We will review the names of Adam and Eve in Hebrew and how their names symbolically represent what divine roles of man and woman that God has created in them. In addition, their names symbolically represent the beginning and the end steps of the Plan of Salvation.
Adam in Hebrew is pronounced: ‘adam and looks like this:
אדם
The Aleph, א, as the first character in the Hebrew alphabet represents God himself, who is the One or should be number one in our lives.
The Dalet, ד, represents man or mankind.
The Mem, ם, represents the world, or water, which is mostly covered by water.
Reading from right to left then, Adam means leaving the presence of God and all of us, man or mankind, coming down to the earth as mortal beings. Adam fell that man might be! We become mortal knowing good from evil. Adam instigates the Plan of Salvation for all of us.
On a side note, the last two characters in Adam, דם, are pronounced dam and it means blood in Hebrew. Blood is the symbol of mortality. By removing the Aleph, א, or God in our lives we become mortal or subject to death. So, Adam in Hebrew has further meaning.
Eve in Hebrew is pronounced: hava and looks like this:
חוה
The Chet, ח, represents a sacred or holy enclosure, the most important of which is the Holy of Holies, or the temple, or the presence of God.
The Vav, ו, represents the veil of the temple.
The Hey, ה, represents the spirit or the name of Christ.
Reading from right to left then, Eve means the other end of the Plan of Salvation, returning to the presence of God by passing through the veil where Christ and His spirit dwells. Eve’s name also represents the closeness to the spirit that women inherently have, through their divine nature, to become more like Him.
Hence, Adam’s name is the beginning of the Plan of Salvation and Eve’s, the destination of the Plan that we all hope for. Only together as man and woman unified, sealed and working together in faith and good works, can they both make it together.
Interesting thoughts.
I have sometimes wondered at what we would find in the original language where it says that she was called “woman” because she came out of man. That is completely meaningless in our language.
Man in Hebrew is pronounced `ish and looks like this:
איש
With a Yod or י in the middle.
Woman in Hebrew is very similar and is pronounced `isha and looks like this:
אשה
With a Hey or ה at the end.
So in Hebrew like in English, the word man is a subset of woman, but I haven’t discovered the insight into that phrase from Hebrew yet. Because in reality, man comes out of woman which my good wife pointed out to me and which is correct!
your wife is quite right – man does come out of woman, but if you believe B’resheet at all – then even you must know that Hava was taken out of Adam first, right?
If really woman is more spiritual than man, which is often the case, how come God made man head of the family? This headship creates lots of problems for a very spiritual woman as spiritually she is head, and physically man is head.Sometimes woman becomes too spiritual her soul/mind refuses to be headed by a spiritless man/less spiritual man.Does woman have to dilute her spiritual to the level of man to achieve togetherness?
You have some wrong assumptions here. First off, man is not the head of the family–husband and wife lead the family together. And together they use the priesthood to teach and train their children. Read The Family–A Proclamation to the World. A single mother is the head of her own home.
The world teaches a skewed view of Man and Woman, and in particular, anything having to do with family. Satan would have us believe that man, or woman, should be superior to the other. Doctrine, in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, teaches that both are to work together in their assigned roles. We believe in order, obedience, faith, and love. Both, man and woman, husband and wife, have the equal responsibility to save the children of our Heavenly Father. Men have the assignment to use the priesthood power of the Lord to call down the blessings from heaven. Women have the assignment to nurture and love each individual person. Both of these gifts are responsibilities necessary to combine and bless the lives of all mankind.
Believe me, the Lord has no superiority complex. However, Satan does. The Lord desires all of His children, both male and female, to be spiritual giants, both in knowledge and intelligence, as well as testimony.
So if man is not the head of the family, Then why did YaVeh (God) call ADAM when things “went south” in the garden? God gave HIM the command not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Eve was no where on the scene when this dialogue between God and Adam went down. His job was to teach her God’s command and protect her from anything contrary to that (MAJOR FAIL). The Scriptures say that the head of the man is Christ and the head of the woman is the man. IN CONTEXT,this pertains to a GOD ORDAINED married couple. Not a single person. I say God ordained because a lot of people follow their flesh to get married and not the leading of the HOLY SPIRIT. it’s called HOLY MATRIMONY for a reason. What GOD has joined together, let NO MAN put asunder(or separate). UNLESS she’s WIDOWED, the term “Single Mother” should never exist in God’s kingdom of TRUE believers here on earth.
The story of Adam and Eve has been skewed for generations and still causes problems with most people. In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we believe both Adam and Eve stood before the Lord. Both male and female need to be saved by a Savior. It’s clear that God has created man and woman with both weaknesses and strengths that will help each of them learn to work together to come unto Christ and be saved.