Adam is the first human name mentioned in the Bible.
He is also the only person who did not come from another human being in some capacity. Even Eve came from Adam's rib. Adam was created from dust.
It's pretty incredible to think that God chose, of all things, to make creatures in his own likeness from dust. Basic, plain old dust. It seems from the beginning God was trying to show us his heart. Perhaps if we were made from gold, or from some ethereal element, we could boast. But instead God used dust, and by His breath and power alone humans were given life.
It echoes God's choosing of the Israelites, who were chosen not because of their great size or power, but actually for the opposite reason. He chose them because they were the weakest (Deut. 7:7). He loved them and delivered them and promised to make them a great nation. God demonstrates His power not by making us strong, but by using the weak to accomplish the seemingly impossible. His power is made perfect not through our strength, but through our weakness (2 Cor. 12:9).
Adam's name, simply put, means "man." Pretty basic, but I guess that's all you need. It relates closely to the Hebrew word for ground, adamah. That also makes quite a bit of sense, as Adam, as previously mentioned, was created from the dust of the ground.
References to Adam
Adam the man is mentioned 20 times by my count in the NIV translation of the Bible. 11 of those references come in the first 5 chapters of Genesis. I say Adam the man because there is one reference to a city named Adam in the book of Joshua. That is the only time in the Bible where the name Adam does not refer to the man God created from dust in Genesis 2.
There are 2 other mentions of Adam in the rest of the Old Testament. Once in Chronicles, where the author of the book is giving a genealogy from Adam to Abraham, and once in Hosea, where God grieves His people turning away from Him "like the morning mist." He recalls Adam breaking the covenant God made with him, and Israel's subsequent and repeated covenant breaking. How great is our God, that He would still make a way for us?
If you're keeping count, that leaves us with 7 references to Adam in the New Testament. The first reference is in Luke, where Luke gives us a genealogy of Jesus going backwards from Joseph to God himself. Luke 3:38 has to be the most beautiful end to a genealogy ever. Luke begins the list by saying that Jesus was, "so it was thought," the son of Joseph. Going all the way down to the end, we get verse 38:
"the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God."
Wow.
Adam is mentioned 5 times in Paul's epistles. In Romans, Paul uses Adam's original sin bringing judgement into the world to contrast with God's provision of grace through Jesus Christ (Romans 5). He uses Adam to make a similar point in 1 Corinthians 15, but then he speaks of him again to explain the idea of our bodies not being mere flesh and blood, but bodies given life by the Spirit of God.
The last 2 references from Paul to Adam by name come in 1 Timothy, where Paul lays out that men are designed as the head of a marriage relationship. He explains that gender roles are not a mere result of the fall, but actually intended in creation from the beginning. 1 Timothy 2 can be a hard passage for many modern readers, including myself. I think it is important to note that many of Paul's words were controversial in his time as well. Perhaps that is a blog post for another time...
The final reference to Adam is an interesting one. It comes from the book of Jude, in Jude 14. He actually only references Adam to talk about his descendant Enoch, and to quote extrabiblical literature concerning him. Jude was calling out people who have crept their way into the church to deceive believers with worldly things.
Adam's Story:
So what does the Bible actually say about who Adam was? Well, the exciting thing about the Bible is that it doesn't usually explicitly tell you how you should look at a person. So here is what it does say about Adam. God formed Adam from the dust (Gen. 2:7). He breathed life into him and placed him in charge of maintaining the garden of Eden. God told Adam that he could eat from every tree in the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for "on the day you eat of it you shall surely die" (Gen. 2:17).
God recognized Adam's need for a companion, and created woman from his rib. Adam's wife was named Eve. Immediately after the creation of the woman came Adam's first words:
"This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of man" (Genesis 2: 23)
Then came the fall.
While Genesis 3 is incredibly clear that it was Eve who was deceived by the serpent, it says something interesting involving Adam. Adam was with her (Gen. 3:6). Adam was present and aware of what was happening, and he seemingly allowed it to happen. Following this, God came into the garden, and Adam and Eve both hid. God, all-knowing, asked Adam where he was. Adam told God he was hiding because of his nakedness. Well, at least he was honest.
God asked Adam if he had eaten from the tree, and Adam shifted the blame to his wife, who of course blamed the serpent. Following this blame game, God handed down His divine punishment. He began with the serpent, and ended with Adam. Here is Adam's punishment:
To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’
“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.
- Genesis 3:17-19 (NIV)
In summary, Adam would be cursed by painful and difficult work as well as a return to the dust by which he was formed. In other words, suffering and death. That is the curse of Adam.
But the first man's story is not quite over. Immediately following this curse, God provides clothing for Adam and Eve, showing that he still cares and provides for them, despite their unfaithfulness. God banished them from the garden of Eden so that they would also not live forever in their sin.
Adam immediately began to work the ground. Genesis 4 starts with Adam and Eve having their first child, Cain. Second came Abel. Then comes their story, but following the death of Abel, Adam and Eve had a third son named Seth, whose family line is traced to Noah, Abraham, David, and eventually Jesus Christ.
Where does Jesus come into this?
Adam's story, the introduction to humans in the Bible, primarily is one of utter failure. A story of not living up to to God's standard. Adam was blessed with ultimate care, provision, protection, and face-to-face interaction with his Creator. He was given just one restriction, and he was unable to keep to it.
It can be easy to look at this story and see what could have been had Eve not eaten the fruit or if Adam had intervened, but if we're being honest, this is always how it would have been. If I were in the same situation as Adam, I would have done the same thing.
In my own life, I put the words of others, my friends, my colleagues, my family, over the Word of God constantly. I give their counsel higher authority than God's regularly. When I need to make a decision, I typically don't run to the Lord in prayer or look into scripture for what He says. I almost always will ask my friends, my parents, those I trust. It's not wrong to seek counsel, but there becomes a problem when we place the authority of our friends' words over God's authority and plans. I would guess we all have been guilty of this at one point or another. We all have acted like Adam.
But God did not abandon us despite our rebellious nature. In fact, God used Adam's rebellion for His glory. Through Jesus Christ, a story of one man's failure has become a story of God's redemptive power and unfailing love. In 2 Timothy 2, Paul gives us what he calls a "trustworthy saying." This saying exemplifies God's faithfulness to His glory, regardless of what we do. In verse 13, he says:
"if we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot disown Himself."
Regardless of our actions, God has remained faithful. He could have left the story of humanity at Adam and Eve. He would have been righteous in destroying them and moving on. God does not need us. But for the sake of His name, and because of His great love, God provided Jesus, His only Son, as a substitutionary atonement for our own sin and failure. As Paul says in Romans 5:17, if by the sin of Adam, death reigned for humanity, how much more will God's grace and His gift of righteousness reign through Jesus Christ!
Despite our failure, God is faithful. Praise the Lord.
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