Pronounced "ud-um", as in "udder".
The root word is Dam (דם) = "blood", from which the colour Adom (אדם) = "red", and thence Adamah (אדםה) = "earth", in the sense of soil, clay, ground, and also the land of Edom: this becomes a major play on words in the Genesis stories, and is critical to our understanding of the sources of the Biblical myth as well as the Biblical myth itself.
The red earth of Yisra-El is almost entirely that of the Yehudan (Judean) and Negev deserts, a fact which is not coincidental to the above. The land of Edom (אדום) - known as Idumea in most translations of the Christian Bible - bears the same root, and probably meant something along the lines of "the land of red soil"; anyone who has visited Petra will know just how red the soil really is.
As we are told later, Man is called Adam precisely because he came "min ha adamah - out of Adamah - the earth", in other words he was formed ceramically out of the red dust of the Idumean desert, which is to be taken in the literal sense, both grammatically and mythologically. The human species also takes its name from this root, a Human Being, in Yehudit, being "Ben Adam", a "child of Adam"; this is found particularly in Ezekiel and is used repeatedly by Jesus later.
In addition there is the blood-red jewel the Odem (אודם), which is further explained below. Many commandments and taboos relate to blood as the primary source of life, and inter-relate humankind, soil and blood - the Jubilee laws, the laws of Kashrut, purity, exemption of women from certain commandments and rituals, and a great deal more; to the degree that the cult of the Beney Yisra-El, and even more post-Biblical Judaism, could as well be described as "the religion of blood" as it is "the religion of the Book".
Adam, or Ha-Adam, refers to the species, not the individual. This includes, equally according to their creation in Genesis 1:27, unequally according to their punishments in Genesis 3, both male and female. In relation to the earth-god Adam, the female Chavah (חוה), meaning "life" in the sense of "growth", is often referred to by the alternate name Ha-Ishah (אשה), "the Woman" which comes from the same Egyptian root that also gives the goddess Eshet (Isis); Adam is likewise referred to as Ha-Ish (אש), and Enosh (אנוש), which is a development of the same root, provides an alternate name for Mankind, with the plural Anashim (אנשים).
In addition there is the blood-red jewel the Odem (אודם), which is further explained below. Many commandments and taboos relate to blood as the primary source of life, and inter-relate humankind, soil and blood - the Jubilee laws, the laws of Kashrut, purity, exemption of women from certain commandments and rituals, and a great deal more; to the degree that the cult of the Beney Yisra-El, and even more post-Biblical Judaism, could as well be described as "the religion of blood" as it is "the religion of the Book".
Adam, or Ha-Adam, refers to the species, not the individual. This includes, equally according to their creation in Genesis 1:27, unequally according to their punishments in Genesis 3, both male and female. In relation to the earth-god Adam, the female Chavah (חוה), meaning "life" in the sense of "growth", is often referred to by the alternate name Ha-Ishah (אשה), "the Woman" which comes from the same Egyptian root that also gives the goddess Eshet (Isis); Adam is likewise referred to as Ha-Ish (אש), and Enosh (אנוש), which is a development of the same root, provides an alternate name for Mankind, with the plural Anashim (אנשים).
From this we can deduce that two stories are being told concurrently; the Edomite Earth-god’s tale, "borrowed" by the Beney Yisra-El, and that of the creation of the species. This helps us understand why the second Creation story, Genesis 2:4 ff, appears to be contradictory; in fact it is only contradictory of one of the two myths that are conjoined in Genesis 1.
Most likely Adam refers to a Promethean-type hero of the Cuchulain-Samson-Atlas variety, perhaps one of the Nephilim or Anakim referred to later, a skull-hero connected to the cave at Chevron (Hebron), and later to Yeru-Shala'im (Jerusalem) where other patriarchs would later be buried. He was the consort to the mother-goddess Chavah, whose priestesses governed the shrine, probably under the official title Michal, as evidenced by King David's marriage. The cave is linked to Ephron of the Beney Chet (Hittites), known to the Greeks as Phoroneus, who probably took it over from the earlier Anakim, who knew it as Kiryat Arba. This also identifies Chavah with her Phoenician counterpart Yah, whose name is numerically equivalent to the full moon; Chavah as the "Mother of all Creation" is likewise the Madonna or full moon phase of the moon's cycle.
Adom (אדום): The colour red, as with the clay, and, very significantly, the colour of Esav's hair; cf Genesis 36 for the lineage of Esav "who is Edom". We are not told what colour hair any of the other dispossessed elder brothers had, but it is fairly safe to assume that Yishma-El at least also had red hair, since Yishma-El too is identified repeatedly as a founding patriarch of the Beney Yishma-El, who became, through marriage, a part of Edom, inhabiting as they did Mount Se'ir.
