Possibly one of the most memorable and remarkable parts of the creation narrative (Genesis Chapters 1-2) is the creation of man, whom God named Adam.
God’s creation of man:
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them
– Genesis 1:26-27 (ESV)
God creates the Man
God, who by His word brought all things into existence, now declares, “Let us make man…” The word for man is ā·ḏām (Hebrew) and can also mean mankind or humankind. This term is generic and applies to both males and females. As an illustration, we could insert the word into the verse like, “God says, ‘ Let us make ā·ḏām in our image, after our likeness.”
At this point we know that God had not given the man a name. The word for man sound like a proper name, but it is clear from Scripture that it was a generic word for man.
According to James Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible, this generic reference to man (ā·ḏām) appears approximately 31 times from Genesis 1 to Genesis 5. Whenever we read “man” or “the man” and in the Old Testament overall, it’s the word ā·ḏām. It is not the same as Adam.
The name Adam
In Genesis 1 and most of Genesis 2, we read “man” or “the man” (ā·ḏām). This changed in Genesis 2:20. For the first time, God reveals the man’s name. His name was Adam.
In a classic play on words or wordplay, we learned that God named the ā·ḏām, Adam. Well, let’s look at some meanings hidden in the name.
Red or the red one
Easton’s Bible Dictionary notes that Adam is a Babylonian name meaning red and has the same meaning in Hebrew and Assyrian languages.
Other words or phrases related to the name Adam are “the red one” (The Lexham Bible Dictionary), a connection to the Hebrew adjective for red (‘dm or Edom, read Genesis 25:30, for example).
It was Josephus who suggested that red refers to the ground from which man was formed (A Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson). This brings us to another word that contributes to the name Adam.
Make or ground
There is also the word ǎḏā·mā(h) [bold added for emphasis], which means ground. Or, why not consider yet another: adāmu [bold added for emphasis], which is “make” or “produce” (Dictionary of the Bible). If we take the meanings and wordplay on the name Adam, Genesis 2:7 reads differently. What do you think?
An illustration
As an illustration, not a translation, we substitute the words in the verses:
Genesis 1:26a: God said, let us adāmu (make, produce) ā·ḏām (man, mankind) in our image and after our likeness.
Genesis 2:7: Then the Lord God formed ā·ḏām (man, mankind) from the ǎḏā·mā(h) (ground) and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the ā·ḏām became a living creature.
Or
God adāmu ā·ḏām from the ǎḏā·mā(h), breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. The ā·ḏām became a living creature, and God named him Adam.
Adam is more than a Name
God named the first ā·ḏām Adam. He (Adam) symbolizes all humanity. God gave him a proper name as an individual, while simultaneously identifying him as the ancestor (progenitor) of all humans. Adam encapsulates God’s creativity, formed from the ground, intimacy with humanity, and connectivity with ancestry.
There was only one Adam at creation, but through him all ā·ḏām received their identity as God’s created beings.
Grace and Peace
Fred.
