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OLDSTER - I have a question regarding Adam and Eve. Catholic and Protestants have all indicated that the rib was removed because it says so. When the Bible states that God knew Adam was alone, he wanted Adam not to be alone. So it says he took a rib from Adam to make Woman. Now what I'm wondering is if He really and physically removed a rib? Or is that a figment or indication of what really transpired? Like to "remove a rib" is just a way of saying something else. So what is the true meaning of the rib being removed from Adam? Did it really happen?
JOEL - First of all one of my Adam and Eve jokes:
"At Sunday School they were teaching how God created everything, including human beings. Little Johnny seemed especially intent when they told him how Eve was created out of one of Adam's ribs. Later in the week his mother noticed him lying down as though he were ill, and said, Johnny what is the matter? Little Johnny responded, "I have a pain in my side. I think I'm going to have a wife." :-)
So according to the scriptures and the Prophets we know that the Creation and the Fall did occur and that Adam and Eve were real people, but all the other elements of the story-the serpent, the tree, the fruit, the rib story-all are symbols according to Church leaders.
Spencer W. Kimball, for instance, as president of the Church, stated that the rib story was figurative (Spencer W. Kimball, "The Blessings and Responsibilities of Womanhood," Ensign, Mar. 1976, p. 71.)
According to elder Bruce R. McConkie, this Mosaic account is merely figurative and Eve was placed on the earth in the same manner as was Adam. (Mormon Doctrine, p. 242)
Brigham Young, Joseph Smith, Joseph Fielding Smith, and others stated that Adam and Eve's bodies were engendered and born by natural means and that they were placed in Eden as adult beings.
Here are a couple of quotes from Brigham Young:
"Numerous are the scriptures which I might bring to bear upon the subject of the personality of god. I shall not take time to quote them on this occasion but will content myself by quoting two passages in the 1st chapter of genesis 26th and 27th verses.
And god said let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So god created man in his or image in the image of god created he him male and female created he them.I believe that the declaration made in these two scriptures is literally true. God has made his children like himself to stand erect and has endowed them with intelligence and power and dominion over all his works and given them the same attributes which he himself possesses. He created man as we create our children for there is no other process of creation in heaven on the earth in the earth or under the earth or in all the eternities that is that were or that ever will be." (Journal of Discourses 11:122)
"Here let me state to all philosopahers of every class upon the earth. when you tell me that father Adam was made as we make adobies from the earth. You tell me what I deem an idle tale when you tell me that the beasts of the field were produced in that manner. You are speaking idle words devoid of meaning. There is no such thing in all the eternities. Where the gods dwell mankind are here because they are the offspring of parents who were first brought here from another planet and power was given them to propagate their species and they were commanded to multiply and replenish the earth." (Journal of Discourses 7:285-286)
Joseph Smith is quoted as saying:
"Now regarding Adam: He came here from another planet, an immortalized Being, and brought his wife Eve with him, and by eating of the fruit of this earth, became subject to death and decay. . . was made mortal and subject to death." - (Prophet Joseph Smith, Jr., as recorded by Anson Call and copied by Patriarch John Whitmer)
The scriptures tell us that God made Adam's body from dust of this earth(Morm. 9: 17, D&C 77: 12, Moses 3: 7), and placed him in the Garden of Eden as an immortal being with flesh and bone (no blood). The book of Moses states that Adam's children were also created from the dust of the earth (see Moses 6:59). According to the scriptures we know that Adam and Eve gave birth to them naturally. The same expression (dust) used to describe the bodily creation of Adam's children was used to describe the creation of Adam's body. Adam is also spoken of as being the "son of God" (Moses 6:22). So is it possible that Adam and Eve's immortal bodies were formed somewhere by immortal heavenly parents in a similar fashion that Adam and Eve created their own children?
Elder Parley P. Pratt taught it is apparent that when it comes to the question of the origin of life on earth there are certain hidden elements within the creation story. The scriptures state that Adam was created "from the dust of the ground." But this need not imply that he was formed by bringing the elements of the earth together arbitrarily, as man would form a brick. So also did each of Adam's children become, by physical birth, "of dust a living soul." Conception and birth constituted the process by which they were thus organized. The same was true of Adam, although he was not a mortal being when he was placed in the garden. (Pratt, Key to Theology, pp. 49-50.)
So according to all this information Adam and Eve's bodies were perhaps conceived and born somewhere else and brought to this earth, meaning that Eve was not literally made from one of Adam's ribs.
This idea that Adam and Eve were brought from another Planet should not be considered "official" church doctrine; it may simply be the opinion of a few early church leaders. Because this is not better explained in scripture it should probably be considered speculation or opinion.
Eve coming from the rib of Adam is considered symbolic of her role as a companion to the man. She is to stand at the side of man to be the joint-inheritor with him in receiving a celestial reward.
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