And Jehovah Elohim built the rib that he had taken from Man into a woman; and brought her to Man.
Adam was alone, and God acted. He took part of the man himself, made a woman, and gave her to him. Commentators read both halves — the making and the giving — as the pattern for every marriage since, and as a picture of Christ and the church.
The Hebrew word rendered "rib" is used widely in the Old Testament. One writer points out how translators handle it everywhere else:
It is worth noticing that the Hebrew word translated "rib" here is in every other case translated, no less than nineteen times, as "side."
Where God took the material from carries meaning. One writer draws a lesson from it about how the man and the woman stand toward each other:
He would give man the gift of companionship, the joy of fellowship, the exchange of affection. The end was good, and so was the way. He threw the man into a trance, as the Greek translators put it. Adam would not feel pain, yet would know perfectly what God was giving him. It was not a separate human being independent of Adam. It was not from the head nor from the feet — not an absolute equal, nor an utter inferior — but from his side. Others long ago have observed what that means: she is the object of nearest love and sustaining care, a sharer of all joy and sorrow, joined to him yet dependent on him.
The Hebrew verb behind "made" is "built." One writer follows that word forward:
When it comes to the way God's act of creating Eve is described, the word "built" catches our attention. It was certainly an act of creation. Yet the wording is unusual: God "built the rib into a woman." This is the first time this verb (to build) appears in the Bible. In Ephesians 2:20, 22 the word for the building of the church comes from the same root as the word used here, in the Greek translation of the Old Testament. The church is presented here as companion. But the mention that God "built" Eve is meant to confirm the truth that the builder of the church is a divine One. The Lord Himself said to Peter: "on this rock I will build my church" (Matt. 16:18).
Adam did not find her; God gave her. One writer, using the Hebrew names for God, calls that giving the founding pattern of marriage:
As Jehovah Elohim was pleased to build his rib into an Ishah (woman), so He brought her to the man. This is the highest and best form of marriage. The woman was received, as it were, from the divine hand. She came not from Elohim only, but from Him who in all His action recorded here was perfectly laying the ground for mutual duty in the relationship of marriage.
How Eve came to be still shapes marriage today. One writer treats Adam's case as the model, not the exception:
The woman was formed by divine handiwork, not from the dust of the ground as Adam had been, but out of Adam himself. Eve was the Creator's provision for Adam. The marriage of Adam is the prototype of the marriage of all his sons. In every case of true marriage, God arranges the union. Divine wisdom notices the moment when the man's loneliness is no longer good for him. He then provides a bride who is the complement of his nature, with its personal characteristics. Adam had no choice of brides; there was only the one that would suit him, and she was prepared by God especially for him.
The pattern reaches further than marriage. One writer sets out what had to happen before the church could begin:
Scripture fully warrants us in looking at Adam and Eve as a type of Christ and the church. So the death of Christ had to be an accomplished fact before the church could be set up. Yet in the purpose of God she was looked at, and chosen in Christ, before the foundation of the world.
Yet the picture is not an exact match, and the difference is the point:
We may find a contrast to Christ in Genesis 2:22. The Lord God presented Eve to Adam; in Ephesians 5:27 Christ presents the church to Himself. Why is this? The answer is very simple — Christ is God.
- Sleep — Adam felt no pain, yet knew perfectly what God was giving. The gift came while he slept, not by his work.
- Side — the same Hebrew word is translated "side" nineteen other times. She came not from the head or the feet, but from his side.
- Built — this is the first "build" in the Bible. The same root returns for the building of the church, and the builder is divine.
- Brought — she came from God's own hand. That giving sets the pattern for every true marriage.
- Beyond — the picture stops short at one point. God presented Eve to Adam; Christ presents the church to Himself, because Christ is God.
And Man said, This time it is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh this shall be called Woman, because this was taken out of a man.
These are the first recorded words of a human being. In Adam's cry we find the origin of marriage, the origin of the word "woman," and a picture of something far larger.
One writer asks why God did not make the woman separately out of the dust, as He had made Adam:
Man was alone, and it was not good that he should be so... If God had created someone else out of the dust, apart from Adam, where would Adam's supremacy have been? And where would the tender closeness of relationship that such a companion needs have been? ... His exclamation clearly shows the joy with which he received her. It also shows that he saw the infinite wisdom that had provided him a partner and companion. She was distinct from him, and so the object of his affection and delight. Yet she was so mysteriously linked with his existence that she had once been part of himself.
Everything he ruled over had been a blank until this moment.
When he awoke out of sleep and saw standing by his side the fair one whom the Lord God, in His goodness, had provided for him, he exclaimed, "This is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh." The blank was now filled up. He had seen nothing till now to suit his heart.
In Hebrew the two words echo each other: Ishah (woman) taken out of Ish (man). No one had told Adam what God did while he slept, yet he knew at once. The writer below keeps the Hebrew words in an older rendering of the verse:
The woman now came to him as it were from God's own hand... "the man said, This time it is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh: this shall be called Ishah, for out of Ish was taken this." He knew at once how close and fitting this relationship was, though until then he had not known God's purpose. And he gave her a name that expressed the fact perfectly.
Naming her also placed her in a particular relation to him:
Note the intelligence of Adam and his knowledge of the mystery of the woman's creation... He gives her a name, but owns that she is part of himself. This time it is so, as the name itself shows — part of himself, yet subject to him.
She was not made the way Adam was made.
God formed the woman by His own hand. He did not take her from the dust of the ground, as He had taken Adam, but out of Adam himself. So the woman really was bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. Eve was the Creator's provision for Adam. God saw that Adam was incomplete while he was alone, and gave him a partner designed to meet exactly what he lacked. So in their marriage the two became one flesh, each completing the other.
The way God chose to make her, and the way He chose to record it, carries moral weight.
We all know how ready man has been to forget the truth — how often power takes advantage of what is right! God, for His part, chose to form woman, and to reveal how He formed her, in a way that should shame any man who recognises her as his own flesh and bone, yet slights or misuses so close a relationship.
This has something to say about every marriage since:
Adam's marriage is the pattern for the marriage of all his sons. In every true marriage, God arranges the union... Adam had no choice of brides; there was only one who would suit him, and God had prepared her especially for him.
Ephesians 5 takes Adam's words and applies them to Christ and the church. The order of cause and effect is worth noticing:
The relationship of husband and wife is not merely a convenient illustration. Ephesians 5 makes it clear that God modelled marriage on what He already had in His mind — the relationship of Christ and the church. In other words, God had the relationship of Christ and His church in mind in His eternal purpose, and only later, in time, did He institute marriage.
One writer warns against getting the link backwards:
The link is not between the Lord as Man and men in general. It was not true, as some say, that in becoming Man He became flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone. It is we, His people, who are flesh of His flesh and bone of His bone (Eph. 5:30). For this, too, death had to come in... It was in the deep sleep that fell on Adam — the image of that death-sleep — that Eve was taken out of his side.
- Alone. Adam alone was not good; his solitude left him incomplete, and nothing in creation could fill the gap.
- Out of him. God did not form her from dust, but from Adam himself. That origin makes the tie so close.
- Named by him. Ishah out of Ish — Adam read God's work at a glance and gave her a name that states the fact.
- Owed to her. A man who calls the woman his own flesh and bone, then slights or misuses her, stands condemned by this verse.
- Fulfilled in Christ. God modelled marriage on His eternal purpose. Through Christ's death-sleep, His people — not humanity at large — became flesh of His flesh.