Can anyone explain the whole "created from a rib" thing?

Question

I'm curious to know how many religious people believe that Eve was literally created from a rib. Out of all the things that some theists believe, I understand this particular concept the least. How and why does that make sense? What does that even mean?

Answer 1

It's all religious fantasy and is not meant to be taken literally. Most of religion is fantasy, and the problem arises when fanatics take the fantasy as fact and use it as justification for killing and destruction, which explains why more people have died as a result of religious conflict than from any other cause. Iraq is a perfect example of religious fantasy run amok, as were the Crusades of the Middle Ages.

Answer 2

The Genesis account may be an explanatory myth for the absence of a different bone. Most male mammals have a baculum, a bone for stiffening the penis. Humans are one of the rare exceptions, relying on hydraulics instead. Genesis 2:21-23 could refer to its removal from Adam. A baculum, unlike a rib, is associated with reproduction. The closing of flesh mentioned in Genesis 2:21 could refer to the raphe, a seam on the penis and scrotum. Biblical Hebrew has no word for penis, so another term would have to be used. The Hebrew word for "rib" has other meanings such as the supporting columns in trees, or planks in doors; it could have referred to a structural support generally (Gilbert and Zevit 2001).

Answer 3

The whole creation is not from a rib thing, only Eve is, Adam was not created by a rib, God put a deep sleep on Adam & took a rib & some flesh to form a woman, That is why Adam could have said she is now bone of my bone & flesh of my flesh. Oh yes, God just simply close up the wound after he was done.

Answer 4

In ancient genealogies the founder of a specific clan or group was usually described as having come from the earth. This usually means that the genealogy cannot be traced back any further. We see this in the genealogies of Cecrops, the first king of Athens; Phoroneus, the first king of Arcadia; Pelasgos; and Deucalion, the ancestor of the Hellenes. The Bible follows this example in the genealogy of the Jews, which is traced back to the Sumerian Adam (or Adapu).

Eve is described as having come from the rib of Adam. This story is meant to explain the sexual union of man and wife, or the mystery of two bodies becoming one. This symbol is paralleled in the Platonic myth of the Hermaphrodites, who were originally two people sharing one body, but who were later split into two bodies: one male and one female.

The Jewish version is similar, with Adam and Eve sharing one body until God removes the female "side" and forms a separate body. The rib is used to represent the primordial female side of Adam, as well as to represent the intimate closeness between man and woman (imagine a man with his arm around a woman, pressing her body against his side).

Answer 5

If God is all knowing, why did he forget to make a wife for Adam, then correct his mistake by creating Eve from Adam's rib?

Answer 6

Maybe you recall that God had already made animals from the dust of the earth and brought them to Adam but they were not suitable for him. So God created another being from Adam himself. He created the woman from the body of Adam, in particular his side. This indicates that the woman is to be by the man's side and not beneath him, behind him, or in front of him. The man and the woman were partners together in a Holy union ordained by God, what we call today, married. The man and the woman share a union and a special relationship that no other creature has. They have a partnership and commonality. They are one, not with the earth, but with each other.

Answer 7

Yes I believe that Adam was put to sleep, so that God could take a rib from Adam, and make Eve from him. That way we are made from each other. She was taken from his side to be his help mate. A women was to be a mans companion, and to help, and love each other. Not to be a door mat for him, and not to be controlling over her. Just to compliment each other. Not look to others, but to become as one.

Answer 8

I'm with you...You also might add, if Eve was CREATED ..from a rib then why in every illustration even from ancient times, she has a belly button...does that not suggest a birthing rather than a .. CREATION ??.....(confusing even in my old age)...

Answer 9

It was not his rib. It was a section of his DNA. Look at the helex or spiral shape of a strand of DNA. A section of that would be rib-shaped. Man learns yet doesn't understand. It's so simple.

Answer 10

Eve was made from a cheaper cut.