Questions and Answers | When Adam Gave Eve Her Name
In the midst of judgment and the announcement of a curse on all creation (Gen. 3:14-19), why did Adam give his wife the name Eve (v. 20)? This seems like a strange place and time to give anyone a name!
Genesis 3:20 indeed says, “Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all living.” Adam gave his wife the name “Eve” as a faith response conceived in the hope and promise of God’s word. Adam understood that his wife would bear his children. He had heard God’s promise that one of their descendants would crush and defeat the serpent (v. 15). Thus, in an act of faith and hope, Adam gave his wife the name Eve meaning “life” or “living one.” Based on God’s promise, Adam knew that life would come from her! Eve would be the mother of all living, the mother of every human being in history. Even more significant, Eve’s offspring, the Lord Jesus, through His death on the cross and bodily resurrection from the grave, would defeat the devil and the entire host of hell.
BY Dr. Winfred O. Neely
Dr. Winfred Neely is Vice President and Dean of Moody Theological Seminary and Graduate School. An ordained minister, Winfred has served churches across the city of Chicago, the near west suburbs, and Senegal, West Africa. He is the author of How to Overcome Worry (Moody Publishers) and a contributor to the Moody Bible Commentary and Moody Handbook of Preaching. Winfred and his wife Stephne have been married for forty years and have four adult children and nine grandchildren.