Adam, the first Man

ADAM

Scripture references:
Genesis 2:1–5:5; 1 Chronicles 1:1;
Luke 3:38; Romans 5:12–17;
1 Corinthians 15:21–23, 45;
1 Timothy 2:13, 14

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ADAM’S ROLE IN SCRIPTURE

The Hebrew word ‘adam is used over 500 times in the Old Testament in the sense of “human being” or “humanity.” Only in early Genesis and 1 Chronicles 1:1 is ‘adam the proper name of Adam, the first man. Early Genesis defines Adam’s role in history. Any insight we’re given into Adam as an individual is found there.

The significance of Adam’s creation by God (Gen. 1:26, 27; 2:7–25.)Some argue that Genesis 1 and 2 are two contradictory creation accounts, spliced together by ancient editors. In fact, what we have in these two chapters are “establishing” and “close up” views of creation.

We see this same technique used daily on television. The camera gives us a look at the outside of an apartment building—and then shifts inside to focus on the featured individuals. The view of the building is the establishing shot; it tells us where the action takes place. The view focuses our attention on the hero and heroine of the writer’s tale.

Genesis 1is God’s “establishing shot.” Genesis 1 overviews the universe in which the action will take place. That brief overview establishes the fact that the material universe is the work of a Person. All that exists was consciously designed and brought into being by One whose power and wisdom are utterly awesome. That brief overview also establishes that all living creatures owe their existence to Him, yet draws our attention to “man.” Only man will God fashion “in Our image, according to our likeness.” And only to man will God give “dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth” (Gen. 1:26–27).

Genesis 1provides the framework in which we understand the universe and man’s place in it. No one who ignores Genesis 1, God’s “establishing shot,” can hope to understand human nature or the meaning of human life.

Then, with the framework fixed, Genesis 2 takes us “inside.” We’re led to one spot on the surface of the earth, a place called Eden, and introduced to the pair who became the parents of our race.

Grasping the teaching of these two chapters is essential if we are rightly to understand the men we meet in the Bible—as well as any human being. What, then, do these chapters teach us?

Man was created in God’s image and likeness (Gen. 1:26–27).In this text, two Hebrew words, image and likeness, are linked to convey a single powerful truth. Human beings, and human beings alone, have been given the “likeness-image” of God. The Expository Dictionary of Bible Words (1985) notes:

The creation story makes it clear that the likeness-image is not of physical form: material for man’s creation was taken from the earth. It is the inner nature of human beings that reflects something vital in the nature of God. Thus theologians generally agree that the likeness is rooted in all that is required to make a human being a person: in our intellectual, emotional, and moral resemblance to God, who has revealed Himself to us a personal being.

It is this likeness-image that sets human beings apart from [the rest of] the animal creation, and it is transmitted through the process of reproduction to succeeding generations (Gen. 5:1–3). It is this likeness-image of God that makes each human life so precious that nothing of however great value can possibly be offered in compensation for the taking of another’s life (Gen. 9:5–6)(p. 351).

According to Genesis then, human life is unique, and each human being is special.

Man was given dominion (Gen. 1:26).Three Hebrew words convey the idea of rule or dominion. Masal, found over 80 times in the Old Testament, is a general word denoting authority. Sapatand mispat are translated either “rule” or “judge,” and are linked with various functions of human government. But the Hebrew word in Genesis 1 is radah. Its twenty-five uses in the Old Testament refer to human’s governance of nature, and particularly animal creation, as God’s surrogate. In stating His intention to give man dominion over animal creation, God charged human beings to care for what He has made. The gift of God’s likeness-image carries with it the responsibility to guard God’s handiwork rather than to exploit it.

Adam’s creation was intimate and personal (Gen. 2:7).In Scripture’s close up of Adam’s creation, we note a striking departure. In describing the creation of the universe and the shaping of earth, Genesis 1 repeatedly records, “Then God said … and it was so.” In describing Adam’s creation, Genesis 2:7 says “the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.”

What a difference! “Then God said … and it was so” suggests emotional distance. The picture of God stooping to form Adam’s body from the dust of the earth and then breathing life into his still form is warm and personal. God was emotionally involved. He stepped into His creation; He fashioned Adam’s body and held it in His arms; He gently breathed His own breath into Adam’s nostrils that Adam might become a living soul. God watched as Adam stirred. When Adam sat up, we can imagine God stepping back, deeply satisfied with this being who is the crown of His creation.

