Old Christian Testament Averse to Vulgarity

The Hebrew Bible or Christian Old Testament was averse to using vulgarity. This applied to basic human anatomy: instead of having the word penis, for instance, it might record “member,” “side,” or “flesh.” Women’s labia could be referred to as “hand.” Why?, you may ask? It had to do with the high-falutin’ genre of the Bible, but also Ancient Hebrew rituals around purity. But such euphemisms might have promoted an incorrect translation of the myth of the creation of Adam and Eve.

As shown in this mosaic from Monreale Cathedral in Italy, Eve appears to emerge from Adam’s side as he sleeps, and indeed, the passage from Genesis is normally understood to mean that God “took one of his [Adam’s] ribs and closed up its place with flesh,” using this to shape Eve. Scholar Ziony Zevit points out, however, that the actual Hebrew word was not “rib,” but side (“tsela”), and actually was a polite term for an “os baculum,” or “penis bone”.

Stay with me here. Most male mammals have a penis bone – humans share with horses, spider monkeys, whales and a few other species the ability to sustain an erection with blood pressure alone. Zevit argues that Biblical Hebrews would have known this, and used the term “tsela” as a euphemism for the penis bone, and that got translated as “rib” in the story. Zevit’s suggestion makes Adam’s happy declaration upon seeing Eve “This at last is the bone of my bones and the flesh of my flesh” a lot more understandable. Also, the Hebrew for “flesh” was another way to write “penis” politely.