According to the Bible, the first man and the father of all humanity he got his name Adam (Hebrew “ground”) because he was “formed of the dust of the ground” (Genesis 2:7), God gave Adam “the breath of life; and man became a living soul”. God planted a garden in Eden and made the first woman Eve from his rib for Adam. Created in God’s likeness and image, Adam, the crown of creation, was given dominion over the earth and all living creatures (Genesis 1:28-30). After the Fall Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden of Eden, deprived of immortality and condemned to “till the ground” to earn their living. Adam lived 930 years and left numerous posterity. With the fall of the first man, sin and death entered the world and man’s sinful nature propagated to all Adam’s descendants. Deliverance of the original sin, salvation and live for all believers came from the ‘second’ Adam, Jesus Christ. Such view of two Adams can already be found in the epistles of St. Paul (Romans 5:14, I Corinthians 15:22, 45). It is also depicted in the akathist compositions “Wishing to bestow His grace…” (Kontakion 12) and in the Last Judgement scene (the Deesis).
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