Science in the Bible – Mother Eve

Posted by: BibleScienceGuy | May 9, 2018

Science in the Bible – Mother Eve

(4 Minute Read)

Eve was the first wife and mother, and Scripture bases foundational teaching about marriage on her. Referencing her life and marriage, Yahweh prescribed normative patterns for all her daughters.

Why Was Eve Created?

Eve was created to be Adam’s companion, helper, and lover. She was created for marriage. Adam named her Eve (“life”) because she was the “mother of all living” (Genesis 3:20).

Eve was equivalent to Adam in nature and being because she was made out of Adam’s flesh and bone. But in role or function she was subordinate to Adam. Adam was created first, and Eve was created second for Adam. This order and purpose of creation is the basis for Paul’s hierarchical placement of woman under man (1 Corinthians 11:3,7-12).

The Adam and Eve marriage set the pattern and standard for all marriages. On it Jesus based His instruction about the permanence of marriage (Matthew 19:3-6). Paul’s commands for husbands to love and cherish their wives and for wives to respect and obey their husbands are grounded on his reference to Adam and Eve’s marriage (Ephesians 5:31).

Marriage was the first God-ordained social institution and is the most fundamental one. Nations are built on communities which are built on families which are built on marriages.

Why are marriage bonds so important? When marriages fail, everything else eventually disintegrates. A nation cannot be strong without strong marriages. This is one reason why divorce is so harmful and so detestable in God’s sight (Malachi 2:16). Divorce destroys individuals, families, churches, communities, and ultimately nations.

How Was Eve Created?

Did Eve really come from Adam’s rib? Some claim that since men and women have the same number of ribs, this cannot be true.

But removing a rib does not change the genetic blueprint passed to progeny. The Great Creator took a rib from Adam to make Eve, but their children had the normal twelve on each side.

Scripture says the Great Creator put Adam to sleep, extracted a rib, closed him up, and fashioned a woman for Adam from the rib. Adam called her Woman because she was taken out of man. (Genesis 2:18-24)

When Was Eve Created?

According to Scripture, Eve was created in the beginning on Creation Day 6 about 6,000 years ago.

Scientific work on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) supports this. Inherited only from the mother, mtDNA is found outside the cell nucleus in mitochondria organelles, the power plants of cells. Nuclear DNA is inherited from both parents.

All mtDNA today comes from a single female which scientists have nicknamed Eve. This does not constitute proof of a single female ancestor, but only that now no female lines exist except Eve’s. This is consistent with the Biblical record, but evolutionary theory does not predict it.

Using evolutionary assumptions to estimate the mtDNA mutation rate (rate at which copying mistakes occur), scientists once conjectured this ancestral Eve lived 200,000 years ago. Later empirical studies of real world data showed much higher mtDNA mutation rates with correspondingly younger ages for Eve. A 1998 review of the data in the prestigious journal Science says Eve would be only 6,000 years old based on these re-calibrated mtDNA mutation rates. This is again consistent with Scripture but contrary to evolutionary predictions. (See Gibbons, A. “Calibrating the Mitochondrial Clock”. Science 279(5347):28–29, January 2, 1998.)

Thus scientific research supports Biblical teaching that there was a first woman (Eve) about 6,000 years ago. The single original woman suggested by the mitochondrial DNA data is almost certainly the real Eve, wife of Adam.

Was there was a first woman (Eve)
about 6,000 years ago?
Scientific research supports
this clear Biblical truth.

How Was Eve Deceived?

Eve knew God’s command, given to Adam before she was created. The serpent deceived Eve by first questioning God’s command and then denying it. But Adam sinned knowingly; he was not deceived (1 Timothy 2:14). The entire human race fell when Adam sinned, not when Eve disobeyed. (Romans 5:12; 1 Corinthians 15:21-22)

Because Satan deceived Eve (but not Adam) and because Adam was created first, Paul forbids women to teach men or to have authority over men in the church. Possibly women by created nature are more vulnerable to spiritual deception (1 Timothy 2:11-14; 3:15). Scripture instructs them to teach women and children (Titus 2:3-5; Proverbs 1:8).

