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Question 67

Hi, Father Christopher! If we go back to the Genesis story of creation, we read that Eve was created out of a rib of Adam. Why was Eve created in that specific manner and not the same way as Adam? Also, since she was made from Adam's rib, doesn't that possibly mean that she was somehow related to Adam since in a sense she was made from a body part of his?    

 

 

Answer to Question 67

 

God created man as a special creation like no other creation. First he created Adam from the dust and breathed into him the breath of life. If Eve was made from the dust like Adam, she also would be another special creation, but would be different from Adam and would not have any connection to Adam. Adam is the source of mankind and if Eve was created as a separate creation she also would be a source of mankind. Eve was taken out of man so in reality Eve is Adam and all their descendants are Adam. We are all Adam. The fathers say that God didn't take a bone from Adam's head neither from Adam's foot which could have been interpreted that woman is above man or a slave to man, God fashioned Eve from Adam's rib to show that man and woman are equal standing side by side. 

 

In the salvation plan one man caused the fall and Christ the New-man brought salvation. Also as Eve is the bride of Adam created from a bone of his side, the Church is the bride of Jesus created from his side when he was pierced with the spear and henceforth poured out Blood and Water, symbolizing the two mysteries of salvation; Baptism and the Holy Eucharist. 

 

Having created Eve from Adam's rib, God then brings her before Adam. When the animals were presented before him so that he could name them, Adam noticed that none of the species resembled himself, but now when Eve is presented to him he immediately recognizes that she is the same as himself and says: "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of her man." Adam is prophetically instigating the future bond of marriage and continues saying: "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall be joined unto his wife: and they two shall become one flesh." One flesh refers not only to the sexual union of man and woman, but also to the fruit of this union; a child which is one flesh from two.