man, born of woman. 4: eva & ave

"and adam knew eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare cain, and said, i have gotten a man from the Lord. and she again bare his brother abel. . . . and adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name seth: for god, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of abel, whom cain slew. and to seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name enos . . . ." (genesis 4: 1-2, 25-26)

the part of genesis we call the fourth chapter is so dense it is easy to miss some notes. there is a unusual way of describing birth recorded here. the emphasis is on the mother, eve. "she bare ... and . . . again bare . . . and called his name."

then comes the interlude of cain and able, climaxing in the strange story of lamech, whose seventy and seven-fold vengeance we will not hear echoed until jesus declares seven and seventy-fold forgiveness. (matthew 18:21-22)

then "she bare a son, and called his name seth: for god, she said, hath appointed me another seed instead of abel, whom cain slew." almost as if to point out the rarity of eve's centrality, verse 26 returns to the more usual way of noting births: "and to seth, to him also there was born a son, and he called his name enos."

one of the fascinating thigs about these early genesis stories is that they are seldom mentioned again in the old testament, but they become very important in the new testament. from the time of irenaeus until the middle ages it was very popular to see eve as the type of mary, and much was made of the pun of "ave (maria)" and "eva." we would do well not to let the singularity of eve's baring the first-born son go unmarked.