanding that the story of Eve is not about the natural Eve, but about the spiritual Eve (i.e.Israel/church) and the sporitual bride of Adam/Christ. If Christians and Jews did have these spiritual understandings, they might be more faithful to their covenant obligations.