Adam was something totally new. His body is from earth, and in his possession of biological life Adam shared his earthly nature with the animals. But his life is from God. As a “living soul” Adam shared something of the nature of his Creator. In time, Adam’s body would grow old and die. But Adam himself, a self-aware and unique individual in whose essence God’s breath had planted eternity, would exist for evermore. Adam would forever be an object of God’s love.

In Genesis 1 and 2, we are taught foundational truths about man’s essential nature, and we catch a glimpse of man’s relationship with God.

•     Man [both male and female] was created by the God who brought the universe into being.

•     Man [both male and female] was given God’s likeness-image, and in this gift was set apart from the animals.

•     Man [both male and female] has been granted dominion over God’s creation. We are God’s caretakers.

•     Man [both male and female] is a living soul, possessing biological life but also destined for eternity.

The men we meet in Scripture have been called to live their earthly lives in relationship with the God who created them. No human being’s achievements or character can be rightly evaluated without considering how well his life reveals a whole and healthy relationship with the Lord.

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BIBLE BACKGROUND:

Genesis provides a unique framework in which to understand humankind. No ancient culture saw human beings as Scripture portrays them, nor viewed human creation as the conscious act of a loving deity. Take the account of man’s creation found in Egyptian Pyramid texts, reflecting concepts from 3000 b.c. After describing Khepri’s creation of other deities by masturbation, the text describes his loss of an eye, to which Kephri was later reunited. He then said:

“After I had united my members, I wept over them, and that was the coming into being of mankind, from the tears which came forth from my Eye.”

There is no intentionality here, no love. In commenting on this story, Joseph Kaster, in The Wisdom of Ancient Egypt (1968) observed, “ordinary man is nothing” (p. 46).

It is striking that the framework in which moderns view human origins is quite similar to that of ancient pagan cultures. True, evolution posits no deities. But the framework presented by evolutionists—an impersonal material universe in which humans emerged by chance through a series of unlikely accidents—leads inevitably to the same conclusions the ancients reached. In either framework, “ordinary man is nothing.”

Only Scripture’s account of Adam’s intentional creation in God’s likeness-image makes each “ordinary man” special and gives an ordinary person’s life eternal significance.

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The significance of Adam’s early life in Eden (Gen. 2:8–20).While two of the rivers mentioned in Genesis as the boundaries of Eden are known, the location of the other two remain mysteries. While we can say with confidence that the biblical Eden lay somewhere in what is now Iraq or Turkey, between the Tigris and Euphrates, we do not know exactly where.

But knowing the location of Eden isn’t crucial for discerning its significance in the Genesis account.

Genesis 2:8 tells us that “the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed.” As God had carefully designed the universe, He now just as purposefully designed Eden. He filled the garden with trees that were “pleasant to the sight and good for food.” He enriched it with natural resources. He filled it with all kinds of wildlife, and at one place set out the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”

We can understand God’s care in designing Eden when we remember that God had given Adam the gift of His likeness-image. Adam, like God, was a person with all the capacities of personhood. Eden was designed to give Adam the opportunity to explore the wonderful capacities God had granted him.

In Eden, Adam discovered beauty (Gen. 2:9). God had planted there “every tree … that is pleasant to the sight.” The God who has “made everything beautiful in its time” (Eccl. 3:11) filled Eden with beauty, and that beauty resonated in the heart of Adam.

In Eden, Adam discovered the satisfaction of meaningful work (Gen. 2:15).Genesis tells us that God “put him [Adam] in the garden … to tend and keep it.” God had worked, and He looked over what He accomplished in each of creation’s days and “saw that it was good.” God had made Adam in His likeness-image, and thus Adam’s nature cried out for something significant to accomplish, some work of his own he could look on and say, “this is good.”

