2:19 God formed. A better, and quite legitimate, translation is “had formed.” Thus there is no contradiction with the order of creation in Genesis 1 (animals before man). The first chapter of Genesis gives a summary of the events on all six days of creation; the second chapter provides more details of certain events of the sixth day.

2:19 the name thereof. The animals named by Adam included only birds, domesticable animals, and the smaller wild animals that would live near him. It would be possible for him to name about three thousand of the basic kinds of these animals in about five hours (one every six seconds), and this would be adequate both to acquaint Adam with those animals and also to show clearly that there were none who were sufficiently like him to provide companionship for him. This is still further proof that man did not evolve from any of the animals, even those that were most directly associated with him.

2:20 not found. As far as fossil evidence is concerned, many fossils of true men have been found (Neanderthal, Cro-Magnon, etc.) as well as fossils of true apes. The so-called “hominids” (Australopithecus, Homo erectus, etc.) are fragmentary and controversial, even among evolutionists, and can all be interpreted either as extinct apes or degenerated men.

2:21 deep sleep. The “deep sleep” was not simply an anesthetized state to prevent pain, since there was as yet no pain in the world. It was most likely ordained as a primeval picture of the future death of the second Adam, whose sacrificial death would result in the formation of His bride (II Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 5:30-32).

2:21 ribs. The “rib” was actually the “side” of Adam (the Hebrew tsela occurs thirty-five times in the Old Testament, and is nowhere else translated “rib”). The side contained both “bone” and “flesh” (Genesis 2:23), but it may be that both are implied in the blood that would necessarily flow from the opened side. The “life of the flesh is in the blood” (Genesis 9:4; Leviticus 17:11) and a primeval blood “transfusion” would more perfectly fit the event as a type of the opened side of Christ on the cross (John 19:34-36). Even if the operation did actually extract a rib from Adam, this would not suggest that men should have one less rib than women, since “acquired characteristics” are not hereditable.

2:22 made he a woman. This remarkable record of the formation of the first woman could hardly have been invented by human imagination. Neither can it be interpreted in the context of theistic evolution, even if one could interpret the formation of Adam’s body from the dust in evolutionary terms. Its historicity is confirmed in the New Testament (I Timothy 2:13; I Corinthians 11:8). All other men have been born of woman, but the first woman was made from man.