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Adam ('A?am, "dust; man; mankind"; , ) and Eve (, "living one"; , ) are the first man and woman created by God in the Hebrew creation story told in Genesis 1-2.
Narrative
Genesis tells the story of Adam and Eve in chapters 1, 2 and 3, with some additional elements in chapters 4 and 5:
In Genesis 1 God creates humans "male and female" in His image, and gives them dominion over the living things He has created, and commands them to "be fruitful and multiply."
Genesis 2 opens with God fashioning a man from the dust and blowing life into his nostrils.
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Quotations
Adam and Eve had many advantages, but the principle one was that they escaped teething.
Adam, man's benefactor--he gave him all he has ever received that was worth having--Death.
The Lord made Adam, the Lord made Eve, he made em both a little bit naive.
Adam and Eve, according to the fable, wore the bower before other clothes. Man wanted a home, a place of warmth, or comfort, first of physical warmth, then the warmth of the affections.
Adam knew Eve his wife and she conceived. It is a pity that this is still the only knowledge of their wives at which some men seem to arrive.
Adam was but human--this explains it all. He did not want the apple for the apple's sake, he wanted it only because it was forbidden. The mistake was in not forbidding the serpent; then he would have eaten the serpent.
Encyclopedia
Adam ('A?am, "dust; man; mankind"; , ) and Eve (, "living one"; , ) are the first man and woman created by God in the Hebrew creation story told in Genesis 1-2.
Narrative
Genesis tells the story of Adam and Eve in chapters 1, 2 and 3, with some additional elements in chapters 4 and 5:
In Genesis 1 God creates humans "male and female" in His image, and gives them dominion over the living things He has created, and commands them to "be fruitful and multiply."
Genesis 2 opens with God fashioning a man from the dust and blowing life into his nostrils. God plants a garden (the Garden of Eden) and sets the man there, "to work it and watch over it," permitting him to eat of all the trees in the garden except the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, "for on the day you eat of it you shall surely die." Then God creates the animals, attempting to find a help-mate for the man; but none of the animals are satisfactory, and so God causes the man to sleep, and creates a woman from his rib. The man names her "Woman" (Heb. ishshah), "for this one was taken from a man" (Heb. ish). "On account of this a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his woman." Genesis 2 ends with the note that the man and woman were naked, and were not ashamed.
Genesis 3 introduces the Serpent, "slier than every beast of the field." The serpent tempts the woman to eat from the tree of knowledge, telling her that it will not lead to death; she succumbs, and gives the fruit to the man, who eats also, "and the eyes of the two of them were opened." Aware now of their nakedness, they make coverings of fig leaves, and hide from the sight of God. God, perceiving that they have broken His command, curses them with hard labour and with pain in childbirth, and banishes them from His garden, setting a cherub at the gate to bar their way to the Tree of Life, "lest he put out his hand ... and eat, and live forever."
Genesis 4 and 5 give the story of Adam and Eve's family after they leave the garden: they have three children, Cain, Abel and Seth, as well as other sons and daughters, and Adam's lifespan is 930 years. ("The woman" is given the name Eve in the closing verses of Genesis 3, "because she was the mother of all living"; Adam gets his name when the initial definite article is dropped, changing "ha-adam", "the man", to "Adam".)
Textual notes
- "Let us make man..." - The plural "us" (and "our" in the phrase "in our image") is traditionally understood to refer to God and the angels, or to be a "plural of majesty" (the "royal we"). More recent scholarship is that it reflects the common Middle Eastern view of a supreme god (referred to in Genesis 1 by the generic noun "Elohim", god, which is itself in a plural form, rather than by his personal name of Yahweh) surrounded by a divine court, the Sons of God (Heb. bene elohim). Christian scholars have traditionally interpreted the plural "us" as evidence for the doctrine of the Holy Trinity.
- "man" - Though the word for "man" is in the singular, when in the text a pronoun is used, it is rendered by the plural "them", indicating that the word is used generically to cover "man and woman", and that a rendition of "mankind" or "human beings" is not out of place.
- "...in our image" - The phrase image of God has had many interpretations, although something more than the simply anthropomorphic seems intended. Elsewhere in the ancient Near East kings were called the "image of god", symbolising their rule by divine appointment: the phrase may therefore indicate that mankind is God's regent on earth.
- "...a living being" - God breathes into the man's nostrils and he becomes nefesh hayya. The earlier translation of this phrase as "living soul" is now recognised as incorrect: "nefesh" signifies something like the English word "being", in the sense of a corporeal body capable of life; the concept of a "soul" in our sense did not exist in Hebrew thought until around the 2nd century BC, when the idea of a bodily resurrection gained popularity.
