Adam and Eve
Man in God's image. When God created man, He said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness" (Genesis 1:26a). According to Adventist thinking, the "us" in "Let us make man" is the Father speaking to the Son.
- SR 20.2: After the earth was created, and the beasts upon it, the Father and Son carried out their purpose, which was designed before the fall of Satan, to make man in their own image. They had wrought together in the creation of the earth and every living thing upon it. And now God said to His Son, “Let us make man in our image.” As Adam came forth from the hand of his Creator he was of noble height and of beautiful symmetry. He was more than twice as tall as men now living upon the earth, and was well proportioned. His features were perfect and beautiful. His complexion was neither white nor sallow, but ruddy, glowing with the rich tint of health. Eve was not quite as tall as Adam. Her head reached a little above his shoulders. She, too, was noble, perfect in symmetry, and very beautiful.
- RH February 24, 1874, par. 3: God, in counsel with his Son, formed the plan of creating man in their own image. He was placed upon probation. Man was to be tested and proved, and if he should bear the test of God, and remain loyal and true after the first trial, he was not to be beset with continual temptations; but was to be exalted equal with the angels, and henceforth immortal.
God then proceeds to create man is his own image—in the image of the Father and the Son—as male and female:
- Genesis 1:27: So God created man in his own
image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created
them.
Trinitarians have a problem with this concept. If man was created in the image of the Trinity, then there would have been three male persons created, each representing and corresponding to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. They would be equal to each other and of the same substance. However, that's not how it happened. God first created the man, then the woman from the man. These two individuals were created in two distinct and unique ways. Together, Adam and Eve, are in the image of God. Adam was created from the dust, while Eve from the rib of Adam.
Creation of Eve. The creation of Eve is unique in that she is derived from Adam—that is, she is formed from his rib.
- Genesis 2:21-23: So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while
he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And
the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman
and brought her to the man. Then the man said, "This at last is
bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman,because
she was taken out of Man."
Note that a greater-lesser, outer-inner relationship is seen here between Adam and Eve.
Eve was taken from the "bosom" of Adam—that is,
from one of his ribs. Eve is "lesser" in terms of stature as we learn from Ellen G. White.
- 1SP 24.2: Eve
was not quite as tall as Adam. Her head reached a little above his shoulders.
Thus, physically speaking, Adam was a "head" over Eve. This physical appearance parallels the spiritual concept of headship in the New Testament.
- 1 Corinthians 11:3: But I want you to understand
that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband,
and the head of Christ is God.
Parallels between Eve and Christ
1. Eve's name. "Eve" in the Hebrew is most commonly believed to mean "living one" or "source of life" as it is phonetically similar to "ḥāyâ", "to live", from the Semitic root ḥyw. This is intimated in the verse where she is given her name.
- Genesis 3:20: The
man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.
As is true with Eve, so it is true of the Son: "all things were created through him and for him" (Colossians 1:16b).
2. Eve was a part of Adam. Eve was made from Adam's rib and of the same substance as Adam. They had the same nature as human beings. As the story goes, Adam could not endure the thought of separation in the episode of the temptation, that's why he sinned.
- PP 56.2: ...Love, gratitude, loyalty to the Creator—all were overborne by love to Eve. She was a part of himself, and he could not endure the thought of separation.
EGW tells us that Jesus is a part of the Father.
- 6LtMs, Lt 36a, 1890, par. 11: Who can anticipate the gifts of infinite Love. “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” [John 3:16.] God’s love for the world was not manifest because He sent His Son, but because He loved the world He sent His Son into the world that divinity clothed with humanity might touch humanity, while divinity lay hold of infinity. Though sin had produced a gulf between man and his God, divine benevolence provided a plan to bridge that gulf. And what material did He use? A part of Himself. The brightness of the Father’s glory came to a world all seared and marred with the curse, and in His own divine character, in His own divine body, bridged the gulf and opened a channel of communication between God and man. The windows of heaven were opened, and the showers of heavenly grace in healing streams came to our benighted world. O what love, what matchless, inexpressible love!
3. Eve was under Adam. Even before His incarnation the Son was “under” His Father as the standard law of heaven. He stood next in authority to Him and was willingly submissive to the Divine will.
- 2SP 9.1: The Son of God was next in authority to the great Lawgiver. He knew that his life alone could be sufficient to ransom fallen man. He was of as much more value than man as his noble, spotless character, and exalted office as commander of all the heavenly host, were above the work of man. He was in the express image of his Father, not in features alone, but in perfection of character.
4. Eve's role as helper. She is specifically identified as Adam's "help" ('ezer) in Genesis 2:18. No other individual in the Old Testament is identified in this way other than God (sixteen times). No others—including kings, queens, ranking military officers, prophets, or priests—are presented as help. This is how God is described as being a help:
- Exodus 18:4: and the name of the other, Eliezer [which means My God is help] (for he said, “The God of my father was my help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh”).
- Deuteronomy 33:7, 26, 29: Hear, O Yahweh, the voice of Judah...and be a help against his adversaries. 26 There is non like God, O Jeshurun, who rides throught the heavens to your help... 29 Happy are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by Yahweh, the shield of your help, and the sword of your triumph!
- Psalm 33:20: Our soul waits for Yahweh; he is our help and our shield.
- Psalm 121:1-2: I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help [‘ezer]. My help [‘ezer] cometh from Yahweh, which made heaven and earth.
- Hosea 13:9: He destroys you, O Israel, for you are against me, against your helper.
All sixteen scriptural passages that establish that Yahweh is a help are connected, implicitly or explicitly, to God’s sustaining the life of his human creations. He is a help because he protects his creative works from mortal destruction, death, and the grave. He preserves them during periods of trouble and keeps them alive during famines. He crushes their foes and strikes down their adversaries. He increases them and their children. Unlike mortals “in whom there is no help” (Ps. 146:3), the Lord is a help who preserves needy mortals, the bowed-down old man, the stranger, the widow, and the fatherless. The Lord is a help who ransoms his mortals from the power of the grave and redeems them from death.
Eve is called a help and as such she, like Yahweh himself, served to sustain life. As Eve was a co-worker with Adam, so is Jesus a co-worker with the Father in the creation and sustaining of life.
- PP 34.1: The Sovereign of the universe was not alone in His work of beneficence. He had an associate—a co-worker who could appreciate His purposes, and could share His joy in giving happiness to created beings. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.” John 1:1, 2. Christ, the Word, the only begotten of God, was one with the eternal Father—one in nature, in character, in purpose—the only being that could enter into all the counsels and purposes of God.
Appendix
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