There is a thinking abroad among some evangelical Christians that questions the historical reality of the biblical record concerning the origin of Adam and Eve. This questioning about the origin of the human race has broad implications.
The biblical record of the origin of Adam is quite straightforward. “The Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature” (Gen. 2:7). The first man had his origin from the dust of the ground. The point at which the man became a living creature, he was man in all his glory as man, made in the image of God.
But what about Eve? Where did she come from? Adam must have had a startling awakening after his deep sleep. Where did this lovely companion originate?
One view of her origin might suggest that Adam could have sensed that he had a vague recollection of her. For according to this view, Eve had already existed among the female hominids associating with Adam while he was a male hominid. God had selected him from the multiple hominids that had evolved from more primitive forms of living beings. Then God favored him so that he became the first hominid to have a “soul.” In this new status, he became the first “Man” that was then appropriately called “Adam.”
But God noted that it was not good for the Man to be alone. So he brought all the other living creatures for Adam to categorize by giving them appropriate designations. Presumably in this view, Adam must have titled the creatures who were just like him in their bodily form but without souls with a word equivalent to our current “hominid.” But none of these other creatures living on the earth at that time were suitable as a mate for Adam.
What did God do to solve this problem? From this particular viewpoint, it may be supposed God chose one of the female hominids that had evolved from lower forms of animal life and favored her with a soul so that she became the first “woman.” Adam later named her “Eve,” for she became the mother of all the living (Gen. 3:20).
This view represents a current effort to blend the Bible with modern science to make the origin of Adam and Eve more believable. Instead of treating the biblical report as an authentic historical record of how Eve actually originated, this view attempts to accommodate the biblical testimony to what may appear to be a more plausible view of Eve’s origin.
But what does the Bible say about the origin of Eve, and why should its report be believed? When speaking of the Bible’s testimony about any subject, the witness of both the Old Testament and the New Testament Scriptures must be considered. Not only the report in Scripture of what actually happened, but the testimony of the significance of that reported event must be brought under consideration. From this perspective, consider the testimony of the origin of Eve as it appears in both the Old and New Testaments. Review the testimony of three major figures in Scripture: Moses, Jesus and Paul. Jesus the Christ is of course absolutely unique as the Son of God and our one and only Savior. But both Moses and Paul stand high among the servants of the Lord in the Old Testament and the New.
I. Moses
Under the direct inspiration of God’s Holy Spirit, Moses wrote two reports of Creation. In Genesis 1, he provided the larger picture of God’s creation of the entire universe in which humanity resides. This great creative work that embraced the starry heavens and the seashore’s sands climaxed with the special counsel of the triune Godhead: “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness…in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Gen. 1:26, 27).
In Genesis 2, Moses records the creation of man in greater detail. Already it has been noted that Scripture records a special act in the creation of the first man. Formed from dust, God breathed into his nostrils, and the well-shaped inanimate being first came to life.
But what about Eve? Where did she come from?
The Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep, and took one of his ribs. “Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and brought her to the man” (Gen. 2:22).
How does the man respond to the presentation of this utterly amazing being?
“This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘Woman,’
for she was taken out of ‘Man’”
A bone from the inmost recesses of the man’s body. Almost certainly a bone with sinews and flesh attached, for Adam declares that this is not only “bone of my bones,” but also “flesh of my flesh.” Not a bleached-white skeletal bone, but a bone with living flesh remaining. From that flesh-covered bone the LORD God “built” a woman, and brought her to the man (Gen. 2:22). God “built” the woman—that’s the actual word. Just as a person might “build” a house after much thought and with great care, so the LORD God carefully framed every aspect of the woman.
How does Moses explain the significance of this origin of Eve?
“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,
and they will become one flesh” (Gen. 2:24).
The union of a man and a woman is a “great mystery,” one that can hardly be fathomed because of its depth. Body and soul, flesh and spirit become one in a union that exceeds human imagination. Once wed in the intimacies of marriage, they continue by God’s creative design as one. Even when separated across oceans and continents, they still are one.
Why? Because of the origin of Eve. She was not taken from the dust as Adam, though she too is made of dust. She came “out of” the man, from his bone and from his flesh.
That is the testimony of Moses.
II. Jesus
Jesus Christ is your Lord, the Son of God, the Savior of sinners. He is the Word who made all things. By him and for him all things exist. Jesus obviously knows the origin of Adam and Eve. He knows where they came from.
