ADAM

From Book of Mormon Onomasticon
Revision as of 23:52, 5 November 2014 by Samuelfb (talk | contribs)
Jump to navigationJump to search
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.