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Leviticus
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Numbers
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Judges
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Ruth
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1 Samuel
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1 Kings
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2 Kings
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1 Chronicles
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Nehemiah
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Tobit
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Judith
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Esther
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Maccabees 1
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Maccabees 2
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Psalms
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Job
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Proverbs
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Ecclesiastes
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Song of Songs
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Wisdom of Solomon
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Wisdom of Sirach
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Joel
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Obadiah
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Nahum
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Habakkuk
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Zephaniah
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Haggai
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Isaiah
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Baruch
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Lamentations
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Epistle of Jeremiah
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Ezekiel
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Daniel
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Prayer of Manasseh
1

Genesis 2:21

And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up its place with flesh;
Read Chapter 2

Ambrose of Milan

AD 397
Not without significance, too, is the fact that woman was made out of the rib of Adam. She was not made of the same earth with which he was formed, in order that we might realize that the physical nature of both man and woman is identical and that there was one source for the propagation of the human race. For that reason, neither was man created together with a woman, nor were two men and two women created at the beginning, but first a man and after that a woman. God willed it that human nature be established as one. Thus from the very inception of the human stock he eliminated the possibility that many disparate natures should arise. He said, “Let us make him a helper like himself.” We understand that to mean a helper in the generation of the human family—a really good helper. If we take the word helper in a good sense, then the woman’s cooperation turns out to be something of major import in the process of generation, just as the earth by receiving, confining and fostering the seed ...
1 min1/19
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Ambrose of Milan

AD 397
What does the phrase 'deep sleep' signify? Does it not mean that when we contemplate a conjugal union we seem to be turning our eyes gradually in the direction of God's kingdom? Do we not seem, as we enter into a vision of this world, to partake a little of things divine, while we find our repose in the midst of what is secular and mundane? Hence, after the statement, 'He cast Adam into a deep sleep and he slept,' there follows: 'The rib which God took from Adam he built into a woman.' [ Gen 2:21,22 ] The word 'built' is well chosen in speaking of the creation of a woman because a household, comprising man and wife, seems to point toward a state of full perfection. One who is without a wife is regarded as being without a home. As man is considered to be more skillful in public duties, so woman is esteemed to be more adaptable to domestic ministrations. Reflect on the fact that He did not take a part from Adam's soul but a rib from his body, that is to say, not soul from a soul, but 'bo...
6 mins2/19
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Augustine of Hippo

AD 430
Now suppose the woman was not made for the man to be his helper in begetting children, then how would she be able to help him? It would hardly be the case that she would be made to till the earth with him, for there was not yet any labor required to make her help necessary. In any case, if there were any such need, a male helper would be better, and the same could be said of the comfort of another’s presence if Adam were perhaps weary of solitude. How much more agreeably could two male friends, rather than a man and a woman, enjoy companionship and conversation in a life shared together. And if they had to make an arrangement in their common life for one to command and the other to obey in order to make sure that opposing wills would not disrupt the peace of the household, there would have been proper rank to assure this, since one would be created first and the other second, and this would be further reinforced if the second were made from the first, as was the case with the woman. Su...
1 min3/19
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Augustine of Hippo

AD 430
Hence we are justified in concluding that the ecstasy in which Adam was caught up when God cast him into a sleep was given to him so that his mind in that state might participate with the host of angels and, entering into the sanctuary of God, understand what was finally to come. When he awoke, he was like one filled with the spirit of prophecy, and seeing his wife brought before him, he immediately opened his mouth and proclaimed the great mystery that St. Paul teaches: “This now is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, because she has been taken out of man. And for this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall cleave to his wife; and they shall be the two in one flesh.” These were the words of the first man according to the testimony of Scripture, but in the Gospel our Lord declared that God spoke them. For he says, “Have you not read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female and said, ‘For this reason a man sh...
1 min4/19
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Augustine of Hippo

