Why didn't God make Mary the first Eve?

[Gorgias]

Except that the preternatural gifts that Adam and Eve would have mitigated this effect. In this article discussing the Genesis creation and “fall of man” epics, there’s a description of these gifts:

Human beings in the garden were not subject to the frailties and failings of our present life. They possessed the preternatural gifts of:

• impassibility (freedom from pain)
• immortality (freedom from death)
• integrity (freedom from concupiscence, or disordered desires)
• infused knowledge (freedom from ignorance in matters essential for happiness)

They were not inclined to do evil; their understanding and reason were not darkened by pride or lust; they had a perfect knowledge of the moral law; they did not experience any opposition between the spirit and the body; and all of the parts of the soul existed in a state of order and harmony in relation to one another.

Therefore, this really does mean that they would not have been “more inclined” to resist temptation if only they’d had more “real world experience and/or knowledge”.

Except that Eve had more to go on than that. She literally had all the tools at her disposal that should have allowed her to say “no” to the temptation of the devil.

We receive the “original virtue” at Baptism.

Well… yes and no. We receive grace at baptism, but our concupiscence isn’t wiped away. So, we’re still in a ‘broken’ state of human nature, so to speak.

 

[fhansen]

Well… yes and no. We receive grace at baptism, but our concupiscence isn’t wiped away. So, we’re still in a ‘broken’ state of human nature, so to speak.

We don’t receive the gift of self-mastery but we do receive the virtues of faith, hope, and love at justification, at Baptism, along with the indwelling of the Trinity. So while the poster is complaining that we’re disadvantaged in overcoming sin that’s not exactly true. We’re equipped to overcome it but we still don’t have to obey any more than Adam had to.

 

[Gorgias]

Neither did Eve, prior to the fall.

No, that’s not true. We have none of the preternatural gifts that Eve had, prior to the fall.

That’s not what “infused knowledge” means. From the article, again, here’s the definition of infused knowledge: “freedom from ignorance in matters essential for happiness.”

So, Eve wasn’t ignorant of what was at stake.

I’ve always wondered about this, so hopefully someone will be able to step in and provide an authoritative reference with the correct answer. Did Mary have “impassibility”? “Immortality”? “Infused knowledge”? My intuition is “no”.

So: ‘impassibility’? Well, she did give birth miraculously. But, then again, she experienced pain at the suffering and death of her Son. So, “impassibility” seems like a “no”.

‘Immortality’, then? Well… there’s no agreement or definitive teaching on that question. Some suggest a ‘dormition’ that wasn’t ‘death’, properly speaking, but that’s not something that’s taught doctrinally. So… “maybe?”

‘Infused knowledge’? I can’t think of anything I’ve read that suggests that Mary had infused knowledge.

So, in sum: it seems that Mary had less than the full spread of ‘preternatual gifts’. What makes her life amazing is that she did more with the less that she possessed…

 

[fhansen]

Therefore, this really does mean that they would not have been “more inclined” to resist temptation if only they’d had more “real world experience and/or knowledge”.

They can gain the knowledge that they must remain in communion with God in order to be able to resist temptation. They can learn of their failures when left to their own devices IOW, apart from Him. Bottom line: man needs God; Adam thought otherwise. He needs God first of all or he cannot maintain moral integrity, for one thing.