Adam and adamah -- Part 1 (Introduction)

As I read the beginning of Genesis recently, I noticed the central role of the ground in chapters 2-4 in particular. The Hebrew word adamah means land, ground, earth, soil (listed in order of translation frequency in the Old Testament). Linguistically, it is closely related to Adam, the Hebrew word for man or mankind in addition to the personal name. But it can also mean "red". This is the exact same word in Hebrew, only spelled differently in English (adom or edom, written old Hebrew did not really have vowels anyway). Scholars are not unified on this issue, but many believe that both adamah and Adam come from the root meaning "red". Adamah could then be more literally translated “red ground,” and the name Adam could be said to mean “red man” or “man from the red dirt". Living in the cold and wet north, I would usually not consider the ground red, but this is probably more natural for people in the hot and dry Near East. 

Another related word is blood, dam in Hebrew. I don't know if the word for blood and its color, red,  being so similar is coincidence or not. But there are definitely relations that are used as an integral part of the narrative and symbolism in the early chapters of Genesis. Identifying all the cases of "adamah" in chapters 2-4, we can summarize the following story of the ground:

·      Man is formed from the dust of the ground (Genesis 2:7) because there is nobody to cultivate it (Genesis 2:5)

·      Out of the ground God formed every tree (Genesis 2:9)

·      Out of the ground God formed every beast of the field and fowl of the air (Genesis 2:19)

·      After Adam’s transgression, God curses the ground for his sake (Genesis 3:17)

·      The fall brings about death so that Adam returns to the ground (Genesis 3:19)

·       Man is sent out of the garden to cultivate the ground (Genesis 3:23)

·       Cain, who was a tiller of the ground (Genesis 4:2) made an offering of fruit of the ground (Genesis 4:3)

·       After Cain murdered Abel, his brother’s blood was crying from the ground (Genesis 4:10) and the ground opened its mouth to receive it (Genesis 4:11)

·       As a result, Cain became cursed from the ground (Genesis 4:11) and future cultivation of the ground would no longer yield as before (Genesis 4:12)

Considering the fact that ground (adamah), man/Adam and blood (dam) are all very similar words in Hebrew, there are lots of puns in these chapters that are lost in translation. I am fascinated by the story of the ground in these chapters as summarized above. The ground gives and receives. It is heavily involved in the creation and the fall. We will also consider some later events that I think might tie back to these.

In Hebrew, the ground, adamah, is a feminine noun. There is nothing extraordinary about that. All Hebrew nouns are either masculine or feminine. However, the ground/earth is sometimes personified. Genesis 4:11 gives one example of that. Adamah opens her mouth to swallow the blood of Abel. Another is Moses 7:48

And it came to pass that Enoch looked upon the earth; and he heard a voice from the bowels thereof, saying: Wo, wo is me, the mother of men; I am pained, I am weary, because of the wickedness of my children. When shall I rest, and be cleansed from the filthiness which is gone forth out of me? When will my Creator sanctify me, that I may rest, and righteousness for a season abide upon my face?

The earth is portrayed as a woman, even "the mother of men". This is consistent with Genesis 2, where man beast and tree was formed out of the ground, like a mother gives birth.

There is much to say about this but one thing is clear: The Old Testament teaches that there is an intimate relationship between man and the ground. Adam/man is formed from the ground, the ground is cursed for his sake, he is set to cultivate the ground and returns to the ground at his death. Is this relationship a good or a bad thing? I think both. When man is too bound to the ground, he becomes like the serpent who crawls on it and eats dust. On the other hand, the ground provides the means to grow a tree that rises above it and produces fruit that man can eat instead of dust. I have written on this symbolism before here and here.

This series builds on those previous posts. Reading about adamah in these chapters just gave me new understanding of the way from ground to tree, from the earthly and carnal to the heavenly and divine. This is a process in several steps, and is often referred to as "the way" or associated with "walk" in the scriptures. In President Nelson's terms, it is the covenant path and is intimately connected to the temple. In fact, the Garden of Eden may be considered the first temple, or in other words, the temple is referring to and in many ways representing the Garden of Eden. I am not going into details on that but this link provides a good explanation. The "walk" on the "covenant path" is an ascension. It is fallen man's journey back to the garden into God's presence. It is a reversal of what happened in these early chapters of Genesis when man fell and was cast out. Consequently, that was a stepwise descension. We can identify three levels:

1. Garden of Eden. No cultivation needed because the ground brings forth "every tree" (Genesis 2:9)
2. Cursed ground outside the Garden of Eden. Needs cultivation by man to bring forth fruit.
3. Both ground and tiller of the ground (Cain) are cursed. The ground no longer yielding its strength.

I want to flesh out the symbolic journey that reverses these curses in future posts. It ties into several things that have been written on this blog before. For instance, Lord Wilmore has written a long series about what he calls the endowment narrative. This narrative is a reversal of the events listed above. It starts in the wilderness where the ground does not yield its strength. Through Christ's atoning blood and covenants we can make the wilderness blossom or reach the fertile promised land and finally partake of the tree of life. I will go into this in more detail in the next posts. This post is only meant as an introduction but the next post will discuss the possible symbolic significance of the blood of Abel swallowed by the ground. A third part will consider how this story of the ground relates to the Abrahamic covenant.