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©Three Lions, Shostal Associates, New York

Temptation personified, Eve offers a bright red apple to Adam as she reclines in an exotic jungle scene. Centuries of misinterpretation and mistranslation, says author Pamela Milne, have perpetuated negative images of Eve, right up to the present. Her “temptation” of Adam is not even found in the text, Milne affirms. Moreover, the Hebrew words usually translated “helper” (implying subordination and inferiority) actually connote a relationship of mutual benefit.

A work in the primitive genre, as is the painting of “The Garden of Eden” by the American artist Erastus Field, “Eve Tempting Adam” was completed in 1967 by the Brazilian artist Rosina Becker Do Valle.