The Washington Post’s Gene Weingarten Discovers the True Adam and Eve Story
Was Eve made from Adam’s rib or some other part?
This mosaic from the Cathedral of Monreale, Sicily, depicts the creation of woman in the Bible. Eve is shown emerging from Adam’s side.
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Gene Weingarten has discovered the true origin of the story of Eve. In his latest weekly humor column “Below the Beltway” featured in the Washington Post Magazine and newspapers around the country, Weingarten discusses Ziony Zevit’s article “Was Eve Made from Adam’s Rib—or His Baculum?” from the September/October 2015 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.
According to the Bible’s creation account, after making the heavens and the earth, God created humankind. The story of Adam and Eve in Genesis 2 states that God formed Adam out of the dust of the ground, and then Eve was created from one of Adam’s ribs. But was it really his rib? Ziony Zevit, Distinguished Professor of Biblical Literature and Northwest Semitic Languages at American Jewish University in Bel-Air, California, examines this question in his BAR article. And the answer is “No.”
FREE ebook: Exploring Genesis: The Bible’s Ancient Traditions in Context Mesopotamian creation myths, Joseph’s relationship with Egyptian temple practices and 3 tales of Ur, the birthplace of Abraham.
The Hebrew word traditionally translated “rib” is tsela‘. Biblical scholar Ziony Zevit says that this translation is clearly wrong, and many scholars agree. It was first translated as “rib” in the Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the mid-third century B.C.E. However, a more careful reading of the supposed Hebrew word for “rib” in the Adam and Eve story indicates that Eve was created from another, very different, part of Adam’s anatomy—his os baculum (penis bone).
“Instantly, I knew this article was important,” writes Weingarten. “That is because it finally explained the origin of a common fallacy, a spectacularly stupid bit of scientific misinformation under which I had labored for the first 16 years of my life until a high school bio class set me straight: Men are not short one rib, as the creation myth implies. Men and women have the same number.”
Related reading in Bible History Daily:
The Adam and Eve Story: Eve Came From Where?
The Creation of Woman in the Bible
Should We Take Creation Stories in Genesis Literally?
Cain and Abel in the Bible
Bible Review’s Supporting Roles by Elie Wiesel
What Happened to Cain in the Bible?
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The point is GOD make women, from man. That’s why she is called wo men.
That would mean we were created more like monkeys… Male monkeys do have a baculum. Humans do not. Do I believe “rib” is the right translation? No. Perhaps “chamber” or “womb” would be a better theory. Nonetheless, I do not have a baculum, so I cannot support the article. Man was made in the image of God. That image is unchanging, He is the God that does not change.
The penis is not on the “side” of anything; it is in the center. I see no grounds at all for this theory, except maybe to stir up some prurient attention.
This sounds like the kind of article Satan would write. Distracting from what matters.
Those that say if the Genesis description is true, males would have one less rib. Ah, MAYBE Adam might have but his descendants would have the full number. Just because an organ or other body part is removed from an adult, it doesn’t mean the adult’s children would be missing that part; they would have it. The FULL set is still locked into Chromosomes and DNA.
I believe God used part of Adam’s DNA to create woman – the helix curve (rib).
I believe traditional Jewish philosophy says that Eve was created from Adam’s side; that is, they were two fully-formed people, but attached side by side. It wasn’t until they were separated that they (and we) could face each other and know each other.
Actually, plastic surgeons routinely use rib bone for reconstruction because if removed carefully (leaving the periosteum), the rib will completely grow back. True, Adam,s children would still have all their ribs due to DNA but Adam didn’t have to go around without a rib either.
I see no truth in the history of the word “tsela” tat can lead to any other avenue than “side” or “rib” – false article.
A solidier loses a leg in Iraq, comes home to his wife, she gets pregnant and her newborn is short one leg, right? And since when do penuses have bones? But, if it can be done, God can surely do it.
The word “bara” means to create out of nothing. It also means to create something new and different. It is used when God made (bara) Eve. She was something new and different from all that Adam knew–flesh and bone but different than Adam, yet of the same “kind” as Adam. In my opinion the rib taken from Adam was cellular and had to do with ribosomes. God took one of the ribosomes (‘one of the ribs of Adam”) and made woman, the female opposite of Adam. I contend that I am on more solid ground than baculum, chamber or womb./Don Bailey