Adam

Biography of Adam (הָֽאָדָ֑ם)

The historical account of the creation in six days is concluded with the creation of Adam and Eve. The person named Adam is the first creation of God in the creation account, who bore the image of God (imago Dei). He is the spouse of the woman created, named Eve (meaning mother of living), who together as male and female is Man according to Genesis 1:27. It is characteristic in the creation account to address Adam as "the man" (Hebrew word, הָֽאָדָ֗ם hāʾāḏām), and only beginning in 3:17 does the text drop the designation "the man," and use the name Adam, as well as Eve for the woman. The Gospel author Luke traces the genealogy (Luke 3:23-38) of Jesus to the man Adam.

The genealogies of Genesis and Luke that begin or end with Adam, whether going forward or backward, demonstrate the first man was not a mythical archetype. Adam was a real historical man. He is called the original "son of God" (Luke 3:38) in the sense of being directly created by Divine Creator. (Gen 1:26-27) Adam was physically made by God to reflect His characteristics, albeit in a finite, human form. (Gen 9:6; 1 Cor 11:7) Adam was originally fashioned from the dust of the ground, and graciously given the "breath of life" directly by God so that he "became a living being." (Gen 2:7; 1 Cor 15:45) He is not only the founding father of the human race, but also fathered many children. Adam lived 930 years. His death is the first obituary recorded in Scripture. (Gen 5:5) While many theologians and commentators have grappled to explain how his original sin was passed on down to the entire human race, the facticity of it is undeniable. Adam's historical fall led to the fall of history itself which only a second Messianic Adam, who was also a historical Man, can resolve prophetically and/or apocalyptically. (Rom 5:12-21; 1 Cor 15:20-28) Sin and death are not merely metaphysical, theological, or biblical terms, but permeate all of life from any empirical point of view this side of the grave. Adam is the only man to have historically experienced paradise lost and the sudden fall of the world dominated now by sin and death.