Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 01.djvu/140

ADAM. esis ii:7). The word used for "ground" is adamah, and in the mind of the writer there is evidently a close connection between this word and Adam. A common meaning for the Hebrew stem adam, 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 be drawn from ben or ibn, 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 adam with "make." In Assyrian we have a word "admu" (the equivalent of the Hebrew Adam), which actually occurs as one of the synonyms of "child" (see Delitzsch, Assyrisches Wörterbuch, 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. Man 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 he 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 ) 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.

In the continuation of the narrative (chapter iv:1-2), the birth of two sons, Cain and Abel, is recounted; but beyond that we learn nothing further of Adam and Eve until we reach a totally different document, a genealogical list in chapter v, in which, after a re-statement of the creation of humanity and the assigning of the name Adam (Genesis v:2) to mankind in general, the birth of Seth, in the 130th year of Adam's life, is recounted, no mention being made of Cain or Abel. Adam is stated to have died at the age of 930 years, after having begotten sons and daughters. In the narrative about Adam thus pieced together from various documents, a further distinction must be made between the story as told in the first three chapters of Genesis and the notes in the fifth chapter. The genealogical list appears to be in reality a list of dynasties, drawn up on the basis of a tradition which belongs to the same category of semi-legendary lore, as the lists preserved by Eusebius and Syncellus of early Babylonian rulers who lived before the flood (see Rogers' History of Babylonia and Assyria, i., p. 328); whereas the story of Adam and Eve in the first three chapters of Genesis is a composite production embodying various popular tales of myths, some elements of which revert to tradition held in common at one time by Hebrews and Babylonians, but which, having passed through an independent development among the Hebrews, have been interpreted in the light of the monotheistic conception of the universe, and preserved as an effective means of illustrating the specifically Jewish document of the creation of man and of his fall from divine grace, as an explanation of the toil and ills with which human existence is filled. It is this distinctly theological conception of Adam which becomes uppermost as the religious ideas of the Old Testament become fixed in men's minds. The story of Adam becomes with the growth of Christian theology the most important source for the doctrine of the origin of sin, and over against him is put the second Adam, the first being the fountain of sin, the second the source of salvation. This conception is fully brought out in the teachings of St. Paul (see especially Romans v:12-21; 1. Corinthians xv:22, and 45-49). In Jewish theology proper the doctrinal development in general is arrested after the separation from Judaism of the new sect made up of the followers of Jesus. The predominant position henceforth occupied in Judaism by obedience to the minute ceremonial prescriptions brings about a concentration of Jewish thought on theoretical discussions of the intricacies of biblical and Talmudical laws, while in place of doctrinal elaboration we have the homiletical interpretation of the narrative in Genesis, which leads to numerous additions to rabbinical literature of the biblical narrative of Adam and of the creation in general, as well as of the stories of the patriarchs in the Book of Genesis. These stories about Adam are collected in the so-called Midrash Rabba to Genesis, a German translation of which was published by Wunsche (Der Midrasch Rabba zu Genesis, 1882). From the Jews the stories made their way to the Arabs, and snatches of them are embodied in the Koran. Consult Sale's Translation of the Koran and notes (London, 1877), especially to Suras 15 and 17.

ADAM. In Shakespeare's As You Like It (q.v.). an old servant w'ho follows the fortunes of Orlando. His age, he apologetically says, "is as a lusty winter, frosty but kindly" (Act II., Scene 3). The part is one which Shakespeare himself is traditionally said to have played.