- "...tree of knowledge of good and evil..." - The tree imparts knowledge of tov wa-ra, "good and bad". The traditional translation is "good and evil", but tov wa-ra is a fixed expression denoting "everything," rather than a moral concept.
- "...you shall surely die" - Adam is told that if he eats of the forbidden tree the consequence will be moth tamuth, indicating not merely death but emphatically so. As Adam does not in fact die immediately on eating the fruit, some exegetes have argued that it means "you shall die eventually," so that Adam and Eve would have had immortality in the Garden, but lost it by eating the forbidden fruit. However, the grammar does not support this reading, nor does the narrative: Adam and Eve are expelled from the Garden lest they eat of the second tree, the tree of life, and gain immortality. However, according to the Book of Jubilees (chapter 4 29-31) "one day" is equivalent to a thousand years and thus Adam died within that same "day".
- "...a rib..." - Hebrew tsela` can mean side, chamber, rib, or beam. The traditional reading of "rib" has been questioned recently by feminist theologians who suggest it should instead be rendered as "side," supporting the idea that woman is man's equal and not his subordinate.
Later Abrahamic traditions
Jewish traditions
In the Sibylline Oracles, the name Adam is explained as a notaricon composed of the initials of the four directions; anatole (east), dusis (west), arktos (north), and mesembria (south). The Jews had their own acrostic interpretation of the name Adam. In the 2nd century, Rabbi Yohanan used the Greek technique of notarichon to explain the name ????? as the initials of the words afer, dam, and marah, being dust, blood, and gall.
According to the Torah , Adam is said to have been formed by God from "dust from the earth"; in the Talmud (Tractate Sanhedrin 38b) of the first centuries of the Christian era he is, more specifically, described as having initially been a golem kneaded from mud. In the Torah, God is described, at Genesis 1:26, as breathing the breath of life into the nostrils of the first man, and this is usually interpreted in Judaeo-Christian circles as having brought life immediately to the first man.
The Torah then describes that God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, when He removed part of his body, usually interpreted as a rib (though a more literal translation is non-specific, referring to "side") from which he formed Eve. Once a matron asked Rabbi Jose (Talmud ), "Why did God steal a rib from Adam?" "Steal?" replied the Sage. "If one were to take away from your house an ounce of silver, and give you in return a pound of gold, that would not be stealing from you." "But," persisted the matron, "what need was there for secrecy?" "It was surely better," replied R. José, "to present Eve to Adam when she was quite presentable, and when no traces of the effects of the operation were visible".
Even in ancient times, the presence of two distinct accounts was noted, and regarded with some curiosity. The first account says male and female [God] created them, which has been assumed by critical scholars to imply simultaneous creation, whereas the second account states that God created Eve from Adam's rib because Adam was lonely. Thus to resolve this apparent discrepancy, medieval rabbis suggested that Eve and the woman of the first account were two separate individuals. This first woman was identified in the Midrash as Lilith, a figure elsewhere described as a night demon.
The word liyliyth can also mean "screech owl", as it is translated in the King James Version of Isaiah 34:14, although some scholars take this to be a reference to the same demonic entity as mentioned in the Talmud.
Also in the Talmud, Lilith is identified as the mother of these creatures. The demons were said to prey on newborn males before they had been circumcised, and so a tradition arose in which a protective amulet was placed around the neck of newborns. Traditions in the Midrash concerning Lilith, and her sexual appetite, have been compared to Sumerian mythology concerning the demon ki-sikil-lil-la-ke, by scholars who postulate an intermediate Akkadian folk etymology interpreting the lil-la-ke portion of the name as a corruption of lîlîtu, a female storm demon originating in Sumer.
It should be noted, however, that the Torah gives no mention whatsoever of any wife other than Eve. Many scholars see the statement "male and female he created them" to be a summary statement, which is described in detail in a following passage. Such wording was a common literary tool in ancient Hebrew writings. This technique is also seen in the broad statement of Genesis 1:1.
Another Jewish tradition — also used to explain "male and female He created them" line, is that God originally created Adam as a hermaphrodite [Midrash Rabbah - Genesis VIII:1], and in this way was bodily and spiritually male and female. He later decided that "it is not good for [Adam] to be alone", and created the separate beings of Adam and Eve, thus creating the idea of two people joining together to achieve a union of the two separate spirits.
