Hebrew Adam

Adam: Does it just mean Dirt?!

Our Hebrew Lesson today is about the word Adam, or the name Adam. Many have interpreted this word to mean dirt, or red dirt. But in the context of the first man, Adam actually has a much deeper name than just dirt.

Many correlate, that because man was made from dirt, that his name must mean dirt.

From a Hebrew Letter Addition standpoint, the word Adam is richer and fuller than just dirt.

The word Adam is composed of the following letters: Aleph, Daleth, Mem.

As we show in the course, Aleph means strength, Daleth means Door, and Mem, means to surround.

From an addition standpoint the word would be translated: Strength in the door surrounding.

To get a better grasp on the word, the pointing has some relevance here. The letter Aleph actually has a Qamets underneath it. This Quamets indicates rootedness, or very sure, positive positioning.

The Daleth as well has a Quamets to it, denoting internal, again rootedness,or very sure positioning.

To take a look at the word more clearly the Aleph is well rooted, and the Daleth is well rooted. In the word of God, the Daleth, or the door/gate is talking about governments, or positions of authority. Quite practically, the door to a house lets in and let out. He who guards the door is the gate keeper and regulates the content inside the gate, and also outside the gate.

The word literally comes down to this: Rooted Strength coming of the house, surrounding. More particularly, this particular word denotes a strength of regulation with a particular purpose.

As the word picture above shows, the House is emitting strength to go after curse, and surround it. In other words, Curse will not overwhelm, but be surrounded, by a strength. That strength is an authority. That authority is the image of God in the earth, called Adam, or man.

TWOT (The Theological Word Book of the Old Testament) shows the word to mean dominion. This fits with the Adamic call, or what is often called “The Dominion Mandate.” God called Adam what he is to have “Dominion.”

The dominion mandate calls a man to regulate life, all the earth and make sure all things flourish and live well. That includes, plants, animals, fish, reptiles, birds etc… and obviously mankind. We would call this system of operation, Righteousness: the way things are to be governed and run in the civilized world.

Why people cling to dirt as the name for Adam may come from the fact that Adam was created from dirt, and was to have dominion over even the very essence of his being, which is dirt.

(The addition method is based on early language studies. For more information, refer to the articles section)