Most likely Adam refers to a Promethean-type hero of the Cuchulain-Samson-Atlas variety, perhaps one of the Nephilim or Anakim referred to later, a skull-hero connected to the cave at Chevron (Hebron), and later to Yeru-Shala'im (Jerusalem) where other patriarchs would later be buried. He was the consort to the mother-goddess Chavah, whose priestesses governed the shrine, probably under the official title Michal, as evidenced by King David's marriage. The cave is linked to Ephron of the Beney Chet (Hittites), known to the Greeks as Phoroneus, who probably took it over from the earlier Anakim, who knew it as Kiryat Arba. This also identifies Chavah with her Phoenician counterpart Yah, whose name is numerically equivalent to the full moon; Chavah as the "Mother of all Creation" is likewise the Madonna or full moon phase of the moon's cycle.
Adom (אדום): The colour red, as with the clay, and, very significantly, the colour of Esav's hair; cf Genesis 36 for the lineage of Esav "who is Edom". We are not told what colour hair any of the other dispossessed elder brothers had, but it is fairly safe to assume that Yishma-El at least also had red hair, since Yishma-El too is identified repeatedly as a founding patriarch of the Beney Yishma-El, who became, through marriage, a part of Edom, inhabiting as they did Mount Se'ir.
Yehudah ish ha Kerayot (Judas Iscariot) is not described as having red hair, and yet most representations of him in Art have given him this colour (click here).
Some descriptions of Mary Magdalene likewise make her redheaded.
1 Samuel 16:12 informs us that David was red-headed - "VE HU ADMONI IM YEPHEH EYNAYIM VE TOV RO'I - וְהוּא אַדְמוֹנִי עִם־יְפֵה עֵינַיִם וְטוֹב רֹאִי - and he had red hair, and beautiful eyes, and was very good-looking". In the Tanach red hair is generally connected with Edom; in the Christian Bible it is regarded in much the way that left-handedness is regarded, as a sign of wickedness.
Edom (אדום): At the time of Yehoshu'a (Joshua), and for several centuries afterwards, the land of Edom theoretically meant the region between the southern edge of Yam ha Melach (the Dead Sea) and the gulf of Yam Suph (the Red Sea), with Mo-Av to its north and the tribal lands of Shim'on (Simeon) to its west, the latter an island within the tribal domain of Yehudah, which stretched to the Edomite border. By the time of the Exile the Edomites had effectively taken over Shim'onite territories in the southernmost portions of Yehudah. It is, however, more complex even than this, because Kalev (Caleb), Yehoshua's second-in-command, was given Chevron (Hebron) for his city after the occupation (Joshua 14:6-15), and the Beney Kalev (Calebites) were an Edomite tribe. In Roman times Edom became Idumea; King Herod was an Idumean.
Odem (אדם): a gem of blood-red colour; a ruby or garnet in Gesenius' estimation, though Raphael Patai believes the Odem was the rust-red sard. The breastplate of the High Priest was ornamented with twelve jewels, each the emblem jewel of one of the twelve tribes (see NUMBER TWELVE); these were used for oracular predictions and in legal judgments. Gesenius connects this gem with Re'u-Ven, the eldest of the sons of Ya'akov (Jacob). The tribal area of Re'u-Ven was located due east of Yam ha Melach (the Dead Sea), immediately north of Mo-Av and therefore separated from Edom.
Adamah (אדםה): red clay, earth, dust of mourners, tilled ground or field.
According to Joshua 3:16 Adam is the name of a town close to Tsartan, at the point at which the Beney Yisra-El crossed the Yarden (Jordan) to attack Yericho (Jericho). It would become part of the tribal territory of Gad after the conquest.
Joshua 19:33 has a town called Adami, and 19:36 another town named Adamah, both in the tribal domain of Naphtali, which is to say central Galilee.
Admah (אדמה) is named as one of the towns destroyed with Sedom (Sodom) and Amorah (Gomorrah) in Genesis 10:19; 14:2; Deuteronomy 29:23 and Hosea 11:8.
Adamah (אדםה): red clay, earth, dust of mourners, tilled ground or field.
According to Joshua 3:16 Adam is the name of a town close to Tsartan, at the point at which the Beney Yisra-El crossed the Yarden (Jordan) to attack Yericho (Jericho). It would become part of the tribal territory of Gad after the conquest.
Joshua 19:33 has a town called Adami, and 19:36 another town named Adamah, both in the tribal domain of Naphtali, which is to say central Galilee.