Genesis does not tell for how long Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden, but the Book of Jubilees states that they were removed from the garden on the new moon of the fourth month of the 8th year after creation (Jubilees 3:33); other Jewish sources assert that it was less than a day. Shortly after their expulsion, Eve brought forth her first-born child, and thereafter their second — Cain and Abel, respectively.
After Cain killed Abel, and was cursed to wander, Adam and Eve conceived a third child named Seth, who, with Cain, gave rise to the two family lines of the Generations of Adam.
A sidenote, when Cain was banished for killing Abel, Cain fears that God's punishment of his banishment is "too great to bear" and that he "must avoid [God]'s presence and become a restless wanderer on earth--anyone who meets me may kill me" (Genesis 4.3) suggesting life of other men outside of and prior to or during Cain's lineage.
According to the Bible, Adam finally died at the age of 930 years, the traditional Jewish view being that he and Eve are currently buried in the Cave of Machpelah, in Hebron.
Christianity
The story of Adam and Eve forms the basis for the Christian doctrine of original sin: "Sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned," said Paul of Tarsus in his Epistle to the Romans, writing in Greek about 58 AD. Nevertheless, Chapter 3 of Genesis does not use the word "sin", and Genesis 3:24 makes clear that they are expelled "lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever". St Augustine of Hippo (354-430), working with a Latin translation of the epistle, understood Paul to have said that Adam's sin was hereditary: "Death passed upon (i.e. spread to) all men because of Adam, [in whom] all sinned". Original sin, the concept that man is born in a condition of sinfulness and must await redemption, became a cornerstone of Christian theological tradition, primarily in Western-rite churches, but is not shared by Judaism, the Orthodox churches, nor by post-Reformation churches such as the Congregationalist churches, nor The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Over the centuries, a system of uniquely Christian beliefs has developed from the Adam and Eve story. Baptism has become understood as a means of washing away the stain of hereditary sin in many churches. Additionally, the serpent that tempted Eve was interpreted by some to have been Satan, or that Satan was using a serpent as a mouthpiece, although there is no mention of this identification in the Torah.
Christian interpretations of the Scripture are often considered more literal than Jewish interpretations. Because Eve had tempted Adam to eat of the fatal fruit, some early Fathers of the Church held her and all subsequent women to be the first sinners, and especially responsible for the Fall. "You are the devil's gateway," Tertullian told his female listeners in the early 2nd century, and went on to explain that they were responsible for the death of Christ: "On account of your desert _ that is, death - even the Son of God had to die." In 1486 the Dominicans Kramer and Sprengler used similar tracts to justify the Malleus Maleficarum ("Hammer of the Witches") that led to three centuries of European persecution of "witches".
Eastern Orthodox tradition holds that the sword placed at the entrance to Paradise to prevent humankind from returning to the Garden was removed once Jesus was born.
Gnostic and Manichaean traditions
(1) Gnostic Christianity has two unique texts containing stories of Adam and Eve: the Nag Hamadi text "Apocalypse of Adam" and the "Testament of Adam" text. The creation of Adam as Protanthropos – the original man – is the focal concept.
(2) The Manichaean Gnostic sect believed that the Protanthropos was "the World Soul", (Anima Mundi), sent to fight against darkness. The "Fall" meant the primordial man being delivered up to evil and swallowed in darkness, with the Universe as a whole coming into existence as a means of delivering the primordial Adam from Darkness. Sex between Adam and Eve was seen as the way in which darkness overcame the light.
- "Mani said, 'Then Jesus came and spoke to the one who had been born, who was Adam, and … made him fear Eve, showing him how to suppress (desire) for her, and he forbade him to approach her… Then that (male) archon came back to his daughter, who was Eve, and lustfully had intercourse with her. He engendered with her a son, deformed in shape and possessing a red complexion, and his name was Cain, the Red Man.'"
(3) Another Gnostic tradition held that Adam and Eve were created to help defeat Satan. The serpent, instead of being identified with Satan, is seen as a hero by the Ophite sect.
(4) Still other Gnostics believed that Satan's fall, however, came after the creation of humanity. As in Islamic tradition, this story says that Satan refused to bow to Adam. (As a result of his exclusive love of God, Satan felt that bowing to humankind was a form of idolatry.) This refusal led to the fall of Satan, recorded in works such as the Book of Enoch.
Islamic tradition
The Qur'an tells of ??? () in the surah al-Baqara (2):30-39, al-A'raf (7):11-25, al-Hijr (15):26-44, al-Isra (17):61-65, Ta-Ha (20):115-124, and Sad (38):71-85.