In Eden, Adam experienced the joy of discovery (Gen. 2:19). Scripture tells us that God showed Adam “every beast of the field and every bird of the air,” and gave Adam the task of naming them. Here we need to understand the Hebrew concept of name. In Hebrew thought, a name was more than a label. The name was intended to capture and express something of the essence of the thing named. To “name” the animals and birds, Adam would have had to study each kind, to observe its ways and catalog its habits. Only when he understood each creature could he name it. Adam discovered another joy rooted in sharing God’s likeness-image. Adam discovered the joy of learning, of thinking, of classifying, of identifying that which was unique.

In Eden, Adam discovered the peace that comes from doing what is right (Gen. 2:17). God had planted the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in Eden, and told Adam that of this one tree: “You shall not eat.” Some have viewed the tree as a trap, and pondered why God should want Adam to fail. But there is a different explanation for the existence of the tree. God had created Adam in His own likeness-image. And God is a moral being, committed to doing what is right. If Adam was to explore this aspect of personhood, he must be given the opportunity to make moral choices. And so the tree. And so too, for the uncountable months or years or decades that Adam lived in Eden and worked and studied there, Adam must have frequently passed by the forbidden tree. He did not eat. And in this Adam found inner peace, for in obeying God he had done what was right.

In Eden, Adam discovered his need for companionship (Gen. 2:18).There was one dimension of personhood that Adam had not and could not experience. Adam was alone, with no one like him whom he could love and with whom he could share life’s experiences. In this need, too, Adam shared God’s likeness-image. As Three-in-One—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—God had always possessed, within Himself the “helper comparable.”

God knew what Adam lacked, and said, “It is not good that man should be alone.” God had always planned to “make him a helper comparable to him” (Gen. 2:18). But Adam did not realize how lonely he was until he studied all the animals and birds, and the realization dawned that he truly was alone. As wonderful as the animals were, Adam found no “helper comparable to him” (2:20). Only when Adam recognized his need did God form Eve from Adam’s rib.

In Eden, God gave Adam Eve as a helper truly comparable to him (Gen. 2:21–24).The significance of the account of Eve’s creation lies in the fact that God used a rib taken from Adam as Eve’s source. If God had begun again with earth’s dust, it might have been argued that woman was a second and subordinate creation. But God used Adam’s own substance. And when the Lord brought Eve to Adam, he immediately recognized the significance of God’s act. Adam said,

This is now bone of my bones

And flesh of my flesh;

She shall be called Woman,

Because she was taken out of Man.
(Gen. 2:23)

Eve shared with Adam the likeness-image God granted to humankind. Each was fully a person as God is a Person. At last, Adam had a companion with whom he could share life fully and completely.

The insights to be gained from Genesis 2 further help us as we consider what it means to be a real man. Like Adam, we men are made in God’s likeness-image, and real men follow the pattern Adam set in Eden.

•     Real men look for and appreciate the beautiful.

•     Real men find satisfaction in accomplishing meaningful work.

•     Real men develop their capacity to think and explore the nature of the universe.

•     Real men make moral commitments and find deep satisfaction in choosing to do what is right.

•     Real men build relationships with others, valuing interdependence more than independence.

•     Real men invest in their relationship with their spouse, finding joy in sharing all of life on earth with her.

The story of Adam’s creation reminds us that a man’s life is to be rich and varied and that we find fulfillment in developing all the wonderful capacities of personhood with which God so graciously gifted humankind.

The significance of Adam’s fall (Gen. 3:1–19).The fairy tales we learned to love as children typically ended with marriage and the formula, “and they lived happily ever after.” We have no idea how many years Adam and Eve lived together happily in Eden. But Genesis moves quickly to describe an incident that made the fairy-tale ending impossible.

We’re familiar with what happened. Satan, in the guise of a serpent, deceived Eve and encouraged her to eat the forbidden fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. We’re not told where Adam was as Eve and Satan conversed. We do know that after Eve had eaten, “she also gave to her husband with her, and he ate” (Gen. 3:6). The phrase “with her” has been taken by some to indicate that Adam silently observed the conversation between Satan and Eve, and rather than step in, he abdicated his leadership responsibility. While this view might be debated, it is clear that Scripture holds Adam responsible. Throughout Scripture, the fault is ascribed to Adam, not Eve. Paul tells us in 1 Timothy 2:14 that “Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression.” Rather than blame Eve, this verse makes it clear that Adam had no excuse. He consciously chose to eat the forbidden fruit, intentionally violating God’s command. And thus the Fall is Adam’s Fall, not Eve’s nor even Adam’s and Eve’s. And that Fall had a dire impact on the human race, on nature itself, and on all of Adam’s sons as males.

