Albert Barnes Commentary Genesis 2:23

"And the man said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man." — Genesis 2:23 (ASV)

It is not apparent whether the primeval man was conscious of the change in himself, and of the work of the Supreme Being while it was happening, or if he received supernatural information about the event when he awoke. However, he is perfectly aware of the nature of her who now, for the first time, appears before his eyes.

This is shown in his speech on beholding her: “This, now”—in contrast with the whole animal creation just previously presented to his view, in which he had failed to find a helpmeet for him—“is bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh;” from which we perceive that the rib included both bone and flesh.

“To this” counterpart of myself “shall be called woman;” the word in the original being a feminine form of “man,” for which we have no exact equivalent, though the word “woman” (womb-man, or wife-man) proves that our word “man” was originally of common gender.

“Because out of a man was she taken;” being taken out of a man, she is human; and being a perfect individual, she is a female man.