The Rape of Eve and its Spiritual Connotations in Early Jewish and Gnostic Literature

This study questions the causes and implications of the serpent’s beguilement of the biblical figure Eve in Genesis 3. The answers to these questions may be found in early biblical commentaries stemming from various Jewish, Christian and Gnostic communities. Beginning with the Greek Life of Adam and Eve as one of the earliest presentations of the serpent as Satan, the reader may note the beguilement and seduction of Eve as the entrance of evil into the human world. This is also illustrated as seduction and rape in 1 and 2 Enochic. Here, Eve is used as a vehicle for revenge on Adam and a means to bring death to man. 4 Maccabees also sees Eve as a victim of rape by satanic forces, continuing this exegetical tradition of Genesis 3. Finally the later Gnostic sources demonstrate this rape as a battle between ignorance and knowledge. The children born from this rape are unwanted children and the embodiment of evil. Each of these early biblical interpretations present the first woman, as subjugated, subdued and a vehicle for the entrance of evil into the human realm.