Why did God need a part of Adam to make Eve when he made Adam out of dust? It is a biblical question from a listener. We don’t have his name, but we do have his question: “Hello, Pastor John! He wondered why God chose to operate on Adam to remove one of her ribs to create Eve when, as God, he could have made Eve entirely from dust in the same way that he made Adam. I am very intrigued by this fact in Genesis and I wonder if you have any idea why it was done this way, and if this has any particular significance in being done this way? Thank you”.
Well, it’s intriguing, and there are things we can see in the text that we might miss that would make it even more intriguing if we didn’t slow down. So let’s read the passage he refers to, and then I’ll point out some conclusions that may surprise us.
beast parade
“Then the Lord God said: ‘It is not good for man to be alone; I will make him a suitable helper’” (Gen 2:18). Thus, God is going to finish his creation to make it completely good. That’s the scenario at the beginning of the paragraph: “I’m going to make this completely good. It’s not finished yet. I will make him an help meet for him.” That word suitable it means adequate, appropriate, correspondent.
I think it’s important to note that He is looking for a help meet for Adam to complete His creation, and He begins by making the land of the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. “And the Lord God formed out of the ground every beast…he brought them to the man to see what he would call them” (Gen 2:19). So the man is going to name these animals in order to discern his nature, which implies his suitability to be a suitable counterpart for him, and he’s going to end up naming this woman as well. So we have this parallel between “Let’s start with the animals and see what happens and then go from there.” “As the man called each living thing, that was his name” (Gen 2:19).
Man names the beasts, discerning their nature, their suitability to be his companion. “The man gave names to all cattle and to the birds of the air and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him” (Gen 2:20). So the first step he took was to get a help meet for animals, and that completely failed. We must ask ourselves: Why would God do that? Why would God enter into a search process among the animals when he knew that this was not going to work, that he was not going to find a suitable help?
someone like adam
“Then the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on the man, and he fell asleep. And God took one of his ribs”—the word can mean side stand, so not from his foot or from his head, but from his side—”and closed up the flesh in that place” (Gen 2:21). So he actually did surgery. He opened the skin, removed a rib and closed it.
Men and women are the perfect complement to each other, designed by God. together they are good
“From the rib which the Lord God had taken from man, he fashioned”—literally built— “a woman and brought her to the man. And the man said: “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She will be called…”»; this is a reference to the names of animals. “So now I found an essence, a reality, a character, a being like me.” “She will be called woman, because she was taken from man” (Gen 2:22-23). she will be called ishahbecause it was taken from ish, in Hebrew. “Therefore a man will leave his father and his mother and be united to his wife, and they will be one flesh. They were both naked, his man and his wife, but they were not ashamed »(Gen 2: 24-25).
no help among animals
Now, our friend asks about the meaning of the woman made from the side or rib of man and not from the earth. I would say that is not an incidental part of the text. She is right to ask. To see the meaning, we have to keep looking at what is happening.
First of all, it is said that Adam is alone and that this is not good, so the text is designed to tell us how God makes His creation finally good, that is, without Adam being alone. But the next thing that happens is strange, that is, making all the animals (or pointing out that God had made all the animals) and bringing them to man. Therefore, three things must be taken into account:
- It says explicitly that they were made from the earth (Gen 2:19).
- They were brought to man to be named (Gen 2:19).
- The appointment is related to the fact that the animals are suitable or suitable helpers for him (Gn 2:20).
So Adam, by naming the animals, is in fact identifying their nature, their aptitude or suitability for him as a kind of mate that would make the creation ultimately and fully good. We might ask ourselves, why did God parade the animals before Adam in search of a suitable help for him if he knew that he would not find it?
My answer is that it did precisely because I knew I wouldn’t find it. In other words, she did it to make it clear to Adam: “What I have designed for you in my mind, you will not find among animals. Don’t even think that you could find what I have prepared among the animals. The kind of help I have in mind for you, Adam, is not of that kind.” “But for Adam there was not found”—among all those animals—”a help suitable for him” (Gen 2:20).
Perfect complement
So, having made this very clear, God puts Adam to sleep and actually performs surgery. He opens his side, takes a rib, closes the side, and then says that God built from the rib in his side a woman, and the word is ishahand the generic word for Adam is ish -men, ish.
God, by making woman from Adam’s rib, makes it clear to him and to us that she is radically, gloriously, and deeply human, like Adam.
Then he says—here he uses the same words as before, when he brought the animals to Adam to be named—that he “brought it to the man” (Gen 2:22). We then wait to see what name he will give her, that is, what nature he will find in her that corresponds or does not correspond to his own nature. This is what he says: “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. she will be called ishahbecause of the ish was taken” (Gen 2:23).
So, unlike the naming of animals, the name of this creature shows that it is of the same nature of man. The animals were not of the same nature. “That’s probably why he took them out of the ground and she took her out of me,” Adam said. “Therefore, I call her ishahbecause it was taken from ish». That is to say: “She is the right helper. She fits, she corresponds, she is not an animal. She is my unique species, she is human like me. She is one meat with me. Therefore, this concept of aid it is not impersonal like an animal, as oxen can be the help of farmers. She is different. She will be essentially personal and human like me. She is just like me and at the same time perfectly different from me to be the exact right counterpart to me.”
I think this is true not only from an anatomical point of view for sexual intercourse, but also from a personal and psychological point of view. They are the perfect complement to each other, designed by God. Together they are good. Now it is good—creation is good—that man and woman are now both created in the image of God, of the same human nature, “bone of my bones,” “flesh of my flesh,” and I think he could have said much more.
Bone bone, meat meat
Then the next verse brings this complementary and perfect correspondence to marriage and says that therefore, since bone was made of bone and flesh of flesh, this profound unity of nature is to be found in marriage. “Therefore a man will leave his father and his mother and be united to his wife, and they will be one flesh” (Gen 2:24). So he said, “She is bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh.” Now, in marriage, they become one flesh. The marriage union brings the unity of man and woman to its deepest physical, psychological, and personal level, and that becomes an image—a drama, the New Testament says—of Christ and the church.
Now there is much more to be said about the implications of man being made first, of woman being made out of man and as his perfectly suitable helper, and of woman becoming “the mother of all living” (Gen 3:20). Paul draws these implications (1 Cor 11:8-12). But for now, I would say that God’s goal in not making woman from the earth, like the animals, but from Adam’s rib, from his side, was to make it clear to him and to us that she is radical, glorious, and deeply human, like Adam, unlike all animals, which were totally unsuited to man.
Originally posted on . Translated by Team Coalition.