AD'AM. The name given in the book of Gene sis to the first man. The word Adam is orig inally a common noun applied both to a single human being and to mankind in general; hence, as a designation for the first man the Old Testa ment almost invariably attaches the article to adom, which thus becomes //a-adapi ; that is, "the man." According to the critical school the creation of .1(14111 and Eve has come down to us in two recensions of Genesis• the first. Genesis i : 26-30, forming part of the so-called Elohistie record of creation (see CitEATioN) ; the second, Genesis ii : 5.24, embodied in the Yahwis tie version. According to the former, male and female are created at the same time (Genesis i 27). The passage is somewhat ambiguous, so that it is not certain whether only a single hu man pair is referred to or mankind in general, .just as according to this version the animal world in general is erected It the beginning. In the Valiwistie version. however, a single male indi vidual alone is formed by God, who molds a man out of the "dust of the ground" and breathes into the mass the "breath of life" (Gen esis ii : 7). The word used for "ground" is adamah, and in the mind of the writer there is evidently a clone connection between this word and Adam. A common meaning for the Hebrew stem adapt, from which adamah is derived, is "red;" but while this furnishes a satisfactory explanation for the word "ground," it does not follow that the implied biblical etymology for "adam" as man is correct. The stem adam oc curs in various of the Semitic languages, and ex hibits a variety of meanings, such as "pleasant," "to make," "to attach one's self" (hence, to be so ciable). and scholarly opinion vacillates between assuming one or the other of these significations as furnishing the explanation of the name "Adam." If any conclusion may lie drawn from bee or ihn„ which is the common Semitic word for son and child, and which is derived from a stem signifying "build," the weight of evidence would be in favor of connecting adorn with "make." hi Assyrian we have a word "admu" (the equivalent of the Hebrew Adam), which actually occurs as one of the synonyms of "child" (see Delitzsch, Assyrisehes Miirterbtteh, p. 25).
Coming back to the two versions of creation, it will be found that they differ in many re spects; but it, is by the combination of the two that we obtain the views held by the Hebrews regarding the first man. In the first version. where the work of creation is distributed among six days, humanity is created on the last day. Nan is made in the image of God, and given dominion over all the animals, and, indeed, the entire earth. In the second version it is stated that man was placed in a garden situated in Eden (Genesis ii 8), known as the "Garden of Eden," in which all manner of trees were planted. (See EDEN.) Man is put there to till the ground and to keep guard over it. He is permitted to eat of the fruit of all the trees with the ex ception of one, known as the "tree of knowledge of good and evil." and which lie is not to touch under penalty of death. A woman is created as a helpmate to Adam out of one of his ribs, who is called Eve, a name subsequently explained as "the mother of all living." The close attach ment between Adam and Eve (see EVE) is em phasized, and, although not distinctly stated, the narrative implies that she is included in the prohibition not to eat of the one tree singled out. Through the serpent, who assures the woman that she and Adam will not die, the wo man is beguiled into eating of the fruit and gives of it to Adam. The first consequence of the act was that the pair recognized their naked state and made loin coverings of fig leaves. Adam pleads in extenuation that the woman gave him of the fruit, and the woman pleads that the serpent beguiled her. All three are punished, the serpent by becoming the cursed one among the animals, the woman by increase of her trou bles and pain, particularly in child-bearing, and the man by being obliged henceforth to secure his sustenance by the sweat of his brow in tilling the ground. God makes garments of skin for the pair, and in fear lest they eat also of the "tree of life" which is in the garden, and which is to secure immortality, he drives Adam and Eve out of their first habitation and places cherubim with flaming swords to guard the way to the tree of life.