The random stuff from X thread

I think to quibble over it is entirely too myopic for the genesis creation story.

I was never taught that the rib was literal or that if it were it was to suggest that a woman was somehow less. Then again, I was always taught that the fulfillment of Eve, in Mary, is the highest and most beautiful of all of God's creation. She is the mother of God and was given to me by Jesus to be my own mother in the order of grace.

I can see if you grew up in a Protestant or especially southern American variant of it you might have a more literalistic interpretation. It would be necessarily closed to any of the larger understandings of the text due to a much more constricted and minimalist view of Mary. This would be in contrast to the early thinking of the Church. We can see in second century writings the connection between Eve and Mary aligned with Adam and Jesus.

I guess it's possible to say that English translations intended a condescension toward woman by using the word rib rather than side. But there's lots of stuff like this where English doesn't quite get the full meaning without necessarily contradicting. I'm just not sure it's fruitful or accurate to read into it cynicism.


I spent many years in a religious run school. I was taught God used one of Adam's ribs to create women.

Your experience is 180 degrees out of anything I've ever heard from a member of church. I was beaten and told I was going to hell just for existing for the first 5 years of my education.

It has made me realize that all men are false prophets and that God exists inside me directing me more ably than any human can begin to comprehend.