Bible Books

Discovering Eve: Ancient Israelite Women in Context

Carol Meyers (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988) 247 pp., $24.95

The story of Eve and the status of women in biblical Israel share an odd fate: both are far less well understood than we would expect given the centrality of the Genesis accounts in the history of Western culture. The textual Eve has been obscured, oddly enough, by such a long history of interpretation that most of us forget, if we ever knew, that the biblical verses, Genesis 1:26–31 and 2:4–3:24, never mention sin or a fall, let alone identify the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge as an apple. In this engaging and provocative book, Carol Meyers aims to advance our understanding both of the biblical Eve in the second creation account (Genesis 2:4–3:24) and of Everywoman Eve: Israelite women living around the time of the composition of this creation story.