Judaism It was also recognized in
ancient Judaism that there are two distinct accounts for the creation of man. The first account says "male and female [God] created them", implying simultaneous creation, whereas the second account states that God created Eve subsequent to the creation of Adam. The
Midrash Rabbah – Genesis VIII:1 reconciled the two by stating that Genesis one, "male and female He created them", indicates that God originally created Adam as a
hermaphrodite, bodily and spiritually both male and female, before creating the separate beings of Adam and Eve. Other rabbis suggested that Eve and the woman of the first account were two separate individuals, the first being identified as
Lilith, a figure elsewhere described as a night demon. According to traditional Jewish belief, Adam and Eve are buried in the
Cave of Machpelah, in
Hebron. In "God breathes into the man's nostrils and he becomes
nefesh hayya", signifying something like the English word "being", in the sense of a corporeal body capable of life; the concept of a "
soul" in the modern sense, did not exist in Hebrew thought until around the 2nd century BC, when the idea of a bodily resurrection gained popularity.
Christianity ) at the entrance to
Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris Some early
fathers of the Christian church held Eve responsible for the
Fall of man and all subsequent women to be the first sinners because Eve tempted Adam to commit the taboo. "You are the devil's gateway"
Tertullian told his female readers, and went on to explain that they were responsible for the death of Christ: "On account of your
desert [i.e., punishment for sin, that is, death], even the
Son of God had to die." In 1486, the
Dominicans Kramer and Sprenger used similar tracts in
Malleus Maleficarum ("Hammer of Witches") to justify the persecution of "witches". Medieval Christian art often depicted the Edenic Serpent as a woman (often identified as
Lilith), thus both emphasizing the serpent's seductiveness as well as its relationship to Eve. Several early
Church Fathers, including
Clement of Alexandria and
Eusebius of Caesarea, interpreted the Hebrew "Heva" as not only the name of Eve, but in its aspirated form as "female serpent." Based on the Christian doctrine of the
Fall of man, came the doctrine of
original sin.
St Augustine of Hippo (354–430), working with the
Epistle to the Romans, interpreted the
Apostle Paul as having said that Adam's sin was hereditary: "Death passed upon [i.e., spread to] all men because of Adam, [in whom] all sinned", Original sin became a concept that man is born into a condition of sinfulness and must await redemption. This doctrine became a cornerstone of the Western Christian theological tradition, which however not shared by Judaism or the Orthodox churches. Over the centuries, a system of unique Christian beliefs had developed from these doctrines.
Baptism became understood as a washing away of the stain of hereditary sin in many churches, although its original symbolism was apparently rebirth. Additionally, the serpent that tempted Eve was interpreted to have been
Satan, or that Satan was using a serpent as a
mouthpiece, although there is no mention of this identification in the Torah and it is not held in Judaism. As well as developing the theology of the
protoplasts, the medieval Church also expanded the historical narrative in a vast tradition of
Adam books, which add detail to the fall, and tell of
their life after the expulsion from Eden. These are continued in the
Legend of the Rood, dealing with Seth's return to Paradise and subsequent events involving the wood from the tree of life. These stories were widely believed in Europe until early modern times. Regarding the real existence of the progenitors – as of other narratives contained in Genesis – the
Catholic Church teaches that Adam and Eve were historical humans, personally responsible for the original sin. This position was clarified by
Pope Pius XII in the encyclical
Humani Generis, in which the Pope condemned the theory of
polygenism and expressed that original sin comes "from a sin actually committed by an individual Adam". Despite this, the
Humani Generis also states that the belief in evolution is not in contrast to Catholic doctrine; this has led to a gradual acceptance of theistic evolution among
Roman Catholic and
Independent Catholic theologians, a position that has been encouraged by
Pope John Paul II,
Pope Benedict XVI and
Pope Francis. The biblical fall of Adam and Eve is also understood by some Christians (especially those in the
Eastern Orthodox tradition) as a reality outside of empirical history that effects the entire history of the universe. This concept of an
atemporal fall has been most recently expounded by the Orthodox theologians
David Bentley Hart,
John Behr, and
Sergei Bulgakov, but it has roots in the writings of several early church fathers, especially
Origen and
Maximus the Confessor. Bulgakov writes in his 1939 book
The Bride of the Lamb translated by Boris Jakim (
Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2001) that "empirical history begins precisely with the fall, which is its starting premise" and that in the "narrative in Genesis 3, ...an event is described that lies beyond our history, although at its boundary." David Bentley Hart has written about this concept of an atemporal fall in his 2005 book
The Doors of the Sea as well as in his essay "The Devil's March: Creatio ex Nihilo, the Problem of Evil, and a Few Dostoyevskian Meditations" (from his 2020 book
Theological Territories).
