Mistranslation

All right, so let's talk about one of the craziest mistranslations in the entire history of the Bible. So, everybody knows the story about how Eve was created out of Adam's rib, right? God puts Adam to sleep, then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.

Here's the problem. If you check the Hebrew, the word for rib appears nowhere in the entire verse. The word that's being translated as rib is that word right over there, sa. Now, here's the thing. Nowhere in the Bible does the word sa ever mean rib. It doesn't even refer to a part of the body. Okay?

So what does it mean? Well, bam, the answer's right here in Exodus. When the Israelites build the temple and in particular build the ark of the covenant, so they have to put two rings on one side of the ark of the covenant and two rings on the other side of the ark of the covenant. The word for side there is also sa. The word sa is an architectural term and it means one half of something or one side of a structure.

And by the way, the Bible knows that sata is an architectural term. How do I know? Because the very next verse in Genesis says that God took that sale and he made it into a woman and brought her to the man. Okay. So that word for made is actually vivven which comes from the root banana which means to build. To build is an architectural term for example right here in the tower of babel. Come let us build ourselves a city in a tower. The word for build that's right banana. The very same word as in Genesis.

All right. So let's put it all together. What God actually does is he splits Adam right down the middle into two equal sas into two equal halves. One remains man and the other is woman. And the goal of a covenantal relationship is to unite those two equal halves together in love and in service to God. That's the kind of relationship we should be looking for.

I had to go do some homework on this one before I was able to make my comments count. Uh because Hebrew is not my best subject. And we've got a local scholar here, Dr. Pagan Camper. And what I learned from Dr. pagan camper is that that term side is a faithful translation of this verse. In fact, rib is also a plausible way to translate it for some different reasons.

Here's what I'd say I like about this guy's uh spin on this is that there is the idea of the two becoming one flesh later on again in Genesis. And there really is this idea of a reconnecting between halves that have been alienated from one another. When God says he wants to make a helper suitable, that word is ezardo, meaning two halves that are opposite and facing each other. So, it's a help opposite.

And my experience in marriage and my experience in counseling people that are married is that we were designed for each other. And to have an origin story that says we actually both came from the same body and we yearn for each other is common to the experience of humanity. We will not fully express and experience the whole uh image of God unless we are together male and female. Because when God created us, it was male and female. Men and women, we need each