Theotokos Greets Eve

Theotokos is the Greek word for “God-bearer” or “Mother of God.”  It was a title given to Mary, Mother of Jesus, during church council meetings in the 5th century, when debates were happening about how to best understand the divinity of Jesus. The argument on behalf of Mary was that if she was the mother of the human Jesus, Jesus who was also described as the embodiment of God, then Mary, too, must have been the mother of God, or carrier of Divine Source in her womb.  

The latter “carrier of Divine Source” is how I developed Theotokos Greets Eve. This icon is a Byzantine Hoodoo interpretation of the Genesis narratives about creation and, more specifically, Eve’s encounter in the garden after eating the fruit. It posits that Eve was invited into an enlightening experience, one that informed her on how the Universe was created, how all of its different parts worked together, and thus what role the human would/should play to participate in its creation. Theotokos is thus a carrier of Divine Knowledge, as was Mary, mother of Jesus, Jesus who is also known as the Word, which was at the beginning.