21. THE QUESTION WAS: Who is the “New Eve”?

a. Mary Magdalene

b. Mary, mother of Jesus

c. Joan of Arc

THE ANSWER IS……A…Mary, the mother of Jesus

Just as death entered the world thanks to Eve’s disobedience to God, salvation entered the world thanks to Mary’s cooperation with God’s plan. Unlike you and I, who were born with a defect on our human nature, Eve and Mary were created full of grace. Both willingly made a choice…Eve chose to reject this awesome gift of grace; Mary chose to accept it, thus cooperating with the plan for our Savior to come into the world.

The Early Church Fathers also refer to the term “New Eve” or to the “Second Eve” or to the concept during the first centuries after Christ.

In 180 A.D., St. Irenaeus wrote that Eve “by disobeying became the cause of death for herself and whole human race, so also Mary….was obedient and became the cause of salvation for herself and the whole human race” (Against Heresies 3.22.4)

He also wrote: “Just as the human race was subject to death by a virgin, it was freed by a virgin, with the virginal disobedience balanced by virginal obedience” (ibid. 5.19.1)

In 150 A.D., Justin Martyr also made it clear in his “Dialogue with Trypho the Jew” that Mary’s involvement in Christ becoming Man helped undo the damage Eve’s lack of cooperation caused. For more info, see Kenneth Howell’s article on the New Eve in the Dec. 2003 issue of “This Rock” magazine.

In this article, Howell explains how Paul draws a parallel between Eve in Genesis 3:15 and Mary in Galatians 4:4.

For more info

http://www.canapologetics.net/html/mary__the_new_eve.html

http://ic.net/~erasmus/RAZ397.HTM

http://www.canapologetics.net/html/mary__the_new_eve.html

http://www.ewtn.com/library/SCRIPTUR/UNSCRIPT.TXT

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