Hebrew Word Study – Eve – Chavah  חוה  Cheth Vav Hei

Genesis 3:20: “And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.”

Most linguists will tell you that translation by definition is really just commentary. Words have more than just a meaning, it also has emotion.  I remember in high school we had an assistant principal who was always smiling.  We called him Smiling Jack.  We used to say that he was the only one who could smile and say “You’re suspended” at the same time.  “You’re suspended” are very emotionally charged words. Someone just learning the English language if confronted with Smiling Jack telling him he was suspended could interpret that as being offered a holiday in Hawaii.  The facial expression, the tone of one’s voice will convey to the listening that getting suspended is something really bad.  You don’t even have to know the definition of suspension to know you have just been handed something that was not going to look good on a resume.  Of course,one reading the resume would not have the advantage of seeing the facial expression or hearing the voice tone of the one doing the sentencing.  Thus, one is left to their own commentary as to what that suspension meant and may draw a wrong conclusion unless they ask for further details behind the suspension. 

Which is another problem with translation.  We have a word in English called bankruptcy. We hear that a person experienced a bankruptcy and right away we form an opinion that this person manages his money very poorly. Yet, many bankruptcies are not due to poor money management, but to a sudden financial obligation that they could not avoid, such as a health crisis with no health insurance. Suddenly you are faced with medical bills you cannot pay off or maybe the person had an identity theft.  When you learn the reason behind the bankruptcy you may suddenly have a more sympathetic image of that person.

This is even more evident when translating an ancient dead language like the Hebrew.  For one thing, we do not have the benefit of hearing a voice tone or seeing a facial expression. Many times, the context of a word is not clear or is ambiguous. Hence a translator has no choice but to add commentary or express an opinion which could very well be a personal bias or prejudice. 

Let’s take the name of the first woman, Eve.  What do we know about this word?  Well, first we know Eve is not a Hebrew word. That is an English word that evolved from the word in Hebrew Chavah.  Secondly, the Bible tells us this word means “mother of all living.”  In the Hebrew, the word words “mother of all living” is em kol chi. Now we have our first problem of translation, for does not the Bible make it clear that God is the author of all life?  Here we find that a woman is the author of life.

This is our first huddle.  We need to look closely at these Hebrew words.  The word for life is often found in the plural form, chaim.  However, it is in a singular form here, chi.  Life is life, is it not? How can it be plural?  We are told by ancient Jewish teachers that the reason life is generally given in a plural form is because there are two lives that God created.  One spiritual that is eternal and the other is the physical life, the life of the flesh which is temporal. The woman brings just one life into this world, the physical life.

You will notice the woman was not called Eve until after the fall. Then the woman was called the mother of chi – physical life.  Before the fall there was no death and the physical and spiritual were eternal.  The command to be fruitful and multiply was given before the fall so this would suggest that other children were born prior to the fall who had immortal bodies.  What happened to these children?  Well, you need to read my book on Stargates and Time Travel to see how I answer that one.  That is another topic.

A deeper question is why is Chavah spelled  Hei Vav Hei is used and not chayah Cheith, Yod, Hei. Chavah means to cover, protect or hidden.  Rashi, the Medieval Jewish commentator and Hebrew masters point out that chavah is a derivative of the word chayah which means to give life. So, when the Bible uses the word chavah which means mother of all living or the life-giver it is using the word chavah as a remez or hint of a deeper meaning to encourage the reader to seek out a deeper understanding. 

So, let’s seek that deeper understanding.  First, the word chavah as the mother of all life expresses not only the ability to give birth to live but also to nourish and enhance all facets of this physical life. Still, why was she not called chayah to give life, rather than chavah to cover, protect or hide.  The difference between chavah and chayah is chavah is spelled with a Vav as the second letter and chayah is spelled with a Yod as the second letter. Ancient Jewish teachers tell us that Yod has a numerical value of 10 and the Vav has a value of six. The difference between the two is four.  The Daleth is the number four. Rabbi Ginsburgh teaches that when we add the letter Daleth to the name chavah we get chedvah which means joy.  Thus, when chavah, the protector of life gives birth to independent life – chayah there is joy.  There should be sorrow for giving birth into a sinful world, but God promises that there is still joy in bringing life into this world for He will provide redemption for this sin and that new life has the potential to live in a physical body like it’s parents before the fall. Jesus was the first fruits of the new body when he allowed His physical body to die as a sacrifice.  His body was without sin as he was conceived by the Holy Spirit and not by man who passed on that sinful nature.

Let’s examine this further. Another reason God used the word chavah for the woman’s name was because the numerical value of the word chavah – Cheth = 8, Va = 6, Hei = 5 is 19.  The name of God YHWH = 26.  19+26=45.   Adam is spelled Aleph = 1, Daleth = 4 and Mem = 40 which gives a numerical value of 45.  The woman with God will complete a man.  The woman was created to be a gateway to God.  Even though she enticed the man to eat the forbidden fruit, God still reaffirmed that a woman was to be a gateway to God and to guide the man into his relationship with God.  She is the primary focus of raising a child to love God.  The name Eve or Chavah tells us that the role of the woman did not change after the fall. 

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