EVARESTUS (ARISTUS): According to the
lists of the bishops of Rome, successor of Clement
and predecessor of Alexander, about the beginning
of the second century. Nothing is known about
him, and his existence is doubtful.
Bibliography:
Harnack, Litteratur, II., i. 144 sqq.
EVE: The name of the first woman, according to
the Book of Genesis, where her creation is described
(ii. 18-24), introduced by the soliloquy of
Yahweh-Elohim: " It is not good for the man to be alone;
I will create for him a help as his counterpart."
Then God orders the animals to pass before Adam
in pairs for review, that he may realize his utter
loneliness and crave for the companionship of his
own kind. While Adam is in a trance, God takes
one of his ribs (so Eng. versions) and from it forms
the woman. It is thought by some that the word
rendered "rib" means any independent, separable
part of the body,-a meaning favored by the usage
of the word as "annex" in
I Kings vi. 5;
Ezek. xli. 5-7.
Be this as it may, the point of the story
is that the woman is not created independently of
the man, but from that which has been taken from
him. In
I Cor. xi. 8-9
Paul lays emphasis upon
this. Originally created as one, destined for personal relation with God, later man becomes husband to the woman who proceeds out of him.
" This is at last," he cries, beholding her, " bone of
my bone, and flesh of my flesh." Recognizing her
kinship to him, he names her in contradistinction
to himself as "man" (Hebr.
ish),
the " female
man " (Hebr.
isshah).
The historian adds, that
for this reason (namely that woman has been
created out of and for man) man will forsake father
and mother and cling to his wife and thus become
one flesh with her. Since
ish
can be a contraction
of
issh (=insh),
the possibility of an etymological
connection between
ish
and
isshah is
not to be
denied offhand (cf. Strack on
Gen. ii. 23).
It is further said: (1) that Eve was tempted
into disobedience and induced her husband to
commit the same sin
(Gen. iii. 1-7;
cf.
II Cor. xi. 3;
I Tim. ii. 14);
(2) that she was punished by the
pains of childbirth and her dependence on her
husband
(Gen. iii. 16);
(3) that Adam relying upon
God's promise of the victorious seed, gave her the
flame
Hatvwah ("
Life ") as the" mother of all
living';
(Gen. iii. 20);
(4) that she welcomed the
birth of her first-born in happy surprise at the
divine gift of grace with the words, " I have brought
forth a man with the help of Yahweh"
(Gen. iv. 1).
(W. Volckt.)
Bibliography:
Smith, Kinship, p. 177; J. Wellhausen,
Prolegomena, p. 308, London, 1885; T. Nöldeke, in ZDMG,
xlii (1888), 487;
JE, v. 275-276.
