Evangelion's symbolism was not meaningless.

Bennett The Sage is one of those who likes to take a certain quote from one of Eva's writers as proof that all the Judeo-Christian imagery in Evangelion was meaningless and gratuitous and had no thought behind it.

The problem is the context of that quote was about the fact that some people actually thought Eva was a Christian Anime who's creators were secretly Christians or something.  I don't get how anyone came to that conclusion, Symphogear is closer to being something that could take place in the same Universe as The Bible (at least based on the first two seasons which is all I've gotten to yet).  I mean the Anime I do like to read as a Christian allegory probably wasn't intentional either, but I base it on deeper analysis then just "oooooo Crosses".

The symbolism is frequently more Kabbalah then directly Biblical.  But the key filter in how it uses Judeo-Christian imagery is how such mythological motifs were used allegorically by old psychologists like Freud and Jung. Because the show's theme is depression and other psychological hang ups.  For example Shinji has an Oedipus complex and Misato has an Electra complex.  But others have already written on that better then I could.

Why am I doing this here rather then the Comparitive Mythology blog?  Because it's not all that comparative really, it's something Anime fans would care about more then Religious Scholars.

First of all the use of Biblical sounding names is in Universe just what Sele calls them. They're not what the first ancestral race called themselves.  They're not saying they think this Adam is the Biblical Adam or what any Biblical stories were actually based on. Sele just called the one that seemed male to them Adam and the one that seemed female Lilith.  And the Dead Sea Scrolls aren't supposed to be the same scrolls found at Qumran, just Sele's internal documents.  But they did have logic behind calling these things what they did.

When I first watched through the series and the Staypuff Marshmallow Man nailed to a Cross was identified as Adam, it made sense to me in the context of Jesus being the Last Adam in 1 Corinthians 15 and Romans 5.  But when it's later revealed that it's really Lilith buried deep underneath NERVE, that also makes sense because Kabalaistic Traditions also have Lilith trapped in the Underworld.

Eva is how Eve is spelled/pronounced in most of Europe, and I'd noticed before how right in the Greek Text of the New Testament the spelling of Eve is coincidentally also the first three letters of Evangelion, the word for Gospel.  The reveal that the Evas are made from the flesh of "Adam" perfectly echos the origin of Eve in Genesis 2.  And the Evas housing their pilot's mothers, with being in the Eva feeling like returning to the Womb, echos Eve being the Mother of all Living.

That Lilith and not Adam is the ancestor of humanity can first be explained by what I said above, Sele named them based on what they thought their Genders were and nothing else.

But it could also reflect traditions that separate the Genesis 1 Adam from the Genesis 2 Adam.  Which often say Humanity only descends from the Genesis 2 Adam.  One implication of that is often making the Genesis 1 Adam The Messiah, or for Christians an Arian or Semi-Arian view of Jesus.  Meaning you could view Kowaru as a Christ figure of sorts.

So the imagery clearly did have thought put into it.  But it was also molded to fit the story Ano wanted to tell and it's themes.

People following me on twitter may be surprised to see me make such a positive post on Evangelion.  Well it's mostly End of Evangelion that I despise, but even it uses this symbolism consistently with my explanation here.

Now I will again leave you with this Meme.