Adam

Adam is the first man, created by God in His image and likeness, the forefather of the whole human race. The Church remembers him among the Holy Forefathers of Christ, and his fall is lifted up through Christ, "the last Adam". His story is told in the first chapters of the Book of Genesis, and its dates cannot be established. Genesis says that he lived nine hundred and thirty years.

Creation and Paradise

According to Genesis, on the sixth day of creation God formed Adam from the dust of the ground and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul. His name means "red earth" or "man". God placed him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it and gave him dominion over the creatures, to all of which Adam gave names. So that man would not be alone, God made Eve from his rib, of whom Adam said "bone of my bones".

The holy Fathers teach that man was created in the image of God, with reason and free will, and called to grow toward His likeness. One commandment was given: not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, on pain of death.

The fall

Tempted by the serpent, Eve ate of the forbidden fruit, and Adam, urged by her, ate also. The first sign of sin was the sense of shame and the vain attempt to hide from the face of God, who walked in the garden. Called by God, Adam put the blame on the woman, and she on the serpent. God pronounced judgment, and Adam was driven out of Paradise to till the ground from which he was taken. Suffering and death entered the world with them.

God did not leave them without hope, however: He promised that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent's head, a promise the Fathers see fulfilled in Christ and the Mother of God.

Descendants and death

After the expulsion Adam and Eve had children. Scripture mentions Cain, Abel and Seth, and says Adam had other sons and daughters. After Cain killed Abel, Seth was given to them. Adam died after nine hundred and thirty years. According to one tradition he was buried on the place where Golgotha would be, which is why a skull is sometimes painted beneath the Cross in the icon of the Crucifixion.

The hope of salvation

The Apostle Paul calls Christ "the last Adam" and shows that as through one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so through the obedience of the One many will be made righteous. The Church sees Adam and Eve as types of Christ and the Mother of God, the new Adam and the new Eve. In the icon of the Resurrection Christ raises Adam and Eve from their tombs by the hand, and in icons of all the saints they worship at the throne of God, with halos, a sign of the Church's hope that they are among the saved.

The Orthodox Church understands the fall as an ancestral sin that makes man liable to sin and death, without a personal inherited guilt, as some Western Churches teach.

Commemoration

The expulsion of Adam from Paradise is recalled on Forgiveness Sunday, the last day before the Great Fast, when the faithful ask forgiveness of one another. Adam is also commemorated on the Sunday of the Holy Forefathers before the Nativity of the Lord, and on the Sunday of the Holy Fathers.