bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man." (Genesis 2, 21-23). And, again, in Genesis 5, verses 1 and 2, "...In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created" (Writer's emphasis) (King James Version of the Holy Bible).
In the first account Adam, the man, is created from dust; and Eve, the woman, is derived, not from the dust from which Adam was spawned, but from Adam himself. In the second account, God creates Adam as both male and female - an androgyne, in other words. It is important to point out that this is not just a conclusion arrived at by the writer, but is an opinion shared by many Bible exegesists. Some Kabbalists have gone as far as to explain that this Adam, like some gigantic amoeba, eventually "split" to
engender the two separate sexes, and was unable to reproduce humankind until this division had occurred. The "rib" version may be a more cosmetic, and thus more
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