Rediscovering Eve

by Rebekah Call

Eden, Women and the plan

As Latter-day Saints, we revere Mother Eve. Her choice to eat the fruit and her courage to choose God’s plan are celebrated. Yet her role—and what it implies about women in general—hasn’t always been clearly understood.

Genesis 2:18 describes Eve as “an help meet” (King James Version). But what exactly is a “help meet”? Some interpretations of this scripture have cast Eve as a helper, a sidekick—never a main character. But what if “help meet” means something completely different? Something more insightful and powerful?

In Rediscovering Eve, Hebrew scholar Rebekah Call draws on her extensive knowledge of ancient languages to examine the narrative of the Garden of Eden in Genesis, and she presents possible retranslations of “help meet.” This fresh understanding of the garden and of Eve enhances our view of the potential of women and the expansive roles they can fill.

Women can be warriors. Women can be shepherds. They can be sources of life and knowledge. And they can be so much more.With the new insights presented in this book, we can increase our conviction that women and men were always divinely designed to be equal partners. We can better appreciate women’s God-given callings to lead, serve, teach, and protect the people around them. By “rediscovering” what we know about Eve in the Garden of Eden, we reaffirm what our hearts have always known—women have divinely bestowed gifts and a unique spiritual capacity that can bless families, the Church, and the world.