Genesis 2:23 (WEB)
The man said, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken out of Man.”
As quoted in the map (KJV)
Genesis 2:23 (KJV)
And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.
Key words
- אִשָּׁהishshah · Hebrew
- 'Woman,' formed from ish (אִישׁ), 'man.' Before the fall she has no personal name — she is simply 'Woman.'
- γυνήgynē · Greek (LXX)
- 'woman' — the same word Jesus uses when he addresses his mother as 'Woman' (gynai) at Cana and the cross.
Why it matters
The first woman is called only 'Woman' until after the fall; she is named 'Eve' only in Genesis 3:20, once sin has entered. Pitre notes that when Jesus addresses Mary as 'Woman' in John, he reaches back to this unfallen figure. Mary is the 'Woman' of the new creation — what the first woman was before she fell.