EVOLUTION AND THE BIBLE 



cribing the creation of the man. the Yahwist author had 

 employed the literary image of a potter; now he introduces 

 God as a surgeon. To spare Adam the distress which the 

 operation would cause, God puts him into a deep sleep or 

 coma. Then God removes one of the man's ribs, closing up 

 the gap with flesh, and from it builds up a woman. 



When the operation is finished, God brings the woman to 

 the man. Coming out of his sleep, the man sees this being for 

 whom he had longed and of whom, perhaps, he had dreamt. 

 Joyfully he exclaims: "This now is bone of my bone and flesh 

 of my flesh" — a stereotyped phrase in Hebrew which 

 indicates the close relationship existing among members of 

 the same kinship or tribe. The woman has a nature quite 

 different from that of the animals. She is human like the man. 

 The same vital spirit animates them both. The man expresses 

 his comprehension of all this by saying that the woman is 

 bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. 



The woman needs a name, and the man supplies it. "She 

 shall be called woman, for from man she has been taken" 

 (Gen. 2:23). In Hebrew a man or husband is called 'ish; 

 from this word, by popular etymology, is derived 'ishshah, 

 bride or wife. Later (Gen. 3 : 20) Adam called his wife Eve 

 (mother), because she was to be the mother of all living beings 

 that belong to the human race. 



Obviously we are not meant to take all the elements of this 

 highly anthropomorphic account in a literal sense. The most 

 perplexing feature is the rib. We have no reason for supposing 

 that the inspired author knew all the details about the forma- 

 tion of Eve's body; at any rate he uses an obscure Hebrew 

 word, sela', which can mean rib, side, flank, etc. This term 

 does not necessarily signify that the close relationship between 

 Adam and Eve is based on bodily derivation of the first 

 woman from the first man. Although the text, according to 

 its obvious sense, seems to imply that the woman's body was 

 drawn physically from some part of the man, many modern 

 exegetes tend to favor an interpretation in which symbolism 

 is accorded an important place. The meaning may be that 

 the new creature, equal in nature to the man, answers so fully 

 to his desires that it seems as if God had extracted her from 

 his heart; or again, that God in His work made the woman 



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