It is vital to heed Paul’s warning not to let our minds be led astray the way Eve was deceived by Satan (2 Corinthians 11:3). Many allow their minds to be corrupted exactly as Eve did through questioning and denying God’s Word. Today many doubt or deny the reliability and authority of Genesis. Believing in evolution instead of Biblical creation is denying Genesis. Since Genesis is the foundation for Scripture, doubting Genesis logically calls into question the entire Bible.

How can you avoid being deceived like Eve? Study, believe, and obey Scripture from Genesis to Revelation.

When Did Eve Sin?

Scripture does not say how long after Creation the Fall occurred. I suspect it happened soon — probably within a week and certainly within a month.

Jesus may have hinted the Fall occurred near the beginning when He described Satan as “a liar, and the father of lies” and as “a murderer from the beginning.” (John 8:44) The serpent’s lie to Eve resulted in death to Adam and Eve and all their descendants, certainly qualifying him as the liar and murderer Jesus says he was “from the beginning.”

Adam was 130 at Seth’s birth following Cain’s murder of Abel. The population was fairly large because Cain worried about people killing him as he wandered the earth. Since no children were born before the Fall, this forces the Fall to be close to Creation in order to produce a significant population from multiple generations in at most 130 years.

Eve’s first child Cain was conceived after expulsion from Eden (Genesis 3:22-4:1). Before the Fall, the human reproductive system would be working perfectly, and Adam and Eve would be in complete harmony and in obedience to their Creator. God had commanded them to be fruitful and multiply.

So why didn’t Eve conceive in Eden? They must not have stayed long enough to complete a reproductive cycle. Provided the cycle was the same length before the Fall, they were probably expelled from Eden within a month after Creation.

Eve was the first wife and mother, created to be Adam’s companion and helper and to bear his children. Referencing her life and marriage, God prescribed normative patterns for all her daughters.

Science Catches Up to the Bible

Thousands of years ago, the Genesis record testified to a single female (Eve) who was the mother of all the living by the first man Adam (Genesis 3:20). Only within the last few decades have scientists discovered mitochondrial DNA evidence consistent with this Biblical truth.

Although the Bible is not primarily a science textbook, it does contain many scientific truths like this and those mentioned in this Science in the Bible series, truths that long pre-date their discovery by today’s scientists. This is strong evidence of divine authorship of the Bible.

Questions to Ponder

1. This Sunday May 13 is Mother’s Day. Who can you encourage for upholding Scripture’s pattern for godly wives and mothers?
2. How would you counsel a woman who resents the Great Creator’s prescription to respect and submit to her husband?

Share your thoughts on these questions in the comments below. It could encourage or help another reader.

Soli Deo Gloria.

Read the sequel:
32. Science in the Bible – Father Adam

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©William T. Pelletier, Ph.D.
“contending earnestly for the faith”
“destroying speculations against the knowledge of God”
“for the defense of the gospel”
(Jude 1:3; 2 Cor 10:5; Phil 1:16)
Wednesday May 9, 2018 A.D.

Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. (Psalm 119:105)

Posted in Creation, Science in the Bible | Tags: #WPLongform, Adam, After Eden cartoon, Dan Lietha, Eve, mitochondrial DNA, Mother’s Day, mutation, postaweek

Responses

This is an excellent post. I learned some things I didn’t know before.

Have you considered the possibility that the rib God used to make Eve might not have been the bone that we call a rib? Here is a post I made in my blog about this. https://clydeherrin.wordpress.com/2015/10/27/adams-rib/

LikeLike
By: Clyde Herrin on May 9, 2018
at 9:23 am

Reply
- Thanks for reading and commenting. I appreciate your feedback, your diligent study, and your heart for Christ.
  
  Regarding your post, Scripture is clear repeatedly that God created Adam an actual man, a male. Possibly some of Adam’s flesh was integral with the rib God removed, just as “ribs” on a menu is not a bare bone. But I cannot accept any gender considerations for Adam other than the straightforward declarations of many Bible passages that he was a man. God calls Adam a “man” 10 times in Genesis 1 & 2 before He takes the rib to make a woman. The Great Creator used that rib to bring a woman into being by the Word of His power.
  
  LikeLike
  By: BibleScienceGuy on May 23, 2018
  at 3:48 pm
  
  Reply
Mitochondrial DNA explains so well explains why Jesus did not receive the sin nature from Eve.

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By: Don on May 9, 2018
at 10:46 am

Reply