Why God Used Adam’s Rib to Create Eve

Why God used Adam’s rib to create Eve.
By Jan Meador

Genesis 2:21-23 (KJV)
²¹ And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;
²² And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
²³ And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.

I had always wondered why God used Adam’s rib to make Eve, but I had never asked Him.  I had heard preachers and others speculate and theorize why.  Some quote theologian Matthew Henry in saying that God didn’t take a bone from man’s foot because he didn’t want her to be man’s servant, or from his head because God didn’t want her to be man’s master, but from his side so she would be his companion, or, the supposition that he took it from near Adam’s heart as in reference to affection.  Well, this all sounds like a nice allegory, but it’s always been just that to me–a nice allegory.  As I sat here pondering on this, I knew there was a Divine reason, a spiritual law involved, and possibly even a natural/physical law involved.  So I asked God, and the Holy Spirit downloaded some information I’d never thought of or read or heard.

The first thing that came to mind was “why a bone?”  I said, “Lord, you could have used any part of Adam’s body to create Eve—the liver, the brain, the heart.  Why a bone?” He replied, “Bone marrow”. Immediately I knew that bone marrow manufactured blood cells and thought of the Scripture “the life is in the blood” (Lev. 17:10-14).  Then He said, “Look it up”. I typed in a Google search for bone marrow and got a link to a medical site with a definition for bone marrow.  Since I know just enough to pretend to be intelligent about the human body, I was surprised to find that bone marrow not only produces red and white blood cells and platelets, it houses stem cells.  It is from these stem cells that the blood cells and platelets are created.  These stem cells are referred to as “gatekeepers”.  When I saw the term “stem cell”, I immediately thought of reproductive cloning.

This that God had already shown me just set me on fire wanting more.  This revelation about the bone was awesome, but it made me realize even more that there was a definite reason why God used a specific bone.  So I asked, “Lord, with all the bones in the body, why the rib?” Again He said, “Look it up.” So I did.  I did a search in Google for “rib bone in man”, and got a hit on an article by a Christian doctor.  I was blown away when I read that the rib is the only bone in the human body that not only has the ability to repair itself, but it can regenerate itself! My spirit leaped within me and my thoughts were spinning like a whirlwind.

Here are excerpts from Dr. Purdom’s  article.

The Amazing Regenerating Rib
by Dr. Georgia Purdom, AiG–U.S.
February 4, 2009
Both men and women have 12 pairs of ribs.
…they (ribs) are one of the few bones that continue to make red marrow (and thus blood cells) in the adult.
Although all bones can repair themselves, ribs can regenerate themselves. Ribs are commonly removed during surgeries that require bone grafts in other parts of the body. The rib is removed from the periosteum (a tissue surrounding the bone) much like a banana would be removed from its peel while keeping most of the peel intact. The periosteum must remain, as it contains osteoblasts which build the new rib bone.
The rib bone is one of the few bones mentioned by name in Scripture. Genesis 2:20b–22 states, “But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him. And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man.”
Some people have mistakenly thought that because God used a rib from Adam to make the woman that all men have one less rib than women. We know this is false because we can easily count the number of ribs in men and women and see they are the same. The number of ribs is determined by the code written in our DNA. God did not change Adam’s DNA; He simply removed one of his ribs to use for the creation of the woman.
God chose from Adam the one bone that could regenerate itself. So, even though he likely had one less rib bone for some period of time (possibly to some an indication of imperfection before the Fall), we still observe perfection and completeness in Adam physically before the Fall due to the regenerative capability of the ribs.

God designed each of us, and though He used the DNA and the stem cells and the blood and bone from Adam (a cloning scientists dream) God chose to fashion Eve uniquely.  He didn’t CLONE a copy of Adam, but made something beautiful from Adam.  It reminds me of how a child takes genes from both parents when conceived.  In Gen 2:23, Adam said “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh, she shall be called Woman, BECAUSE she was TAKEN OUT OF MAN.”  Eve was LITERALLY of Adam’s bone and flesh and blood.  If she was “taken out of man”, then God had placed her within man when He created Adam.  She was there all along–or shall we say, what was needed to create her was already within Adam.

