"And Adam Called His Wife's Name Eve": A Study in Authentic Biblical Manhood

Any recovery of an authentically biblical understanding of men and women must begin in the Garden of Eden. It is there that we learn about the special creation of Adam and Eve. It is there that we read God's mandate to the first male and female. And, perhaps more importantly for this article's purpose, it is there in the garden that we are able to see the effects of sin and grace on the relationship between Adam and Eve. Of these lessons on the relationship between the sexes, it might be the case that the effect of grace on Adam and Eve's sin-broken relationship receives less attention than some other equally valuable biblical truths recorded in the first chapters of Genesis. This article will explore this perhaps neglected lesson on grace in the garden. It will do so by posing two questions: (1) Why does Adam call his wife Eve; and (2) What lessons does this surprise ending to the narrative of the fall teach us?  Although this article will focus on Adam's role in acting in accord with the grace that he has received, other equally important considerations regarding Eve's transformation by grace could be developed as well.

Why Does Adam Call his Wife Eve?

Recently I preached a short series of sermons that dealt with the relationship between Adam and Eve as it is presented to us in Genesis 1-3.  In preaching on the text of Gen 3:20, one comment was surprisingly frequent in conversations with parishioners after the service: "I always thought Eve meant ‘mother.'"  In point of fact, Eve means ‘life.'  And in naming his wife "life," we are presented with a surprising change in the rather, up until now, uninspiring conduct of our first father.

Other writers have demonstrated with poignant and decisive clarity the utter failure of Adam in Gen 3:1-12.¹  He had been present and silent during his wife's interview with the serpent. He had allowed the word of God to be questioned. He appears to have done nothing to stop her from hazarding her life on the contrary word of a creature. To compound his failure, he then partook of the fruit himself and, on being examined by his Maker, attempted to blame his wife for the whole sinful business. 

God then pronounces a curse on the serpent, the woman, and on Adam, but not without a promised blessing. In the curse God gives the serpent, he promises a seed of woman who would crush the head of the serpent. There would be an ultimate victory over the enemy. God bound himself by his promise—a coming offspring would utterly defeat the one whose deceitful schemes lead the first man and woman to fall into sin. God then pronounces curses on both the woman and Adam. And these curses are terrible.  The woman would experience increased pain in childbirth and strife in her marriage. The man would toil painfully, sweat, and, together with his entire race, die.

The very next words of the sacred text tell us what Adam proceeded to do: he named his wife "Eve." He called her "life."²  Several commentators note the apparent non-sequitur between what God had just said to Adam and the name Adam immediately gives his wife.  Derek Kidner puts it this way, "After the sentence of death, this name, ‘life,' with its play on the word living, is very striking."³   Gerhard Von Rad considers the disparity between this verse and the preceding curse as an "irregularity" or "break" in the narrative that constitutes a "noticeable fracture" in the text; the naming of the woman "life" "was not thought acceptable as the first echo, so to speak, to the penalty."⁴  This "striking irregularity" requires some explanation. The most obvious explanation is that Adam has come away from his meeting with God a changed man.

It seems obvious that this relatively brief notice in the text regarding the naming of his wife indicates a significant change in Adam's character. Prior to this event, all of the evidence from Genesis 3 would lead us to expect that Adam would again focus on his wife's liability for his problems. After hearing God's curse, he knew that his life would be hard. He would have conflict with his wife, his work would be difficult, and he would surely die. Yet he named her "life." It might be the case that this short verse speaks to us as loudly of the power of grace to transform broken hearts as any other in Scripture. Adam, hearing in God's word to the serpent a promise of hope that would come through his wife, deliberately chose not to look at his wife in light of what she had done or what the effects of her actions would be. Instead he chose to give her a name that reflected his confidence in the integrity of God concerning a promised, future good that would affect the overthrow of his race's greatest enemy.⁵  If any woman who ever lived was deserving of the name "death," it was the first woman. But Adam chose to see things differently. Adam chose to call her life because she would be the mother of the living.

Lessons for a Biblical Manhood

In this signal act, Adam demonstrates a faith in the word of God, a confidence in the integrity of God, and a commitment to looking at his wife as one through whom God was purposing to accomplish great things. In this act we see a biblical manhood that is not simply about roles and responsibilities. At its most fundamental core, it is a matter of faith and a transforming experience of grace. The first man who was recovered from the fall into sin by the grace of God immediately engaged in a gracious act of humbling proportions. If this is indeed the case, there are three specific lessons that might be helpful for us today if we would pursue as biblical a manhood as that demonstrated by our first forgiven father. These can be summarized as (1) believe God, (2) look forward, and (3) speak first.