Does Jesus say anything about the origin of Eve?
Jesus responds to a query that seeks to find a way to justify the dissolution of the union of a man and a woman who have married. “Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for any reason?” (Matt. 19:3; Mark 10:2). To answer the question, Jesus points to Scripture. As the Son of God, he could have made his own pronouncement on the subject. But instead, he lets the written word of God speak. Always it’s the Bible that provides the final answer to the hard questions. “Have you not read,” he says. Have you not read the very first two chapters of the Bible?
Jesus first quotes Genesis 1:27. The Creator at the beginning “made them male and female” (Matt. 19:4a; Mark 10:6). That statement from Scripture should have been enough to answer their question about a man’s sending away his wife. God in his good purpose made male and female so that they fit together perfectly as partners. A separation of a male and a female that have been united in the intimacy of marriage violates the clear purpose of God in creation.
But Jesus adds another statement from Scripture. Now he quotes from Genesis 2, the more detailed account of God’s creation of humanity. Jesus quotes Moses who recorded the following statement, “For this reason” a man shall “leave” and “be joined to” his wife (Mark 10:7; Matt. 19:5, quoting Gen. 2:24). Moses’ words as quoted by Jesus begin with the phrase, “for this reason.”
For what reason? The previous verse in Genesis gives the answer. Because the woman was taken “out of” the man, because the woman consists of the bone and flesh of the man, the two shall become one. As Adam said,
“This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘Woman’
because she was taken out of ‘Man’” (Gen. 2:23).
The phrase translated “for this reason” (ἕνεκεν τούτου) occurs only once in the whole of the New Testament, in Mark 10:7 as Jesus quotes from the Greek version of Genesis 2:24. An alternative spelling of this same phrase (ἕνεκα τούτου) also occurs only once in the New Testament, recording the same quotation by Jesus of Genesis 2:24 in Matthew 19:4. By this distinctive phrase, Jesus refers back to the preceding verse in Genesis to explain the intimacy of the bond of husband and wife. The woman was “bone of (his) bones,” “flesh of (his) flesh,” taken “out of” the man. “For this reason” a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife. The form ἕνεκεν τούτου (“for this reason”-Mark 10:7) occurs only 3 times in the Old Testament, and the alternative form of Matthew 19:5 (“for this reason” ἕνεκa τούτου) occurs only 14 times in the Old Testament. By contrast, the more common “therefore” (οὖν) occurs 136 times in the Greek version of the Old Testament and 499 times in the New Testament. The scarcity of the phrase “for this reason” (ἕνεκεν τούτου ) that opens Gen. 2:24 and its exclusiveness in the New Testament, occurring only in Mark 10:7 and Matthew 19:5 as Jesus quotes Gen. 2:24, indicates that Jesus intended his hearers to think back to Gen. 2:23 as providing the reason for the profound unity of marriage and the inappropriateness of separating from a spouse.
Jesus appeals to the very same reason as Moses. Because the union of man and woman reaches the most intimate level imaginable of being “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh,” putting away a wife is like dismissing your own flesh and bones. Because of the profound unity in marriage established by the manner of God’s creating Eve out of the body of Adam, God the Creator must be seen as the Great Uniter of man and woman in marriage. Jesus concludes:
“What therefore God has yoked together,
let no man separate” (Matt. 19:6; Mark 10:9).
By pointing back to “bone of my bones” and “flesh of my flesh” that were taken out of man, Jesus grounds his teaching on the unity of marriage and the wrongness of divorce on the way God created Eve, the first woman.
Is it then appropriate to regard the Genesis narrative concerning the creation of Eve as a myth, or as something less than a trustworthy record of what actually happened? Is our assurance of the profound unity created in marriage and the wrongness of divorce resting on a fable, a myth, or some other literary device, even though our Lord himself grounds his teaching on the record of events as recorded in Scripture?
It would be far more appropriate to accept the teaching of Jesus on the firm basis of the historical reality and trustworthiness of the biblical record. Only objective truth as stated in Scripture and affirmed by Jesus has the strength to stand against the constant assaults of an unbelieving world seeking to justify its errant ways.
III. Paul
First Moses. Then Jesus. Now Paul.
Do you believe the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, as originally given, to be the inerrant Word of God, the only infallible rule of faith and practice?
Paul did.
