Adam Israel

Adam Israel April 1, 2014

In a few places, Leviticus uses the Hebrew word adam to refer to “any person.” Why adam? Most commentators suggest that it’s to emphasize sexual inclusiveness. 

Trevaskis (Holiness, Ethics, and Ritual in Leviticus) thinks there’s more. He points out that the tabernacle is an architectural garden of Eden, and adds that “symbolic significance may attach to the offerer’s description as adam mcam (‘a human from among you,’ v. 2a). The plausibility of this proposal increases

when one takes the uniqueness of this way of referring to an individual
Israelite into account. The term adam occurs only seven times in Leviticus (Lev. 1.2; 5.3; 7.21;
13.2; 16.17; 24.17, 21) compared to the much more frequent use of nephesh(24 times) and  ‘ish(52 times). . . . Otherwise, in Leviticus, adam refers to the danger
that the ‘uncleanness’ of a ‘human’ poses to a ‘person’ (nephesh, Lev. 5.3; 7.21); the
requirement that no ‘human’ be in the tent of meeting on the Day of Atonement
(Lev. 16.17), and the consequences associated with the taking of the life of a
‘human’ (Lev. 24.17, 21). 138 The rareness of the term within Leviticus, and
its deliberate positioning within a context that is reminiscent of the Garden
of Eden might suggest that it is a deliberate allusion to the first ‘human’ who
was excluded from this setting.”

In short, “Rather than a simple sex-inclusive reference to
humanity,” the phrase “an adam from among you” “possibly has symbolic meaning. In view of the Edenic symbolism of Exodus 25–40,
it can be speculated that it is a symbolic reference to either the first Adam
or to the human condition outside the Garden.”


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