{"id":40950,"date":"2025-11-27T07:00:25","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T12:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblicalarchaeology.org\/?p=40950"},"modified":"2025-11-28T09:32:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T14:32:15","slug":"the-adam-and-eve-story-eve-came-from-where","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblicalarchaeology.org\/daily\/biblical-topics\/bible-interpretation\/the-adam-and-eve-story-eve-came-from-where\/","title":{"rendered":"The Adam and Eve Story: Eve Came From Where?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cSo the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.\u201d<\/em>
\n\u2014Genesis 2:21\u201322, NRSV<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"creation-of-eve\"<\/a>

ADAM AND EVE IN THE BIBLE. This mosaic from the Cathedral of Monreale, Sicily, depicts the creation of woman in the Bible. Eve is shown emerging from Adam\u2019s side. Most translations of the Adam and Eve story say that Eve was created from Adam\u2019s rib, but Ziony Zevit contends that she was created from a very different part of Adam\u2019s body.<\/p><\/div>\n

According to the Bible\u2019s creation account<\/a>, after making the heavens and the earth, God created humankind. The Adam and Eve story<\/a> in Genesis 2 states that God formed Adam out of the dust of the ground, and then Eve was created from one of Adam\u2019s ribs. But was it really his rib?<\/p>\n

The Hebrew word that is traditionally translated as \u201crib\u201d is tsela\u2018<\/em>. Ziony Zevit<\/a>, Distinguished Professor of Biblical Literature and Northwest Semitic Languages at American Jewish University in Bel-Air, California, believes that this translation is wrong, as do many scholars. It was first translated as \u201crib\u201d 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 Hebrew word for \u201crib\u201d in the Adam and Eve story suggests that Eve was created from another, very different, part of Adam\u2019s anatomy\u2014his os baculum<\/em> (penis bone).<\/p>\n

Zevit carefully examines the account of the creation of woman in the Bible in his article \u201cWas Eve Made from Adam\u2019s Rib\u2014or His Baculum?\u201d<\/a><\/strong> which appears in the September\/October 2015 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\t\t

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FREE ebook: Exploring Genesis: The Bible\u2019s Ancient Traditions in Context<\/strong>\r\nMesopotamian creation myths, Joseph\u2019s relationship with Egyptian temple practices and 3 tales of Ur, the birthplace of Abraham.\r\n<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t