God formed out of the ground all the wild animals of the field and all the birds of heaven, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. Thus whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name (Genesis 2:19).
It is while this is going on, that God realizes that none of these animals are suitable companions and that he must make a “a helper comparable to him.”
Then the Lord God built the rib He took from Adam into a woman, and brought her to him. So 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. (Genesis 2:22-23)
Even though God “fills up the flesh” in the place he removed the rib, there is something still missing from Adam, since something was removed from him and needs to be replaced.
For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh (Genesis 2:24).
When the man and the woman are joined into “one flesh,” they are now both complete. Adam’s descendants were to be God’s, not just chosen, but beloved people made in his image and likeness. There would be no divisions, no chosen or unchosen, just one humanity.
The writer of Genesis chooses an interesting word; namely, “built” to describe the creation of Eve. He says that “the Lord God built the rib He took from Adam into a woman.” However, when Jesus says to Peter, “Upon this rock, I will build (emphasis mine) my church” (Matthew 16:18), in both cases, “built” is the Greek word οικοδομεω or oikodomeo.
Adam and Eve’s family was the first human society. Adam was the first priest, and his family was the first domestic church. We are accustomed to thinking of “church” as a denomination or even a physical building. For “church,” Jesus is using the Greek word εκκλησια or ekklesia which is a general word meaning a gathering or group though these days we tend to associate it with religious gatherings.
When Jesus hung on the Cross, the soldiers came to hasten his death by breaking his legs.
But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out (John 19-33-34).
John is uncharacteristically excited and emphatic about this event. There is no doubt he thinks its important and wants us to know it.
And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you may believe (John 19:35).
Jesus is the New Adam, the founder of redeemed humanity. The blood and water from Christ’s body are the founding of the Christian Church and represent the source of two great sacraments — baptism and the Eucharist. The water is baptism. His blood is the Eucharist. The very same blood that flowed from his side is poured out to us at the Consecration by Jesus himself working through his in persona Christi priests.
The Greek word used in Genesis to describe Adam’s rib is πλευρα or pleura. It is a relatively uncommon word in Scripture, but it is also the very same word used to describe Jesus’s “side” that was lanced by the soldier.
While “side” and “rib” are both acceptable translations of pleura, the connection between Adam and Jesus would have been much easier to make if in translating John, translators would have described the soldier as spearing Jesus through “a rib.” That would be just as accurate but much more meaningful.
In the case of Adam, humanity sprang from his rib because of his nuptial union to his wife and companion, while in the case of Jesus, it is redeemed humanity that spring from his rib because of his nuptial union to his Church. Adam and Eve are joined to form “one flesh” just as we are joined into one body with the New Adam when we eat his flesh and drink his blood.1
For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body – whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free – and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. For in fact the body is not one member but many (1 Corinthians 12:12-14).
The water and blood coming out of Jesus’s side on the Cross, i.e., baptism and the Eucharist, are what join us to his body and are the “ligaments” of love binding the church together that Jesus “builds” on Peter the Rock.
“But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection” (Colossians 3:14).
In the original Greek, the word used here for love by Paul is agape (which as we will discuss later in the context of Peter’s three denials) means the perfectly self-giving love of God, not mere attraction or affection. The word he uses for bond is συνδεσμος or sundesmos which is not the mere sticking together of things, but rather describes a uniting principle. It is also the Greek word for a ligament which is the connective tissue that holds the bones or members of a body firmly together.
The name “Eve” comes from the Hebrew word chavah, to breathe, and chayah, to live, or to give life. The traditional meaning of Eve is "living.” Only after God explains the consequences and meets out the punishments for their sins does Adam name her.
So Adam called his wife’s name Life, because she was the mother of all living (Genesis 3:20).
Adam exercises the right or dominion given him by God to name her just as he names the animals. Prior to this, Eve is always referred to as “woman” or “wife” to indicate her relationship to Adam.2 As in many other examples, a change in someone’s name in Scripture is a change in either their identity or destiny. Eve is now a different person than she was, one that will return to the ground from which she was taken. Adam, to whom God gave the privilege of naming everything in Eden, recognizes this by naming her the somewhat ironic “Life,” since it is through her, “the mother of all living,” that death has entered the universe and subjected everything in it to disintegration and decay. Eve is indeed the mother of all living. But now, because of her, all the living are going to die. Imagine Adam’s heartbreak as he realizes these things! The dazzlingly beautiful Eve that he failed to protect from the serpent is aging and decaying right before his eyes, as is he. Through the eyes of love, he simultaneously sees her as she once was, but also the tragedy of what she is now and will continue to become.
