Subversive Sabbath: The Surprising Power of Rest in a Nonstop World

by A.J. Swoboda

Immediately, we see a change in the relationship within humanity’s first family. The very next thing Adam does reveals that something is shattered in their relationship. Adam names the woman “Eve.” Her new name meant “mother of the living.” In fact, naming the woman becomes the very first thing Adam does after God names their punishment. Immediately. Remember, God never instructed Adam to name Eve. When God created Eve out of the side of Adam, Adam sang a song over her—“this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.” But Adam did not name her at first. She was his partner, his wife, his “suitable helper.” Adam had permission to name the animals, but Eve was not an animal. From the beginning, man and woman were to work together, side by side, in the garden, tasked with loving and serving God, each other, and creation. This act of Adam naming Eve initiates, I believe, a perversion of God’s desire that Eve would work alongside Adam in loving, mutual harmony to work and care for the garden. In fact, God saw it coming when sin entered the world. When God tells Eve that Adam will “rule over her,” he is simply lamenting what is to come. God is not commanding it. His language is descriptive, not prescriptive.