Eve - Name and Origin

Name and Origin

In the Bible, Eve 'Ḥawwāh; Arabic: حواء‎, Hawwa'; Ge'ez: ሕይዋን Hiywan; "living one" or "source of life", related to ḥāyâ, "to live"; ultimately from the Semitic root ḥyw; Greek: Εὕα, heúā) is Adam's wife. Her name occurs only four times; the first being Genesis 3:20: "And Adam called his wife's name Ḥawwāh; because she was the mother of all living" (a title previously held by the Babylonian creatrix Tiamat). In Vulgate she appears as "Hava" in the Old Testament, but "Eva" in the New Testament. The name may actually be derived from that of the Hurrian Goddess Kheba, who was shown in the Amarna Letters to be worshipped in Jerusalem during the Late Bronze Age. It has been suggested that the name Kheba may derive from Kubau, a woman who reigned as the first king of the Third Dynasty of Kish Another name of Asherah in the first millennium BCE was Chawat, Hawwah in Aramaic, (Eve in English).

The name Eve (חַוָּה) bears resemblance to an Aramaic word for "snake" (O.Arb. חוה; J.Arm. חִוְיָא). In Genesis, Eve is associated with the snake.

Eve is the first woman mentioned in the Bible. Here it was Adam who gave her the name Eve. Eve lived with Adam in the Garden of Eden during the time which Adam was described as having walked with God. Eventually, however, with Fall of man, the pair were removed from the garden because she was encouraged by the serpent to eat the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and, with the temptation, led Adam to eat of the forbidden fruit.

In the Tyndale Bible Adam's wife is called "Heua" in accordance with the Greek form Ἕυα (although in Genesis 3:20 the Septuagint says that Adam called her Ζωή).

Though Eve is not a saint's name, the traditional name day of Adam and Eve has been celebrated on December 24 since the Middle Ages in many European countries, e.g. Germany, Hungary, Scandinavia, Estonia.