Adam

AD'AM (red earth), a city in the Jordan valley near Zaretan. Josh 3:16. It has been located at ed-Damieh, but Drake suggests Khurbet-el- Hamrath, or "the red ruin," 1 mile south of Tell Sarem.

ADAM (red, or earth-born). The word is used in the Bible in two senses : 1. Man generically, including woman (in the English Version translated man). Gen 1:26, Gen 1:27 ; Jud 5:1; Gen 6:1; Job 20:29: Job 21:33; Ps 68:18;Ps 76:10. Man historically, or, as a proper name, Adam individually, the first man, who was at the same time the representative man. Gen 2:7; Gen 3:8. Adam was not born, but created ; not in feeble, helpless infancy, but in the maturity of his physical and intellectual nature ; not a sinful, diseased, dying creature, but pure and free from sin, yet liable to temptation and in need of trial in order to be confirmed in his innocence. He was the crown of creation, made on the sixth day, after the vegetable and animal world. Adam was the root of hu manity, and all that affected him affected his posterity. His sin tainted their blood and poisoned their nature; while the Saviour promised to him was the Saviour of all who came after him. His mortality in consequence of sin has remained as a permanent fact in man; his immortality in consequence of faith upon the promised Saviour will be shared in by all of like belief. In him God put humanity to the test. If Adam had kept his first estate, the world would never have been darkened by sin and guilt. Adam was also the beginning of a new order of beings. He was of the earth, earthy — the earth is called ada mah in Hebrew in Gen 2:7 — dust from dust, as to his physical organization, but into him God had breathed a living soul; he was an immortal spirit, made in the very "image and likeness of God." This is the noblest conception of man. The "image of God" means man's personality, his rational, moral, and immortal nature, which is destined for the glory and communion of God and for everlasting felicity. It also includes dominion over the creatures. God created Eve to be a help meet for Adam. He dreamt of woman, and awaked to find her at his side. The pair lived together in happiness and innocence, the keepers of a garden which yielded abundantly of fruit and flowers for their nourishment and pleasure. The fruit of one tree only, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, was forbidden to them. But the prohibition piqued their desire. Eve listened to the specious arguments of Satan, who had come to her under the form of a serpent; "she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat." Gen 3:6; comp. 2 Cor 11:3 ; 1 Tim 2:14 ; John 8:44. In this simple language does the Bible describe the most momentous event in history previous to the birth of Christ. For then happened the Fall; sin was let loose to ravage the world; a blight had fallen upon the race. The first proof of sin was shame. The wretched folly of all attempts to cover sin is symbolized by the fig-leaf aprons of our first parents; they were no coverings at all. The second proof of sin was their fear before God. They stood condemned, and owned his dreadful sentence just. They were banished from Paradise. The ground was cursed for their sake. In the hardship of toil and labor, in the care and suffering of childbirth and parentage, they began to feel at once the woes their transgression involved. All the burdens of life, the heavy cross, sickness, disaster, trouble, death, come from the action of that fatal day. They are the dread reminders of our fallen state. Our first parents involved all their posterity in that ruin they first experienced. But in the narrative of the Fall there stands also the promise of a deliverer, the woman's seed (the son of Mary), who should crush the serpent's head—that is, destroy the power of sin and Satan. Gen 3:15. This promise, which is called the "first gospel," was fulfilled in the Crucifixion. Christ is the second Adam, as Paul shows in Rom 5:12 ff. and 1 Cor 15:45. He undid the work of the first. He abolished the power of sin and death for believers, and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. 2 Tim 1:10. The redemption by Christ is the glorious solution of the fall of Adam. Christ has given us much more than we lost by Adam. Paradise regained is better than Paradise lost, and can never be lost again. God in his infinite wisdom and mercy overruled the fall of man for the revelation of his redeeming love, which in turn calls out the deepest gratitude and bliss of the redeemed.