AD 430
Even in the beginning, when woman was made from a rib in the side of the sleeping man, that had no less a purpose than to symbolize prophetically the union of Christ and his church. Adam’s sleep was a mystical foreshadowing of Christ’s death, and when his dead body hanging from the cross was pierced by the lance, it was from his side that there issued forth that blood and water that, as we know, signifies the sacraments by which the church is built up. “Built” is the very word the Scripture uses in connection with Eve: “He built the rib into a woman.” … So too St. Paul speaks of “building up the body of Christ,” which is his church. Therefore woman is as much the creation of God as man is. If she was made from the man, this was to show her oneness with him; and if she was made in the way she was, this was to prefigure the oneness of Christ and the church.
1 min5/19
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Augustine of Hippo

AD 430
Scripture says that the woman was made as man’s helper so that by spiritual union she might bring forth spiritual offspring, that is, the good works of divine praise, while he rules and she obeys. He is ruled by wisdom; she, by the man. For Christ is the head of the man, and the man is the head of the woman. .
< 1 min6/19
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Clement Of Alexandria

AD 215
Among the Hebrews the prophets spoke by the power and inspiration of God. Before the law there was Adam, who used a power of prophecy over the woman and over the naming of animals; Noah, preaching repentance; Abraham, Isaac and Jacob offering a clear foreshadowing of a large number of events future or imminent. .
< 1 min7/19
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Cyril of Jerusalem

AD 386
Of whom in the beginning was Eve begotten? What mother conceived her, the motherless? But the Scripture says that she was born out of Adam’s side. Is Eve then born out of man’s side without a mother, and is a child not to be born without a father, of a virgin’s womb? This debt of gratitude was due to men from womankind: for Eve was begotten of Adam and not conceived of a mother, but as it were brought forth of man alone.
< 1 min8/19
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Ephrem The Syrian

AD 373
“This now”—that is, the one who has come to me after the animals—is not such as they; they came from the earth, but she is “bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.” Adam said this either in a prophetic way or, as noted above, according to his vision in sleep. And just as on this day all the animals received from Adam their names according to their kinds, so also the bone, made into a woman, he called not by her proper name, Eve, but by the name of woman, the name belonging to the whole kind. .
1 min9/19
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Ephrem The Syrian

AD 373
Inside the paradise, the woman was very diligent; she was also attentive to the sheep and cattle, the herds and droves that were in the fields. She would also help the man with the buildings, pens, and with any other task that she was capable of doing. The animals, even though they were subservient, were not able to help him with these things. For this reason God made for the man a helper who would be concerned for everything for which God himself would be concerned. She would indeed help him in many things.
< 1 min10/19
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Ephrem The Syrian

AD 373
That man, awake, anointed with splendor, and who did not yet know sleep, fell on the earth naked and slept. It is likely that Adam saw in his dream what was done to him as if he were awake. After Adam’s rib had been taken out in the twinkling of an eye, God closed up the flesh in its place in the blink of an eyelash. The bare bone took on the full appearance and all the beauty of a woman. God then brought her to Adam, who was both one and two. He was one in that he was Adam, and he was two because he had been created male and female.
1 min11/19
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George Leo Haydock

AD 1849
A deep sleep. Septuagint, "an ecstacy "or mysterious sleep, in which Adam was apprised of the meaning of what was done, and how the Church would be taken from the side of Christ, expiring on the cross. (Menochius)
< 1 min12/19
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Jerome

AD 420
“God took a rib from the side of Adam and made it into a woman.” Here Scripture said aedificavit (“built”). The concept of building intends to denote the construction of a great house; consequently Adam’s rib fashioned into a woman signifies, by apostolic authority, Christ and the church, and that is why Scripture said he formed (aedificavit) a woman from the rib. We have heard about the first Adam; let us come now to the second Adam and see how the church is made (aedificatur) from his side. The side of the Lord Savior as he hung on the cross is pierced with a lance, and from it there comes forth blood and water. Would you like to know how the church is built up from water and blood? First, through the baptism of water, sins are forgiven; then, the blood of martyrs crowns the edifice.
1 min13/19
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John Chrysostom

