Understanding the Creation of Eve and Her Importance in the Plan of Salvation

We first learn of Eve in the scriptures toward the end of Genesis 2: “For Adam there was not found an help meet for him. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman.”

In a 1976 Ensign article entitled “The Blessings and Responsibilities of Womanhood,” President Spencer W. Kimball stated, “‘And I, God, created man in mine own image, in the image of mine Only Begotten created I him; male and female created I them.’ [The story of the rib, of course, is figurative.]” The brackets are in the original.

Because the creation of Eve from Adam’s rib is figurative and metaphorical, we can consider Eve’s creation to be parallel to that of Adam, as described in the previous chapter. For example, we read in Genesis 1:26–27: “Let us make man in our image . . . in the image of God created he . . . male and female.”

Who is the “us” referred to in Genesis 1:26? We learn in Moses 2:26, “And I, God, said unto mine Only Begotten, which was with me from the beginning: Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and it was so.”4 We, therefore, know that the “us” was God and Jesus Christ. However, there is more. We are told in Abraham 3:22–24:

Now the Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the intelligences that were organized before the world was; and among all these there  were many of the noble and great ones; And God saw these souls that they were good, and he stood in the midst of them, and he said: These I will make my rulers; for he stood among those that were spirits, and he saw that they were good; and he said unto me: Abraham, thou art one of them; thou wast chosen before thou wast born. And there stood one among them that was like unto God, and he said unto those who were with him: We will go down, for there is space there, and we will take of these materials, and we will make an earth whereon these may dwell.

Therefore, when our Savior, Jesus Christ “went down” to create the earth, including Adam and Eve, He took many of the “noble and great ones” with him. We are told in the Doctrine and Covenants 138 that those who serve in the temples, both male and female, were among those noble and great ones spoken of. We are given even more information in Abraham 4:26: “And the Gods took counsel among themselves and said: Let us go down and form man in our image, after our likeness.” We can then insert the end of Genesis 1:27 to complete the picture: “In the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” These scriptures, taken together, therefore, tell us that the Gods, male and female, created mankind, male and female, in their likeness.

Everything that was stated in the previous chapter about Adam’s creation from the dust of the earth can be restated for the creation of Eve. We now know that we are literally made from the dust of the earth, and that that dust was originally star dust. I can still see that star dust twinkling in my lovely wife’s eyes. We know that violent geological activity on the newly forming earth expelled large amounts of carbon dioxide, from the earthly dust, into the atmosphere. Plants use that carbon dioxide to build their own tissues, along with minerals and other chemicals they absorb through their roots from the dust of the earth. Humans eat those plants, or eat other animals that have eaten the plants—usually after women have cooked them—and use the molecules from the food to build our bodies. So, in a very real sense, Adam and Eve, as well as all other humans, are made from the dust of the Earth.

We are told in the scriptures that Eve was given her name because she is the “mother of all living” and the “first of all women.” It is absurd to think of Eve as literally the mother of all living creatures—both plant and animals. But the terms are totally appropriate if considered  as titles befitting her status in the infinite plan of happiness. If we consider those titles in light of infinity, even though we are not told so explicitly in the scriptures, we can be quite certain that Eve was foreordained to her noble calling, before the foundations of the earth.

We also can assume that we all sustained Eve in her calling, just as we did Adam in his calling as “the first man.” Therefore, in the infinite perspective, it matters not at all when Eve was actually born, she was foreordained to become “the mother of all living” and the “first of all women” in all our genealogies of the human family. We honor her in that noble position—even though generation upon generation of women had lived and died before her.

In the October 1996 general conference, President Gordon B. Hinckley stated, “Without you [women] the plan could not function. Without you the entire program would be frustrated. . . . Each of you is a daughter of God, endowed with a divine birthright. You need no defense of that position.”

There has been a tendency, down through the ages, to denigrate Eve as a simpleton or weakling who gave in to Satan’s seductive temptation. These, however, are not the characteristics of our noble First Mother. First, modern revelation teaches that the premortal and postmortal Michael, the Archangel, was Adam in his mortal life.10 We are also taught that Michael was the most powerful of all the angels of God— second only to Jesus Christ himself. It is unfathomable to believe that the most powerful premortal spirit would choose as his future wife a spirit who was not equally powerful and noble. Second, we are told that this noble woman heard the voice of God. And third, Eve was very aware of the role she played in the Fall and our subsequent exaltation: “And Eve, his wife, heard all these things and was glad, saying: Were it not for our transgression we never should have had seed, and never should have known good and evil, and the joy of our redemption, and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient.”

Without doubt, Eve was no simpleton or shrinking violet. She stands beside Adam at the head of the human family as our great and noble matriarch. In a 1993 Ensign article, Elder Russell M. Nelson said of Eve: “We and all mankind are forever blessed because of Eve’s great courage and wisdom. By partaking of the fruit first, she did what needed to be done. Adam was wise enough to do likewise.” 

President Henry B. Eyring, First Counselor in the First Presidency, stated in the April 2014 general conference of the Church, “By revelation, Eve recognized the way home to God. She knew that the Atonement of Jesus Christ made eternal life possible in families. She was sure, as you can be, that as she kept her covenants with her Heavenly Father, the Redeemer and the Holy Ghost would see her and her family through whatever sorrows and disappointments would come. She knew she could trust in Them.”

What are your thoughts on this? Let us know in the comments!

The following was taken from the book The Infinite Fall, currently available at cedarfort.com!