Christmas 2024: St Adam and Eve

The Church celebrates the Feast of St Adam and St Eve on 24th December. This may seem strange as we normally think of saints as holy people and not a couple who helped bring death into the human race. But, they are both saints in the Church.

Adam and Eve are first mentioned in Genesis 2, and whereas Adam is formed from the Earth and the Breath of God, Eve came from out of Adam’s side, while he slept. Adam only names Eve, just before they were ejected from the Garden of Eden.

Genesis 3 v 20

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

Eve means mother of all living. The woman who helped bring death to humanity, is the one who brings life.

Adam simply means man.

The key element of their story is where Eve was tempted by the Serpent. Most people think this creature was a talking snake, but when we look at the Hebrew and the wider context of the Bible, we see this understanding is slightly off.

It’s more likely it was a spiritual creature, akin to the seraphim (an angelic throne guardian). So when God curses the Serpent and says that he will crawl on his belly, it didn’t mean it lost its legs, but its angelic wings.

Eve was tempted by the Serpent, not through physical force, but through words and by warping the meaning of what God said. And even today her children, all of humanity, are tempted in a similar way by demonic powers.

In the English medieval period, Christians celebrated their feast on the 24th December. This event involved a mystery play. Mystery plays usually depicted Bible stories and were similar to the school nativity plays we see today.

The Adam and Eve story centred around a paradise tree (probably an evergreen tree), which had apples hung from it. This evergreen tree represented both the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden.

Later in the Middle Ages, the habit of putting apples on trees fell out of favour and so the trees were cut down and brought into the house over the Christmas period.

This eventually evolved into the modern Christmas trees, but instead of apples, we now hang baubles.

So today, let’s be thankful for Adam and Eve, the Father and Mother of all the living. Let’s recall their story and recognise our own need for a saviour, the one we shall discuss tomorrow, on 25th December.