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judge · 02-10-2011, 09:36 PM

I remember reading about a wordplay (?) around the biblical story of Adam and Eve, that shows that this story was not originally written in hebrew but rather another ANE language.
Does anyone know about this?

* Googling around I can find plenty of apologist sites claiming the opposite of this

but IIRC there is something deeper going on than the apologists recognise. I am just hazy about the precise details.
I think it might have had something to do with the Sumerian word for rib.

Toto · 02-10-2011, 09:56 PM

You might be thinking of the Sumerian word for rib

Eve

Quote:

Some hold ^[7] that the origin of this motif is the Sumerian myth in which the goddess Ninhursag created a beautiful garden full of lush vegetation and fruit trees, called Edinu, in Dilmun, the Sumerian earthly Paradise, a place which the Sumerians believed to exist to the east of their own land, beyond the sea. Ninhursag charged Enki, her lover and husband, with controlling the wild animals and tending the garden, but Enki became curious about the garden and his assistant, Adapa, selected seven plants and offered them to Enki, who ate them. (In other versions of the story he seduced in turn seven generations of the offspring of his divine marriage with Ninhursag). This enraged Ninhursag, and she caused Enki to fall ill. Enki felt pain in his rib, which is a pun in Sumerian, as the word "ti" means both "rib" and "life". The other gods persuaded Ninhursag to relent. Ninhursag then created a new goddess named Ninti, (a name made up of "Nin", or "lady", plus "ti", and which can be translated as both Lady of Living and Lady of the Rib), to cure Enki. Ninhursag is known as mother of all living creatures, and thus holds the same position in the story as does Eve. The story has a clear parallel with Eve's creation from Adam's rib^{[citation needed]}, but given that the pun with rib is present only in Sumerian, linguistic criticism places the Sumerian account as the more ancient.^{[citation needed]}

semiopen · 02-11-2011, 07:35 AM

The "rib" probably refers to the

Baculum.

Personally, this seems totally convincing, with rib not making any sense.

Almost all the animals the Israelites knew had a baculum. Man is unusual in not having one. Not knowing much about anatomy, maybe I'm wrong, but I'm not aware of any reasoning where rib makes sense - certainly the above quote is unconvincing.

Maybe there is some other reason to think it was in another language, but I doubt it is the one given.

02-10-2011, 09:36 PM	#1
judge Veteran Member Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Bli Bli Posts: 3,135	Adam and Eve wordplay showing story not originally in Hebrew? I remember reading about a wordplay (?) around the biblical story of Adam and Eve, that shows that this story was not originally written in hebrew but rather another ANE language. Does anyone know about this? * Googling around I can find plenty of apologist sites claiming the opposite of this but IIRC there is something deeper going on than the apologists recognise. I am just hazy about the precise details. I think it might have had something to do with the Sumerian word for rib.

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02-11-2011, 07:35 AM	#3
semiopen Veteran Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Hillsborough, NJ Posts: 3,551	The "rib" probably refers to the Baculum. Personally, this seems totally convincing, with rib not making any sense. Almost all the animals the Israelites knew had a baculum. Man is unusual in not having one. Not knowing much about anatomy, maybe I'm wrong, but I'm not aware of any reasoning where rib makes sense - certainly the above quote is unconvincing. Maybe there is some other reason to think it was in another language, but I doubt it is the one given.

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