Adam
THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA
Adam, Book of
In suras xvii. 63, xviii. 48, rcferciici's are also
made
worship Adam. The hitter was created from earth (iii. .51)or from clay (xxxii. o). Thai Adam is the tirst of the prophets is only to the refusal of
Il)lis
to
hinted at in the K(iraii. In the jiassjij^e (ii. ;!.">) cited above, "And Adam cuughl certain words li-(iliiii,il from his Lord." the reference may be to a supiio.secl revelation to Adam. For this reason, in iii. :{(», .Mohammed says. "Verily, God has chosen Adam, and Xoah. and Ahraham's people, and Imram's people [the Christians] "; making Adam the representative of the antediluvian period.
To
these somewhat ineafrer accounts later Arahic writers and CDinini-ntalors have added various details which lind tlu'ir parallel in the .lewisli and I'hrislian Midrash. llani/ali al-Ispahani expressly says that a .Jewish rablii in liaijdad. Zedekiah by name, told him, ainoni^ other things, that Adam was created in the third hour of the sixth day, and Eve in the sixth hour: that they were made to dwell in GanEden {pjf JJ), from which they were expelled after the uinth hour; that (iodsent an angel to them, who
Adam how
sow and to perwork connecteil Creation, agricultiire. The same ang<'l instructed Eve how to perform all manner of household duties. The historians Tabari. taught
Adam's
form with
all
to
the other
Masmli, Al-Athir, etc., have evidently culled from similar sources. They tell ustlmtwlu-n (Joil wished to form Adam He sent first Gabriel, then Jlichael. to fetch soil for that purpose. The earth, hiiwever, refused to give the soil, and yielded only to the Angel of Death, who brought "three kinds of soil, black, white, and red. Adam's descendants, therefore, belong either to the white, the black, or the red race. The soul of Adam Iiad been created thousands of years previously, and at first refused to enter the bodv of clay. God forced it violently through Adam's nose, which caused him to sneeze. As it de.sccndecl into his mouth, he commenced to utter the ju'ai.sesof God. He tried to rise; but the soul Imd not yet descended into his feet. "U'lien he did stand ipright. he reached from earth up to the throne of God. ami had to shade his eyes with his hand because of the brilliancy of God's throne. His height was gradually diminished, partly as a punishment for his sin, and partly through grii'ving at the death of Abel. Adam wished to see the generations which were to come from him. God drew them all from out of his back; they stood in two rows— one of The Future the righteous, the other of the sinners. Unveiled When God told Adam the span of life to Him. given to each, he was surprised to find that only a small nundier of years had been allotti'd to David, and made him a i)resent of forty years; of which jirescnt, .says the Jlohanimedau ilidrash, a formal document was drawn uji and signed. When Adam was driven from paradise, lie first aliglitc<l on the island of Sarandib (Ceylon). Here his footprint (seventy ells long) is still to be .seen, as is that of Abraham in Mecca. From Ceylon Adam journeyed to the holy city in Arabia, where he built the Kaaba, having through fasting and .silence gained the partial forgiveness of God. Another legend connects the building of the Kajilia with Aiiu. A>t. When the time came for Adam to die, he had forgotten the gift of forty years to David, and had to he reminded of it bythe Angel of Death. He is said to have been buried in the "Cave of Treasures" a Christian, rather than a .Jewish, idea. Several of these peculijir features are found again in the Pirke de-Rabbi Eliezer. a work
—
178
was compiled under Arabic influence (Zunz, "G. V." 2d ed., pp. 289 tt «,•</.). that
Ki>mn. sunis xxxvlli. 71-(«i, II. 2S-;C vii. lo-is. XV. SS-44, xvll. (BHIS, xvlll. 4S, XX. Ur>, and tlic coiniiientarli's on thesie |ius.sufre!i ; liiillwulilt, llamztg /.vjnifmiii iiKi» .1 11 mi/ii(ili J^iliii .r. |)|i. H4 1 ( Kcii.: Tahiiri, u »<l(t,v, II. 115c(
DiHi.ioiiKAruY:
A
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ed. Tomberg, I. ISJ et sni.; AlDicl.iif ltUixlrUiuiiMeii.nl. Wusten-
Ilin iil-.ilr, ('hrn)iivini^
Nawuwl,
Iliiiiiniiiliiitil
fi'Id, Pit. '£ it st'i/.: Yiikiit. (ifitfirttptiisc1it^ Wnrti-r-tnicti, eel. Wilsl<-ii(rl(l, vl. iV) (Inilcxi. CiMiiiiun- ili'lir.T, Il'd^ Ihil
M'lttiimiiiid
nnx item Juttuitliutni
it yi I/.; Well. liittltm-ltf Liii ttitt tt ft mil.; tiriiiiliiiuiii, .Vi "<• i<ii7ri7|/f .M i;., )iii. ;M (( parallels will !« fimiul.
l{ttttili.
.luliii mtinutt tt f pp. lUJ r Mti.-*iltniltitltt'. pp. 12
<li
zur Siitiilmlitii SnuiiiwhiTf u laiw uuuiImt <it nibblnlcal
G.
Critical 'View According to nuMleni critics, the story of the creation of man is ])re.sented in two sources. One of these forms the begiiming of the document known as the Pkiksti.y Code (P), and theotheris writ ten liy the so-called. I .
VIST (.1). The
former makes the Creation to be the tirst of a series of stages in the develojiment of the history of Israel and the theocracy, which is the great end of the divine government. Each event is to man a gradation leading up to a tinal act of Providence. This first stage fitly ends with the making of man in the image of God. which follows tipon the creation of light, the sky, the earth, and the sea; of plants, and of animals of the water, the air, and the land. This
narrative as found in the final form of the HexateucU is interrupted in Gen. ii. 4 by the second narrator, and is not resumed till Gen. v. I, where the second .stage begins with the "generations [tn/edot] of Adam." The second narrative (Gen. ii. 4-iv.) is the beginning of a history written much earlier than the [uiestly document. Its interest centers in Adam not as the first link in the chain of the history of Israel, hut as the founder of the human race. The descriptions are naive and authro]iomorphic, telling of man's home in Eden, his divinely given mate, his progress in knowledge, his sin, his banishment from paradi.se, and the fate of his children. The etymology of the word "Adam" is of importance. The writer of Gen. ii. 7 gives his own explanation when he says; "God Etymology I'onned man of dust of the ground." of "Adam." That is to say, the man was called " .Man " or " .Vdam " because he was formed from the ground (iii!(iiiiii/i). Compare Gen. iii. 1!). This association of ideas is more than an explanation of the word; it is also suggestive of the primitive conception of human life. According to the oldest Semitic notions, all nature was instinct with life; so that men not only came from and returned to the earth, but actually partook of its substance. The same notion declares itself in the Ljitin /iomo and hiitiiantin, as compared with httiiiii.t and the Greek ,v"/'"'. in the German f/ttm (in Bratitir/tiiii), and the English (/to</?« also in the Greek e-ixHuvmc and similar exjiressions. ^lodern critics are the less inclined to ridicule this as a mere barbaric fancy now that the doctrine of evolution has made them familiar with the unity of n.ilure. This vi<'W of the word implies that it was originally not a ]u-oper name; for names of ]iersons (for which fanciful etymologies are often given by the sacred writers) are not made up after such a fashion. A clo.ser examination of the narrative will show that the word is primarily iised in a .generic sense, and not as the name of an individual. In Gen. i. its use is wholly generic. In Gen. ii. and iii. the writer weaves together the generic and the personal .senses of the word. In all that pertains to the first man as the jmssive subject of creative and providential action the reference is exclusively generic.
