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Why Did God Use Adam’s Rib To Create Eve?

Why Did God Use Adam's Rib To Create Eve

Why Did God Use Adam’s Rib To Create Eve? Behold, the Lord God Almighty used Adam’s rib to create Eve because He wanted Adam to have a helper/companion with whom he won’t be feeling lonely in the midst of the animals in the Garden of Eden. The Biblical book of Genesis clearly relates how God created Eve: “The Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man” (Genesis 2:21–22). Notice that the phrase for “one of his ribs” could be translated “a part of his side” (NET), but most English translations specify the part as “rib.”

In making the first man, Adam, the Lord God used the “dust of the ground” to form his body and “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7). But, in making the first woman, Eve, the Lord God did not go back to the dust of the ground; He used one of Adam’s ribs to form her. When she was brought to Adam, he said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man” (Genesis 2:23). It’s clear that God used Adam’s rib to form Eve – He used existing tissue and did not “start from scratch” – to show that Adam and Eve were of the same substance; she was a bearer of God’s image and likeness, just as Adam was (Genesis 1:27).

Why Did God Use Adam’s Rib To Create Eve?

Brethren, why did God use Adam’s rib? Fascinatingly, ribs have amazing regenerative powers. Portions of rib bone and cartilage removed in bone graft surgery will regrow in a few months’ time, as long as the rib perichondrium is left intake. This means that Adam’s loss of a rib was only temporary; he did not have to go through the rest of his life with an incomplete skeletal system. It is important to understand that the woman made of Adam’s rib was designed to be a companion and “helper suitable” for Adam (Genesis 2:18). Eve, formed from a physical part of Adam, was truly his compliment, an integral part of who he was. As such, she was a perfect companion.

Behold, when the Lord God brought Eve to Adam, they were united in marriage: the “woman” in Genesis 2:22 is called Adam’s “wife” in verse 24. The pattern for marriage, the first social institution, was thus established by God. The manner of Eve’s creation is “why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.” The unity of a married couple and the “one flesh” principle are based on the fact that God used one of man’s ribs to make the woman. God’s use of one of Adam’s ribs to make Eve is significant in that it reminds us that woman was created to be “beside” man. Thus, man and woman complement one another in marriage, and in Christ, they are “heirs together of the grace of life” (1 Peter 3:7). And as such, should live in love, peace, and unity.

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