Genesis Misunderstood: The True Meaning of 'Adam' and Humanity
Many people have read Genesis believing that Adam and Eve were simply two individuals created in the Garden. This has created problems between religion and science, but what if this understanding was based on a misinterpretation? A closer look at the Hebrew reveals a profound nuance.
In this brief piece, we will explore an intriguing insight from the Bible that I believe will help to transform our perspective on the creation narrative.
Many have been taught that the story of Adam and Eve, as told in the Book of Genesis, is a historical account of the first two people created in the Garden of Eden. While this is true on one level, there is more in the text that has been lost in translation.
Two People
Let's do a quick census from the opening chapters of Genesis.
Following the logic literally, we begin with a grand total of two people, Adam and Eve.
In Chapter 4, the births of Cain and Abel bring us to a total of four people - but - we're quickly left with three after Abel was killed.
For the killing of his brother², G_D banishes Cain to wander the Earth (v12). Before his exile, Cain makes a strange statement that indicates our logic might be in trouble.
"Since You have banished me this day from the soil, and I must avoid Your presence and become a restless wanderer on earth—anyone who meets me may kill me!” - Genesis 4:14
If there are only three humans on Earth, exactly whom does Cain expect to meet on his journey that might kill him?
To complicate matters further, we're told that Cain has a wife [who bore Enoch] a few verses later³.
Cain's Wife?
Where did Cain's wife come from? The text is silent on the matter.
Adherents to Sola Scriptura⁴ will have a problem answering this as was demonstrated in the infamous Scopes trial of 1925⁵. This question went unanswered then, and is still a problem for many 100 years later.
Some traditions have suggested that Adam and Eve had unaccounted for children, which, in reality, creates new problems to solve.
Perhaps leveraging this approach, the popular evangelical site, Gotquestions.org, provides the following assumption:
"The only possible answer is that Cain’s wife was his sister or niece or great-niece, etc."
There is a better way to address this problem.
Understanding Adam
In Hebrew, the word "Adam" isn’t exclusively the name of a person—it also means "humankind"⁶ as a whole.
On this, Rabbi Natan Slifkin writes⁷:
Sometimes, the name Adam does not refer to a single person at all but rather to mankind in its entirety: When the Torah says "And G_D created the man," it does not refer to one person whose personal name was "Adam."
Depending upon the word used in the Hebrew, the text speaks of a person, or humanity as a whole. He continues:
"The Man [ha'Adam]" with the definitive "the" is the name of the species, as in the previous verse, "Let us make man in our image, as our form, and he shall reign over the fish of the sea etc." — "Adam" is not a personal name, but refers to the species of man. Similarly, in the continuation, "And the Lord G_D formed the man [ha'Adam] of dust from the earth, and He breathed the spirit of life into his nostrils, and the man [ha'Adam] became as a living soul [nefesh chayah]. (2:7)
With this, we can recognize that G_D created more than two people. In fact, we have no idea how many exactly, but this explains our earlier problem.
If we read the Torah with this broader meaning, the story of Adam and Eve takes on new depth.
New Understanding
This interpretation undermines a common assumption that science and Torah must be at odds⁸. But what if this divide rests on a simple misunderstanding of the word “Adam”?
This subtle difference isn’t just a detail; it shifts the entire lens through which we view the Torah’s creation story.
This interpretation sees "Adam" as archetype and symbol—a mirror to all of humanity. Understood this way, the Torah isn't introducing a strict timeline or sequence of events, but explores what it means to be human.
In this, the creation story is not simply about the first human beings, but about the journey of humanity as a whole - our beginnings, developing consciousness, morality, and our evolving relationship with the Divine.
Want to Learn More?
The Hidden Orchard
The Hidden Orchard
The Hidden Orchard
Notes:
¹ Is the Creation Narrative to Be Taken Literally?
² Genesis 4:8
³ Genesis 4:17
⁴ Lost in Translation - The Problems With Sola Scriptura
⁵ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scopes_trial
⁶ Sefaria.org: ie: man, mankind, human being
⁷ Six Days of Cosmology And Evolution. Page 256-257
