Mary: the New Eve

 

Berthold Furtmeyr

The tree of life and death

Salzburg Missal

Adam and Eve are not called saints in ordinary reference. But they may be called saints on their feast day, which is the vigil of Christmas, because they repented of their sin, lived lives of holiness and are now in Heaven. Adam is the father of the human race. Eve, his wife, was formed from Adam’s body. All of us have descended from these two. 1

Adam is the chief peccator and Eve is the co-peccatrix who brought all of mankind into the bondage of original sin. Christmas introduces Jesus Christ as the New Adam Redemptor and Mary as the New Eve Coredemptrix as those who liberate mankind from sin into grace and glory. 

Over the centuries theologians have come to label Jesus and Mary as the “New Adam” and the “New Eve.” This corresponds to their role in reversing the “no” of the first Adam and Eve in the garden by saying “yes” to God’s plan.

St. Irenaeus summarizes the logic of this:

"As Eve was seduced by the word of an angel and so fled from God after disobeying his word, Mary in her turn was given the good news by the word of an angel, and bore God in obedience to his word. As Eve was seduced into disobedience to God, so Mary was persuaded into obedience to God; thus the Virgin Mary became the advocate of the virgin Eve." 2

Berthold Furtmeyr ( Regensburg , 1446 - Regensburg , 1501 ) was a German painter and illuminator . He worked mainly in Regensburg, but there is little and vague information on his training path, although some sources indicate him as a student at the school in Vienna . 

In 1466 he opened an atelier and began working for the aristocrats , the prelates of Regensburg, the archives of Salzburg and the duke Albert IV of Bavaria . 

Among the works attributed to him are the Old Testament of the collection Oettingen-Wallertsein decorated from 1470 to 1472 , the canon of the missal cl.14045 of the National Library of Monaco , the missal of the Archbishop Bernhard von Rohr of Salzburg in five volumes , illuminated in collaboration with Ulrich Schreier around 1481 , the canon of the missal of Berlin 14707, now at the Cabinet of Prints. 

The Old Testament consists of words and images, and includes the description of the Book, from Genesis to the Book of Ruth . The language is the Germanic one of its time, yet still comprehensible to the present day. The work is embellished by three full-page miniatures and three hundred and fifty-five small miniatures, describing scenes taken from the Bible. 

"Medieval Christians enjoyed performances on Christmas Eve called “Paradise Plays” that recounted how Adam and Eve lost their innocence by eating the fruit of the tree. Some have speculated that the placement of a tree decorated with red apples for this dramatic paradise play is the true origin of the Christmas Tree decorated with red apples or red ornaments. Soon, the people copied the practice and placed “paradise trees” in their homes."