If Jesus is the New Adam (and He is), then WHO would the “New Eve” be?
Mary is the New Eve (as has been stated). This was taught by Christians in antiquity.
This doctrine has faithfully been preserved and passed down by the Church.
We see Mary as the New Eve in the Liturgy today (too). This concept of Mary as the New Eve again is faithfully preserved from ancient times in the Church that Jesus founded.
(CURRENT) CATHOLIC (Latin Rite) LITURGY (THE MASS) In your divine wisdom you planned the redemption of the human race and decreed that **the new Eve **should stand by the cross of the new Adam: as she became his mother by the power of the Holy Spirit, so, by a new gift of your love, she was to be a partner in his passion, and she who had given him birth without the pains of childbirth was to endure the greatest of pains in bringing forth to new life the family of your Church.
Let’s go way way back to about 180 A.D. and listen to St. Irenaeus (St. Irenaeus knew Polycarp personally as a child and St. Polycarp was a disciple of the beloved disciple St. John the Evangelist so this goes WAAAY back).
ST. IRENAEUS 10 For as by one man’s disobedience sin entered, and death obtained a place through sin; so also by the obedience of one man, righteousness having been introduced, shall cause life to fructify in those persons who in times past were dead.
— St. Irenaeus. Against Heresies Chapter 21 (180 A.D.)
(We will come back to St. Irenaeus)
I will quote some other early Church Fathers for you in case you want to copy and paste to your “Blessed Virgin Mary” folder (or one of them) . . . .
Listen to St. Justin the Martyr:
ST. JUSTIN THE MARTYR “We know that He, before all creatures, proceeded from the Father by His power and will . . .
. . . and by means of the Virgin became man, that by what way the disobedience arising from the serpent had its beginning, by that way also it might have an undoing.
For Eve, being a virgin and undefiled, conceiving the word that was from the serpent,
brought forth disobedience and death;
but the Virgin Mary, taking faith and joy,
when the Angel told her the good tidings,
that the Spirit of the Lord should come upon her
and the power of the Highest overshadow her,
and therefore the Holy One that was born of her
was Son of God, answered, 'Be it to me according to Thy word.”
— St. Justin to Tryph. 100. St. Justin died in 165 A.D.
Origen knows of Mary as the New Eve as well.
ORIGEN . . . “worthy of God, immaculate of the immaculate, most complete sanctity, perfect justice, neither deceived by the persuasion of the serpent,
nor infected with his poisonous breathings.”
- Origen. Origen died in 253 A.D.
You can see Origen comparing Mother Mary in the context of the Garden of Eden. More typology. The Garden was a type of Mary in Origen’s evaluation.
Also concerning Origen is an interesting testimony concerning the Immaculate Conception of Mary from an Origen quote that also compares Mary to Eve . . . .
ORIGEN “She (Mary) has not been tainted with the breath of the venomous serpent. For why should the Blessed Virgin Mary have been deprived of this prerogative in her conception, with which not only the angels—even the bad-—were adorned in their original creation, but which our first parents, whom God created upright and innocent, also possessed?”
EVEN Tertullian (who doesn’t affirm Mary’s Perpetual Virginity) gets it right on Mary as the New Eve . . .
Listen to Tertullian who lived in the 200’s A.D. . . .
TERTULLIAN “God recovered His image and likeness, which the devil had seized,
by a rival operation.
For into Eve, as yet a virgin, had crept the word which was the framer of death.
Equally into a virgin was to be introduced the Word of God which was
the builder-up of life;
that, what by that sex (gender) had gone into perdition,
by the same sex (gender) might be brought back to salvation.
**Eve had believed the serpent; **
Mary believed Gabriel;
the fault which the one committed by believing,
the other by believing has blotted out.”
Tertullian. – On The Flesh of Christ 17. Tertullian Died in 240 A.D.
Notice the stark contrast of Mary and Eve.
And again St. Irenaeus:
ST. IRENAEUS “As Eve by the speech of an Angel was seduced,
so as to flee God, transgressing His word,
so also Mary received the good tidings by means of the Angel’s speech,
so as to bear God within her, being obedient to His word.
And, though the one had disobeyed God,
yet the other was drawn to obey God;
that of the virgin Eve
the Virgin Mary might become the advocate.
And, as by a virgin the human race had been bound to death,
by a virgin it is saved, the balance being preserved,
a virgin’s disobedience by a virgin’s obedience.”
St. Irenaeus. Against Heresies. v. 19. St. Irenaeus Died in 202 A.D.
St. Cyril of Jerusalem and St. Ephrem likewise contrast Mary and Eve.
ST. CYRIL OF JERUSALEM (315-386 A.D.):
“Since through Eve, a virgin, came death,
it behooved (became necessary or proper),
that through a Virgin, or rather from a Virgin, should life appear; that,
as the Serpent had deceived the one,
so to the other Gabriel might bring good tidings.”
— St. Cyril of Jerusalem. Cat. xii. 15.
**ST. EPHREM ** (St. Ephrem died in 378 A.D.) “Through Eve, the beautiful and desirable glory of men was extinguished; but it has revived through Mary.”
— St. Ephrem Opp. Syr. ii.
She is very intellectual and a deep thinker. She has 2 little kids so she will not have the time to read anything long or a book. I have to be very careful how I respond to her…last year when she visited she ended up crying because she felt like Catholics and Protestants are so different. Can someone link me to a good article? 
Thank you.
