We Are All Eve & Adam

Art by Caitlin Connolly. BYU Art Library. https://art.lib.byu.edu/collection/in-their-image/

When Eve and Adam came together in ancient creation texts, the narrator told a story larger than the origin of two souls. Their names, chosen quite intentionally, tell the comprehensive story of humanity.

In Hebrew, adam (אדם) means “human” or “humankind.” It is the word for every soul, male and female (Gen. 5:2).

Chavah (חַוָּה), or eve, means “to live, to give life, or to breathe.” It’s connected to Hebrew words like chai (life) and chayim (lives). Eve is the poetic and literal “mother of all living” (Gen. 3:20) and is both male and female.

The word adam derives from the feminine word adamah (אדמה), which means “ground” or “earth,” highlighting the ancient assertion that humans were formed from “the dust of the ground” and animated with “the breath of life” from their Creator (Gen. 2:7).

The Torah uses adam, with plural verbs, to describe humanity. The Creator referred to the man and the woman and “named them אדם [adam, mankind, human] on the day they were created” (Bereshit 5:2). This is echoed through many translations.

So, when Eve and Adam came together, it was not simply the union of two souls; it was the infusion of eve into adam—of life and breath into all humanity.

We are all equally eve and adam.