In the Hebrew text, the word translated “Man” is ’ådåm.This was
by no means a gender-neutral term in the eyes of the Hebrew reader,
because prior to Genesis 5:2 the Hebrew word ’ådåmhas been used
many times to speak of a male human being in distinction from a
female human being. In the following list the word “man” represents
this Hebrew word ’ådåmin every case:
And the rib which the Lord God had taken from the man he made
into a woman and brought her to the man(Gen. 2:22; we should
notice here that it does not say that God made the rib into another
’ådåm,another “man,” but that He made the rib into a woman,
which is a different Hebrew word).The mansaid, “This at last is bone of my bone and flesh of my
flesh; she shall be called Woman” (2:23).And the manand his wife were both naked and were not ashamed
(2:25).And the manand his wife hid themselves from the presence of the
Lord God (3:8).But the Lord God called to the man,and said to him, “Where are
you?” (3:9).The mansaid, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me
some fruit from the tree, and I ate it” (3:12, NIV).The mancalled his wife’s name Eve (3:20).When we come, then, to the naming of the human race in Genesis
5:2 (recounting an event that had occurred before the Fall), the orig-
inal readers would have understood the clear male overtones or
nuances. In fact, in the first four chapters of Genesis, the word ’ådåm
had been used thirteen times to refer not to a human being in general
but to a malehuman being. In addition to the eight examples men-
tioned above, it was used a further five times as a proper name for
Adam in distinction from Eve (Gen. 3:17, 21; 4:1, 25; 5:1).^16
The Key Issues in the Manhood-Womanhood Controversy 37