What Does Genesis 1:27 Mean?

God causes a deep sleep to fall upon the man and takes one of his ribs, closing up the flesh. The making of the woman is entirely God's act, performed while the man is unconscious. No other creation involves this process: the taking from one creature to make another, the removal from inside the existing being to produce the new one. The woman is not made from the dust of the earth (as the man was) but from the man himself. The origin of the woman in the man's body establishes the intimacy of the connection that the man will celebrate when he sees her.

The rib, the Hebrew word tsela can also mean "side", has been the subject of much theological interpretation. What is clear from the text is that the material comes from inside the man, from close to his heart, from a part of him that is hidden under his outer form. The traditional reading emphasizes presence-beside: the woman is made from his side, to be beside him, as opposed to being made from his feet (to be beneath him) or from his head (to be above him). The placement of origin is the placement of relationship.

The healing of the man while unconscious is part of the miracle: God takes the rib and closes the wound, so that the man wakes with no injury but with the knowledge (when told) that something of him has become her. The creation of the woman from the man's body is the most intimate creative act in Genesis, the one in which the new being is made not from outside the creature but from within, not from the earth but from the creature itself. The woman's origin is the man; the man's completion is the woman.