Hebrew word · H2332

חַוָּה

chavah

Eve

A personal name found only here and in Gen 4:1. The text explains it by ḥay, "living." Most lexicons (BDB, HALOT) connect it to the root ḥwh/ḥwy, an older or neighbouring-language form of the ordinary Hebrew ḥyh, "to live." That form survives in Aramaic (ḥăwāʾ) and Phoenician.

Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

A woman living at the time before the Flood, first mentioned at Gen.3.20;

married to Adam (H0121);

mother of: Cain (H7014B), Abel (H1893) and Seth (H8352)

Also named: Eua (Εὖα "Eve" G2096)

§ Eve = "life" or "living"

the first woman, wife of Adam

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Genesis 3:20

Range of meaning

A personal name found only here and in Gen 4:1. The text explains it by ḥay, "living." Most lexicons (BDB, HALOT) connect it to the root ḥwh/ḥwy, an older or neighbouring-language form of the ordinary Hebrew ḥyh, "to live." That form survives in Aramaic (ḥăwāʾ) and Phoenician. So the name means something like "Life," "Living One," or "Life-giver."

Against the English

"Eve" comes down through Latin and Greek (Eua, Heva), and in English it carries no meaning at all. Many people also say "Eve means 'mother of all living'." Strictly, that is the verse's explanation of the name, not its meaning. The name itself means "life/living."

How it drifted

Passing the name through Greek and Latin into English removed the sound connection to ḥay ("living"), which was obvious to a Hebrew listener. The word did not change meaning. It lost its transparency.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation) translates rather than transliterates the name here: it calls her Zōē, "Life." At 4:1 it switches to the name Eua. Later Jewish interpretation (Genesis Rabbah 20:11; 22:2) also played on the Aramaic ḥiwyāʾ, "serpent," which sounds like Ḥawwāh. A Punic curse tablet (KAI 89) names a goddess ḥwt, and some scholars link the two names; the connection is uncertain.

Where it appears

Genesis · 2

  1. Genesis 3:20 חַוָּ֑ה Eve

    And Adam named his wife Eve, because she would be the mother of all the living.

    Here: The new name. To a Hebrew ear it sounds like the words for "life" and "to live" (ḥay, ḥāyāh), from an older form of that root, ḥwh. The verse itself spells out the connection with "living" at the end.

  2. Genesis 4:1 חַוָּ֣ה Eve

    And Adam had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain. “With the help of the LORD I have brought forth a man,” she said.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.