Flesh of My Flesh

And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.
-- Genesis 2: 23 (KJV)

In this passage Adam addresses woman, God's newest creation. Adam, whom God has permitted to name his creatures, lavishes several impassioned epithets on her -- among them "bone of my bones" and "flesh of my flesh."

"Bone of my bones" is accurate enough; as Genesis has already told us, God shaped woman from one of Adam's ribs. But a bone is all he uses, so "flesh of my flesh" -- the more oft-quoted of these phrases -- is just one of Adam's fancies. He probably couldn't have known any better, since he was in a deep sleep during the whole operation.

Equally misguided is the formal name Adam bestows on this charming new creature -- "Woman," or ishsha in Hebrew -- because, he explains, "she was taken out of Man [ish]." Actually, the similarity in names is only a pun, having no basis in Hebrew etymology. The English translation works better, since the word "woman" does derive from "man" -- actually from "wife of man" (the oldest form is wifmon). Even so, "woman" does not imply "taken out of man." One wonders how many other creatures Adam misnamed.

 
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Michael Macrone is Associate Site Producer of GraceCom and the author of nine books on language, literature, and ideas, including the best-selling Brush Up Your Shakespeare!