Imagine God’s thoughts upon discovering them after the Fall. They are so pitiful with their itches and fig leaves that it would seem like slapstick, except it is all too real. However their pitifulness touches his heart and that it is why he casts them out of Eden. Today, the casting out is typically seen as the “punishment” of the disobedient first couple by that demanding Old Testament God. Or is it? What most people forget or never knew is that there are two trees in the middle of the garden, one is the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and the other is the Tree of Life. The fruit which Adam and Eve choose to eat will determine whether they live or die. Choosing to make a god of the self leads to death. Choosing the Eucharistic fruit of God leads to life. The casting out of Eden is an act of mercy. The cherubim is placed to the east of Eden to prevent the couple and their offspring from returning in order to ensure that they do not eat of the Tree of Life, for then they would become immortal and “live forever.”
Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life (Genesis 3:22:24).
If Adam and Eve had eaten from the tree of life and become immortal in their fallen state, then they would be like Satan, forever alienated from God and forever frozen in hell. It is because of the passage of linear time that change is possible and there exists a possibility of repentance and redemption. Making man an enfleshed spirit is yet another brilliant masterstroke on the part of God. Time is a property of matter. Purely spiritual things are outside of time. Therefore, when sin enters into the universe, it not only fragments the body by making it susceptible to pain, fatigue, and death, it also fragments the matter from which the body is made and fragments time into sequential rather than eternal time. Fragmentation of time and death become great mercies. They give Adam, Eve, and all the living a second chance. This can be contrasted to angels, who as purely spiritual beings are outside of time. For them, there is no possibility of repentance once they have chosen for or against God. Their choice to be angels or devils occurs at the instant of their creation and there is no possibility of redemption.
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).
However, life is an ongoing process that needs to be maintained and replenished. Even in a glorified state, it depends upon eternal direct replenishment from God.3 Eden is a garden, where God provides for them and shows them all that is good for food. Even prior to the Fall, they need to be replenished in order to maintain their existence and not die. While death because of malnourishment can be indefinitely avoided and would have been, death because of original sin is inevitable and cannot be avoided. Eating is not strictly about bodily nourishment, it is an act of communion. The eating in Eden prior to the Fall was also meant as an act of love and communion between God and the creatures he “nourishes.” In that sense, eating is eucharistic. It also explains why there is so many images of banquets in Scriptural descriptions of heaven.4
Adam and Eve knew about death even before the Fall as evidenced by Eve’s dialogue with the serpent. God always was and is the source of Existence. After they ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that brought unavoidable death to Creation, they sought to live by taking refuge in the tree of life which they must have already known provided eternal nourishment.
Being kept away from the tree of life means alienation from God, who exists in eternal uncreated time. Sequential time is the veil that separates us and prevents us from being part of the inner life of the Trinity. It is in Eden that the clock of the physical universe starts to “tick” toward a distant but inevitable conclusion.
The blood from Christ’s rib is not only redeeming our sin, it is redeeming time. To experience God and achieve deification, we must experience time the way God does, as unfragmented and eternal.
In the Paschal Vigil Mass, the Exultet “ O felix culpa quae talem et tantum meruit habere redemptorem” is sung. It translates as, "O happy fault that earned for us so great, so glorious a Redeemer." The phrase comes from Augustine, who makes clear that God finds it better to bring good out of evil than to allow evil to continue to exist. In the economy of salvation, it is necessary for God to take upon himself human nature, an act that doesn’t simply redeem our sins, but also one that allows for us to share in the divine nature in return. So, while the word “felix” does indeed mean “happy” or “fortunate” in Latin, it also means “fruitful” or “fertile.” This “fertile fault” leads to the Incarnation and the birth into humanity of God through the Virgin Mary.
Death, which can seem like nothing more than the greatest possible punishment, is also transformed by God into the greatest possible mercy. It is because inevitable death and fragmentation entered into the universe in Eden that God becomes the Bridegroom of humanity. It is in the tomb that the nuptial union is consummated and each human is deified.
