Adam

topic 00050

I was contacted on the internet in 1996 about a question concerning Adam's creation. The person asked if there was a difference between Adam's creation and formation. She also wanted to know if there was any significance that "motal woman was taken out of iysh and not out of Adam.

Gen 1.27 created = bara normally translated create. (Creator, choose, make, cut down, dispatch, done, make fat.) Both man and woman created - same word.

God created man [Adam] in 1.27 --- God formed man [Adam] in 2.7.

2.7 formed = yatsar translated form 26, potter 17, fashion 5, maker 4, frame 3, make 3, former 2, earthen 1, and purposed 1.

2.21 rib = tsela side 19, chamber 11, boards 2, corners 2, rib 2, another 1, beams 1, halting 1, leaves 1, and planks 1.

2.22 "And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man (Adam), made he a woman...."

The rib was taken from Adam and the woman was made from the rib according to verse 22.

2.23 Adam speaks and states, "she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man (iysh).

God spoke of the rib being taken from Adam. Adam spoke of Woman being taken from iysh. Adam was giving woman a name which came from man's name. Adam being the name of the first man. Woman was named after man, not Adam. She was taken from a being, not a title.

"iysh" = BDB/Thayers: "contracted for 0582 [or perhaps rather from an unused root meaning to be extant]. Normally the term is translated man or men. (One, husband, any)

Is there a difference between creation of Adam and forming of Adam? Creation would be the overall act of bringing Adam into existence, while formation may relate to a physical forming as a potter works with clay, though we aren't told that the Lord got his hands dirty.

I suspect that the whole of creation was brought into existence via the spoken word of the Lord (Jesus).

Is there significance that woman was taken from man. Man seems to indicate mankind or the maleness of the species, while woman the one taken from man is the other part.

Adam being the name of the male, and the male of the species being Adam.

Significance? More than this, I see none.