It is interesting – and often overlooked – that Eve is not named in the Bible until after she and Adam eat of the tree of knowledge and are facing expulsion from the Garden of Eden. It’s common to think of “Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden,” but up until Genesis 3:20 she is simply known as “wife” or “woman.”
This is actually also true of Adam. “Adam” is one of several Hebrew words for “man,” and different versions of the Bible switch from “Man” to “Adam” in different places, some of them not until Genesis 4.
According to Swedenborg, these are not accidents or meaningless details. It says that Adam as “Man” represents the most perfect, innocent people first raised by the Lord from the ranks of animals. These were people completely in a state of loving the Lord and being led by the Lord. Eve as “Wife” or “woman” represents the desire those people eventually had to sense life as their own, rather than something given to them by the Lord. This desire, while not inherently bad, opened them up to the deception of the serpent, which represents thinking about spiritual things from our senses rather than trusting the Lord.
Once they are out of the garden – meaning less innately bound to the Lord – the names change to “Adam” and “Eve,” and the meanings change as well. “Eve” then represents the church among those early people, a system of worship based in love to the Lord. “Adam” at this point represents the people of that church.
It’s interesting to note from this that before the fall — while the “man” and “woman” were still in the garden — there was no idea of “the church” as something separate from “the people.” Because they lived in a state of loving the Lord, all of people’s thoughts were holy and all their actions were worshipful; there was no need for something separate to inspire holiness and encourage worship. Once people turned their minds outward, though, the two gained separate identities, indicating that there was a need for “church” ideas to draw people’s minds away from external things..
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 287
287. Verse 20 And the man called the name of his wife Eve, because she was to be the mother of all living.
‘Man’ (homo) here is used to mean the member (vir) of the Most Ancient Church, that is, celestial man, and ‘wife’ and ‘mother of all living’ the Church. It is called ‘mother’ because it was the first Church of all, and ‘living’ because of its faith in the Lord, who is Life itself.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 289
289. ‘Wife’ is used to mean the Church, in the universal sense the Lord’s kingdom in heaven and on earth. This too has been shown already, while the fact that ‘mother’ as well has the same meaning follows from this. In the Word the Church is commonly called ‘mother’, as in Isaiah,
Where is your mother’s bill of divorce? Isa. 50:1.
In Jeremiah,
Your, mother has been utterly shamed, she who bore you is covered with shame. Jer. 50:12.
In Ezekiel,
[You are] your mother’s daughter who loathes her husband and her sons. Your mother is a Hittite and your father an Amorite. Ezek. 16:45.
Here ‘husband’ (vir) stands for the Lord and everything celestial, ‘sons for truths of faith, ‘Hittite’ for falsity, and ‘Amorite’ for evil. In the same prophet,
Your mother was like a vine in your likeness, planted beside the waters, fruitful, full of branches by reason of many waters. Ezek. 19:10.
Here ‘mother’ stands for the Ancient Church. The Most Ancient Church is pre-eminently called a ‘mother’ because it was the first Church, and the only one to be celestial. For that reason it was the Lord’s beloved more than any other.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 290
290. It was called ‘the mother of all living’ from its faith in the Lord, who is Life itself. This too becomes clear from what has been shown already. There cannot possibly be more than one Life from which everyone’s life derives, nor can life which really is life possibly exist unless it comes by way of faith in the Lord, who is Life. Neither can faith exist which has life within it unless it comes from Him, and so has Him within it. This is why in the Word the Lord is called the only Living, and the LIVING JEHOVAH, in Jer. 5:2; 12:16; 16:14, 15; 23:7; Ezek. 5:11; the One living forever, in Dan. 4:34; Rev. 4:10; 5:14; 10:6; in David, the fountain of life, Ps. 36:9; in Jeremiah, the fount of living waters, 17:17. Heaven which derives its life from Him is called ‘the land of the living’ in Isa. 38:11; 53:8; Ezek. 26:20; 32:23-27, 32; Ps. 27:13; 52:5; 142:5. And those who have faith in the Lord are called ‘the living’, as in David,
Who has kept our soul among the living. Ps. 66:9.
It is also said that those who have faith appear in the Book of Lives, Ps. 69:28, and in the Book of Life, Rev. 13:8; 17:8; 20:15. This also is why it is said of those who receive faith in Him that they are made alive, Hosea 6:2; Ps. 85:6. Conversely those who have no faith were in consequence called ‘the dead’, as also in Isaiah,
The dead will not live, the Rephaim will not rise. To that end You have visited them and wiped them out. Isa. 26:14.
This stands for people who are puffed up with self-love. ‘Rising up means entering into life. They are also called ‘the slain’* in Ezek. 32:23-26, 28-31; and hell is called ‘death’ in Isa. 25:8; 28:15. The Lord too refers to them as ‘the dead’ in Matt. 4:16; John 5:24; 8:21, 24, 51, 52.
* lit. the pierced
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 291
291. This verse describes the initial period when the Church was in the bloom of its youth. As it represented the heavenly marriage, it is for that reason also described as a marriage, and called Eve from a word meaning life.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 476
476. That ‘male and female’ means the marriage of faith and love has been stated and shown already. That is to say, ‘male’ or man (vir) means the understanding and what belongs to the understanding, and so what belongs to faith, while ‘female’ means the will, or what belongs to the will, and so what belongs to love. This also is why she was called Eve, from a word meaning life, which belongs to love alone. ‘Female’ therefore also means the Church, as also shown already, and ‘male’ the man (vir) of the Church. At present the subject is the state of the Church at the time it was spiritual and shortly to become celestial, which is why the word ‘male’ comes first, as it does also in 1:26, 27. Furthermore the expression ‘to create’ has regard to the spiritual man. As soon however as that marriage has taken place, that is, the Church has become celestial, it is no longer called ‘male and female’ but ‘Man’ (Homo) who by virtue of the marriage means both. Consequently ‘and He called their name Man’, which means the Church, follows next.