Adam In the Old Testament

Adam (Hebrew adam, humanity, or man; connected with adamah, ground) is presented in Genesis as the first human being, formed from the ground by divine action, receiving the breath of life, placed in the garden of Eden, and given the commission to work and keep it and to exercise dominion over the creation (Gen. 1:26–28; 2:7, 15). His name is both individual and generic: as ha-adam (the man, the human), he represents humanity collectively; as the recipient of Eve from his own rib (Gen. 2:21–23), he establishes the pattern of marriage. The garden narrative culminates in the transgression: Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit at the serpent's instigation (Gen. 3:1–7), God pronounced curses on serpent, woman, and man, and expelled them from Eden with toil, pain, and mortality as the consequences. In the OT outside Genesis, Adam is rarely mentioned explicitly (Deut. 32:8 LXX; Job 31:33; Hos. 6:7; Eccl. 7:29), but the Adamic framework — humanity's dignity, responsibility, and fallenness — permeates the whole. The genealogies of Genesis 5 and Chronicles 1 trace the line from Adam to later patriarchs and ultimately to Israel. Whether the Genesis narrative is intended as literal historical reportage or as theological narrative employing ancient Near Eastern literary conventions is actively debated in contemporary scholarship.