The early Islamic commentator Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari adds a number of details to the Torah, based on claimed hadith as well as specific Jewish traditions (so-called isra'iliyat). Tabari records that when it came time to create Adam, God sent Gabriel (Jibril), then Michael (Mika'il), to fetch clay from the earth; but the earth complained, saying I take refuge in God from you, if you have come to diminish or deform me, so the angels returned empty-handed. Tabari goes on to state that God responded by sending the Angel of Death, who took clay from all regions, hence providing an explanation for the variety of appearances of the different races of mankind.
According to Tabari's account, after receiving the breath of God, Adam remained a dry body for 40 days, then gradually came to life from the head downwards, sneezing when he had finished coming to life, saying All praise be to God, the Lord of all beings. Having been created, Adam, the first man, is described as having been given dominion over all the lower creatures, which he proceeds to name. As one of the people to whom God is said to have spoken to directly, Adam is seen as a prophet in Islam.
At this point, Adam takes a prominent role in Islamic traditions concerning the fall of Shaytan(Satan), which is not recorded in the Torah, but in the Book of Enoch which is used in Oriental Orthodox churches. In these, when God announces his intention of creating Adam, some of the angels express dismay, asking why he would create a being that would do evil. Teaching Adam the names reassures the angels as to Adam's abilities, though commentators dispute which particular names were involved; various theories say they were the names of all things animate and inanimate, the names of the angels, the names of his own descendants, or the names of God.
When God orders the angels to bow to Adam one of those present, Shaytan Iblis in Islam, a Djinn who said "why should I bow to man, I am made of pure fire"), refuses due to his pride, and is summarily banished from the Heavens. Liberal movements within Islam have viewed God's commanding the angels to bow before Adam as an exaltation of humanity, and as a means of supporting human rights, others view it as an act of showing Adam that the biggest enemy of humans on earth will be their ego.
More extended versions of the fall of Shaytan also exist in works such as that of Tabari, and the Shia commentator al-Qummi. In these explanations Iblis is sent against the jinn, who had angered God by sin and fighting. In such versions where Satan leads the battle on God's behalf, rather than his own, it is the pride and conceit resulting from his victory which results in his expulsion, since pride is seen as a sin. Islamic traditions further record that, in vengeful anger, Iblis promises God that he will lead as many humans astray as he can, to which God replies that it is the choice of humans - those who so desire will follow Satan, while those who so desire will follow God.
Eve is referred to in the Qur'an as Adam's spouse, and Islamic tradition refers to her by an etymologically similar name - ???? () . In fact, although her creation is not recounted in the Qur'an, Tabari recounts the biblical tale of her creation, stating that she was named because she was created from a living thing (her name means living). The torah gives an etymology for woman, or rather the Hebrew equivalent (ish-shah), stating that she should be called woman since she was taken out of man (ish in Hebrew). The etymology is regarded as implausible by most semitic linguists.
The Quran blames both Adam and Eve for eating the forbidden fruit and as a punishment they were both banished from Heaven to the Earth. Muslims therefore interpret that this event does not pose a problem of women inferiority to men intrinsically. The concept of original sin doesn't exist in Islam. Adam and Eve were forgiven after they repented on Earth.
Al-Qummi records the opinion that Eden was not entirely earthly, and so, having been sent to earth, Adam and Eve first arrived at mountain peaks outside Mecca; Adam on Safa, and Eve on Marwa. In this Islamic tradition, Adam remained weeping for 40 days, until he repented, at which point God rewarded him by sending down the Kaaba, and teaching him the hajj.
The Qur'an also describes the two sons of Adam (named Qabil and Habil in Islamic tradition) that correspond to Cain and Abel.
Eve is said in local folklore to be buried in "Eve Grave" in Jeddah, KSA.
According to some Islamic traditions, Adam is buried beneath the site of the Kaaba in Mecca. Shi'a Muslims on the other hand, believe that Adam is buried next to Ali, within Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf, Iraq.
Cultural influence
Early Renaissance artists used the theme of Adam and Eve as a way to represent female and male nudes. Later, the nudity was objected to by more modest elements, and fig leaves were added to the older pictures and sculptures, covering their genitals. The choice of the fig was a result of Mediterranean traditions identifying the unnamed Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil as a fig tree, and since fig leaves were actually mentioned in Genesis as being used to cover Adam and Eve's nudity.
Another issue was whether they should be depicted with navels (The Omphalos theory). Since they were created fully grown, and did not develop in a uterus, they would not have had the umbilical scars possessed by all born humans. However, paintings without navels looked unnatural.
John Milton's Paradise Lost is a famous seventeenth century epic poem written in blank verse which explores the story of Adam and Eve in great detail.
See also
External links
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