Gnostic traditions Gnostics discussed Adam and Eve in two known surviving texts, namely the "
Apocalypse of Adam" found in the
Nag Hammadi documents and the
Testament of Adam. The creation of Adam as
Protoanthropos, the original man, is the focal concept of these writings. Another Gnostic tradition held that Adam and Eve were created to help defeat Satan. The serpent, instead of being identified with Satan, is seen as a hero by the
Ophites. Still other Gnostics believed that Satan's fall, however, came after the creation of humanity. As in Islamic tradition, this story says that Satan refused to bow to Adam due to pride. Satan said that Adam was inferior to him as he was made of fire, whereas Adam was made of clay. This refusal led to the
fall of Satan recorded in works such as the
Book of Enoch. In
Mandaeism, "(God) created all the worlds, formed the soul through his power, and placed it by means of angels into the human body. So He created Adam and Eve, the first man and woman."
Islam in Iran, 1294–99 In
Islam, Adam (; ), whose role is being the father of
humanity, is looked upon by
Muslims with reverence. Eve (;
Arabic:
حواء ) is the "mother of humanity". The creation of Adam and Eve is referred to in the , although different Qurʼanic interpreters give different views on the actual creation story (Qurʼan, Surat al-Nisaʼ, verse 1). In
al-Qummi's tafsir on the
Garden of Eden, such a place was not entirely earthly. According to the , both Adam and Eve ate the
forbidden fruit in a
Heavenly Eden. As a result, they were both sent down to Earth as God's representatives. Each person was sent to a mountain peak: Adam on
al-Safa, and Eve on
al-Marwah. In this Islamic tradition, Adam wept for 40 days until he repented, after which God sent down the
Black Stone, teaching him the
Hajj. According to a prophetic
hadith, Adam and Eve reunited in the plain of Arafat, near
Mecca. They had multiple children, particularly,
Qabil and Habil. There is also a legend of a younger son, named Rocail, who created a palace and sepulchre containing autonomous statues that lived out the lives of men so realistically they were mistaken for having souls. The concept of "original sin" does not exist in
Islam because, according to Islam, Adam and Eve were forgiven by God. When God orders the angels to bow to Adam,
'''' questioned, "Why should I bow to man? I am made of pure fire and he is made of soil." The
liberal movements within Islam have viewed God's commanding the angels to bow before Adam as an exaltation of humanity, and as a means of supporting
human rights; others view it as an act of showing Adam that the biggest enemy of humans on earth will be their ego. In
Swahili literature, Eve ate from the forbidden tree, thus causing her expulsion, after being tempted by Iblis. Thereupon, Adam heroically eats the forbidden fruit in order to follow Eve and protect her on earth.
Baháʼí Faith In the
Baháʼí Faith, Adam is regarded as the first
Manifestation of God. Adam symbolizes the "spirit of Adam", Eve symbolizes "His self", the Tree of Knowledge symbolizes "the material world", and the serpent symbolizes "attachment to the material world". The fall of Adam thus represents the way humanity became conscious of good and evil. In another sense, Adam and Eve represent God's Will and Determination, the first two of the
seven stages of Divine Creative Action. == Historicity ==