The Children of Adam and Eve

Adam is a prominent figure in Abrahamic religions. He is the first man created by God in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. He appears originally in the Hebrew Bible in the Book of Genesis. His wife was Eve according to the Bible, but inJewish folklore his first wife was Lilith.

Adam, as the first man on earth, was the first of the ten antidiluvian patriarchs, i.e. before Noah and the great flood.

According to Genesis 1, God (Elohim) created human beings. "Male and female created He them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam..." (Genesis 5:2). "Adam" is a general term, like "Man" and could refer to the whole of humankind. Godblessed them to be "fruitful and multiply" and ordained that they should have "dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon theearth".

The account in Genesis 2 records that God first formed Adam out of "the dust of the ground" and then "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life", causing him to "become a living soul" (Genesis 2:7). God then placed Adam in the Garden ofEden, giving him the commandment that "Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Genesis2:16-17).

God then noted that "It is not good that the man should be alone" (Genesis 2:18). He then Brought every "beast of the Field and every fowl of the air" (Genesis 2:19) before Adam and had Adam name all the animals. However, among all theanimals, there was not found "a helper suitable for" Adam (Genesis 2:20), so God caused "a deep sleep to fall upon Adam" and took one of his ribs, and from that rib, formed a woman (Genesis 2:21-22), subsequently named Eve.

In Jewish folklore, Lilith is the name of Adam's first wife, who was created at the same time and from the same earth as Adam. She left Adam after she refused to become subservient to Adam and then would not return to the Garden of Eden aftershe mated with archangel Samael. Her story was greatly developed, during the Middle Ages, in the tradition of Aggadic midrashim, the Zohar and Jewish mysticism. The resulting Lilith legend is still commonly used as source material in modernculture, literature, occultism, fantasy and horror.

Adam and Eve were subsequently expelled from the Garden of Eden, were ceremonially separated from God, and lost their immortality after they Broke God's law about not eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Thisoccurred after the serpent (understood to be Satan in many Christian traditions) told Eve that eating of the tree would result not in Death, but in Adam and Eve's eyes being opened, resulting in their being "as gods, knowing good and evil" (Gen.3.4-5). Convinced by the serpent's argument, Eve eats of the tree and has Adam do likewise (Gen. 3.6).

As a result, both immediately become aware of the fact that they are naked, and thus cover themselves with garments made of fig leaves (Gen. 3.7). Then, finding God walking in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve hide themselves from God's presence(Gen. 3.8). God calls to Adam "Where art thou?" (Gen. 3.9, KJV) and Adam responds "I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself" (Gen. 3.10, KJV). When God then asks Adam if he had eaten of the treeof the knowledge of good and evil, Adam responds that his wife had told him to (Gen. 3.11-12). Herein is the second sin that Adam committed, the first being that he ate from the forbidden tree.

As a result of their breaking God's law, the couple is removed from the garden (Gen. 3.23) (the Fall of Man according to Christian doctrine) and both receive a curse. Adam's curse is contained in Gen. 3.17-19: "Because thou hast hearkened untothe voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bringforth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the Field: In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bRead, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return".

After they were removed from the garden, Adam was forced to Work hard for his Food for the first time. He and Eve had three Children named in the Book of Genesis; Cain, Abel, and Seth. The Book of Jubilees, a second century BC text which is notconsidered canon by most Abrahamic faiths, gives Adam two named daughters: Azura, who marries Seth, and Awan, who marries Cain.

According to the Genealogies of Genesis, Adam died at the age of 930. With such numbers, calculations such as those of Archbishop Ussher would suggest that Adam would have died only about 127 years before the birth of Noah, nine generationsafter Adam. In other words, Adam's lifespan would have overlapped Lamech (the father of Noah) at least fifty years. Ussher and a group of theologians and scholars in 1630 performed calculations and created a study that reported the creation ofAdam on October 23, 4004 BC at 9:00 am and lived to 3074 BC. There was controversy over the fact that Ussher believed the whole creation process occurred on that day.

According to the Book of Joshua, the City of Adam was still a recognizable place at the time that the Israelites Crossed the Jordan River on entering Canaan.

The creation story in Genesis relates the geographical location of both Eden and the garden to four major rivers, Pishon, Gihon, Tigris and Euphrates, as well as a number of named regions, Armenia, Ararat and Yerevan or Armenian Highlands. Thissuggests a setting in the ancient Caucausas, specifically somewhere in or near Armenia. However, the location of these rivers remains the subject of much controversy and speculation.

The story of the fall of Adam is often considered to be an allegory. Findings in population genetics, particularly those concerning Y-chromosomal Adam and Mitochondrial Eve, indicate that a single first "Adam and Eve" pair of human beings never existed.