Articles of interest
Do men have fewer ribs than women?
After all, God took a rib from Adam to make Eve
DO MEN AND WOMEN HAVE THE SAME NUMBER OF RIBS?
A misconception among some Christians is that men have fewer ribs than women. They wrongly believe this is what the Bible teaches.
What are the facts?
The Bible's Book of Genesis (2:21, 22) says God created the first woman this way: “And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam [the first man], and he slept; and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in stead thereof. And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman …”
Some people think that this passage implies that because the first man lost his rib, all men since have one fewer rib. But this is not correct.
How many ribs do males and females have?
The best way to test this belief is to compare a male's skeleton with a female's. When you do this, you find that men and women have 12 pairs of ribs each.
The belief that a lost rib, or a cut-off thumb, or a chopped-off tail, could pass from parent to child was a theory, long-discredited, derived from the ideas of French biologist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck.
Losing part of your body doesn't mean your children will be born with that part missing.
Generations of Jewish, Muslim, and Christian males have circumcised their sons, but they never give birth to already circumcised sons.
For centuries some breeds of dogs have had their tails cropped, but they don't give birth to pups with their tails docked already.
If you have a finger or toe amputated, it would not mean you would produce children with a finger or toe missing.
So a rib taken from Adam does not mean that any of his sons and daughters would have a rib missing. Men and women have the same number of ribs.
Interestingly, research has shown that regeneration of ribs can occur. So Adam may not have lost his rib permanently anyway.