Mary, the New Eve

Ave Maria, The New Eve...

If you have read another of my posted files on this website called "Types and Shadows", you would have learned that the Old Testament prefigures people, objects, and happenings of the New Testament. As an example, the O.T. "types" of Jesus Christ are numerous, Adam, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, and David just to name a few. The O.T. "type" is always inferior to the N.T. reality, or "antitype", and sometimes it is the opposite. Adam is a "type" of Jesus Christ, and Jesus is even called "The Last Adam" in 1Cor 15:45.
So now we have a first and second Adam. However Adam had Eve, the mother of all humanity. Typology of Scripture would not be viable unless it "typed" a New Eve as well as a New Adam. The purpose of this file is to show that the New Eve, Mary, also had many "types" in the O.T..

Eve, the O.T."Type".........................Mary, the N.T. "Antitype"
Created without original sin, Gen 2:22-25.........Created without original sin, Luke 1:28,42 *1
There was a virgin, Gen 2:22-25.......................There is a virgin, Luke 1:27-34
There was a tree, Gen 2:16-17..........................There was a cross made from a tree, Matt 27:31-35
There was a fallen angel, Gen 3:1-13................There was a loyal angel, Luke 1:26-38
A satanic serpent tempted her, Gen 3:4-6...........A satanic dragon threatened her, Rev 12:4-6,13-17
There was pride, Gen 3:4-7...............................There was humility, Luke 1:38
There was disobedience, Gen 3:4-7....................There was obedience, Luke 1:38
There was a fall, Gen 3:16-20...........................There was redemption, John 19:34
Death came through Eve, Gen 3:17-19..............Life Himself came through Mary, John 10:28
She was mentioned in Genesis 3:2-22................She was mentioned in Genesis 3:15
Could not approach the tree of life Gen 3:24......Approached the "Tree of Life", John 19:25
An angel kept her out of Eden, Gen 3:24............An angel protected her, Rev 12:7-9
Prophecy of the coming of Christ, Gen 3:15.......The Incarnation of Christ, Luke 2:7
Firstborn was a man child, Gen 4:1...................Firstborn was a man child, Luke 2:7, Rev 12:5
Firstborn became a sinner, Gen 4:1-8................Firstborn was the Savior, Luke 2:34
The mother of all the living, Gen 3:20................The spiritual mother of all the living, John 19:27
Returned to dust, Gen 3:19................................Taken to Heaven, Rev 11:19,12:1

*
1. See " The Immaculate Conception " on this website.

What did the Church Fathers have to say about the "New Eve"?

Saint Justin the Martyr, in about 155 A.D., wrote:
"'...and that He became Man by the Virgin so that the course which was taken by disobedience in the beginning through the agency of the serpent, might be also the very course by which it would be put down. For Eve, a virgin and undefiled, conceived the word of the serpent, and bore disobedience and death. But the Virgin Mary received faith and joy when the angel Gabriel announced to her the glad tidings that the Spirit of the Lord would come upon her and the powers of the Most High would overshadow her, for which reason the Holy One being born of her would be called the Son of God. And she replied: 'Be it done unto me according to thy word.'"
Dialogue with Trypho (100) (Jurgens-141)

Saint Irenaeus wrote this between 180-199 A.D.:
"Consequently, then, Mary the Virgin is found to be obedient, saying: "Behold, O Lord, your handmaid; be it done to me according to your word." Eve, however, was disobedient; and when yet a virgin, she did not obey.... having become disobedient, was made the cause of death for herself and for the whole human race; so also Mary, betrothed to a man but nevertheless still a virgin, being obedient, was made the cause of salvation for herself and for the whole human race.... Thus, the knot of Eve's disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary. What the virgin Eve had bound in unbelief, the Virgin Mary loosed through faith."
Against Heresies (3,22,4) (Jurgens-224)

Tertullian wrote this between 208 and 212 A.D.:
"For it was while Eve was still a virgin that the word of the devil crept in to erect an edifice of death. Likewise, through a Virgin, the Word of God was introduced to set up a structure of life. Thus, what had been laid waste in ruin by this sex, was by the same sex re-established in salvation. Eve had believed the serpent; Mary believed Gabriel. That which the one destroyed by believing, the other, by believing, set straight."
The Flesh of Christ (17,5) (Jurgens-358)

Saint Augustine wrote in 396 A.D.:
"Our Lord Jesus Christ, however, who came to liberate mankind, in which both males and females are destined to salvation, was not averse to males, for He took the form of a male, nor to females, for of a female He was born. Besides, there is a great mystery here: that just as death comes to us through a woman, Life is born to us through a woman; that the devil, defeated, would be tormented by each nature, feminine and masculine, since he had taken delight in the defection of both."
Christian Combat (22,24) (Jurgens-1578)

Mary is mentioned in the first book of the Bible, and in the last book of the Bible, and in many books in between. See "The Blessed Virgin Mary in the Bible", and "O' Daughter of Zion", and many other Marian files on this website for the verses.

The word, Ave, when reversed, becomes Eva, another form of Eve.

©
Written by Bob Stanley, March 11, 2000

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