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| The Earthly Paradise, Peter Wenzel (1749–1829) |
From the root LECHIYOT (לחיות) = "to breathe", or "to live" - whence Chai (חי) = "alive"; Chayah (חיה) = "an animal"; Chayim (חיים) = "life". This is not the same as the root LEHIYOT (להיות) = "to be", though clearly both, being two-letter roots, are very ancient, and may once have been dialect variations of the same word; the latter is the root of both YAH and YHVH.
But even before the Yehudit, the root of the name Chavah is a variation upon the Kinnahu (late Hurrian or pre-Canaanite) Chawa, who is a dialect variation of the Mittannian Hepit; and even earlier than these, the Hittite Hepa, wife of the storm god Ba'al-Chadad who is linked to Anat, whose shrine at Anatot (Bethany, so important to the Christian myth, was Beit Anatot) was the birthplace of Yirme-Yahu (Jeremiah). Anatha (the Greek form of Anat) was worshipped at Yeru-Shala'im during the Greek conquest: her sacred tree was the willow, and her annual festival later became Tabernacles, the feast of Sukot. In Hurrian texts she is linked to Ishtar, the mother-goddess of Mesopotamia. In Greek, and more on this below, she was Hebe, Hera's daughter and Herakles' wife. But originally she was Nethe or Neith, the mother goddess of Libya whom the Greeks identified with Athene, and who was herself a variation of Anat. A rock-carving at Hattusas shows her mounted on a lion, about to be married to the Chitite storm-god.
Robert Graves and Raphael Patai have a lengthy piece on this association of Chavah with Heba, or Hebe, wife of the Chitite storm-god; she who rode naked on a lion's back. They also trace the Phoenician connection, through which she later became the goddess Hebe, wife of Herakles, daughter of Hera. A prince of Yeru-Shala'im in the 14th century BCE (the period of Tel Amarna) styled himself Abdu-Heba, or probably Avdu-Chawah = "servant of Heba".
We know a great deal about Chavah/Eve because the Greeks left behind much information about Hebe. She was, as noted, the daughter of Hera and Zeus, and sister to Hephaestus, as well as to the twins Ares and Eris. She was the cup-bearer to the gods of Olympus until her marriage to Herakles following the usurpation of her office by Ganymede. This marriage was his reward for completing the 12 labours; in order to become immortal he needed a connection with the Olympian family, and marriage to Zeus' daughter effectively made him the sun-heir. Hebe bore him Alexiares and Anicetus. A Greek icon (illustration adjacent) shows the marriage of Herakles to Hebe, and reflects the importance of the number 12. His labours were already 12. 12 witnesses at the sacred marriage each represent the clan of a religious confederacy and a month of the sacred year. Later, when Hebe was grown up and could therefore no longer serve as Goddess of Youth, but had become the Earth-Mother, the infant Dionysus was sent to her for safe-keeping; according to Proclus she carried him about on her head in a winnowing-basket; this is logical, as winnowing baskets were made of willow; the basket reflects those in which Osher (Osiris) and Mosheh (Moses) would be carried. The Greeks identified Dionysus with Osher, so again this is logical.
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But these are all early forms, variant forms, of Chavah. Her most common epithet in the Tanach is Em Kol Chai (אם כל חי) = "the mother of all living things" (Genesis 3:20, 4:1), which title was also given to Eshet (Isis), Inanna, Ishtar, Hera and most other mother-goddesses of the ancient world, linking her to fertility as well as giving her the predominant female role in the pantheon of gods.
All this begs the question: should we see Edomite Adam as, or at least an equivalent of, a Chitite storm-god (Ba'al-Hadad perhaps) and as a type of Herakles-Hercules? The answer is probably that Chavah was a goddess of the northern peoples of Kena'an, specifically the Chivites who took their name from the goddess and who were themselves off-shoots of the Chitites, or the Chitites by their cult-name; while Adam was a southern, Edomite "Titan". At some point, after the cult of the Beney Yisra-El had already assimilated the Edomite, it then began to assimilate the matriarchal cults of the north too; this could also explain the marriage between Adam and Chavah, showing assimilation and domination through merging of cults rather than suppression of one by the other. This was the tradition right up to the Christian take-over of pagan Europe.
As to her status as Em Kol Chay, cf stories of Circe etc for mother-goddess, earth-goddess; if Chavah was originally and specifically an earth goddess, the assimilating Beney Yisra-El would have been virtually compelled to change her role, as it competed with Adam as earth-god; therefore she became the mother-goddess, Aphrodite instead of Circe, while the literary hints of her former glory were not excised.
