ADAM
65
ADAM
gruit}' has led some, in particular Eichcrs (Die ScTwp- fungs-, Paradieses- und Siindfiuthsgesckichtc, p. 163), to adopt another etymology of the term — to make Adam a derivative of dainnh (H^'l, to be like, to resemble). Delitzseh, however (System der Bibl. Psychologie, p. 49), has objected to this view, both on grammatical and other grounds ; and though we do not see the force of his grammatical objection to the derivation in ques- tion, yet we think he puts the matter itself rightly, and thereby justifies the received opinion. Man's name is kindred with that of the earth, adamah, not because of its being his characteristic dignity that God made him after his image, but because of this, that God made after his image one who had been taken from the earth. The likeness to God man had in common with the angels, but that, as the possessor of this likeness, he should be Adam — this is what brought him into union with two worlds — the world of spirit and the world of matter — rendered him the centre and the bond of all that had been made, the fitting topstone of the whole work of creation, and the motive principle of the world's history. It is precisely his having the image of God in an earthen vessel, that, while made somewhat lower than the angels, he occupies a higher position than they in respect to the affairs of this world (Psa. viii, 5 ; Heb. ii, 5).
I. History. — In the first nine chapters of Genesis there appear to be three distinct histories relating more or less to the life of Adam. The first extends from Gen. i, 1 to ii, 3, the second from ii, 4 to iv, 26, the third from v, 1 to the end of ix. The word (mSbin) at the commencement of the latter two nar- ratives, which is rendered there and elsewhere genera- tions, may also be rendered history. The style of the second of these records differs very considerably from that of the first. In the first the Deity is designated by the word Elohim; in the second he is generally spoken of as Jehovah Elohim. The object of the first of these narratives is to record the creation ; that of the second to give an account of paradise, the original sin of man, and the immediate posterity of Adam ; the third contains mainly the history of Noah, referring, it would seem, to Adam and his descendants, princi- pally in relation to that patriarch. The first account of the creation of man is in general terms, the two sexes being spoken of together (ch. i, 27) as a unit of species ; whereas in the second, or resumptive account, the separate formation of the man and the woman is detailed. This simple consideration reconciles all ap- parent discrepancy between the two narratives.— Smith, s. v. See Genesis.
The representation there given is that Adam was absolutely the first man, and was created by the di- rect agency of God; that this act of creation, including the immediately subsequent creation of Eve, was the last in a series of creative acts which extended through a period of six literal days. See Creation. This Scriptural account is, of course, entirely opposed to the atheistic hypothesis, which denies any definite be- ginning to the human race, but conceives the succes- sive generations of men to have run on in a kind of infinite series, to which no beginning can lie assigned. Such a theory, originally propounded by heathen phi- losophers, has also been asserted by the more extreme section of infidel writers in Christian times. But the voice of tradition, which, in all the more ancient na- tions, uniformly points to a comparatively recent pe- riod for the origin of the human family, has now re- ceived conclusive attestations from learned research and scientific inquiry. Not only have the remains of human art and civilization, the more they have been explored, yielded more convincing evidence of a pe- riod not very remote when the human family itself was in infanc}% but the languages of the world also, when carefully investigated and compared, as they have of late been, point to a common and not exceed-
ingly remote origin. This is the view of Sir William Jones, and, later, of Bunsen also. The same conclu- sion substantially is reached by Dr. Donaldson, who, after stating what has already been accomplished in this department of learning, expresses his conviction, on the ground alone of the affinities of language, that "investigation willfully confirm what the great apos- tle proclaimed in the Areopagus, that God hath made, of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth" (New Cratylus, p. 19). The i option is still further confirmed by the results that have been gained in the region of natural science. The most skilful and accomplished naturalists — such as Cuvier, Blumenbach, Pritchard— have established beyond any reasonable doubt the unity of the human family as a species (see particularly Pritchard's History of Man); and those who have prosecuted geological researches, while the)' have found remains in the different strata of rocks of numberless species of inferior animals, can point to no human petrifactions — none, at least, but what appear in some comparatively recent and local formations — a proof that man is of too late an origin for his remains to have mingled with those of the ex- tinct animal tribes of preceding ages. Science gen- erally can tell of no separate creations for animals of one and the same species ; and while all "geologic his- tory is full of the beginnings and the ends of species, "it exhibits no genealogies of development" (Miller's Testimony of the Rocks, p. 201). That, when created, man must have been formed in full maturity, as Adam is related to have been, was a necessity arising from the very conditions of existence. It has been discov- ered, by searching into the remains of preceding ages and generations of living creatures, that there has been a manifest progress in the succession of beings on the surface of the earth — a progress in the direction of an increasing resemblance to the existing forms of being, and in particular to man. But the connection between the earlier and the later, the imperfect and the perfect, is not that of direct lineage or parental