ADAM

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Biblical PN 1. Epithet of first person(s) created by God, and which only appears in the Book of Mormon as that eponymous biblical character (1 Nephi 5:11; 2 Nephi 2:19, 22, 25; 9:21; Mosiah 3:11, 16, 19, 26; 4:7; 28:17; Alma 12:22, 23; 18:36; 22:12, 13; 40:18; 42:5; Helaman 14:16; Mormon 3:20; 9:12 (x2); Ether 1:3, 4; Moroni 8:8; 10:3)

Etymology

This name appears in the Book of Mormon in connection with the biblical PN 'ADAM of Genesis but is never given as a name to a Book of Mormon individual.

From HEBREW ʾādām, hăʾādām "humanity, mankind, human, person; man,"[1] which "is a collective and is therefore never used in the plural; it means literally 'mankind' (L. Köhler). Luther instinctively translated the word very well with 'Menschen'" in Genesis 1:26-27; cf. Leviticus 18:5.[2] ʾĀdām is used in Genesis 5:1 as a proper name, which is not the case in Genesis 1 - 3[3]; ʾādām "man," ʾădāmâ "earth" (ʾādōm “red”), is the theme of Genesis 2:4b-25; cf. Genesis 3:17b hāʾădāmâ "dust"[4]; this also applies to Ugaritic adm "mankind," in KTU 1.14:I: 35/36 +36/37, according to Stan Segert (in the phrase il ab adm “El, the Father of mankind,” in the Epic of Kirta)[5]; note, however, I. Engnell, who sees Adam in Genesis 1:26 as "divine."[6] Cf. PGP Moses 1:34; 6:9.

Variants

Deseret Alphabet: 𐐈𐐔𐐊𐐣 (ædʌm)

Notes


  1. LDS Holy Bible (1979), 8 n, HEBREW adam “man, mankind”; HALOT I:13, “mankind.”
  2. Gerhard von Rad, Genesis, 57; cf. D. Wold in Bible Review, Apr 1994, p. 6, citing R. S. Hess, "Splitting the Adam: The Usage of ʾADAM in Genesis IV," Vetus Testa¬mentum Supplement 41 [1990]:1-15, and H. N. Wallace, "The Toledot of Adam," Vetus Testamentum Supplement, 41:17-33.
  3. Von Rad, Genesis, 70.
  4. Von Rad, Genesis, 76-77.
  5. Segert, Journal of the American Oriental Society, 103 (1983):304a; A. Rahmouni, Divine Epithets in the Ugaritic Alphabetic Texts, HdO I, 93 (Leiden: Brill, 2007), 9.
  6. Engnell, Vetus Testamentum, Supplement, 3 (H. H. Rowley Festschrift, 1960), 112.