AD 407
“God caused drowsiness to come upon Adam,” the text says, “and he slept.” It wasn’t simply drowsiness that came upon him nor normal sleep; instead the wise and skillful creator of our nature was about to remove one of Adam’s ribs. Lest the experience cause Adam afterward to be badly disposed toward the creature formed from his rib and through memory of the pain bear a grudge against this being at its formation, God induced in him this kind of sleep. God caused a drowsiness to come upon him and bid him be weighed down as though by some heavy weight.
1 min14/19
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John Chrysostom

AD 407
So, now that all the animals were created and had received their names from the first man, the loving Lord made it his concern to create a helpmate for him of his kind; having arranged everything with this creature of his in mind and for his sake brought forth all this visible creation, after all the other beings he creates also woman. Notice how he teaches us precisely the process of her creation too. I mean, after teaching us that he wanted to produce for man a helpmate like him by saying previously, "Let us make him a helpmate like him self," and then adding, "There proved to be no help mate of his own kind," accordingly he set about the formation of this creature of similar properties to him, and the text says, "God caused drowsiness to come upon Adam, and he slept. God took one of Adam's ribs and closed up the flesh in its place. The Lord God fashioned the rib he had taken from Adam into a woman and brought her to Adam." [ Gen 2:21, Gen 2:22 ] There is great force in these words, ...
7 mins15/19
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Quodvultdeus

AD 450
The apostle Paul testifies that this passage has both a plain and an allegorical meaning. Discussing it in his letter to the Ephesians, he asserts, “This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.” The great mystery is that Adam hopes after receiving the promise. He sees that the spouse in whom he believed is now united to him. Therefore he symbolically announces to us that through faith the church will be the mother of humankind. It is evident that since Eve had been created from the side of the sleeping Adam, he has foreseen that from the side of Christ hanging on the cross the church, which is in truth the mother of the whole new humankind, must be created. In fact the church is “the woman who is guarded for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.”
1 min16/19
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Severian of Gabala

AD 425
Did Adam not suffer pain? Did he not experience agony? A single hair is plucked from the body and we feel pain. Even if one is deeply asleep, he will awake from the pain. Here, however, many hairs are plucked out, even a rib torn out, and the sleeper does not awake? God did not remove the rib violently, which would awaken Adam. He did not wrench it out. Instead Scripture, desiring to reveal the quickness of God’s technique, says “he took a rib out of him and he did not awake.”
< 1 min17/19
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Tertullian of Carthage

AD 220
It is certain that, from the very beginning of his nature, man was impressed with these instincts (of sleep). (Genesis 2:21). If you receive your instruction from God, (you will find) that the fountain of the human race, Adam, had a taste of drowsiness before having a draught of repose; slept before he laboured, or even before he ate, nay, even before he spoke; in order that men may see that sleep is a natural feature and function, and one which has actually precedence over all the natural faculties. From this primary instance also we are led to trace even then the image of death in sleep. For as Adam was a figure of Christ, Adam's sleep shadowed out the death of Christ, who was to sleep a mortal slumber, that from the wound inflicted on His side might, in like manner (as Eve was formed), be typified the church, the true mother of the living. This is why sleep is so salutary, so rational, and is actually formed into the model of that death which is general and common to the race of man...
1 min18/19
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Tertullian of Carthage

AD 220
We hold the soul to be perennially active because of its continual movement, which is a sign both of its divinity and its immortality. So, then, when rest comes—rest, that special comfort of bodies—the soul disdains an idleness that is alien to its nature and, deprived of the faculties of the body, makes use of its own. This power we call ecstasy. This occurs when we are deprived of the activity of the senses. Lacking sensory input the soul reflects conditions akin to delirium. Thus, in the beginning, sleep was preceded by ecstasy, as we read: “God sent an ecstasy upon Adam, and he slept.” Sleep brought rest to the body, but ecstasy came over the soul and prevented it from resting, and from that time this combination constitutes the natural and normal form of the dream.
1 min19/19
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Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation - 2 Peter 1:20

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