So, where did Eve come from?  We know that she was the wife of Adam from the time she came into the world.  But really, where did she come from?  Our usual explanation is that she was made from a rib taken from Adam.  The Hebrew word here (beitzah) may not actually mean rib.  It may mean only a bone of some sort.  It may only mean a non-specific “part.”  In any event, it is clear that something was taken from Adam, so that Eve could be given to him as his spouse.  But let’s look a bit deeper.

One question that we might consider is whether the part that was taken from Adam was a “regular” part of the man.  For example, if God did take a rib from Adam to make Eve, then did He supernaturally replace that rib?  We really don’t know, nor does the text help us a whole lot.  Other than the possible translation of beitzah into rib, we cannot identify the part in question.  Then, there is the question of the method of removal.  How did God remove the part?  We know that He opened Adam up in some manner.  Whatever the manner was, it was not fatal.

Do you think Adam was simply born with an extra rib on one side?  In that case, God would open that side of the man and take out the rib.  Then, He would see to it that the wound healed properly, and Adam would thereafter have the same number of ribs on each side.

But if God was going to take out the rib, and knew so at the moment of Adam’s creation, couldn’t it be that the “part” was something other than a rib?  What if the “spare part” were something that Adam did not need to begin with?  What if it contained what was needed to make the woman but was not something that Adam would need to continue a normal life as a man?  One possibility is: when God created Adam, He included in Adam’s living flesh some component, spare rib or otherwise, that He would eventually remove to make the woman.

God always knew He would make the woman at the particular point in time at which He did so.  To propose otherwise is to suggest that the making of Eve was an afterthought – something to rescue the creation.  That is equivalent to our other “rescue” proposals; all of which are insults to the sovereignty of God.  God has never needed to rescue His plan.  Everything has gone according to His plan.  Therefore the making of the woman was known before God rolled up dirt to create the man.  That settled, God could easily place into the man (at the time of creation) whatever He was to take from the man to make the woman.  To be clear, when God decided the time had come to put the man into the world (the sixth day), He already had in His plan that the woman would be put into the world to be the companion to the man.  He also already knew that the woman would not be created as the man had been, but would be brought forth in a different manner.  Finally, He also knew how He would make the woman.  These things were not matters of chance any more than they were a desperate rescue effort.  All of this was part of the plan known in the Godhead before the “beginning.”

All that being so, could God not have then placed into the living flesh of the man that which He would use to produce a woman for the man?  Hint: of course He could. It might have been a “regular” part (such a rib) that He would then supernaturally restore to the man.  It might have been an extra something (like an extra rib) that He would take out and then heal the wound.  It might have been some other something “extra” already set aside in the mind of God to become the woman.

What is interesting is that whatever the nature of the source of the woman, it was built into the man for the purposes of God.  Into the man, then, God created a specific place where there was a specific living substance purposed by God.  That specific living substance deposited in that specific place by God was what He needed to make the woman.  It was, veritably, the seed from which the woman was to be made.  The seed was in the place in which it was to be kept until the time came for its emergence.

When He removed that something from the flesh of Adam and made the woman, that something was no longer in the flesh of Adam.  Nor was the place in which it had resided ever to be needed again.  The “wound” was closed and healed.  This sounds a whole lot like a birth.  Can it be that Eve was taken from a temporary “womb” initially created in Adam for the purposes of God?