Language Studies

Hebrew Thoughts

''âdham - אדם (Strong's #120)
Man

"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. " (Genesis 1:26)

Adam
Man, אדם 'âdhâm (Strong's #120), occurs 552 times in the Hebrew bible and derives from the root verb אדם 'adhâm (Strong's #119). It means 'man', 'mankind: male and female', 'red', 'ruddy', 'earthy' from the idea of 'redness' and 'earthiness'. The verb in its various forms can be used of something dyed red as in Nahum 2:4 where it is paralleled with תלע tâla` (Strong's #8529), "to be scarlet":

Verse 27 of Genesis 1 goes on to say:

"in the image of God / He created him;
male and female / He created them."

From the parallelism in the verse we can see that אדם 'âdhâm is clearly a generic word for mankind as well as just man or the proper name of the first man. It is used of 'him' or 'them', and of 'male and female', made in the "image of God", so אדם 'âdhâm also embraces womankind.

In the Genesis 2:7 picture of man's creation, אדם 'âdhâm is made from "the dust of the ground" hâ'âdhâm 'âphâr min-hâ'adhâmâh. You can hear the sound of man's origin, not in the word 'dust' עפר 'âphâr (Strong's #6083) but in the word 'ground' אדמה 'adhâmâh (Strong's #127). This is just the feminine form of אדם ’âdhâm with the Hebrew feminine -âh suffix. So the ground is man's partner and mother effectively. Man must till the ground in partnership with creation and at death return to the ground from whence he came (Genesis 3:17-19).

The idea of 'redness' clearly comes from both the ground's muddy colour and man's middle eastern complexion, similar in colour to 'red' Indians. The Arabs think of only two colour tones: black and red, not our black, white, red and yellow.

The Hebrew word for 'red' אדם 'âdhôm (Strong's #122) is from the same root as 'man' with only a minor vowel change. A classic usage of אדם 'âdhôm is in Genesis 25:30 when Esau asks Jacob for some red soup:

"And Esau said to Jacob,
'Please feed me with some of that really red stew, for I am weary.'
Therefore his name was called Edom."

In the Hebrew it says neither stew nor soup, just the word 'red' twice, a Hebrew means of emphasis or something taken to the maximum degree, hence "really red" in our translation above. The NRSV just calls it "red stuff" and the JPS is the only one to note the doubling calling it "red, red pottage". The name Edom אדום 'edhôm (Strong's #123), clearly also meaning red, has its supposed etymological origin in this verse. Although, if you read Genesis 25:25 you will see that he had already been named Esau, meaning 'hairy', and his birth had been described as follows:

"And the first came out red.
He was like a hairy garment all over;
so they called his name Esau.".

Another word derived from the same verb is אדם 'ôdhem (Strong's #124) used of a red precious stone, a sardius or ruby, worn on Aaron's breastplate as High Priest (Exodus 28:17).

A final 'red' connection is that of the word for 'blood'. דם dâm (Strong's #1818) 'blood' is a monosyllabic biliteral word that may in itself be a root syllable rather than root verb. אדם 'âdhâm is simply דם dâm with Hebrew's first and silent letter א prefixed. So 'man' and 'blood' may be more intimately connected than mere biology and haematology.

The first biblical use of 'blood' is in the context of Abel's murder, when his blood was said to have cried out from the ground (Genesis 4:10). On the subject of murder, Genesis 9:6 is a virtual tongue twister:

"Whoever sheds man's blood, By man his blood דם האדם בּאדם דמו dam hâ'âdhâm bâ'âdhâm dâmôw) shall be shed; For in the image of God He made man."

Blood is significant throughout Scripture in sacrifice, slaughter and salvation. So, man has both humble earthly origins and yet, being also made in the image of God, is of value and whose life is not be taken lightly.

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