Eve, deception and the tragic moral imagination: Reconsidering 2 Corinthians 11:3 and Romans 7

Eve was well known in ancient literature as the deceiver and the source of trouble. Yet, Eve is barely mentioned in the New Testament. There are two instances in Pauline literature, explicitly in 2 Corinthians 11:3 and possibly in Romans 7:7–25 implicitly, where Eve is mentioned. Recent scholarship has proposed that the “I” of Romans 7 may draw on Eve traditions alongside tragic motifs associated with figures such as Medea. Building on these discussions, this article argues that Paul employs Eve as a paradigmatic figure of deception and vulnerability within a wider tragic moral imagination. In both texts, Eve functions not primarily as a figure of blame, but as an exemplar of human susceptibility to hostile powers. The recurring pattern of deception, bondage, and threatened destruction demonstrates that Paul appropriates familiar traditions concerning Eve to depict the human condition as vulnerable to forces beyond its control. Yet Paul does not remain within a tragic framework. By relocating the source of failure from individual moral weakness to cosmic powers such as Sin and Satan, Paul reframes tragedy within an apocalyptic vision in which deliverance is ultimately found in Christ. Eve therefore serves as a rhetorical exemplum through whom Paul exposes the depth of human vulnerability, while simultaneously directing his audiences toward divine redemption.