StrongerBible

adam

אָדָם

HebrewH0121Proper Noun“Adam, the man”

Appears 12 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Gen 2:20Gen 3:17Gen 3:21Gen 4:25Gen 5:1Gen 5:3Gen 5:4Gen 5:5Jos 3:161Ch 1:1Job 31:33Hos 6:7
Word studyResearch-gradeah-DAHMproper noun

What adam means

1

Adam: the personal name of the first man, the human being God formed at the beginning and the head of the family lines the Bible traces.

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintyStrong

In Hebrew there is no visible difference between this man's name and the everyday word for a human being (אָדָם): they are spelled the same and said the same. Calling him Adam is close to calling him Human. English translations have to pick one or the other, and the choice they make at any given verse is often an interpretation rather than a translation.

The name does three different jobs in the Bible:

  • In the garden story he is the man God speaks to, sentences, and clothes.
  • In the family lists he is the first name in the line, the father of Seth, who lived and died like everyone after him.
  • In two later poems he is a byword, the first person to break a command and then try to hide it.

The story also plays his name against the Hebrew word for the ground he was formed from and returns to (adamah). Scholars agree this is a deliberate sound-play in the storytelling rather than the real origin of the word, but the effect is intended: the man's name keeps saying out loud that he is a creature made of dirt and headed back to it.

The New Testament writes the name in Greek letters (Ἀδάμ) and treats it as a plain personal name, which is why later readers meet a fixed name where the Hebrew is still hovering between a name and a common word.

Nuances

1athe man in the garden story: the one God speaks to, sentences, and clothes
Gen 2:20Gen 3:17Gen 3:21
1bAdam as the first ancestor: the name that heads the family lines, father of Seth, who lived 930 years and died
Gen 4:25Gen 5:1Gen 5:3Gen 5:4Gen 5:51Ch 1:1
1cAdam named as a precedent: the first man cited later as the pattern for breaking a command and covering it up
TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyContested
Job 31:33Hos 6:7

Disputed

Whether Genesis 2:20, 3:17 and 3:21 already use the word as the personal name Adam, or whether they are still the common noun "the man," so that the personal name stabilizes only at Genesis 4:25 and in the family list of Genesis 5.

  • majorityThese verses are still the common noun; the personal name only becomes stable at Genesis 4:25 and Genesis 5:1-5, with 1 Chronicles 1:1 following the genealogy. BDB repoints the forms at 2:20, 3:17 and 3:21 so that they remain definite common nouns.; BDB, s.v. אָדָם, 9-10; C. Westermann, Genesis 1-11 (Continental Commentary, 1984); R. S. Hess, "Splitting the Adam: The Usage of 'adam in Genesis I-V," in Studies in the Pentateuch (VTSup 41, 1990), 1-15
  • minorityThe word is already functioning as the personal name in the garden narrative, first at Genesis 2:20b, where it appears without the definite article.; N. M. Sarna, Genesis (JPS Torah Commentary, 1989), 22; C. J. Collins, Did Adam and Eve Really Exist? (2011)
  • minorityThe word is best described as a title standing at a middle point on a continuum between the generic noun and the personal name, so no single verse marks a clean switch.; R. S. Hendel, Genesis 1-11 (Anchor Yale Bible, 2024)
2

Adam: a town beside the Jordan, near Zarethan and well upstream from Jericho, named as the point the stopped river backed up to.

TranslatabilityDirectCertaintyStrong

When Israel crossed the Jordan, the water coming downstream stopped and piled up "a great distance away, at Adam, the town beside Zarethan," while the people walked across opposite Jericho. The name is there to say how far upstream the blockage reached, and the writer adds "the town beside Zarethan" precisely so a reader will not confuse it with anything else.

The Hebrew as written reads "from Adam" while the traditional reading is "at Adam." Either way the word names a settlement, not a person, and geographers place it somewhere along the Jordan in the stretch where the Jabbok river joins it, though the exact site is only a proposal.

Jos 3:16

What scholars say about adam

The standard lexica treat the proper name as the least common and least stable use of אָדָם. BDB (s.v., 9-10) admits only Genesis 4:25; 5:1, 3, 4, 5 and 1 Chronicles 1:1 as unambiguous personal-name occurrences, repointing the forms at Genesis 2:20; 3:17; 3:21 so that they remain definite common nouns; HALOT and Clines's DCH divide the field the same way while organizing their entries differently, and both keep a separate sub-entry for the town of Joshua 3:16 in the Jordan Valley beside Zarethan. Sarna (JPS Genesis, 22) and C. John Collins read Genesis 2:20b as the first personal-name use, while Westermann and Richard Hess ("Splitting the Adam") locate the stabilization at Genesis 4:25; Hendel (Anchor Yale Genesis 1-11) describes the word as a title at a middle point on the continuum from generic noun to personal name, comparing the trajectory of שָׂטָן, and Gesenius's older formula that the word "assumes somewhat the nature of a proper name" points the same way. The Septuagint fixes the name from Genesis 2:16, resolving in Greek what the Hebrew leaves fluid. On etymology there is broad agreement that the Genesis 2:7 association with אֲדָמָה is paronomasia rather than derivation (Gunkel, Skinner, Westermann, Wenham, Hamilton, Sarna), with Ugaritic adm "humanity" and the El epithet ab adm indicating a stable Northwest Semitic noun independent of any live link to "ground." Job 31:33 and Hosea 6:7 remain contested between a reference to the first man, a generic "as people do," and, for Hosea, the place name attested at Joshua 3:16, the "there" of the following clause being the main argument for the geographical reading.

In-depth research

This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.

Sources

  • BDB, s.v. אָדָם, 9-10lexicon
  • HALOT, s.v. אָדָםlexicon
  • D. J. A. Clines, ed., The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, 1:123-129lexicon
  • F. Maass, "אָדָם," in TDOT 1:75-87theological-dictionary
  • C. Westermann, Genesis 1-11 (Continental Commentary, 1984), 201-202commentary
  • N. M. Sarna, Genesis (JPS Torah Commentary, 1989), 17, 22commentary
  • G. J. Wenham, Genesis 1-15 (Word Biblical Commentary, 1987), 59-60commentary
  • V. P. Hamilton, The Book of Genesis 1-17 (NICOT, 1990), 156-158commentary
  • R. S. Hendel, Genesis 1-11 (Anchor Yale Bible, 2024)commentary
  • R. S. Hess, "Splitting the Adam: The Usage of 'adam in Genesis I-V," in Studies in the Pentateuch (VTSup 41, 1990), 1-15article
  • C. J. Collins, Did Adam and Eve Really Exist? (2011)monograph

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of אָדָם

m

אָדָם

Gen 2:20, Gen 3:17, Gen 3:21, Gen 4:25, Gen 5:1, Gen 5:3, Gen 5:4, Gen 5:5

noun

אָדָם

Jos 3:16