This is so rich when you look at the relationship that God designed to be between a man and a woman.  It gives new meaning to the term “helpmate” that God spoke of.  It gives more understanding of why God didn’t just reach back down in the dirt and create woman from it as He did the animals and the man.  It is also very rich when looking at Christ and His bride.  When Jesus died on the cross, the centurion pierced his SIDE to be sure he was dead (although he already was).  It was from Jesus’ SIDE (the location of the ribs) that water and blood came forth.  It was at his dying that the church (His bride) was born.  Is this not even more beautiful when you understand Eve being birthed/created from the side, the rib bone of Adam?

When we look at human reproduction, what is required to reproduce comes from the male. Even the sex of the offspring is determined by the male sperm. So it was in creating Eve.  What was necessary to produce her was within man.  It doesn’t say that God took something from Adam and added anything to it in order to create woman.  It simply says that he took what was in Adam’s rib and made (built/fashioned) Eve.

God took from man what had the power to regenerate or recreate itself and made woman from this part of man–this part that God had already created.  And because of this, there is something so much deeper and amazing than this that we are seeing, and I want to know and understand it.  I know it will blow our minds.  There is a REASON God didn’t reach back down in the dirt and form a woman as he did every beast of the field and the fowl of the air and man.  (Gen 2:19).  There is a reason God brought forth woman OUT OF MAN.  There is a reason woman is bone of man’s bone and flesh of man’s flesh.

When Satan tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the tree God commanded Adam that they were not to eat from, the Bible tells us that after doing so, she turned and gave the fruit to Adam.  He was right there with her while this was taking place.

Genesis 3:6 (NIV)
⁶ When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

It was Adam’s duty by God to make sure that Eve knew and understood to obey God.  God had given man dominion over ALL that was created and he was instructed by God to “keep” (hedge and protect) the Garden.  This is a whole other lesson in itself, but my point is, Adam was not the one deceived.

1 Timothy 2:14 (NASB)
¹⁴ And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression.

Adam knew the truth and willfully disobeyed God.  So my question is this.  Was their union, their bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh, so strong that once he saw her eat from the tree and he knew the consequences—that he was going to lose her—that he then took of it himself?  This is a theory, but a strong one.  Did he not think that if he lost Eve, that God could not do again what He did the first time—remove another rib from him and make another woman?  I believe it proves the power of the unity that the man and woman had—a unity that God ordained and put into motion–a unity that when Jesus was being tested theologically by the religious scholars of His day, He expounded upon His Father’s words with absolute clarity:

Matthew 19:3-6 (KJV)
³ The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?
⁴ And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female,
⁵ And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?
⁶ Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

Though the question presented was about divorce, one can also look at this last statement “What therefore God hath JOINED TOGETHER, let no man put asunder.”, as confirmation that God indeed JOINED a MAN and a WOMAN together, and no man (or woman) is to UNDO anything that GOD has brought about.  Homosexuality is an UNDOING, and UN-JOINING, of male and female.  God declares such to be confusion, perversion, defiling, and an abomination.  Mankind can die justifying  their homosexual lifestyle as either by choice or by birth, but the Bible is very clear that those who do so will not enter the kingdom of God.

We see the NATURE of God in all of His creation, but especially in the creation of man and woman.  It is GOD that I want to see and understand, for when we understand the works and the ways of God, it helps us to understand His nature, His character, and better understand our relationship to Him.

In the King James Version of Gen 2:21-22, it states that God “made”, some other translations say “fashioned”, but regardless the translation,  the Hebrew word means “to build”.  But, you will see that it’s quite more than that.

Strong’s:
Hebrew Word: ‏בָּנָה‎
Transliteration: bānâ
Phonetic Pronunciation:baw-naw’
a primitive root; to build (literal and figurative) :- (begin to) build (-er), obtain children, make, repair, set (up), × surely.

I made emphasis of the “obtain children”, for I found that to be intriguing. It gets back to what I mentioned about woman being birthed from man.  But the thing I see so strongly in this is in the blessing that God pronounced on Adam and Eve after he created them.

