And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.
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Clement Of Alexandria
AD 215
The woman who initiated transgression was called “Life,” because she was responsible for the succession of those who came to birth and sinned. She thus became mother of the righteous and unrighteous alike. Each one of us shows himself to be just or willfully renders himself disobedient. .
With that manifest knowledge; which God gave to Adam, whereby he gave names to Eve; and to the animals, God did not reveal the discoveries; of things that were concealed; but in the case; of that hidden knowledge; from the stars downward, Adam was able to pursue; enquiry into all; that is within this universe.
The living. Hebrew chai, one who brings forth alive, (Symmachus,) or one who imparts life, in which she was a figure of the blessed Virgin Mary. (Calmet)
Adam gives his wife this new name, in gratitude for not being cut off by death on the very day of his transgression, as he had every reason to expect and fear he would have been, chap. ii. 17. (Haydock)
The printed Hebrew reads here, and in many other place, Eva, he, instead of Eja, she; thus, He was the mother, ver. 12, he gave an inaccuracy unknown to the Samaritan and the best manuscripts copies. (Kennicott.) Ver 21. Of skins, which Adam took from the beasts which he offered in sacrifice to his merciful Judge, testifying thereby that he had forfeited his life, and uniting himself to that sacrifice of the woman's promised seed, by which alone he believed the sin of the world was to be expiated. (Haydock)
See the precision of Sacred Scripture, how it didn't pass over even this detail, but taught us that Adam named his wife as well. "He called his wife Eve, which means life," the text says, you see, "because she was the mother of all the living" that is to say, she is the source of all those who will come from her, the root and foundation of the future race. Then, after teaching us the naming of the woman, it further shows us God's goodness, how he does not overlook them in their depth of shame and nakedness after being created by him.
Now, certainly nothing else is raised than that which is sown; and nothing else is sown than that which decays in the ground; and it is nothing else than the flesh which is decayed in the ground. For this was the substance which God's decree demolished, "Earth you are, and to earth shall you return;" Genesis 3:19 because it was taken out of the earth. And it was from this circumstance that the apostle borrowed his phrase of the flesh being "sown," since it returns to the ground, and the ground is the grand depository for seeds which are meant to be deposited in it, and again sought out of it. And therefore he confirms the passage afresh, by putting on it the impress (of his own inspired authority), saying, "For so it is written;" 1 Corinthians 15:45 that you may not suppose that the "being sown" means anything else than "you shall return to the ground, out of which you were taken;" nor that the phrase "for so it is written" refers to any other thing that the flesh.[On the Resurrection ...
