The Knot of Eve's Disobedience and the Obedience of Mary
Old Testament: Genesis 3:4-6, 13, 20
And the serpent said to the woman: No, you shall not die the death... the woman saw that the tree was good to eat, and fair to the eyes, and delightful to behold: and she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave to her husband who did eat... The serpent deceived me, and I did eat... And Adam called the name of his wife Eve: because she was the mother of all the living.
New Testament: Luke 1:38
... Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word.
The connection
Justin Martyr states the parallel plainly, within a century of the apostles: "Eve, who was a virgin and undefiled, having conceived the word of the serpent, brought forth disobedience and death. But the Virgin Mary received faith and joy, when the angel Gabriel announced the good tidings to her... and she replied, 'Be it unto me according to your word'" (Dialogue with Trypho, ch. 100). Both women are virgins; both receive a word spoken to them; the history of the race turns on what each does with it. Eve's own account needs no embellishment: "The serpent deceived me, and I did eat" (Genesis 3:13). Mary's answer to a different messenger runs the same sentence in reverse: "be it done to me according to thy word" (Luke 1:38), consent instead of consumption.
Moral sense
Irenaeus pictures this not as two separate stories but one knot, tied and untied at the same point: "the knot of Eve's disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary. For what the virgin Eve had bound fast through unbelief, this did the virgin Mary set free through faith" (Against Heresies III.22.4). The materials are identical, a virgin, a word, a choice, worked in the opposite direction.
Anagogical sense
Adam named Eve "the mother of all the living" (Genesis 3:20) before she had borne a single child, speaking her destiny in hope, just after the fall, before anything had made good on it. CCC 411 names Mary plainly as "the new Eve," the title Adam once spoke over Eve made good at last in someone else.
The Fathers
Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, ch. 100: "Eve, who was a virgin and undefiled, having conceived the word of the serpent, brought forth disobedience and death. But the Virgin Mary received faith and joy... and she replied, 'Be it unto me according to your word.'" Irenaeus, Against Heresies III.22.4: "The knot of Eve's disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary. For what the virgin Eve had bound fast through unbelief, this did the virgin Mary set free through faith."
Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 411.
The verses
Genesis 3:4 · Genesis 3:5 · Genesis 3:6 · Genesis 3:13 · Genesis 3:20 · Luke 1:38