Where was Chavah worshipped? Clearly at the foot of Mount Lebanon (Ba'al Chermon). Much more interesting are the references to Mitspeh, Giv-On (Gibeon) and Shechem (today's Nablus), all three of which were central shrines of the Beney Yisra-El cult at the time of Sha'ul (Saul) and David.
Mitspeh was in the tribe of Bin-Yamin (Benjamin), Shaul's tribe; it was where the Prophet Shemu-El (Samuel) gathered the people for the great ceremony of covenant-renewal before the war with the Pelishtim (Philistines) and the anointing of Sha'ul (1 Samuel 7:6).
Giv-On is not to be confused with its neighbouring towns Gev'a (גבע) - which is usually rendered in English as Geba - and Giv'ah (גבעה) - which is usually rendered in English as Gibeah - though all three stem from the same root word meaning "a mound", specifically a burial mound or tumulus. All three may also be connected with Geb, the Egyptian earth-god, probably as a consequence of the many occupations of Kena'an over the centuries, and the garrisons and the colonies that were left behind. Geb was a member of the Enniad of Heliopolis, which was the later Greek name for the city of On, so the name Giv-On adds weight to the Egyptian connection, but also emphasises why I have taken the trouble to point out the problem that arises when Yehudit names are rendered incorrectly in translation. Geb was the spouse of Nut, the sky-goddess, which inverts the Beney Yisra-El pattern of earth-goddess and sky-god; they parented Osher (Osiris), Eshet (Isis), Set and Nephtys, which may help to explain how the story of Shet as the third son of Adam and Chavah found its way into the Beney Yisra-Eli traditions. During the reigns of both David and Shelomoh (Solomon), the Ark of the
Covenant was kept at Giv-On. If this hypothesis is correct, the name Giv-On would either mean "the place of Geb" or it might be a hyphenation of his name with the Egyptian city of On.
However there is also GAVAH = "to be high", used for tall people (1 Samuel 10:23), the exaltation of the deity (Isaiah 52:13), and mountains (Genesis 7:19); which suggests that Giv-On could actually be Givon, and would simply mean "a hill". The only argument against this is the absence of an Ayin in Gavah (גָבַ֖הּ).
However there is also GAVAH = "to be high", used for tall people (1 Samuel 10:23), the exaltation of the deity (Isaiah 52:13), and mountains (Genesis 7:19); which suggests that Giv-On could actually be Givon, and would simply mean "a hill". The only argument against this is the absence of an Ayin in Gavah (גָבַ֖הּ).
Shechem means "shoulder", and the shoulder was the royal or priestly portion in any act of animal sacrifice. It was the scene of the rape of Dinah and the massacre by Shim'on (Simeon) and Levi; though in fact 1 Kings 12:25 states that the city was built by Yerav-Am (Jeroboam), who also built another important shrine at Penu-El, likewise linked retrospectively to the Ya'akov (Jacob) stories. Given that Ya'akov was an Aramaean from Padan Aram - which is to say he came into Kena'an with the Chitite Aramaeans around 2200 BCE - there is a certain logic to his being linked with Chivite shrines.
The probability is that Chavah was worshipped as the principal fertility goddess in many parts of Kena'an in ancient times, but replaced by Anat worship when the Beney Chet arrived, with Anat herself replaced by Yah after the acquisition of Chevron, which then, alongside Yeru-Shala'im, became the centres of the Beney Yisra-Eli cult; Chavah-worship, unlike Anat-worship, never actually died out, and may still be present to this day, in her Romanised form, as the Virgin Mary.
There is, finally, a view - mostly held by Robert Graves and Raphael Patai - that the temple-cave at Machpelah was originally Chavah's as well. It is based on two facts. First the take-over of the shrine by Kalev (Caleb) the Edomite, who would naturally have brought Adam-worship to the shrine. Second, that Av-Raham purchased the cave from Ephron of the Beney Chet, which is a classic Biblical way of expressing a change of deity in a shrine: from the Chitite god whom the later Greeks called Phoroneus to the Aramaean hero Abiram whom the later Beney Yisra-El called Ibrahim or Av-Ram or Av-Raham or Am-Ram depending on the local dialect. It is not insignificant that David was anointed king at Chevron (Hebron) before he expanded his empire and established his new throne and religious centre in Yeru-Shala'im. As a worshiper of Chavah and Yah (his full name, like Solomon's birth-name, was Yedid-Yah, "beloved of Yah" (ידידיה), where else should he have been crowned?
