Some early Christians interpreted the person of Mary to be the New Eve. This has resulted in many Roman Catholic apologists and theologians to abuse such a typology to support the claim the Immaculate Conception is a tradition that is apostolic in origin. On this, see:
Refuting Lizzie Reezay on the Implications of Early Christians Viewing Mary as the "New Eve"
A typology is suggested in Ephesians,
Husbands, love your wives,
even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might
sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might
present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or
any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. Eph 5:25-27
(KJV)
The point here is that the
ecclesia is a “woman” and the recipient of attention by Christ (“the man”)
whose aim is to obtain a “glorious” ecclesia. It follows from this that the
ecclesia has glory from her Lord and as such is his glory – the glory of
the man. This is an Adamic typology whereby the ecclesia represents a
new Eve who has her source of life in an Adam (cf. 1 Cor 11:8-9). The women
of the ecclesia represent the glory of a new creation. The symbology of the
head-covering represents the fact that the woman is the glory of the man. For
a woman to discard a head-covering would dis-honour Christ: the head-covering
represents her created status in Christ, and she represents the ecclesia. The
symbolic role of the men in the ecclesia complements this role on the part of
women. They are representative of their head – Christ – the image and glory of
God. (Andrew Perry, Pauline
Hermeneutics and Christology, pp. 7-8, emphasis in bold added)
