Eve (2)
Our mother Eve is distinguished by being the first in many things…
She was the first saint, and she was the first sinner. She was the first to sit with the serpent, and the first to speak with God, and the first to receive the promises… She was the first mother… the first pregnant woman, and the first to give birth.
She was the only one who came into the world without sin and lived without sin for a period of time before the Fall.
She was the only one who lived naked, with a naked man, in complete purity and holiness, with all innocence and simplicity, with all affection and chastity…
The woman was taken from one of Adam’s ribs without Adam feeling any pain or any loss. It was the first surgical operation performed by the Lord, preceded by the first act of anesthesia, as “He caused a deep sleep to fall upon him.”
And through divine revelation Adam knew the story and said, “This is flesh of my flesh and bone of my bones.”
Woman came from man, and now man comes from woman. Thus each of them now regards the other as his origin…
Man is from the offspring of woman. And woman came from the rib of man. Together they form the one body…
And Eve was very beautiful, yet she was not a cause of temptation to Adam.
Beautiful Eve did not entice him, because sin was not in him, nor was it in her. In the body, they were like the angels of God in heaven.
The body was not sin, beauty was not a stumbling block, nor was nakedness a stumbling block, because the heart had not yet known sin… Sin springs from within before it has any external causes…
And when Eve was deceived by the serpent, there were many factors that lessen the gravity of her sin:
The serpent lied to her, saying, “You will not surely die,” and Eve did not know what lying was. The serpent deceived and enticed her, and she did not know the meaning of deceit.
For the first time in her life she came into contact with sin. She was simple and did not know what sin was, innocent and believing everything, without doubting what she heard. Nor did she understand the meaning of deception.
And the serpent, in its cunning, did not say to her, “Disobey” or “Sin,” but rather portrayed the eating from the tree as something that would have no harmful consequences; on the contrary, it would be beneficial and would make her like God… And so Eve fell!
We do not excuse the woman, but we explain the circumstances of her simplicity, which the serpent exploited.
It was the mistake of simplicity without wisdom.
Therefore, the Lord later said, “Be harmless as doves and wise as serpents.”
An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III – El-Keraza Magazine – Eighth Year (Issue No. 7), 18 February 1977.
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