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That she was taken from Adam's rib (Genesis 2:21) is interesting in the light of temple excavation: the rib being TSEL'A (צלע), which means "a stumbling" or "misfortune", but also has an architectural connotation - the equivalent of the "Lady's Chapel" in Catholic cathedrals, or the Women's Court in the Temple in Yeru-Shala'im.
Other myths recorded in the Mishnah suggest she was born from Adam's barbed tail.
Chavah's story at one level requires no Adam: she is the guardian of the sacred grove, the Ophion/Tahamat phallic serpent is her mythological symbol, and it was through his mask that she pronounced her oracles - no surprise the deliberate transformation that takes place when the story becomes Judaised! The Adam of the story is the red-haired man, progenitor of the human species, made of clay and thus recognisable as the ithyphallic Earth-god. To the Greeks Prometheus. To the later Pelishtim (Philistines) Shimshon (Samson). To the Celts Cuchullain. But in this case the eponymous founder of the Edomites, whose tribal myth has been borrowed by the Beney Yisra-El as the source here.
The marriage of Adam to Chavah (Eve) reflects a tribal conjunction of native Edomites with invading Chitites, and an agreement to share, even amalgamate their forms of worship. The expulsion from the garden is a late addition; we are witnessing the Levitical requirement of the Redactor to anathematise all the idolatrous cults of Kena'an and to overthrow the Asherim and Ashterot. The sacred grove of the fertility goddess is closed forever, its oracular trees placed under guard, its priestess banished, its oracular serpent crushed, its ritual king sent into exile. Woman is reduced from her equality at Creation to a subordinate role, and the pain of labour - toil for men, birth for women - justified.
But it is also clear from the Biblical texts that Chavah worship in some form never ceased (and actually the text of Genesis 3:24 only expels Adam from the Garden, not Chavah), particularly in her manifestation as Yah. It is most obviously evident in the Jesus story, where the three Marys represent the triple goddess of Anatot, birthplace of Yirme-Yahu (Jeremiah) and shrine of Anat or Anatha, the Jebusite Eve; and it is particularly residual in the name of Yah, as we shall see repeatedly later on.
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From the same root comes Chivi (חוי) = the Chivim (Hivites) who, according to Joshua 11:3, inhabited "the foot of Mount Chermon in the land of Mitspeh (מצפה)". Archaeological evidence reckons them among the aboriginal inhabitants of Kena'an (Canaan).
In Judges 3:3 Chermon is named Mount Lebanon, which connects it with Lavan (Laban) and the Ya'akov (Jacob) stories; and the Chivite demesne is said to extend "from Mount Ba'al-Chermon unto the entering in of Chamat (חמת)". Shechem ben Chamor, who raped Dinah and was murdered by Shim'on (Simeon) and Levi (Genesis 34) was a Chivite; and probably Chivi was a variant on Beney Chavah, the tribe being "followers of Eve".
1 Kings 9:20 names them alongside the Emorim, Perizim and Yevusim (Jebusites) as aboriginal peoples of Kena'an (Canaan) who were not incorporated into the confederacy, a fact interesting in itself, since the Mosaic texts always name these three, along with the Chitim (Hitites) and Kena'anim (Canaanites), as the residents of the land whom Elohim will deliver up to the Beney Yisra-El. It is not insignificant that Shechem, Mitspeh and Giv-On remained important holy places right up until the Exile.
Joshua 11:19 places the Chivim at Giv-On, which is usually rendered in English as Gibeon (גבעון).
2 Samuel 24:7 states that they had many cities. Thus we can assert that the Chivites were well spread across both Levanon and Kena'an. Chivim, Chorim (Horites) and Chitim (Hittites) are often treated as though they were the same people, and the link with Chavah/Eve (חוה) is undeniably Chitite.
2 Samuel 24:7 states that they had many cities. Thus we can assert that the Chivites were well spread across both Levanon and Kena'an. Chivim, Chorim (Horites) and Chitim (Hittites) are often treated as though they were the same people, and the link with Chavah/Eve (חוה) is undeniably Chitite.
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One last observation, that, alas, the modern custom of identifying the number 18 with Chai is entirely erroneous; 18 is written Yud-Chet (יח), where Chai = "life" is written Chet-Yud (חי). When communities speak of their major philanthropists as "chai donors", they are really calling them "life donors". The root is again LECHIYOT, the same as CHAVAH, but unfortunately they have the letters the wrong way around and it may well spell "Life", but it doesnt actually spell 18 at all.
Copyright © 2019 David Prashker
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The Argaman Press
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