The impact of Adam’s fall on the human race (Gen. 2:17). When God introduced Adam to Eden, He clearly defined the consequences of violating His command: “You shall not eat [of the tree],” God said, “for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (2:17). At first, it might seem this was an empty threat. Adam and Eve ate the fruit, but did not drop dead!

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The answer is found in the three senses in which Scripture uses the concept of death. In one sense, death is simply the cessation of biological life. In this sense, the day Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit they began to die. Those processes that lead to biological death were set in operation, and the grave prepared to welcome the first pair and all their offspring.

In another sense, death is a theological concept depicting the spiritual state of those who are separated from God by sin. In this sense Adam and Eve did die “in the day” that they ate. This death is powerfully depicted in The Expository Dictionary of Bible Words (1985).

Death, then, is a biological concept that is applied theologically to graphically convey the true state of humankind. The death that grips mankind is moral and spiritual. Death warps and twists man out of the pattern of original creation. Every human potential is distorted, every capacity—for joy, for relationships, for harmony with God, for true goodness—is tragically misshapen. And because each ugly twist and turn gives expression to sin, man—intended to reflect God’s image and likeness—falls instead under God’s condemnation. The striking and terrible image of death is designed to communicate how desperately we need God and how hopeless we are without him (p. 409).

Human beings have not been stripped of the likeness-image, but the likeness-image has been distorted, and every human capacity is now bent toward sin.

There is a third sense in which death is used in Scripture. Death describes the eternal state of those who fail to be reconciled to God during their days on earth. The eternal punishment to which they condemn themselves by unbelief is called the “second death” (Rev. 20:14).

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BIBLE BACKGROUND:

NEW TESTAMENT PASSAGES ON DEATH AND THE FALL

ROMANS 5:12–17

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned; (For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many. And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification. For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.)

1 CORINTHIANS 15:21–22

For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.

EPHESIANS 2:1–3

And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

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Because of the Fall, all human beings have been born spiritually dead, with all those wonderful capacities given us by God bent toward sin.

The impact of Adam’s Fall on nature (Gen. 3:17–18).After their sin, Adam and Eve tried to hide from God (3:8). Ultimately they responded to God’s call, and in the confrontation that followed God explained the specific consequences of their disobedience. The consequences to Eve are explained in 3:16, and the consequences to Adam in 3:17, 18. (For a thorough discussion of woman in the original creation and the stunning consequences of the Fall on woman’s relationship to man, see the companion volume, Every Woman in the Bible.)

God’s first words of explanation to Adam were, “Cursed is the ground for your sake” (3:17). This theme is repeated in verse 18: “Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you.”

Just as the principle of death and decay were introduced into the human genetic code, so death and decay would now establish their grip on nature itself. The unalloyed beauty and glory of original creation and its essential friendliness toward man were transformed, and earth became a hostile environment that humans must tame. Eden was lost, and as a consequence of the Fall:

In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread

Till you return to the ground.

For out of the ground you were taken;

For dust you are,

And to dust you shall return. (Gen. 3:19)

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A NEW TESTAMENT PASSAGE:

ON THE IMPACT OF THE FALL ON NATURE

ROMANS 8:20–22

For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs until now.

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Genesis gives us the answer to challenges skeptics raise based on the observed “cruelty” of nature. It wasn’t always so. The Fall, not God, introduced death and decay into our world.

The impact of Adam’s fall on males (Gen. 3:17–19).

In Every Woman in the Bible, we explored the striking impact of the Fall on male/female. The Fall disrupted the partnership of equals that had existed originally in Eden, and shifted woman’s orientation, originally toward seeking to please God, to become an orientation toward seeking to please males. The subordination and oppression of women common to most civilizations is not rooted in any innate superiority of men but is a consequence and expression of sin.

