The name that is transliterated as “Eve” in English means “life,” “life-giving,” “living,” “mother of all who have life.” (Source: Cornwall / Smith 1997 )
In Finnish Sign Language it is translated with the sign signifying “life,” reflecting the original Hebrew meaning (see also Genesis 3:20). (Source: Tarja Sandholm)
3:1 In the garden that Yahweh created there were many animals. Out of all the animals, there was one very cunning creature compared to a serpent who was very deceitful.
It happened that the man and the woman were walking in the garden and the serpent approached them and spoke to them cunningly. To the woman he said, “Did Yahweh really say, ‘You must not eat from any fruit tree in the garden’?”
3:2 The woman replied to the serpent, “No, Yahweh gave us all the trees in the garden to eat from.
3:3 But there is one tree in the middle of the garden whose fruit we must not eat nor touch. If we do, our lives will be ruined and there will be death thereafter.
3:4 The serpent said to the woman, “‘Your lives will be ruined and you will die thereafter?’ Ha. No, you will not die.
3:5 Yahweh knows that when you eat from this tree your eyes will be opened and you will become enlightened. Yahweh knows good and evil, if you know good and evil you will become like God.”
3:6 The woman looked at the tree with its many fruits with desire. The fruits were pleasing to her eyes and aroused her desire for wisdom. She picked the fruit and ate it. She gave some of the fruit to her husband who also ate it.
3:7 Suddenly, their eyes were opened, they looked at themselves and realized that they were naked. They had transgressed. They tried to cover their bodies. They ran to find large fig leaves which they gathered and weaved together to hide their nakedness.
3:8 In the cool of the evening, Yahweh walked through the garden. The man and woman were still trying to cover their bodies when they heard his footsteps. The man and woman hid fearfully behind the trees.
3:9 Yahweh called to the man “Where are you? Why have you not come to me?”
3:10 The man emerged from behind the trees and answered Yahweh, “I heard you but because I was naked, I was afraid to come to you, so I hid behind the trees.”
3:11 And Yahweh replied, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree which I commanded you not to eat from?”
3:12 Ashamedly, the man replied, “It was the woman you created from my rib to be my companion who picked the fruit from the tree and gave it to me to eat.”
3:13 And Yahweh said to the woman, “What have you done?”
Fearfully, the woman emerged from the trees and replied, “It was the serpent who deceived me. I fell for his trick and ate the fruit from the tree.”
3:14 And Yahweh looked at the serpent and cursed it saying, “Above all the animals, all livestock and wild animals, you are the least. You will be punished by remaining low and crawling on your belly in the dust, you will breathe dust for the rest of your life.
3:15 The serpent and the woman will be enemies; your offspring will be enemies. One of her descendants will crush your head and you will bite his feet.”
3:16 To the woman Yahweh spoke, “For the rest of your life you face struggles and hardship, you will suffer severe childbearing, severe labor and the burden of child rearing will be hard. You will desire a husband as your partner, but your husband will rule over you.”
3:17 To the man Yahweh spoke, “I commanded you not to eat from the tree, but you listened to your wife and ate it. For the rest of your life, you will face struggles and hardship. You will work hard to plow the land for food
3:18 but the soil will produce thorns and weeds that will ruin your crops.
3:19 You will sweat and work hard to gather food for the rest of your life. When your body dies it will break down and return to the dust from which it came. I, Yahweh, created man from dust and to the dust you will return.”
3:20 The man Adam named the woman Eve because she would become the mother of all the living. Eve.
3:21 Yahweh made clothes from animal skin and clothed them.
3:22 And Yahweh said to them, “You have eaten from the tree and transgressed. Now you are like us; you know good and evil. If one eats from the tree of life they will live forever. If you also eat from the tree of life, you will live forever. This cannot be allowed, you must leave.”
3:23 In the garden where they were, Yahweh sent them away. The same soil that Yahweh created human from is the same soil Adam will plow and toil laboriously.
3:24 They left the garden walking towards the East. When they left Yahweh commanded the heavenly beings to guard the tree of life on either side. In the center he placed a sword of fire flashing back and forth. Adam and Eve will never be able to return, the garden remains guarded.
Back-translation by Amakedia Wallen, coordinated by Tashi Widmer
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Genesis 3:20:
Kankanaey: “When it was finished that he said that, he went and got animal skins and made (them) into clothing and caused- them -to-put-it-on. And Adan, he named his spouse Eva, because she was the original-source of all people.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “Adan named his wife ‘Eva’ because she would become the mother of all people.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
DanishBibelen 2020: “Adam called the woman Eve, which means ‘life’, because she became the mother of all people.” (Source: Ehrensvärd in HIPHIL Novum 8/2023, p. 81ff. )
English: “The man, whose name was Adam, named his wife Eve, which means ‘living’, because she became the ancestor of all living people.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
Verses 20 and 21 are something of a parenthesis, in that they appear to interrupt the judgment process.
The man called his wife’s name Eve: because the Hebrew for man contains the article, Revised Standard Version switches back to The man. However, Good News Translation now calls him “Adam,” since the woman is named for the first time here also. Please refer to the discussion in “Translating ʾadam” in “Translating Genesis,” page 11.
The name “Adam” is normally written in another language according to the pronunciation in Hebrew or of some language well known to readers. The same name is used in the Koran, and “Adam” is familiar as the name of the first man, who is also considered by Muslim writers to be the first prophet.
Eve is the English representation of Hebrew chawah and, as the Good News Translation note says, “sounds similar to the Hebrew word for ‘living’, which is rendered in this context as ‘human beings.’ ” In the Koran the name Eve is pronounced similarly to the Hebrew. Translators should consider providing a footnote on the name Eve. See Good News Translation.
Because she was the mother of all living is a popular explanation of Eve’s Hebrew name. All living refers here to all the descendants of Adam and Eve, or “all human beings” (Good News Translation). In other contexts the expression is applied also to animals. Mother of all living is used figuratively, since Eve obviously did not give birth to “all human beings.” However, the implication is that all human beings trace their ancestry back to her. If the figurative expression creates problems, it is possible to say, for example, “she was called the mother of everybody,” “she was the ancestral mother of all people,” or “all human beings look back to her as their mother.” In some languages the term used for “grandmother” refers to all female ancestors, and “big grandmother” to a very remote ancestress.
Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.