Christians have reacted with fury after a religious academic suggested Eve was not made from Adam’s rib, but was instead formed using his penis.
The theory, put forward by revered biblical professor Ziony Zevit, suggests God made Eve from Adam’s baculum, or penis bone.
Professor Zevit said this explains why man has no baculum, unlike most mammals, and why men don’t have an uneven number of ribs compared to women Daily Mail reported.
To support his theory, Professor Zevit from the American Jewish University in Maryland said the Hebrew word ‘tsela’, taken from the Old Testament, does not translate as ‘rib’ and instead ‘refers to limbs sticking out sideways from an upright human body.’
The word ‘tzela’ or ‘tsela’ appears a number of times and in different contexts in the Old Testament, and Professor Zevit said this is what led translators astray.
He claims that the word was used for any part of anatomy protruding from the body, including feet, arms and penis.
‘Of these appendages, the only one lacking a bone is the penis,’ he explained in his book What Really Happened in the Garden of Eden?
Elsewhere, he added that Genesis 2:21, in which God closes the flesh beneath the ‘tsela’, refers to the flesh that exists on the underside of the penis.
However, according to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the theory is unlikely to be correct.
It is clear that the Genesis passage refers to something which Adam has many of, for example, which more closely fits the idea that Eve was made from a rib rather than a baculum.
In addition, the plural of ‘tzela’ – ‘tzlaot’ – would be a collective noun applicable for hands, feet and penises. But this doesn’t exist.
And indeed, similar rib stories appear in other ancient religions, such as in Sumer.
But the most significant counter argument is the fact that ‘tzela’ is still used in post-biblical Hebrew to mean ‘rib’.
A review of Professor Zevit’s book was recently published in The Biblical Archaeological Review magazine.
See Professor Zevit’s full theory below:
PROFESSOR ZEVIT’S PENIS THEORY
The theory, put forward by revered biblical professor Ziony Zevit, suggests God made Eve from Adam’s baculum, or penis bone.
To support his theory, Professor Zevit said the Hebrew word ‘tsela’, taken from the Old Testament, does not translate as ‘rib’ and instead ‘refers to limbs sticking out sideways from an upright human body.’
The word ‘tzela’ or ‘tsela’ appears a number of times and in different contexts in the Old Testament, and Professor Zevit said this is what led translators astray.
He claims that the word was used for any part of anatomy protruding from the body, including feet, arms and penis.
Professor Zevit said this explains why man has no baculum, unlike most mammals, and why men don’t have an uneven number of ribs compared to women.
Elsewhere, he added that Genesis 2:21, in which God closes the flesh beneath the ‘tsela’, refers to the flesh that exists on the underside of the penis.
Defending his theory, he wrote that his understanding of how Eve was formed is based on analysis of the use of Hebrew in the Garden story.