While I was studying Genesis 1's account of creation I noticed something that didn't seen right. Back in verse 27 of Genesis 1, I saw the creation of man in the image of God. I want to stop right there and point out something that I found interesting while I was studying this verse. The Hebrew word translated as "man" is H120 in the Strong's. Now that is all well and good until I noticed that the name "Adam" was from the Hebrew H121. So what is the problem? If you don't speak Hebrew you would never know that these two words are the exact same word. Strong decided to give the one word two different reference numbers even though it is the same word. That is a problem. How do you know when you should translate one as "Adam" and one as "man". It is a highly subjective decision process that can be very easily mistranslated based upon someone's opinion of what they think it means. I hope you understand the problem. You see I for one believe after searching the Bible for occurrences of these words that sometimes they did it right and a couple of times I believe they did wrong. Uh oh!
Look at verse 27 and see what changes if I change the one word. "So God created Adam in his image, in the image of God created he him, male and female created he them". Nothing super dramatic changed. Was it completely different, not really. The original said "man" my version said "Adam". But since they are the same word in the Hebrew which one is right? Verse 27 actually contains a major contradiction or puzzle. Did you notice it? It said at first God created him, and then it says God created them. I really haven't gotten to the creation of the woman even though she is mentioned for the first time in this verse. As I get into chapter 2 of Genesis we will begin to see that it really is just a more in depth look at some specifics that occurred in chapter 1. More detail is given to us and a more in depth look at some very huge subjects such as God's definition of marriage.
Getting back to the puzzle of verse 27 what is the solution to the contradiction? This is why I believe the word should be "Adam". When God created the male and the female God called both of their name "Adam". It use to be common practice for women to take the name of their husbands when they got married, so that they were both called by the same name. When we get to chapter 2 of Genesis we will see why more clearly. So why did God call both of them Adam? Maybe we should stop and say did God call them both Adam? There is actually a confirming scripture that says this later in Genesis. Look at this verse in Genesis 5:2:
Genesis 5:2 Male and female created He them; and blessed them, and called their name "Adam" in the day that they were created.
It is amazing what the Bible says when you look at it. This verse is speaking about the account we just read in Genesis 1:27 but this time it is worded correctly and stated accurately. These are the kind of little quirky things that you just need to become aware of when you read and study the Bible. The translators were men and they sometimes made mistakes. Every translation has some problems, but none that can't be solved by studying.
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