Fun fact: the whole notion of Eve being made from one of Adam’s “ribs” is actually a (probably intentional) mistranslation.
In the original Hebrew, Eve is made from one of Adam’s “tsela”, which is a Hebrew word that means “half”. This same word appears dozens more times throughout the Bible, and nowhere else but this one story in Genesis is it ever translated as “rib”.
And of course, if the original author had meant ‘rib’, they could have just written that, because ancient Hebrew had a word for rib: alah.
But if Eve was really made from “half” of Adam, then that puts man and woman on equal footing, and we definitely can’t have that… so later scribes made sure to translate that feature out of the original story.
I wonder how religious people reconcile their beliefs with things like this. Are the mistranslations interventions from God too?
A mistranslation isn’t an intervention from God, they exist because humans (and the Bible) aren’t infallible. The Bible is a document made by hundreds of authors over hundreds of years leading to countless interpretations- this is why theologians exist, this is why there are different sects of Jews and Christians, etc.
The story of Adam and Eve is another example of the patriarchy as represented in the Bible. But the two of them are also described as being of “one body”- one cannot exist without the other- which implies some equality. It’s a contradictory statement and the Bible is full of them.
Many theologians would also argue that contradictions like this aren’t a mistake. God is a being beyond human comprehension, and his message can’t be written down one to one. An overarching theme of the Bible is that the only way to come close to God and find his message is through other people. You have to go out there and love your neighbor.
If we take the family structure presented in the bible literally. The woman is subservient to the man in marriage, but the man is also supposed to give the entirety of himself to his wife. Making a scenario where the wife is serving the husband and the husband is always working to improve the life of the wife.
Yeah I really want to see like a queer theologians perspective on this idea though. The Bible talks a lot about man and woman and how they have to be together, but I wonder how you apply this to modern day. My gut response is that when the Bible was being written, the idea of gender and long-term non hetero relationships weren’t a thing. But I know there had to have been some people nonconforming to gender even if they weren’t explicitly thinking along those lines and some sort of non-hetero relationships that went beyond married men having boy lovers.
The short answer is you don’t. Leviticus says you shall not lay with a man as you lay with a woman, usually interpreted as marriage. Corinthians takes it a little farther by saying all homosexuals will not inherit the kingdom of God.