Admah (אדמה) is named as one of the towns destroyed with Sedom (Sodom) and Amorah (Gomorrah) in Genesis 10:19; 14:2; Deuteronomy 29:23 and Hosea 11:8.
Admoni (אדמוני): "red-haired" - used of Esav in Genesis 25:25, and of David, as we have seen above, in 1 Samuel 16:12.
In Genesis 25:30, when Esav asks Ya'akov for food, and receives it in exchange for his birthright, the traditional telling always speaks of "a mess of potage", which makes it sound like a very badly cooked thick soup. In fact the phrase used by Esav is "הָאָדֹם הָאָדֹם הַזֶּה", "ha-adam ha-adam ha-zeh", which means "this red, red", presumably a slang expression roughly equivalent to "some of that red stuff"; given that neither tomatoes nor chili peppers were part of the Middle Eastern garden in those days, we have to assume the red came from the meat, rather than the vegetables.
There was also a Dana'an hero who was variously called Adamos, Adamas or Adamastos; all three mean "unconquerable"; the name became a Homeric epithet for Hades, borrowed from his mother the death-goddess.
In Genesis 25:30, when Esav asks Ya'akov for food, and receives it in exchange for his birthright, the traditional telling always speaks of "a mess of potage", which makes it sound like a very badly cooked thick soup. In fact the phrase used by Esav is "הָאָדֹם הָאָדֹם הַזֶּה", "ha-adam ha-adam ha-zeh", which means "this red, red", presumably a slang expression roughly equivalent to "some of that red stuff"; given that neither tomatoes nor chili peppers were part of the Middle Eastern garden in those days, we have to assume the red came from the meat, rather than the vegetables.
There was also a Dana'an hero who was variously called Adamos, Adamas or Adamastos; all three mean "unconquerable"; the name became a Homeric epithet for Hades, borrowed from his mother the death-goddess.
And alongside him in the Greek mythopedia, Adamanthea, the she-goddess who nurtured the infant Zeus, assisted by her sister Amalthea, one of whose horns, broken off by Zeus, became the constellation Capricorn. When we speak of somebody being "adamant", it comes from this Greek root, and is not simply hard, but as hard as the meaning of adamas, which is a diamond.
Red was the colour of death in Greece and Britain, with red ochre found in megalithic burials e.g. Salisbury Plain. There is a theory among the anthropologists that the Neanderthals were distinguished from other early human species by their red fur, which continues to be present in some of today's folk as red hair.
In the second version of Creation, Adam is created MIN HA-ADAMAH (מן-האדמה), from the red earth - ADOM (אדום) meaning red, from the root DAM meaning blood. Created from which earth? That of Edom, of whom he is the eponymous ancestor, whose tribal name comes from the same root, and whose land was the red soil of Aravah and Petra. No Beney Yisra-El at all, he is a part of Beney Yisra-El mythology because all Edomite mythology was eventually absorbed, as we shall see, right up until the time when an Idumean, the latter name for Edomites, became the ruler of Yisra-El: King Herod. But as progenitor he is also specifically the earth-god: small "e". Adam means Humankind in Yehudit (but so also does Enosh, which is much more commonly used), exactly as Humus (earth) gives Homo (Man) in Latin, and Chthon (earth) gives Epichthonius (Man) in Greek.
In Egypt Khnum or Ptah created Man on a potter's wheel (clay being earth); in Babylon it was the goddess Ea, or the god Aruru (originally the goddess Aruru, since one version of the Babylonian Creation names Tahamat Aruru, and another calls her "The Mother of all Living"; the name becomes particularly interesting in Genesis 3:14 where Elohim is said to have kneaded him from clay, as was Prometheus in the Phoenician myth, and the Golem in the legend of Rabbi Judah Loew ben Betsalel, the Maharal of Prague, which may have been the source of Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein". The Talmud says that the archangel Micha-El made Adam on Yeho'ah's orders (Yeho'ah being the Talmudic way of writing YHVH); originally, of course, it would have been on Chavah's order, and not by an archangel. The Qur'an takes up this story: the angels Micha-El, Gavri-El, Israfil and Azrail each brought dust from one of the four corners of the Earth so that al-Lah could make Adam. The four angels and the four corners are reflected in the four rivers of Eden with their four heads (Genesis 2:10–14).
So there are clearly two Adams. In the Babylonian Creation myth Adam is Humankind the species, equally male and female; here it is a specific individual, though not a man at all - a "son of god", as distinguished from the later "daughters of men". The Adam of this story is first and foremost the earth-god of the Edomites.
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