Collection: Adam and Eve

ARTIST: Br. Arturo Olivas, OFS

ARTWORK NARRATIVE:

Adan y Eva are the primordial man and woman found in the book of Genesis. God commanded the couple not to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge or they would surely die. Urged by the serpent Eva partook of the fruit and gave it to Adan to eat as well. The couple realized they had sinned and for their transgression were banished from the Garden of Eden. They and their descendants, all of humanity, were doomed to a life of sin and hardship only to be redeemed by the death and resurrection of Christ.

In sacred art the couple is shown nude and standing beneath the Tree around which the serpent is encoiled. According to ancient belief the souls of Adan and Eva are the first to be redeemed by Christ from Limbo.

Their feast day is December 24.

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In the beginning, God made and created heaven and earth. The earth was idle and void and covered with darkness. And the spirit of God was born on the waters, and God said: Be made light, and light was made. And God saw that light was good, and divided the light from darkness, and called the light day and darkness night.

And thus was made light with heaven and earth first, and evening and morning was made one day. The second day he made the firmament, and divided the waters that were under the firmament from them that were above, and called the firmament heaven. The third day were made on the earth herbs and fruits in their kind. The fourth day God made the sun and moon and stars, etc. The fifth day he made the fishes in the water and birds in the air. The sixth day God made the beasts on the earth, every one in his kind and gender. And God saw that all these works were good and said: Make we man unto our similitude and image. Here spake the Father to the Son and Holy Ghost, or else as it were the common voice of three persons, when it was said make we, and to our, in plural number.

Man was made to the image of God in his soul. Here it is to be noted that he made not only the soul with the body, but he made both body and soul. As to the body he made male and female. God gave to man the lordship and power upon living beasts. When God had made man it is not written: Et vidit quod esset bonum, quia in proximo sciebat eum lapsurum. For yet he was not perfect till the woman was made, and therefore it is read: It is not good the man to be alone. Thus in six days was heaven and earth made and all the ornation of them. And then he made the seventh day on which he rested, not for that he was weary, but ceased his operation, and showed the seventh day which he blessed.