Jesus makes this point in the Parable of the Ten Virgins, which he begins as follows,
“Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept” (Matthew 25:1-5).
In Greek, the word for oil is ελαιον or elaion. The word for mercy is ελεος or eleos which comes from a similar root. Oil has traditionally been prized for many things including its healing and soothing properties, which is one of the reasons that it is used as the physical matter in many sacraments. Sleep is often euphemistically used to denote death. So, while the virgins are all sleeping,
“At midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming, go out to meet him!’ Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise answered, saying ‘No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.’ And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding the door was shut” (Matthew 25:6-10).
In Greek, the word “midnight” is actually the phrase “in the middle of the night.” Night is νυξ or noox which means night, but also death. So, when the virgins have died, the bridegroom comes. The Church Fathers have interpreted the “oil” in the parable to mean not just mercy, but love. The wise virgins have brought their love which will allow them to see in the darkness of death and allow them to go out to meet the Bridegroom. The foolish virgins are selfish and presumptuous. There is no reason why they couldn’t bring their own oil but instead they come presuming that the wise virgins would give them theirs. Recognizing their mistake after the fact, the foolish virgins want the Bridegroom (or just a share of his Kingdom?) despite the fact that they didn’t care enough to prepare properly in advance for his arrival. Their love is not fully sincere which is why their vessels are described as half empty. The sincere love that the wise virgins have brought is not something that they can just share with the foolish; it must come from within each of them. Even if they could share, the wise virgins should not risk their own salvation by running out of oil in an attempt at exaggerated mercy to try to save the foolish who are responsible for their own actions.
The word Jesus uses for door in the phrase “the wedding door was shut” is θυρα or thura. There are other words for doors and gates that are used in the Bible5, but this is the word that is used to describe the entrance to Christ’s tomb. It is across the thura or “portal” that the great stone is placed (Matthew 27:60). It is also from the thura that the angel rolled away the stone at Christ’s resurrection (Matthew 28:2).
Jesus concludes the parable,
Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, “Lord, Lord, open to us!” But he answered and said, “Assuredly, I say to you I do not know you” (Matthew 25:11-12).
We are to join Jesus in his tomb where we will meet him as the Bridegroom at our wedding feast. It is also where we will join him in resurrection. What a chilling thought it would be to call out to God from the darkness and our despair only to have him turn away. Because the foolish virgins and possibly ourselves may not have oil in our lamps when the Bridegroom comes, he may not be able to “see” us as we have no light and are in darkness. If he cannot see us, he cannot recognize us, which is why he says, “I do not know you” rather than just say that we are not worthy.6 We were unprepared and didn’t bring our own love when we were supposed to. It is too late.
Jesus makes exactly the same points in his description of himself as the Good Shepherd, even by using the same word thura for door. He recognizes the sheep and they recognize him, just as the Bridegroom and the virgins recognize each other.
“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out” (John 10:1-3)
And to underscore the point of who the thura is, Jesus continues:
“I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture” (John 10:9).
The word Jesus uses for “pasture” is νομη or nome which is indeed pasturage, fodder, food, particularly the food needed for eternal life. This was the fruit of the “Tree of Life” in the Garden of Eden and is now the Eucharistic food of his body from the Cross.
The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?” Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. “For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him (John 6:52-56).
N.B. this is important in our later discussion of Jesus’ references to his mother the Virgin Mary as “woman.” Spoiler alert: Mary and “Eve” are the only women who ever existed who were immaculately conceived without original sin. One later sins, the other does not.
Even in his resurrected and glorified state, Jesus eats:
But while they still did not believe for joy, and marveled, He said to them, ‘Have you any food here?’ So they gave him a piece of broiled fish and some honeycomb. And He took it and ate it in their presence (Luke 24:41-42).
E.g., Matthew 8:11, Revelation 19:9, Matthew 22:1-14, Luke 14:15-24, Isaiah 25:6, etc.
Such as πυλη or pule which describes the “gates of hell” (Matthew 16:18).
Just as in Genesis 3, where God is walking in the garden but does not see Adam because his sin has diminished him, the foolish virgins have a void where their love should be, thus making them unrecognizable to the Bridegroom.