Genesis 1:28 (KJV)
²⁸ And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Did you notice that the first thing God blessed was their being able to reproduce themselves?  “BE FRUITFUL AND MULTIPLY”

Genesis 2:22 (KJV)
²² And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.

The Life is in the Blood

Leviticus 17:10-14 (KJV)
¹⁰ And whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among you, that eateth any manner of blood; I will even set my face against that soul that eateth blood, and will cut him off from among his people.
¹¹ For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.
¹² Therefore I said unto the children of Israel, No soul of you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger that sojourneth among you eat blood.
¹³ And whatsoever man there be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among you, which hunteth and catcheth any beast or fowl that may be eaten; he shall even pour out the blood thereof, and cover it with dust.
¹⁴ For it is the life of all flesh; the blood of it is for the life thereof: therefore I said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh: for the life of all flesh is the blood thereof: whosoever eateth it shall be cut off.

God allowed the blood of animals, of what he created and gave life from the dust of the earth, to be what would be accepted as an atonement for man’s soul (man and woman)…until God’s Son, Jesus (Yeshua), came and fulfilled the Law and was the sacrificial Lamb of God that took the sin of the world and became our redemption–our atonement–once and for all.

¹¹ For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.

atone/əˈtoʊn/ to make amends or reparation, as for an offense or a crime, or for an offender (usually fol. by for ): to atone for one’s sins.

Okay, the LIFE of all flesh is in its blood.  This gets us back to the fact that God used what PRODUCED LIFE (bone marrow), and more specifically, the bone and it’s marrow that actually recreated/regenerated itself, to build woman.  And, God used the blood of the flesh of animals to atone—to make amends/reparation on behalf of mankind’s soul for their sins.  So, why is the act of eating flesh that still has the blood in it, or drinking the blood of animals, an abomination to God?  Why did God instruct mankind, that if he were to hunt and catch or kill a beast or fowl and was going to eat it, that he was to pour out the blood on the ground and cover it with dust?  Why would this be something God would literally CUT THEM OFF from being part of His people?   THIS, I really want to understand.  Some believe that the SOUL of man is in the blood of man—that when God “breathed” into man’s body, God breathed his “soul” into him.  This is why some, such as Jehovah’s Witness, (whose beliefs I do not agree with), refuse to have blood transfusions.

Gen 2:7
And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and BREATHED INTO HIS NOSTRILS THE BREATH OF LIFE, and man became a living soul.

I think of Genesis 4:10 (KJV)

¹⁰ And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground.

Abel’s blood that poured out of him onto the ground, cried out to God to be avenged.  Is this allegorical or something much more—something spiritual?

OXYGEN (breath) is the key to living.  You breathe air in through your nose and mouth.  It goes into your lungs and actually dissolves in the water lining of the alveoli.  Oxygen then clings to your red blood cells as they pass through the alveolar capillaries.  NOW, the oxygen (the breath) is in the blood.

God breathed into man’s nose, it filled up his lungs and began to disperse into the blood and going to all parts of the body and the brain, and this SOUL God created came to life—this man became a “living (alive) soul–for the LIFE (the breath—the oxygen) was in the blood.  The moment that breath (oxygen) is taken from man, he beings to die—quickly.

This makes me think of another “mystery” in the Scriptures.  Jesus had resurrected from the dead, had ascended to His Father in heaven and placed His blood on the mercy seat in heaven and purified all things (Hebrews 9), and had returned to earth to be seen of more than 500 people over the course of 40 days.  The following account took place on Sunday evening, the same day he rose from the dead and after Jesus had ascended to the Father and made atonement for man with His blood.

John 20:16-22 (KJV)
¹⁶ Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master.
¹⁷ Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.
¹⁸ Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken these things unto her.
¹⁹ Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.
²⁰ And when he had so said, he shewed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord.
²¹ Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.
²² And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost:

AMAZING!

This is another mystery.  May the Lord open the eyes of our understanding to His hidden mysteries as we seek Him and seek to know Him and understand His judgments and obey His precepts.

1 Corinthians 2:9-16 (KJV)
⁹ But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
¹⁰ But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
¹¹ For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
¹² Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
¹³ Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
¹⁴ But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
¹⁵ But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.
¹⁶ For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

 http://janmeador.wordpress.com/