The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.  (Genesis 3:20)

When God created Adam and then for him a helpmeet, the woman, they were under no immediate obligation to procreate.  They were perfect in every way and there was no disease.  Adam and the woman would represent humanity and be undying.

Eternal beings are then created and nowhere in the Bible do the angels procreate; rather they are brought into being as celestial host and endure.

God’s plan for humanity was different.  God did not create an earthly host, just two individuals.  Then came the Fall through disobedience.

And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘You may surely eat of every tree of the garden,but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.’ (ibid 2:16-17)

Eating the fruit was an act of rebellion, but it had a particular consequence, mortality.  When a third of the angelic host rebelled (Revelation 12:4), they were immediately judged and condemned; whereas humanity was translocated from the eternal into a temporal realm.  Mortality then inaugurates two forms of death, spiritual and physical. Adam died spiritually when he sinned, this was immediate; however he lived for 930 years in all (Genesis 5:5).  Eden existed outside of time, and Adam and Eve were expelled into a temporal existence.  This is the consequence of sin, death and mortality.

Another consequence of the Fall was parenthood through sexual congress.  Immediately both had eaten the apple, and before God appeared, Adam and the woman were mutually embarrassed by their nakedness:

(The woman) took of (the) fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. (ibid 3:6-7)

Loincloth translates the Hebrew word חֲגוֹר, chagowr, which means a belt (masculine noun) or an apron or waist cloth (feminine) but broadly a girdle for both.  Importantly, it is covering fixed around the waist and covering the abdomen and pudenda.

Therefore, it is not entirely futile to speculate that covering their loins specifically suggests Adam and the woman the were ashamed of their sexual organs.  Could it be that their bodies had changed in readiness for procreation, or alternatively they became aware of the new function of their differing anatomy?

While God’s intention for humanity’s increase is expressed befall the Fall, right at the time of creation of man and woman, expressly to have dominion over other creatures…

So, God created man in his own image,
    in the image of God he created him;
    male and female he created them.

And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth…  (ibid 1:27-28)

…there are no children born to Adam and the woman until after the Fall.  By the bye, it is possible to separate ‘fruitfulness’ from procreation.  Clearly, Jesus as a man was fruitful yet he did not engage in procreative activity, and upholds celibacy. The Fall instigates either procreative act, seemingly. 

God says this to the woman:

I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing;
    in pain you shall bring forth children. (ibid 3:16)

Perhaps then it came to a shock to the woman that she would bear children and that her anatomy was designed to do so.  What is more certain is that when learning this role would incur pain, she would be woebegone. Pain is another consequence of the Fall.

Furthermore, motherhood is to define her.  Adam names her Eve, which means the ‘mother of all living’.  The word translated ‘living’ is an adjective, not a participle (that is a verb acting as an adjective) so it is odd that there is no noun.  Obviously Eve is the mother to all humanity, but we also know that all Creation is subject to the Fall.  Other creatures have to endure pain and death.

For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. (Romans 8:19-21)

Thus, in once sense, Eve is the mother of all this corruption, and creation awaits the redemption of humanity. And if this sounds as if sounds like Eve is shouldering all the blame, Paul clearly holds Adam fully accountable for Eve’s transgression (Romans 5:12) not only on grounds of a failure of headship.

For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet she will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control.  (1 Timothy 2:13-15)

While the woman is deceived, the implication is that Adam was not.  Therefore, in eating the fruit his helpmeet gave him, he not only submitted to her, but also actively rebelled against God.  Put simply, the woman thought she was acting in good faith, yet he in full knowledge of God’s commandment, disobeyed.

But the passage in the pastoral letter to Timothy reveals another truth, that if the woman brought destruction, through her and the role of motherhood there is personal and racial (speaking of the human race in total) restoration.

In God’s complete and perfect plan, that encompassed the Fall, it is therefore plain that the woman is given a redemptive role, not least because Original Sin is not carried in her seed (offspring) – hence the fact of Jesus being born to a virgin.  

God said this to the snake, (the devil or Satan):

‘I will put enmity between you and the woman,
    and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
    and you shall bruise his heel.’ (ibid 3:15)

It is noted that the woman’s offspring is singular,זֶרַע, zera.  This is reminiscent of the distinction that Paul draws regarding Abraham’s offspring, while Ismael will be fruitful and sire twelve princes and make a great nation, God makes no mention of the twelve tribes born to Isaac’s son and the chosen nation, Israel; it is to Isaac’s ‘seed’ singular (zera) that God covenants himself:

Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings”, referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring”, who is Christ. (Galatians 3:16 quoting Genesis 17:19)

Thus, to Satan is first stated his own downfall – aptly, as the instigator of the Fall – by the Gospel of redemption through motherhood; this prefigures Mary bearing the saviour of humankind, Jesus Christ.  The writer of Hebrews states how Jesus adopted men and women in faith of him as that Saviour, presenting to God those redeemed:

‘Behold, I and the children God has given me.’

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil… (Hebrews 2:13-14)

Humankind is redeemed of Adam’s sin by Eve through her offspring born to Mary.  As revealed by God’s messenger, the angel Gabriel:

‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.  And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David,and he will reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.’  (Luke 1:30-33)

And in Mary, we see a wonderful humility as she submits herself to play her crucial part in God’s redemptive plan:

 ‘My soul magnifies the Lord,
    and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,
for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.
    For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for he who is mighty has done great things for me,
    and holy is his name.
And his mercy is for those who fear him
    from generation to generation…’  (Luke 1:47-50)

The deception of ‘the woman’ and the lethal harm to all creation is unwound, the curse to Eve of painful childbirth is turned to a blessing in Mary.  The cosmic healing process, conceived before the beginning of time (Ephesians 1:3-4) is enacted, whereby God reaches down to humanity by sending his own offspring, his Son:

All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:

 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
    and they shall call his name Immanuel”, which means, God with us.  (Matthew 1:22-23)