“With the help of the Lord I have brought forth a man” (Genesis 4:1). 

​

Imagine Eve's life the day after The Fall. Everything - EVERYTHING - she knew had changed literally overnight. The roses which one graced her Garden Paradise now bore thorns. The animals with whom she had dwelt in peace and harmony now scurried away from her in fear, or, worse, growled as a warning at her approach. The husband with whom she once communed in complete openness and trust now covered himself in embarrassment from her eyes, as she did from him. But somehow Eve found the strength to go on, to maintain her relationship with Adam in a new submissive role, and to learn the new skills that would now be necessary for their very survival.

​

No matter our time in history, our background, or our station in life, we women are all daughters of Eve descended from these original parents. Just like our first mother, we face daily choices and challenges. But, thankfully, we can draw on the experiences and examples of others. Eve had no such wealth of information from which to draw. What did she think when she felt life growing inside her for the first time and then brought forth her firstborn son? How did she navigate the difficulties in raising her children? Cooking meals for their nourishment? Maintaining a home for their comfort and security? How did she respond when her children asked, "What were things like when you were a little girl?" Did she have the courage to be completely honest with them? To explain her disastrous choice as she mourned the effect it had upon their lives?

​

Several women in the Bible were blessed with the opportunity to be in essence a "New Eve." Sarah became the mother of a new people, the Jewish nation, at an age when that should have been physically impossible. Noah's wife found herself the matriarch of family forced to begin civilization anew after the devastating flood wiped all life that had not been sheltered within the Ark from the face of the earth. Though we will probably never find ourselves in such extreme circumstances as these women, we are all, in a way, "New Eve's" within our own families as we take on the same responsibilities that have been handed down to us through generations immemorial. We will set the standards, enforce the limits, and provide the example which our own children will emulate. Our choices can have just as much of an impact on our circle of influence - for good or evil - as that of our original mother.

​

The phrase the “New Eve” was used by the Church Fathers of the early Christian Church. For example, Justin Martyr writing in ca AD 150 (just a couple of generations removed from the apostles of Christ) said in his Dialogue with Trypho the Jew that Christ destroyed Satan’s work in much the same way Satan and evil entered the world.  That is, through Eve evil entered into the world, but salvation entered through Mary while she was still a virgin.  It was Eve who precipitated the fall of man by listening to the lies of the serpent.  The first Eve willingly performed disobedience against God.  Mary, however, listened to the angel Gabriel and said, "Yes," and was obedient to God.  Justin argued that it was through the willingness of Mary that the knot of sin woven by Eve was severed by the fruit of Mary's obedience. As Mary stated in Luke 1:38 "Let it be done to me according to your word." May we all aspire to such obedience in our own lives and follow the example of this "New Eve"!