Significance of Adam's Rib

The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man

Significance of Adam's Rib?

The question of why God chose to create Eve out of Adam's rib is one I would have never thought to ask myself until Pastor Dan explained it once in a message. One thing that stuck with me in particular was the following quotation:

That the woman was made of a rib out of the side of Adam; not made out of his head to rule over him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved. (Matthew Henry's Bible Commentary)

Was there ever a more poetic, succinct or explanatory passage of the beauty and equality of God's creation? Nuff said indeed.

(back to Genesis 2)