Adam
In Genesis, the first human being, formed from the dust and placed in the garden of Eden. Paul sets him beside Christ: through Adam came sin and death, through Christ righteousness and life.
Genesis tells that God formed the man from the dust of the ground and put him in the garden of Eden (Genesis 2:7–8). His name is also the Hebrew word for humankind, and Genesis uses it of male and female together (Genesis 5:1–2). In the Fall he and his wife eat from the forbidden tree and are sent out of the garden (Genesis 3:6) (Genesis 3:23–24). He is the father of Cain, Abel and Seth (Genesis 4:1–2) (Genesis 4:25), and Genesis gives his age at death as 930 years (Genesis 5:5).
Luke’s genealogy of Jesus runs back to Adam (Luke 3:38). Paul calls Adam a foreshadowing of the one who was to come (Romans 5:14) and calls Christ “the last Adam” (1 Corinthians 15:45).
In the timeline
- undatedThe Creation
Genesis opens with God making the heavens and the earth in six days and resting on the seventh. It then tells how the first man and woman were made and placed in the garden of Eden.
- undatedThe Fall
In Genesis the first man and woman eat from the tree God had forbidden and are sent out of the garden of Eden. Paul later reads the story as the entry of sin and death into the world, which Christ’s obedience reverses.