5 - Adam's rib
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 November 2009
Summary
THE CREATION OF WOMAN
And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept; and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
Genesis 2.21–2How ill did hee his Grammar skan
that call'd a Woman woe to man?
For (contrary) who doth not know,
Women from men receive their woe?
Yet love men too: but what's their gaines?
Poore Soules! But travaile for their paines:
Then let them all (in this) agree:
'Tis woe from man; if woe it bee.
William AustinIn the story of Eden, in the second chapter of Genesis, there was a recognition by God that it was desirable for man to have ‘an help meet for him’ (v. 18). The creatures made by God for this purpose, and named by Adam, were not suitable for this role. Thus, as his final creative act, God created woman. Adam called her woman ‘because she was taken out of Man’ (v. 23). And, after the Fall, he called her Eve ‘because she was the mother of all living’ (Genesis 3.20).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Adam and Eve in Seventeenth-Century Thought , pp. 143 - 172Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1999