Mary is the New Eve?

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I can’t quite put my finger on why, but for some reason this idea always squicked me out. Maybe it’s because we rarely hear of Christ or anyone else being “the new Adam,” but approaching the concept makes me want to run for the hills.

I’d be interested in reading some of the thought behind it.
 
St. Paul clearly teaches that Christ is the “New Adam,” especially in Romans 5. In Romans 5:19 he says, For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. And in 1 Cor. 15:22 he says, For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. The obvious counterpart is Mary as the New Eve.
 
Maybe this… Eve was the biological mother and Mary is our spiritual mother, Jesus gave her to us on the cross. Eve chose to do her own free will and Mary chose to do the will of God our Father. The human race was subject to sin because of the fall of Adam and Eve and the human race was redeemed from sin because of the “Yes” of Mary and thus the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross…
 
I’m no theologian so take this with a grain of salt.
Although sin entered the world through Adam, Eve was still the woman that did something that brought Adam to eat the fruit and leading to sin. Similarly, a woman (our Holy Mother) does something that leads to the redemption of mankind through the obedience of the Virgin Mary to God allowing Jesus to fulfill the salvation history. She’s the New Eve. because she undoes the works of Eve of Genesis. It’s the parallel (or anti-parallel) position of Eve and Mary on many things. One thing I can see is that due to Eve’s sin, she brought about sin and as punishment (I think) has her pains in childbirth increased. Mary on the other hand brings about Jesus Christ our Savior through childbirth. :twocents:
 
I believe the correlation of the Blessed Virgin with Eve was developed by St. Irenaeus in *Against Heresies *(Book III, Chapter 22):
  1. In accordance with this design, Mary the Virgin is found obedient, saying, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to your word. (*Luke *1:38) But Eve was disobedient; for she did not obey when as yet she was a virgin. And even as she, having indeed a husband, Adam, but being nevertheless as yet a virgin (for in Paradise they were both naked, and were not ashamed, *Genesis *2:25] inasmuch as they, having been created a short time previously, had no understanding of the procreation of children: for it was necessary that they should first come to adult age, and then multiply from that time onward), having become disobedient, was made the cause of death, both to herself and to the entire human race; so also did Mary, having a man betrothed [to her], and being nevertheless a virgin, by yielding obedience, become the cause of salvation, both to herself and the whole human race. And on this account does the law term a woman betrothed to a man, the wife of him who had betrothed her, although she was as yet a virgin; thus indicating the back-reference from Mary to Eve, because what is joined together could not otherwise be put asunder than by inversion of the process by which these bonds of union had arisen; so that the former ties be cancelled by the latter, that the latter may set the former again at liberty. And it has, in fact, happened that the first compact looses from the second tie, but that the second tie takes the position of the first which has been cancelled. For this reason did the Lord declare that the first should in truth be last, and the last first. (*Matthew *19:30, *Matthew *20:16) And the prophet, too, indicates the same, saying, instead of fathers, children have been born unto you. For the Lord, having been born the First-begotten of the dead (*Revelation *1:5) and receiving into His bosom the ancient fathers, has regenerated them into the life of God, He having been made Himself the beginning of those that live, as Adam became the beginning of those who die. (1 *Corinthians *15:20-22) Wherefore also Luke, commencing the genealogy with the Lord, carried it back to Adam, indicating that it was He who regenerated them into the Gospel of life, and not they Him. And thus also it was that the knot of Eve’s disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary. For what the virgin Eve had bound fast through unbelief, this did the virgin Mary set free through faith.
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(my emphasis)
 
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