If we decide the first half of verse 27 is necessary then we must evaluate it. God created man in his image. But in Genesis 3:19 God said to Adam that he was created from the dust of the earth. Obviously dust in not God's image. Genesis 2:7 says God "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being." It seems likely that God's image relates more to spiritual existence than merely physical.

Genesis 2:18-23 is in context with verse 2:24. "The Lord God said, 'It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him'" (:18). She would be created from Adam's rib (:21) rather than from the ground Adam came from (3:19). The origin of the woman was from the only representative of the same species and God "named them Man" (5:2). But Eve was a helper in her own right because she was named so since she would become "the mother of all the living" (3:20). When God "brought her to the man" [Adam 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'" (2:22-23).