Adam's rib

Adam's rib In the second account of the creation of humankind in Genesis (2: 21–3), Eve or ‘woman’ was formed from the rib (or ‘side’) of Adam (that is, ‘man’) while he was in a deep sleep. In this account woman was created as a counterpart to man, for it was not good for man to be alone (Genesis 2: 18). God split Adam in two, and thus woman was the other half of man; this suggests the creation of an androgynous Adam initially which came to be split into ‘man’ and ‘woman’. By contrast, the first account of the creation of humankind, in Genesis 1: 26–30, has ‘Adam’ divided into two human beings, male and female, from the beginning: ‘And God created the adam in His image, in the image of God, He created him, male and female, He created them.’ These two humans have dominion over the earth.

The second creation account, in which Eve was formed from Adam's rib, is clearly not just an account of woman born of man, but rather of Adam split into two. Nevertheless, it has been used as biblical evidence to justify the subordination of woman within both Judaism and Christianity (especially when coupled with the story related in Genesis 3, in which Eve was tempted by the serpent, and in turn tempted Adam, to eat the fruit and disobey God; her punishment was pain in childbirth and subordination to her husband, along with expulsion from the Garden of Eden with Adam). This story may have jibed well with Galenic and Aristotlean views of the female body as an inferior version of the male body, rather than a separate ‘sex’ — scientific views which prevailed until the eighteenth century in the West. By contrast, modern scientific views, based on the sequence of embryological developments, see the female as the norm of humankind, and male anatomical difference as a modification of the female.

The creation of Eve from Adam's rib was a popular visual image in medieval church and cathedral sculpture. In modern culture ‘Adam's rib’ is a phrase sometimes used to represent the battle of the sexes, as illustrated by the 1950 film of that title. Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn star as married lawyers on opposite sides of the courtroom, in the trial of a woman charged with the attempted murder of the lover of her philandering husband, and, as a result, battling each other in the minefield of sexual politics not only at work but also at home.

In Judaism, according to a midrash, Eve was God's second attempt at creating woman. Lilith, God's first attempt, had left man after only a short time because of a dispute with him about her equality, which she was unwilling to forgo. She flew away and vanished into the air. She, like Adam, was made out of the dust of the ground, and she derived her rights from their identical origin.

In Islam, Eve is not mentioned by name in the Quran, but rather only as Adam's wife. However, various legends, probably of Rabbinic and Syriac origin, refer to Hawwa (the Arabic for Eve) by name and describe her creation from Adam's rib, the punishment both she and Adam received, and their travels over the earth, including pilgrimage to Mecca, where they are both said to be buried.

Jane Shaw

See also creation myths.