The creation of Eve from the rib of Adam is a well-known biblical myth, which claims that a man was created from the dust of the earth in the image and likeness of God, and a woman is only a part of his side. However, modern historians, studying the original texts of the Old Testament, provide evidence that a certain linguistic error crept into this interpretation. Adam's wife was not created from his rib, but from a completely different bone.
The bone that is gone
In the chapter “Creation of the World. Adam and Eve”says:“… And the Lord God created a woman from a rib taken from a man, and brought her to a man. And the man said, Behold, this is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she will be called a wife, for she was taken from her husband …”(Old Testament. Bible) If we proceed from the reliability of a divine source, then it should be assumed that from that time all men on earth were to be born without one rib. Many people who are familiar with biblical literature, but have never touched on biology, even believe that this is actually the case.
But, normally, both men and women have 12 pairs of ribs and rarely any deviations are found. Moreover, in all adults and healthy people, regardless of gender, 206 bones are involved in the structure of the skeleton. And yet, all anthropologists in the world call another bone, which was 207 in a row about 1.9 million years ago, but was found only in men. Bakulum is a calcium-cartilaginous formation in the connective tissue of the penis, still present in males of very many animals, and, in particular, in most primates. But where is this?
Translation is inaccurate
In 2015, biblical analyst Zioni Zevit, professor at the American Jewish University in Bel Air, California, together with a group of linguists from the founder of the Biblical Archaeological Society in the United States, Herschel Shanks, announced a new reading of this section of the Old Testament chapter.
Promotional video:
Scholars argue that the word "rib" in canonical Bible translations does not accurately reflect the Hebrew and Aramaic sources. In the texts, during the translation and census, an error arose, during which the word for a stick, a bone, was translated as a misfortune. While in Hebrew, which did not have the word penis, this very stick-bone was called bakulum (animals). Linguists also cite variants that the ancient Hebrew word "tsela", which is usually translated as a rib, actually means the foreskin of the penis. At the same time, German scientists specializing in the languages of ancient Sumer also believe that the story with the "woman of the rib" is an old mistake of translators.
Analyzing the texts of some Sumerian myths in different ancient languages, they came to the conclusion that in the original source the phrase "a woman from a rib who was given life" was translated incorrectly. German historian, anthropologist and linguist, Professor Ragnar Borsheim, claims that the actual reading of this phrase is "a woman for a rib (baculum) giving life." And although this relates to the pagan Middle Eastern myth, and not to Christian literature, the same words and phrases were used in the writing and further translation of the Old Testament texts, but their exact meaning was lost.