The difference between the English and Hebrew texts is striking. When we read our English Bible, there is no Adam in Genesis 1 – we first encounter Adam in Genesis 2. However, if we read this text in Hebrew, we might be surprised to find adam in chapter 1 – Gen. 1:26. What is going on here?
The explanation is quite simple. While in English, Adam is always a personal name, in Hebrew it first of all simply means “human”. In fact, in Hebrew, the term for ‘human beings’ is ‘Benei Adam’ – ‘the children of Adam’. In Gen. 1:27 "adam" is used in the collective sense. The profound meaning here is that humanity was created on the sixth day and not just Adam the individual.
This interplay between the individual "Adam" and the collective "humankind" is crucial to the story of the first sin and its consequences (Gen. 3). An entirely new dimension is added, one that is completely overlooked in the English translation. Sign up for Discovering the Hebrew Bible course today and we will go through the Torah together, discovering treasures hidden inside the original Hebrew text.
