The story of the rib, of course, is figurative

[_Mustagath]

I converted to the Church at age 18. I had one Discussion, joined the Church, never had another Discussion. Boy, what a mistake. I remember looking at the Book of Abraham the first time, and I looked at the obvious pagan drawings, and I looked at the drawing of the goddess Nepthys (with exaggerated eye-lashes, rounded hips, long hair) and looked at Joseph Smith's explanation: "Represents Pharaoh, kind of Egypt". WOW! I said to myself: "This is BOGUS!" That was on day 3 after my baptism. "Red flags" all over the place from that day on. Yet, I stuck it out. I stuck to it. Foolishly, I hung on to the last straw.

I later learned in Institute and Sunday School that Adam and Eve were two white Anglo-Saxons who lived in Missouri 6,000 years ago, the first humans ever, and their first baby, a white boy, Cain, was later turned into the first Negro. He married his sister (who else could he marry) and she changed into the second Negro. I'm thinking "WTF????" The Church, for me, became like a very bad film, that you want to get up and leave the cinema, but, you paid for it, you had popcorn and soda left, and, even though the film sucked rocks, you were gonna sit there to the painful end, hoping it would get better, but it only gets worse.

In late 1979, read an old ENSIGN from 1976, something from Spencer W. Kimball:

"The story of the rib, of course, is figurative." (Ensign, March 1976, p.73)

I felt a small victory. I could never believe that a talking snake would give a forbidden fig to a naked Anglo Saxon woman in ancient Missouri. So, I found this, and I used it to challenge those Mormons who told me that I had to accept the Adam and Eve story was absolutely literal, not a parable, but exactly as it reads in Genesis. So, I would show them this statement by President Spencer W. Kimball, in the ENSIGN! The Mormons were not impressed, in the least. They dismissed it, out of hand, and continued to believe that Eve was made from one of Adam's ribs. They DID NOT CARE what President Kimball, the "Living Prophet" at the time, had to say about it! Amazing!!!

I discovered, over the years, that Mormons get "programmed" at a very young age, and, after that, it is like they are brain-washed. They could not care less what their "Living Prophet" wrote in the Church magazine in 1976! It was meaningless to them. They said "Follow the Prophet! Follow the Prophet! Follow the Prophet" over and over and over and over and over again. But, in reality, they didn't follow the Prophet. Or, I should say, they followed the Prophet when it suited them. When they didn't like what the "Living Prophet" said or wrote, they simply ignored him.

Eventually, many years later, I discovered what the "rib" thing really meant, no thanks to Mormonism or Mormons. If you care to know, please read the following:
http://churchofzion.webs.com/0TANNER5.htm

[_oliblish]

I remember in the pre-1990 temple ceremony they used to say that the creation of Adam and Eve was figurative. Once they say that there are things in the Bible that are not literal but only figurative, it opens a can of worms where other things in the Bible can be interpreted figurative as well. That was taken out in 1990 but it is good to know that it is in the Ensign as well.

[_I have a question]

The problem with the "rib story is figurative" position is that it opens the door for every story within the Bible to be figurative. Because how can one reliably differentiate between Bible content that is figurative and that which is literal?

[_Philo Sofee]

The problem with the "rib story is figurative" position is that it opens the door for every story within the Bible to be figurative. Because how can one reliably differentiate between Bible content that is figurative and that which is literal?

Ahem.... by the Holy Ghost and what the living prophet says, of course. Now granted, years later another living prophet will say the living prophet you grew up believing was only speaking as a man, and now, now at last, we know what it all means. And, of course, prophets after even this later one will yet change the meaning again once society changes more and all will be well in Zion... until another 100 years goes by and society changes again, and so Mormonism must get an "updated" revelation of truth from God about the real and actual meaning of the symbol is. And on it will go, ever getting revelations and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth....

[_Physics Guy]

How can one reliably differentiate between Bible content that is figurative and that which is literal?

How much difference does it make, though?

About Adam's rib:
The Y chromosome in a man's XY pair is just a stubby little chromosome. If you have two full ones XX you're a woman. So I have a sort of daydream about God lecturing Moses about the genetics of sex and explaining that the difference between women and men is that women have two full versions of each chromosome while for men one of them is just a little stub. Moses's eyes glaze over when he tries to write it all down. "A bunch of thin little things inside us? Wha?" He pats himself confusedly to try to feel the chromosomes inside him and his face lights up. "Ribs! And men are missing most of one!"

Not a serious theory. Even if Moses existed he didn't write Genesis. Even if God revealed things to Bronze Age prophets I doubt God tried to reveal genetics to them. But my daydream is still about as sensible as any other interpretation of the rib story, so it still comes to my mind.

[_huckelberry]

The problem with the "rib story is figurative" position is that it opens the door for every story within the Bible to be figurative. Because how can one reliably differentiate between Bible content that is figurative and that which is literal?

There is no way to be completely sure but if you think while you read you can form some general ideas .

Is there reason to fear being wrong on some of that?
,,,
There is a room in heaven where people who thought the rib was literal are taken to be beaten with a rubber hose. ..Oh correction, that is a room in hell.