By Roy B. Blizzard
The following brief article was written by Dr. Roy Blizzard, President of Bible Scholars, Inc., addressing the featured article in the September/October 2015 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review magazine, titled "Was Eve Made from Adam's Rib – Or His Baculum?" written by Ziony Zevit. Zevit's article suggests that the word "tsela" refers to the os penis or baculum. As a result, I propose a different possibility which is both textually and physiologically possible since it is well-known that Homo Sapiens have never possessed a baculum.
I would like to say a few words in response to an article from the September/October 2015 issue of Biblical Archaeological Review written by Ziony Zevit: Was Eve Made from Adam's Rib—Or His Baculum? This article was not Zevit's first suggestion that the word "tzela", in Genesis 2:21 was a reference to Adam's baculum. The suggestion appeared in the American Journal of Medical Genetics 101 (3:284-5) written along with S. F. Gilbert in 2001. In November of 2012, Suzanne Harvey published an article in UCL entitled "How did Man Lose his Penis Bone?" In both instances there is the assumption that man at one time possessed an os penis or baculum in the first place. There is no anthropological evidence of Homo Sapiens ever possessing an os penis nor does the allegory in Genesis 2 suggest this. In humans the penis is haemodynamic, which means that erection is achieved by blood pressure, whereas in animals with the penis bone, blood pressure pushes the os penis into place to achieve erection which increases the potential duration with which intercourse occurs—as well as the frequency. Many people are unaware that many animals possess a penis bone in view of the fact that humans have never possessed an os penis. In the many thousands of skeletal remains of Homo Sapien Sapien that have been excavated over the past several centuries, no human skeleton has been discovered possessing the remains of an os penis.
In the twelfth century mosaic that appeared on pages 32 and 33 used to illustrate Zevit's article we notice very clearly the artist depicts Eve exiting from Adam's right side. In Hebrew the text reads in Genesis 2:21-22 that "the Lord caused a deep sleep to come upon Adam and while he slept he took 'achat metzalotav' ". According to Brown, Driver, Briggs, page 854 the word tzela, a feminine noun, can be translated as a side chamber or a cell (6763). According to Bereishis Volume 1 Art Scroll Tanach Series published by Mesorah page 108: "And he took one of his sides", although the word is commonly rendered as one of his ribs, the commentators are nearly unanimous in translating tzalotav as one of his "sides." Hirsch observes that the singular word tzela never appears elsewhere in scripture as a "rib" but always as a "side". Although rib is indeed a translation of the word tzela, nowhere is there any justification to translate it as an os penis.
It is both interesting and important to note that both the Hebrew text and Jewish commentators emphasize that the man and the woman were in exact likeness, one to another and being created directly by God were in equal likeness to Him. (Hirsch). "Unlike man, the material for a woman's body was not taken from the earth. God built one side of man into woman so that the single human being, now became two. Thereby the complete equality of man and woman was irrefutably demonstrated." Ibid 108. The Midrash derives from the fact that since only in Hebrew, man and woman (ish/isha) are phonetically similar, this proves that the language used at the time of creation was the holy tongue. [Hebrew] (Rashi) Ibid 110. Ramban explains: "She is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh and therefore all the creatures to whom I have given names she alone is worthy of being called by the same name as mine." Ibn Ezra declares "Let them comport themselves with one another as if they were one entity. Let them once again be as Adam and Eve originally were: of one body." Ibid 111. Rashi interprets that the Torah informs us here that both were created on the 6th day, while the details of their creation were expanded on later. According to the Midrash, man was created with two panim, faces, i.e. male and female halves—and afterwards he divided them. The word panim, faces, also means outlook, approach, perspective. There are two facets to a concept and the original man contained a duality which was later separated into male and female, each with its own personality and outlook (Harav Gifter). Ibid 72.
All this seems all the more interesting in view of the fact that we know today scientifically that just one single cell contains all the necessary ingredients to make an exact duplication in kind that we call a clone. Additionally, from a physiological perspective every fetus starts out as a female. It is not until the ninth week in a fetus possessing the XY chromosome that the fetal brain signals the gonads to start producing the male hormone, testosterone, thereby beginning its journey towards maleness. As the fetus continues to develop, the two sides of what would have been the female vagina, come together forming the male scrotum including the scar-like line known as the "perineal raphe". It is my studied opinion that this scar has absolutely nothing to do with the "closing of the flesh" after the removal of the baculum. It would seem to me to make much more sense and to be scientifically correct to translate tzela as cell or side and to dispense with the idea of an os penis or baculum or for that matter, rib.
