In brief
Adam and Eve are the first man and the first woman, created by God in his image and placed in the garden of Eden. Listening to the serpent, they eat from the tree God had forbidden, and sin enters the world. God seeks them, announces that the offspring of the woman will crush the serpent's head, clothes them with garments of skin and sends them out of the garden. Their sons are Cain, Abel and Seth. The New Testament presents Jesus Christ as the last Adam, who gives life.
What does the name Adam and Eve mean?
In Hebrew, adam means "man" and sounds like adamah, the ground from which man is taken (Genesis 2:7). Adam calls his wife Eve because she was the mother of all the living (Genesis 3:20): her name is linked to the word that means "life".
The world of Adam and Eve
The story of Adam and Eve opens the Bible, in the first chapters of Genesis. The text gives no date and describes a time before any city, any kingdom and any people. Genesis 1 presents creation in six days and states that God creates the human being in his image, male and female, and blesses them. Genesis 2 looks at the scene more closely: the forming of the man from the ground, the garden planted in Eden, in the east, watered by a river that divides into four branches, including the Tigris and the Euphrates (Genesis 2:10-14), then the forming of the woman. The text highlights three relationships: with God, who speaks and gives a commandment; with the earth, which must be worked and kept; between the man and the woman, united as one flesh. Genesis 3 shows how these three relationships are wounded by disobedience, while hinting at a promise. The word adam refers both to the first man and to humanity, which sheds light on Paul's reading, for whom Adam's act concerns all people (Romans 5). Luke 3:38 places Adam at the origin of the genealogy of Jesus.
The story of Adam and Eve
Created in the Image of God
Genesis 1:26-31God says: let us make man in our image, after our likeness. He creates man in his image, male and female he creates them, and he blesses them. He tells them to be fruitful, to fill the earth and to rule over the fish, the birds and the animals. He gives them plants for food. At the end of the sixth day, God sees everything he has made, and behold, it was very good. The man and the woman receive together the same blessing and the same mission.
The Man Formed and Placed in the Garden
Genesis 2:4-17The Lord God forms man from the dust of the ground and breathes into his nostrils the breath of life: the man becomes a living being. God plants a garden in Eden, in the east, with the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He places the man there to work it and keep it. He allows him to eat from every tree except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day he eats of it, he will die.
The Woman Given to the Man
Genesis 2:18-25God says it is not good for the man to be alone and that he will make him a helper fit for him. The man names all the animals but finds no helper that corresponds to him. God causes a deep sleep to fall upon him, takes one of his ribs and forms from it a woman, whom he brings to him. The man exclaims that she is bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh. A man will leave his father and mother, hold fast to his wife, and they will become one flesh.
The Serpent's Words
Genesis 3:1-6The serpent, the craftiest of the animals, asks the woman whether God really said not to eat from any tree in the garden. She recalls the commandment. The serpent claims they will not die, that their eyes will be opened and they will be like God, knowing good and evil. The woman sees that the tree is good for food, a delight to the eyes and desirable to make one wise. She takes of its fruit, eats, and gives some to her husband, who is with her, and he eats.
Hiding from God
Genesis 3:7-13The eyes of the man and the woman are opened: they know they are naked, sew fig leaves together and make loincloths. When they hear the voice of the Lord God in the garden, they hide among the trees. God calls to the man: where are you? The man answers that he was afraid because he was naked. When questioned, he blames the woman God gave him. The woman, questioned in turn, answers that the serpent deceived her.
The Sentences and the Promise
Genesis 3:14-19God curses the serpent and puts enmity between it and the woman, between its offspring and her offspring: he will crush its head, and it will bruise his heel. To the woman, God announces pain in childbirth and a wounded relationship with her husband. To the man, he says that the ground is cursed because of him: he will eat bread by the sweat of his face until he returns to the dust from which he was taken.
Clothed, Then Sent Out of the Garden
Genesis 3:20-24Adam names his wife Eve, because she was the mother of all the living. The Lord God makes garments of skin for them and clothes them. Then he sends the man out of the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken, so that he does not eat from the tree of life. At the east of the garden, cherubim and a flaming sword guard the way to the tree of life.
Cain and Abel
Genesis 4:1-16Adam knows Eve his wife, who gives birth to Cain and says: I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord. She then gives birth to Abel. Abel becomes a shepherd, Cain works the ground. Each brings an offering to the Lord, who looks with favor on Abel and his offering, but not on Cain and his. Cain becomes angry, and God warns him that sin is crouching at the door. Yet Cain kills his brother in the field. God condemns him to be a wanderer on the earth and puts a mark on him.
