The Last Word on The First Adam

This paper is written as a partial response to Eli James' recently-published paper, Beast of the Field. Yahweh willing, we will respond to other aspects of Eli's long paper in the near future.

Answers to queries and criticisms will be supplied at the bottom of the article. 

The Biblical text of Genesis 1:1 through Genesis 2:3 represents an account of the Creation of Yahweh God, where the Adamic Man is the pinnacle of that creation. This account describes the creation as having taken place over six days, which cannot be literal 24-hour days, because there was no sun or moon until the fourth day. Therefore the days must be metaphoric, representing longer periods of time. On the seventh day God rested, “from all his work which God created and made”, meaning that He ceased from creating new species. That Yahweh is still in that period of rest is evident in Scripture, for instance at Hebrews 4:5, and this is symbolic of the fact that no new works have been created on the part of God since He created the Adamic man in Genesis Chapter 1. Therefore the seventh day, that day of rest for God, is metaphoric just as the first six days were not literal days as we now use the word.

KJV Genesis 1:26-27: “²⁶ 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. ²⁷ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”

After the creation of the Adamic man, we see that God rested, and Genesis 2:3 ends the great Creation account which began at 1:1:

KJV Genesis 2:3: “And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.”

It is thereafter evident that Genesis 2:4 begins another account, introducing the same Creation story anew, and relating it from a different perspective. Where Genesis 2:4 states that “these are the generations of the heavens and of the earth” we cannot imagine that it is relating an account of the creation of a different heavens and a different earth as that which we saw in the previous chapter. Therefore we must accept this as a different account of the very same creation:

KJV Genesis 2:4-5: “⁴ These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, ⁵ And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.”

We see in Genesis 2:5 that there was “not a man to till the ground”, and the Hebrew term for man is אדם, adam (not את־חאדם or eth-ha-adam), exactly as it appears in Genesis 1:26. By this we have another indication that this is indeed a separate account of the same Creation which is also related in Genesis 1:1 through 2:3. It is indeed the same creation which is being described, and not some imaginary second creation. If there is only one heavens and one earth, then there is only one Adamic man. Genesis 2:7 retells what we had read in the first account, at Genesis 1:27:

KJV Genesis 2:7: “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”

The Hebrew term for the adam of Genesis 1:26 is אדם by itself. In his recent Beast of the Field paper Eli James has quoted T.A. Davies who in his 19th century work Genesis Disclosed has attempted to prove that there were two separate creations of adam. But Davies' work is based upon a lie, a lie by omission, since he based it upon the form of the word for adam which is found in Genesis 1:26 while apparently ignoring the form of the word as it is found in Genesis 1:27 The Hebrew term for adam at Genesis 1:27 is את־חאדם or eth-ha-adam, which signifies a particular adam, just as it also appears at Genesis 2:7.

On November 17th, 2010, I told Eli James about this, where in a brief and pointed critique of his Beast of the Field paper which he requested from me before publishing it I had written to him the following: “Davies lied by omission, and therefore his entire paper is based upon a false premise. While Genesis 1:26 has only “adam”, the Hebrew phrase “eth-ha-adam” DOES appear at Genesis 1:27. I have told you over and over that the man of Genesis 1:26-28 and Genesis 2:7 were the same. I meant it. Your final attempt to distinguish them fails utterly. I pray it is your final attempt! I would urge you to reconsider this entire position.” Yet Eli chose to follow Davies in the lie, and ignore the evidence I sent him – apparently because Davies' book fits his agenda. But that does not make it true. I have explained this to Eli on many occasions, even on our programs together, and Eli has never once told me that I was wrong, so far as I can remember. Yet now he has chosen to ignore all of my appeals.

At 1 Corinthians 15:45 Paul of Tarsus says “And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.” Now if the Adam of Genesis 2:7 is the only Adam in Genesis who “became a living soul”, as the text of that passage says, then indeed Paul considered him to be the “first man Adam”, as he stated, and there could therefore be no other adam before Adam! Eli James insists that there was, however Eli James is wrong – and he is going to have to admit it at some point in his existence, either before men or before God. (Notice that the text of Genesis 2:7, and where it is quoted by Paul, it does NOT say that the first living soul had come into an adam, as some have tried to twist this statement, and Eli's thesis on Genesis 2:7 is similar to that assertion.)