In explaining further consequences of the Fall to Adam, the Lord spoke of a reorientation of male life as well. “Cursed is the ground for your sake,” God said, and went on: “In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life” (Gen. 3:17). The same thought is repeated in verse 19: “In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread.” The human race would now have to wrest a living from an uncooperative earth. And even as the Fall refocused women’s priorities to create a need for male approval, so the Fall reoriented men’s priorities, and created a need for personal achievement. The great vulnerability of women is to focus on gaining the approval of men rather than God, but the great vulnerability of men is to focus on being successful in their work rather than on doing God’s will.

The man who becomes a workaholic, the man who measures his worth by his accomplishments, the man whose whole goal in life is to build up his business has fallen into the trap set in Adam’s Fall. For men, a commitment to accomplishment and a drive toward success is the siren’s song that draws us away from God.

Significantly, God chose the word “toil” to describe man’s work after the Fall. While some Bible words for work convey a positive sense of the joy to be found in meaningful work, other words focus on work’s dark side. Here the Hebrew word indicates painful toil, and emphasizes the unpleasant and frustrating aspects of work as “drudgery that never yields satisfaction or profit” (Expository Dictionary, p. 636). In choosing this word, God reminds us that while the work that provides for our families has value, when work becomes the focus of a man’s life, he is doomed to frustration and ultimate failure. Our focus is to be on God and on serving Him. Work is an idol at whose feet all too many men bow down.

Genesis’s teachings on the Fall help us better understand ourselves as men.

•     Because of the Fall we often find ourselves driven by corrupt impulses and desires. We will find in ourselves the weaknesses we see in the men of the Bible. By studying their lives, we can be warned away from similar tendencies in ourselves.

•     Because of the Fall, spiritual death has gained its grip on our personalities. Only through faith in God’s promises and in commitment to His Word can we find our way successfully through life. Here, too, the men of Scripture give us guidance and encouragement.

•     Because of the Fall, we men are especially vulnerable to giving first place to our work rather than to God. When we do give first place to God, work, wife, children, and all those other aspects of our lives can exist in harmony. When we give first place to work, every other relationship will suffer.

ADAM: AN EXAMPLE FOR TODAY

Genesis treats Adam as the prototype human being, and this he is. But Genesis gives us little biographical material about Adam. We learn much from early Genesis about human beings, but little about Adam, the man. The biographical material available to us is after the Fall.

In Genesis 3, we get a sense of Adam’s human side. We see his sudden discovery of guilt and shame (Gen. 3:7). We see his anxious attempts to cover up his sin, and the sudden fear that drove him to flee from the God who had always treated him with love (3:8, 10). We see his frantic attempt to shift the blame from himself to Eve and even to God rather than take responsibility for his choices (3:12). In this we see more clearly flaws that reflect our own failings, and indeed the failings of every human being. Adam becomes a man with whom we can sympathize, for we know intimately the weaknesses he displays.

What comfort we take then as, after telling Adam and Eve the consequences of their sin, God “made tunics of skin and clothed them” (Gen. 3:21). For here we have history’s first sacrifice. Here we begin to learn the repeated lesson of the Old Testament that, while sin deserves death, God will accept the death of another in our place, and so will cover our sin. In the flaws of Adam, we see ourselves, but in God’s gracious act, we see foreshadowed an ultimate sacrifice offered by One who will pay the penalty for all the sins of humankind.

Through early Genesis, and Adam’s story, we learn these important lessons.

•     All human beings are special, created in God’s own likeness-image. Every person is to be valued and treated with respect as one who is precious to God.

•     All human beings have God-given capacities rooted in our relationship to God as persons. We need to nurture these capacities, whether that is the ability to appreciate beauty, the ability to do meaningful work and find satisfaction in it, the ability to build significant relationships with others, and so forth. Let’s not be satisfied to be one-dimensional individuals, but let us develop and find joy in all the gifts God has given us.

•     All human beings are terribly flawed by sin, and the likeness-image gifts of God are twisted. Let’s remain aware of our fallibility, and humbly respond to the guidance God gives us in His Word.

•     Men are especially vulnerable to the temptation to focus on work and on achievement at the expense of commitment to God and the nurturing of other relationships. We need to live a balanced life in which we place God first and let the other aspects of our lives fall into place as He directs us.

While little is known of Adam the man, his story in early Genesis is foundational to our understanding of ourselves as human beings, and as men.

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