Seth and the Line That Continues
Genesis 4:25-26; 5:1-5Adam knows his wife again, and she bears a son and names him Seth, for, she says, God has given her another child in place of Abel. To Seth is born Enosh, and people then begin to call on the name of the Lord. Genesis 5 recalls that God created man and woman in his likeness and named them Man. Adam fathers other sons and daughters. All the days of Adam were nine hundred and thirty years, and he died. The Bible says nothing about the death of Eve.
What the New Testament Says
Romans 5:12-19; 1 Corinthians 15:21-22, 45; 1 Timothy 2:13-14Paul writes that sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin. He sees Adam as a type of the one who was to come: by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, by one man's obedience many will be made righteous. As in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive, the last Adam who became a life-giving spirit. In 1 Timothy 2:13-14, Paul recalls that Adam was formed first, then Eve, and that the woman was deceived.
Adam and Eve's family
- son
- Cain Genesis 4:1
- son
- Abel Genesis 4:2
- son
- Seth Genesis 4:25
Test your knowledge
What Adam and Eve teaches us
- Man and woman are created together in the image of God, and their life has value because God willed it.
- Sin begins when we doubt God's word, and then it pushes us to hide and to blame others.
- God takes the initiative: he seeks the man, announces a promise and clothes those who have failed.
- What Adam's disobedience broke, the obedience of Jesus Christ repairs, and he gives life.
Key verses
God creates man in his own image, in the image of God he creates him, male and female he creates them. Both bear together the image of their Creator.
God puts enmity between the serpent and the woman, between their offspring. The offspring of the woman will crush the serpent's head: this is the first promise of victory in the Bible.
For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. Paul connects the fall of the first man to the resurrection offered in Jesus.
Bible verses to meditate on
Sermons about Adam and Eve
Frequently asked questions
Who are Adam and Eve in the Bible?
They are the first man and the first woman, created by God in his image (Genesis 1:27). God forms Adam from the dust of the ground, then forms the woman and brings her to the man (Genesis 2). They live in the garden of Eden until the fall told in Genesis 3, then become the parents of Cain, Abel and Seth.
What is the fall of Adam and Eve?
It is their disobedience to God's commandment, told in Genesis 3: they eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They then hide from God and are sent out of the garden. Paul writes that in this way sin came into the world, and death through sin (Romans 5:12).
Where can I read the story of Adam and Eve in the Bible?
It is found in Genesis 1 to 5, from creation to the death of Adam. The New Testament returns to it in Romans 5:12-19, 1 Corinthians 15:21-22 and 45, 2 Corinthians 11:3 and 1 Timothy 2:13-14.
What fruit did Adam and Eve eat?
The Bible does not say. Genesis 3:6 speaks only of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, without naming a species. The image of the apple came later, probably from a Latin play on words between malum, evil, and malum, apple. For the biblical text, what matters is not the kind of fruit, but the act of disobeying God's word by wanting to decide for oneself what is good and evil.
What does the promise of Genesis 3:15 mean?
God announces to the serpent enmity between it and the woman, between its offspring and hers: he will crush its head, and it will bruise his heel. This word is spoken even before the sentences on the woman and the man. Many Christians see in it a first announcement of the victory of Jesus Christ over evil. The New Testament takes up this image when Paul writes that the God of peace will soon crush Satan under the feet of believers (Romans 16:20).
Was Adam with Eve when she ate the fruit?
Genesis 3:6 says that the woman took of the fruit, ate, and also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. The text therefore suggests that Adam was present. God questions the man first (3:9), then the woman (3:13). Each shifts the blame onto another, but God speaks to each one personally. Paul writes that sin came into the world through one man (Romans 5:12): the fall is presented as a shared act.
How long did Adam and Eve live?
Genesis 5:5 states that all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years, and he died. He was one hundred and thirty years old at the birth of Seth (5:3). The Bible, however, says nothing about the age or death of Eve: the last text in Genesis that mentions her is the birth of Seth (4:25). We must hold to what the text says, without filling in its silence.
Why did God drive Adam and Eve out of the garden of Eden?
Genesis 3:22-23 says that God sends the man out of the garden so that he does not reach out his hand, take from the tree of life, eat and live forever in that state. He sends him to work the ground from which he was taken. But before sending them out, God clothes them with garments of skin (3:21). The tree of life reappears at the end of the Bible, in the new Jerusalem (Revelation 22:2, 14).
Why is Jesus called the last Adam?
Paul writes that the first man, Adam, became a living being, and that the last Adam became a life-giving spirit (1 Corinthians 15:45). In Romans 5:14, Adam is a type of the one who was to come. Where Adam disobeyed and brought death, Jesus Christ obeyed and gives life: as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive (1 Corinthians 15:22).