The creation of man is again related once again in Genesis Chapter 5 :

KJV Genesis 5:1-2: “¹ This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; ² Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.”

The word man as it appears in 5:1 is in the Hebrew simply אדם, adam, just as it appears in Genesis 1:26 and 2:5. The word rendered Adam, as a name, in 5:2 is also in the Hebrew simply אדם, or adam, and not את־חאדם or eth-ha-adam. As it will be discussed below, the verb in 5:1 and 5:2 which is translated as created is the same verb which is found in Genesis 1:27. The account at Genesis 1:26-27, 2:5-7 and 5:1-2 are all describing the same creation of Adamic man.

There has long been a sophistic argument crafted by those who hold this same position as Eli James, who see the Genesis 1:26-28 and Genesis 2:7 creation accounts as two separate creations, which takes advantage of the use of two different verbs, which are translated in those passages as created and formed. This argument fails when we compare the use of these words to later Scriptures:

KJV Genesis 1:27 “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”

KJV Genesis 2:7: “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”

KJV Genesis 5:1-2: “1 This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; ² Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.”

Genesis 5:1 and 2 use the same Hebrew verb to describe the creation of the Adamic race that Genesis 1:27 does (bara', Strong's # 1254). By the arguments of sophists such as Eli James is using, who argue over this use of particular verbs in order to distinguish something that cannot otherwise be distinguished, Genesis 5:2 relates the descendants of Seth to the Adam of Genesis 1:26, who was created, and not to the Adam of Genesis 2:7, who was formed (yatsar, Strong's # 3335)! Fortunately we, if indeed we see that this is an argument of sophistry, can see that these accounts are all describing the creation of one and the same Adam. In Isaiah Chapter 43, verses 1 and 7, we read thus: “But now thus saith the LORD that created (bara', Strong's # 1254) thee, O Jacob, and he that formed (yatsar, Strong's # 3335) thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.... Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created (bara', Strong's # 1254) him for my glory, I have formed (yatsar, Strong's # 3335) him; yea, I have made ('asah, Strong's # 6213) him.” So the use of this argument also fails Eli James, and it fails him miserably.

In summary, Genesis 1:1 through 2:3 is an account of the Creation of Yahweh our God, and Adamic Man is the pinnacle of that creation. Genesis 2:4 through to the end of Chapter 4 is a historical account, told as a parable, which describes the creation of the Adamic race once more, and illustrates the causes for its fall from grace, setting the stage for the entire History of our race and for the rest of the Bible. From Genesis 5:1, we see yet another mention of the creation of that race, and the historical account of Scripture begins.

This exposition of scripture should, with little doubt, dispel any notions concerning the singular creation of the Adamic race. In the next part of this reply to Eli James' Beast of the Field paper, the fallen angels and the beast of the field shall be addressed.

Praise Yahweh!

William Finck

Christogenea.org

 

Addendum:

After I posted this article, I had - as should be expected - many questions both in emails and in the Christogenea.net chat room. Here I will attempt to answer them.

Answers to Certain Criticisms Concerning this Article:

1. But there were trees in the Garden of Eden that Adam could eat, so they must have been other people who were created before Adam.

Reply: Please go back and read Genesis 2:7-9. It is clear that the trees which were good for food were created after Adam was created. 

Genesis 2:7-9: "7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. 8 And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9 And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil."

2. The King of Tyre was in Eden, and the Assyrian was in Eden, the garden of God, Ezekiel Chapters 28 and 36. 

Reply: Yes, but the Assyrians descended from Asshur - Genesis  10:22, and therefore the word Eden and the phrase "garden of God" as they appear in several places in Ezekiel are clearly a metaphor for the Adamic oikoumene, and are not to be taken literally. 

3. If in 1 Corinthians 15:45 Christ was the last Adam, and there are Adamic people after Christ, why could there not be Adamic people before Adam?

Reply: Adam our first father was a direct son of God (Luke 3:38) and was therefore the first Adam. Christ was a direct son of God and is therefore likened to by Paul as the last Adam, since no man since Christ has been fathered directly by Yahweh God Himself.