Let's talk about Eve. Her story will take two of these short articles. Next time we'll discuss the 'Fall'. Today, we'll talk about the Rib.
First of all, the Hebrew word that is translated as 'Adam' is actually a gender-neutral word that means 'a creature of earth'. In other words, Adam was initially created neither Male nor Female.
The creature was placed in the Garden and given only one restriction - not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
Adam lived a quiet, comfortable, and all but purposeless life in the Garden, tending the flora and distributing names to the animals. But God saw that Adam was alone with no emotional life, no struggle, no tension. So God decided to put Adam to sleep and separate it into Male and Female in order to provide an emotionally meaningful life for humanity.
The Hebrew word tsela appears many times in the Bible. With one exception it is translated as 'side', typically referring to the side walls of important structures such as the Tabernacle. On one occasion only, here in Genesis, tsela is translated as 'rib'.
This unique translation has had devastating repercussions.
But if we give the word the same meaning that it has on every other occasion, the story makes more sense. God took one side of the composite creature and out of this he made Eve, the woman, and the other side became Adam, the man - where neither had existed before. The 'One' has become 'Two', and there is nothing in this description to indicate anything but perfect equality.
The isolation of one human creature can now be replaced with a new form of wholeness that is attainable through erotic longing and love between two individuals.
One possible reason for the early translator's choice of the word 'rib' in this one place is that by taking a rib God revealed the Heart of the creature, analogous to opening Pandora's box, thus bringing emotions (which are universally symbolized by the Feminine) into the realm of human life. Like Pandora's story, this is where pain and difficulty enter the world, but also joy and meaning, and only then do mortal beings become moral beings with the ability to make choices and mistakes, and thus to grow and evolve.
Even if we retain the word 'rib' as the translation of tsela, we see that this rib did not come from a previously created male, thereby suggesting some sort of primacy for the 'man'. On the contrary, the rib came from a previously created earth creature of no gender. And in fact, the Woman was created before the Man!
Next time we'll talk about Eve a bit more and see that her role in the 'Fall' as been horribly misconstrued.
About the Author
Dr. Andrew Cort is the author of Love, Wisdom and God, The Sacred Quest in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and The American Psyche in Search of its Soul. Come find out more about the meaning of Biblical and Mythological Symbolism at his website http://www.andrewcort.com and receive a Free Report: Reconciling Science and Religion.
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