Bone of Bone

John Paul II offers these observations on Genesis 2’s account of the creation of Eve ( Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology Of The Body , p. 160): “‘Bone from my bones’ can . . . be understood in the relational sense, like ‘being from being.’ ‘Flesh from flesh’ signifies that, although she has different physical characteristics, the woman has the same personhood that the man has.” The allusion to the Nicene language of “God from God” is no doubt deliberate: Woman comes from man as Son comes from Father.

He adds that “bone from bone, flesh from flesh” “is a form of the superlative, underlined by the threefold repetition: ‘she, she, she.’” The grammatical construction thus suggests analogies with “holy of holies” and “song of songs.” Eve is flesh taken to its limit, or, as Paul says, the glory of the glorious man. (Again, plug in Trinitarian analogies here.)