Eve
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Eve

Eve is a figure from the Book of Genesis (ספר בראשית) in the Hebrew Bible. According to the origin story of the Abrahamic religions, she was the first woman to be created by God. Eve is known also as Adam's wife.

Her name means "living one" or "source of life". The name has been compared to that of the Hurrian goddess Ḫepat, who was worshipped in Jerusalem during the Late Bronze Age. It has been suggested that the Hebrew name Eve (חַוָּה) bears resemblance to an Aramaic word for "snake" (Old Aramaic language חוה; Aramaic חִוְיָא). The origin for this etymological hypothesis is the rabbinic pun present in Genesis Rabbah 20:11 ( c. 300-500 CE), utilizing the similarity between Heb. Ḥawwāh and Aram. ḥiwyāʾ. Notwithstanding its rabbinic ideological usage, scholars like Julius Wellhausen and Theodor Nöldeke argued for its etymological relevance.

"Eve" in Hebrew is "Ḥawwāh" (חווה) and is most commonly believed to mean "living one" or "source of life" from the root "ḥāyâ" (חיה), "to live", from the Semitic root ḥyw, Arabic حياة.

Hawwāh has been compared to the Hurrian goddess Ḫepat, who was shown in the Amarna letters to be worshipped in Jerusalem during the Late Bronze Age. It has been suggested that the name Ḫepat may derive from Kubau, a woman who was the first ruler of the Third Dynasty of Kish.

It has been suggested that the Hebrew name Eve (חַוָּה) also bears resemblance to an Aramaic word for "snake" (Old Aramaic language חוה; Aramaic חִוְיָא). The origin for this etymological hypothesis is the rabbinic pun present in Genesis Rabbah 20:11, utilizing the similarity between Heb. Ḥawwāh and Aram. ḥiwyāʾ. Notwithstanding its rabbinic ideological usage, scholars like Julius Wellhausen and Theodor Nöldeke argued for its etymological relevance.

Gerda Lerner postulates that the story of Eve's creation from Adam's rib may have originated in the Mesopotamian myth of Enki and Ninhursag. In this myth, Enki eats poisonous plants that give him diseases. His consort/sister, Ninhursag, then creates several deities to cure each of these ailments. One of them, Ninti, is destined to heal Enki's rib. Ninti's name means both "the lady of the rib" and "the lady of life". This association of rib and life is similar to that found in Eve, whose name is linked to life and who was born of a rib.

In fact, there are two separate stories of Eve's creation in the beginning of the Book of Genesis:

In Genesis 1,26, God says: Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.......(1,27) And God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male (זכר) and female (נקבה) created He them.

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