Science in the Bible – Adam’s Rib

Posted by: BibleScienceGuy | June 20, 2018

Science in the Bible – Adam’s Rib

(4 Minute Read)

Image compliments of AiG illustrator Dan Lietha.

Did Adam’s wife Eve really come from Adam’s rib? How is that even possible? Does scientific research shed light on this?

Scripture says the Great Creator put Adam to sleep, extracted a rib, closed him up, and fashioned a woman for Adam from the rib. Adam called her Woman because she was taken out of man. (Genesis 2:18-24)

For those who doubt this, think about which is easier: to make Adam from dirt or Eve from a rib? The Great Creator who made Adam from dirt could certainly perform the simpler task of making Eve out of one of Adam’s ribs. After all, He is the Creator. “With God all things are possible,” according to Jesus (Matthew 19:26).

Thus it is certainly possible for Yahweh to fashion Eve from one of Adam’s ribs. But did He really do this?

Absolutely! The historical record in Genesis is crystal clear:
Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.” … So 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 the flesh at that place. The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. (Genesis 2:18,21,22 NASB)

Adam knew the origin of the new rib-creature. He named her Woman, because “she was taken out of man.” (Genesis 2:21-23)

Some scoff at the clear statements in Genesis regarding Eve’s creation by Yahweh, dismissing them as poetry or symbolism. But these Genesis statements do not fit the forms of Hebrew poetry in the poetical books of the Old Testament. They are historical narrative, not poetry.

Moreover, categorizing this as symbolism is refuted by Adam’s choice of a name. The name Woman that Adam assigned to the new rib-creature along with Adam’s reason for the name, because she was taken out of man, show that the literal interpretation of the Genesis record is correct. The record of Eve’s origin is neither poetic nor symbolic. It is literal fact. Yahweh made Eve from Adam’s literal rib.

Adam named the new rib-creature
“Woman”
because “she was taken out of man.“

Other scoffers claim that since men and women have the same number of ribs, it cannot be true that Yahweh took a rib from Adam to make Eve. They doubt the Genesis record because today everyone has 12 pairs of ribs for a total of 24 ribs. They think men should have fewer ribs than women, because God took one of Adam’s ribs to form Eve.

However, removing a rib does not change the genetic DNA blueprint passed to offspring. The loss of a parent’s bone does not affect the child, because it does not change the DNA blueprint. The Great Creator took a rib from Adam to make Eve, but all their descendants have the normal twelve ribs on each side.

Yahweh made Adam out of dirt, and all humans, including Eve, descended from that one original human — Adam (Acts 17:26). Eve was made out of Adam’s rib, and all other humans descended from that original pair in the usual way (except for Jesus of Nazareth).

Eve could physically prove she was one of the two original humans. Navels are anatomical evidence of descent. Adam and Eve did not have navels because they were not descendants. Neither was ever connected to a mother by an umbilical cord, so neither had the scar formed by severing the cord. Adam and Eve were the originals of the human race.

Checking belly buttons is one of several ways to distinguish someone from Adam when you hear somebody exclaim, “I don’t know him from Adam!” If he has a belly button, then he is not Adam!

Although Adam did not have a navel, he may have had something else: a ribbel, the scar formed where God extracted a rib to make Eve. We don’t know whether Yahweh left a scar on Adam or not when He closed up the flesh where He removed a rib. God could have performed a scarless operation. Or He may have left a prominent ribbel for a powerful reminder and teaching aid for thousands of descendants that came along in the nine centuries of Adam’s life. It could even have been a cherished reminder for Eve herself, a distinctive mark of the sacred bond between Adam and Eve.

Why did Yahweh make Eve from a rib? Why that particular bone and not another? Why not the pelvis, or collar bone, or a femur?

Scientists have discovered a possible reason through the development of bone grafts. The rib cage is an almost endless supply of bone, because ribs regenerate. As long as the outer membrane covering the rib, the perichondrium, is left intact, the rib will grow back. Ribs are the only bones in the human body which regenerate themselves.

Today surgeons use bone from ribs to reconstruct damaged bones like skulls, eye sockets, and jaw bones. The removed rib regenerates within two months provided the perichondrium has been left intact.

So perhaps Adam grew back his missing rib! Since Adam was in perfect condition before sin, he may have regenerated the rib within days.

Scoffers have long derided the Genesis account of Eve being made from Adam’s rib. But now modern medical science illuminates the reasonableness of the Biblical record. Blessed are those who believed the Bible’s report on Eve’s origin from Adam’s rib — before medical science discovered rib regeneration.

Science Catches Up to the Bible

Thousands of years ago, the Genesis record testified to the formation of the first woman Eve from Adam’s rib. Today we know that a rib is the best of Adam’s bones that could have been used to make Eve since it is the only bone that regenerates itself.

Although the Bible is not primarily a science textbook, it does contain many scientific truths like this and like those mentioned in this Science in the Bible series, truths that long pre-date their discovery by today’s scientists. This is strong evidence of divine authorship of the Bible.

Questions to Ponder

1. Can you think of a philosophical or even a romantic implication for the choice of a bone from Adam’s side out of which to fashion Eve?
2. What other Bible statement will you embrace and affirm today, even though others scoff at its likelihood or feasibility?

Share your thoughts on these questions in the comments below. It could encourage or help another reader.

Soli Deo Gloria.

Read the sequel:
34. Science in the Bible – Matter

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©William T. Pelletier, Ph.D.
“contending earnestly for the faith”
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(Jude 1:3; 2 Cor 10:5; Phil 1:16)
Wednesday June 20, 2018 A.D.

Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. (Psalm 119:105)