WHO IS ADAM? WHO IS ADAMA? by Onyeji Nnaji

 The Birth of the First Father

With the presence of the fourth generation, the history of the world made a complete four generations. The birth of Adam led to another generation; of course a new generation of inhabitants on earth. With his birth the earth recorded its fifth generation of habitation. Humanity, flesh and blood (mortal persons) began with the creation of Adam. According to Moses, Adam was born to take charge of the creations on earth, Genesis 1:26. He was born to follow the ordinances and principles already set in their place by the Assumed ancestors. His predecessors were considered as his assumed ancestors because they existed before him. It is “assumed,” because he was not a direct descent of the four generation race. Adam was the product of the earth. Of course, the first fruit of God’s technical skill. He was the first existence with the full composition of earthly raw material. He was the first person to be reckoned with the term “man”.

When the first man was created, it is very clear from the account of Moses that God did not give the man he had created any name. The language of God during the formation of man and after the formation process did not change in the creation account. His adopted name for the creation which was purely the product of the earth was Man. Man, because he was formed from the earth. The name Adam appeared first in the creation account when God wanted the man He formed to give names to all the creations (Genesis 2:19). Still at this point it was not God who gave him the name, instead it was Moses. Yes! Moses did. This is where Moses tells us the source of his archive. Born in Egypt and raised in the palace of Pharaoh, Moses had acquired from the bulk of Egyptian vocabularies. Of course, greater part of the Hebrew vocabularies had heavy influence of terms from the Egyptian mythology. The word Amen, for instance, has come to stay and reckoned with the Israelites, but the word was derived from the name, Amenhotep. It was in the days of Amenhotep as the pharaoh of Egypt that the word came to be. He promulgated rules and decrees aimed at regulating the lives of the Israelites. All the rules that came from him had his name as the end. When it is read before the Hebrews, they approbated by saying Amen! (Amen – the short form of Amenhotep). St. Gregory of Nyssa remarks that,

The most learned men of his time knew positively that the Hebrew language was not so ancient as most other languages, and that the Hebrew never spoke it until after their departure from Egypt (Oratio 12).

Why I said that with the name of the formed man as Adam, Moses placed a pointer to the source of his archive is because the “Adam” is not originally Hebrew. This may sound strange and unbelievable, but it is true. A clear and precise study of Hebrew terms clarifies this. As the first Hebrew to involve himself in scripted art, Moses, had read the creation history kept in Egypt. And also strange to know, every ancient history ever found in Egypt was written by the aristocrats – the ruling class in Egypt. And these aristocrats, as history unveils, were not Egyptians by origin. (see the meaning and origin of Africa @ www.ajuede.com). Researches revealed that Adam was a derived word which came to be after the fall of man. In a web site, All About God, reactions to the question of whether Adam was the first name of the created man received this answer.

The Scripture makes this fact very clear and it is stated in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. Genesis is the book of beginnings. It is the place where we find the truth of the beginning of man and that man is Adam. The word “Adam” comes from a Hebrew word that means red or ruddy. The word “Adam” is translated as; first man, mankind, man or human. God made Adam from the “dust of the ground”, which is the Hebrew word “Adamah” and therefore Adam's name comes from the ground from which God created him. 

These scholars’ assertion that God made Adam from the “dust of the ground”, which is the Hebrew word “Adamah” still support the view that Adam is a derived name. From the Wikipedia record, both Adam and Adama are explained to mean blood. The Jewish Cabbala gives us supporting idea. It states thus:

 Adamah, from the dust of the ground, dust, form within form (otherwise, from the most             ethereal portion of the refined element of earth, one within the other). (P.121).   

The record in Cabbala and that in first internet source cited above refer to the same thing. That means that the first name of the formed man was Adama. This name has greater inclination with the idea in the east. In a study of the Igbo people published in 1911 Northcote Thomas recorded the following story about Ezenri, that fascinating priest/king whose spiritual pre-eminence was acknowledged over considerable parts of the Igbo land:

Ezenri and Ezeadama (king Adama) came from heaven and rested on an ant heap; all was water Cuku (Chukwu) asked who was sitting there and they answered ‘We are the kings of Nri and Adama’, thereupon Cuku and the kings talked. After some conversation Cuku gave them each a piece of yam; yams were at that time unknown to man, for human beings walked in the bush like animals.

The question remains thus: who copied the other, Moses or Ezenri? In the theosophical arrangement of the ancient Igbo community, Ezenri represents the lordship of the four generations of the sons of God as the first born among his brethren, while Eze Adama represents the lordship of the first father who was formed from the dust of the earth. He was the first fruit of the earth. He was called Adama by the earliest inhabitants who witnessed his creation. The ruling class of the ancient Egypt took this name from the Igbo creation story and made it prominent in the documentary that proved their presence in Egypt. The situation that affected this original name is obvious in the Igbo language. He was originally Adama before the fall of man. Therefore, when the formed man fell from Gods grace, he became called after his condition. Adam is the short form of Adaa m in the Igbo language meaning “I have fallen”. As his original name is referential thus, Adamah, from the dust of the ground,” the same applies to his fall thus, Adam “the fallen man.” The Nag Hammadi revealed that he was called “Adam, mimicking the perfect human that they have seen” before his fall.

This fall was told in various ways by different oral traditions. Afigbo wrote that

Igbo world started on a pedestal of high spirituality in which there was perpetual day, regular converse with their High God who fed them on ethereal food… All went well until one day a woman whose menstrual flows were on attempted to harvest the sky substance for food… The result was that Chineke (God) and the sky receded, plunging them into famine ... With the eating of material food came … the fall. Man slept for the first time and night (darkness) descended for the first time too… i.e. his consciousness fell. (History. 465)

From Afigbo’s view as expressed above, man was in what he referred to as “the reign of eternal day when there was no darkness” until the day man fell from God’s instruction. The fall of man drove him from the presence of God, it denied him the continuous communication with the creator, therefore man lost the paradise where he was placed. At the same time man’s consciousness fell.

Adama was perfect and complete as the man with the immeasurable glory of the earth; the first product of the earth. When he fell, they gave him another name which signified his state after deviating from God’s injunction for him. As the first name was glorious depicting good connotation that fits his condition, the later name also reflected the situation that gave rise to it. They called him Adam, which means “I have fallen”, should be the opposite of the former because he had fallen in the real sense. The Nag Hammadi revealed that he was called “Adam, mimicking the perfect human that they have seen” before his fall. Now it should be clear that since Moses was not avowal about who called him the name, then the name must have come from those who had existed before him. Another thing is clear here. Perhaps, Moses did not know Adam with his original name, Adama, or that he knew but willingly swept it under the carpet because it had African origin.