Did God make Eve from Adam's "Rib"? (Or could that be a mistranslation..?).

Dr. John Walton addresses the issue in his book, "The Lost World of Adam and Eve" [Link to book at end of post]:

"The first question to ask is whether the text suggests that Adam thought of Eve as having been built from his rib.

The text gives us the answer: he did not.

The first words out of his mouth were: “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” (Gen 2:23).

More than a rib is involved here because she is not only “bone of his bone” but also “flesh of his flesh.”

This leads us to ask then about the meaning of Genesis 2:21, which NIV translates, “He took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh.” Adam’s statement leads us to inquire whether the translation “rib” is appropriate for the Hebrew word ṣēlāʿ. The word is used about forty times in the Hebrew Bible but is not an anatomical term in any other passage. Outside of Genesis 2, with the exception of 2 Samuel 16:13 (referring to the other side of the hill), the word is only used architecturally in the tabernacle/temple passages (Ex 25–38; 1 Kings 6–7; Ezek 41). It can refer to planks or beams in these passages, but more often it refers to one side or the other, typically when there are two sides (rings along two sides of the ark; rooms on two sides of the temple, the north or south side; etc.).

On the basis of Adam’s statement, combined with these data on usage, we would have to conclude that God took one of Adam’s sides—likely meaning he cut Adam in half and from one side built the woman.

When we investigate the Hebrew word and the way that it has been handled throughout history, we discover much supporting evidence for this reading. Beginning with the way that the cognate ṣēlu is used in Akkadian (Assyrian and Babylonian), we find that the word has a certain ambiguity. Rarely, it refers to a single rib. Most times it refers to the entire side or to the entire rib cage. This is comparable to our English use when we talk about a “side of beef.”

When we turn our attention to early translations, we find that the Aramaic translation in the Targums (Aramaic: ʿilʿ) can refer to either rib or side, and the same is true of the word chosen by the translators of the Septuagint (Greek pleura can be either rib or side). In the Latin Vulgate, Jerome used the Latin word costis, which can be either rib or side. One of the earliest discussions found in the rabbinic literature is in the comments in Midrash Rabbah by Rabbi Samuel ben Nahmani, who was already arguing the use of “side” instead of “rib.”

By the time we finally get to the period of English translations, the interpretation “rib” has become entrenched (Wycliffe Bible, Geneva Bible, Great Bible and King James Version). Based on the lexical information above, however, we can see that this is an interpretation from a word that in Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek and Latin could mean either “side” or “rib.” Adam’s own statement and the more dominant use of the word both suggest that “side” would be the better choice...

All womankind is “from the side” of all mankind. Marriage is being rejoined and recovering humanity’s original state. This should not be mistaken to infer that someone who does not marry is less than a whole person or that there is a particular spouse that is your other half. The text is referring generically to the corporate human race that is ontologically gendered.

Genesis 2:24 is responding to the question of why a person would leave the closest biological relationship (parents to children) in order to forge a relationship with a biological outsider. The answer offered is that marriage goes beyond biology to recover an original state, for humanity is ontologically gendered. Ontology trumps biology. This has shown Adam that the woman is not just a reproductive mating partner. Her identity is that she is his ally, his other half.

We can now see that Genesis 2:24 makes more of a statement than we had envisioned. Becoming one flesh is not just a reference to the sexual act. The sexual act may be the one that rejoins them, but it is the rejoining that is the focus. When Man and Woman become one flesh, they are returning to their original state."

https://www.amazon.com/Lost-World-Adam-Eve-Genesis/dp/0830824618