If you are an ordained ruling elder, a teaching elder, or a deacon, you have taken a public vow in response to that very question. Whether or not you read the Scriptures in the original languages of Hebrew and Greek, you are committed to faith in these documents as the verbally inspired, infallible and inerrant Word of God.
Paul the Apostle states significant truths succinctly. The preciseness of the Greek language fit him perfectly. Several passages in Paul may be described as a “theology of prepositions.” Those tiny words convey God’s truth with precision, including truth about such large subjects as the role of the trinity both in creation and redemption. Look closely at Paul’s treatment of the origin of Eve at creation and her resulting relation to Adam.
In the matter of Eve’s origin, note these verses, particularly in terms of their prepositions.
For man was not made out of woman (ek plus genitive),
but woman was made out of man (ek plus genitive) (1 Cor. 11:8).
Also, the man was not created for the woman (dia plus accusative),
But the woman was created for the man (dia plus accusative) (1 Cor. 11:9).
For just as woman was made out of man (ek plus genitive),
so also the man is made by means of the woman (dia plus genitive).
But all things are out of God (ek plus genitive) (1 Cor. 11:12).
Three times Paul makes his point about the origin of Eve. The woman at creation was brought into being “out of” the man and “for” the man. God did not form her from the dust, as in the case of the man. Instead, he made her from the substance that he had taken out of the man.
Did God take a pre-existing creature, a female hominid that was the product of an evolutionary process, to make Eve? Paul specifically echoes the process of the creation of the woman as recorded by Moses. To fulfill his purposes of binding together the man and the woman in the most intimate possible relationship, God took internal substance, the rib, “out of” the man. Then from that substance taken “out of” the man, he “built” with greatest skill a “helper corresponding to” the man (Gen. 2:18, 22).
Paul introduces this discussion that includes the question of the origin of Eve by noting that “the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God” (1 Cor. 11:3). Headship structures follow an order: from God to Christ to the man to the woman. Our modern world may express their concern over the idea that in God’s order the man is head over the woman. But God’s order reaches well beyond the relation of man to woman. Even in the trinity of the godhead, God the Father functions as head over Christ the Son. If the Son functions fully in his sonship under the headship of the Father, then the woman will experience the fulness of her womanhood under the headship of the man. The fact that at creation the woman was taken “out of” the man provides the basis for Paul’s understanding of headship structure in the relation of man to woman.
In view of the far-reaching consequences of the origin of Eve “out of” the body of Adam, would it be appropriate to conclude that Paul, writing words verbally inspired by the Holy Spirit, was following some form of a mythological concept in his report that Eve was made “out of” Adam? Was Paul wrong in his report of Eve’s origin, and consequently did he err by appealing to an improper basis for the headship of the man in relation to the woman?
Let us trust that what was reported in the Old Testament and confirmed in the New Testament is truth. Let us bring our thinking and our lives into conformity with the truth as it is found in Scripture. Only then will we find ourselves free—free to function in our fulness as men and women, made and remade in the image of our Creator and Redeemer.
Conclusion
What conclusion may be reached regarding the biblical testimony of the origin of Eve? What are the consequences of that conclusion?
According to Moses, God the Creator took the rib of Adam along with its flesh and crafted Eve as a helper corresponding to the man. Equal to the man in every way as a full image-bearer of God himself, the Lord designed her to be his helper. By the process he used in the creation of the woman, God established an intimate union between man and woman in marriage that should not be broken. What God has united, let not man divide.
According to Jesus our Lord, because the woman was taken out of the man and came into existence as bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife. The “great mystery” of union in marriage has its deepest roots in the woman’s origin “out of” the man. The inappropriateness of divorce finds its reason in the same truth. By forming the original woman “out of” the man, God determined that any separation of man and woman violates his created intent for their abiding union. Any denial of the origin of Eve as coming “out of” the body of Adam undercuts the Scriptural foundation for the profound unity of man and woman in marriage. At the same time, this denial of Eve’s origin “out of” the body of Adam opens the door to the dissolution of the marriage relationship by divorce.
According to Paul the Apostle, the headship structure of family and church find their basis in the origin of Eve at creation. Much of the social disorder in our current society, church and home results from a failure of humanity in general and God’s people in particular to appreciate the headship structures imbedded in this world by the distinctive process of God’s creation of both man and woman. An acceptance of the relationship of man and woman inherent in the order of creation will bring blessing, peace and good fruit throughout this needful world.