Believe God

Keil and Delitzch describe Adam's response to the blessing of God succinctly: "It was through the power of divine grace that Adam believed the promise with regard to the woman's seed, and manifested his faith in the name which he gave to his wife."⁶  The faith of Adam was an immediately-demonstrated faith. And it was a faith that required no evidences. Eve had borne no children at that time and the serpent's head was not yet crushed. Adam simply heard God's promise that a delivering seed would come through his wife and, believing it, he committed himself to a faithful expectancy of God's provision by giving her a name that explicitly invoked the hope of that promised deliverer.

Look Forward

In naming his wife Eve immediately after God's curses, Adam engages in what has already been described as a "strikingly irregular" act. There is indeed an obvious disparity between the curse Adam received and the name that he gave his wife; in light of Gen 3:1-12 we could certainly expect a different sort of name. How easy it might have been for Adam, overwhelmed with the keen edge of fear that his death sentence undoubtedly evoked, to have named her maliciously. How understandable it would have been had Adam focused on what she had done or on the immediate effects of her actions; he could have named her "foolish" for listening to a snake or "thorny" for making his work toilsome.⁷  But in faith he chose to look forward to an as yet unaccomplished act of God that would be performed through her. This ability to look forward in faith is a mark of biblical manhood that cannot be overstated. Men who are transformed by grace are able with Adam and with Paul to be confident that he who began a good work in another is faithful and will carry it on to completion (Phil 1:6). Without this ability to joyfully look forward to the good, yet future, works of God in his wife's life, the Christian man has not achieved a biblical manhood that is fully marked by a graciousness begotten of faith.

Speak First

A fascinating feature of the account of God's curse on Adam is the preface to his word to Adam: "Because you listened to your wife." In one sense, the account of Adam in Genesis 3 goes from bad to worse to good. He begins by simply being a passive spectator to a conversation between his wife and the serpent. He then more actively listens to and heeds her counsels in defying God's one proscription. Then he defends himself against God—even suggesting that God is in part responsible for his troubles as it was God who created the woman in the first place. But then at the end of this tragic chapter, it is Adam who, having been humbled by the justice and grace of God, speaks first. And he names his wife "life." It might be the case that biblical headship means very little if it does not, as a salient feature, require men to be the first to speak grace and life into the strife and toil of our earthly, imperfect relationships.

Conclusion

As a pastor, I have heard many names applied to women in general and wives in particular by Christian men. Some of them are frankly shocking. I have also counseled men who cannot seem to get past real and perceived failures in their spouse's life—some of which took place long before the two were ever acquainted, much less married. And these are real struggles for genuine Christian men who truly want to be biblical husbands. The first regenerate act of our first forgiven father has much to say to those of us who struggle in these and perhaps other ways in our quest for biblical manhood.

In the first place, it might be helpful to consider what we call our wives. Are the names that we use to refer to our wives echoes of the blessing or echoes of the curse? One can only wonder at the comfort the first wife must have felt in hearing her husband call her "Eve" as she buried Abel. Adam's choice of a name that deliberately recalled the hope her Maker had given her was a ministry to his wife that we too must pursue in our relationships with our wives. It may be that there are things we call our wives that we must never say again. There may be words and names that we use that even deliberately remind our wives of their failures past and present and of the wrongs and hurts they have perpetrated against us. And perhaps as biblical men we need to find more and better ways to speak life to the imperfect women with whom and through whom God has blessed us.

This will not be easy as the circumstances of our lives are difficult. We are sinners who daily seek to know our Savior and our salvation more deeply and completely.  Our wives are imperfect and they too struggle under the effects of the curse on this side of heaven. But the circumstances of Adam's gracious, confident ministry to his wife is only more humbling when we consider his first grace inspired act. Your wife did not bring sin into the world. Your wife did not set in motion a chain of events that would cause all men and women to die. Your wife did not make your world a toilsome place to live and work. Your wife may have done some terrible things in her past and some of them might continue to bind and hurt your heart even now. And it might even be the case that she has made your world a more toilsome place in some regards. But she has certainly not done anything worse than the great sin of rebellion the first wife committed. And the first husband was able to let God's chastisements be sufficient for his wife's failures. He deliberately chose not to dwell on her sins or their just effects, but instead chose to constantly remind her of the brief but grave-shattering word of hope that God had uttered in the promise of a redeeming seed.

Biblical manhood, if it is to be informed by an experience of the grace of God, must be about a preemptive, hopeful, and confident ministry to our wives. We must speak first, look forward, and truly believe that God is purposing and has covenanted himself to carry on his good and beautiful work in their lives. It is our unique privilege to minister to our wives by reminding them of this. Apart from such a "life"-speaking ministry to our wives, our manhood may be many things, but it has not attained to a fully biblical manhood.