Where There is No Man

WHERE THERE IS NO MAN, BE A MAN –Part 3

“In a place where there are no men, strive to be a man” –Rabbi Hillel

Continued from Part 2……

The question we are considering is:

There are 12 different words in the Hebrew Language that GOD can use to say, ‘man’. Which one does He use, to call forth a man among men?  In which one do you see the attributes of, a mighty man of valor?

Time in Teaching: We are 27 minutes into this teaching

Our 1st 2 Hebrew words for Man are: adam & zakar)

In our last conversation, I asked you to open your concordance to the word ‘‘man’. I created a spreadsheet below containing the information that I want you to focus on.

The first appearance in the concordance for the word, ”man’ that you will find, is adam. The concordinal reference number is 120. You can scan down the far right edge of the column and you will see the various list of numbers all referenced under the word, man. Your count should be the same as mine, for a total of 12.

The 11 verses that appear contain the Hebrew word, ‘adam‘ which is translated here as, ‘man’. In order to establish some consistency, we will look at the 1st three verses of all 12 Hebrew words that are translated ‘man’ and see if we detect any patterns. At times, we many need to peel back more layers, before patterns of use can be detected. For now, 3 appearances will suffice. The chart below provides an example of the information that you will collect from the concordance:

The word, ‘‘adam’ appears in Genesis 1;26, 27 and 2:5.

Hebrew WordConcordanceRef#123# of times/ Scripture
adam 120Gen 1:26Gen 1:27Gen 2:5338

In all 3 instances, scripture is speaking of man in his ‘maleness’, but more importantly, scripture of speaking in context of mankind, being a ‘human being’. For the sake of clarity, read each verse and exchange ‘mankind/human being’ for man.

1:26 “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” 

1:27 “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”

2:5. “And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.”

1:26 “And God said, Let us make mankind in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” 

In each of the following verses, Gen 2:7, 8, 15, 16, 17, 18, God is speaking of a human being first, not soley as an individual adam. In fact, it isnt until 2:19 that we can exchange ‘mankind’, for the proper name “Adam” in a clean and concise, indistinquishable way.

However, we are reading this from the KJV English translation. Let’s take a look at verse 19 and 20 in Genesis ch.2. We are still looking at the word, ‘adam’ being translated ‘man’.

2:19 And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beastof the field,and every fowl of the air; and brought [them] unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that [was] the name thereof.

2:20 And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air,and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.

In verse 2:20 Our KJV translation tells us that scripture is now calling man, Adam. The man that was created and called Adam (adam means ‘man’ in Hebrew). In truth, that is not what is happening in the Hebrew. The word use is ha’adam, which is more accurate translated as, the human being, not Adam.

Verse 2:19 actually reads in Hebrew, “and brought them to the human being to see what he would call them”. In order to translate it to read, “and he brought them unto Adam…” you have to ignore the definite article, (the Hebrew letter hei) ‘ha’, which precedes the word adam.

We have the same situation with verse 20. The Hebrew letter hei, precedes the word adam, which means the word, ‘the’ precedes the word, adam. No one is addressed as ‘The Adam’ i.e., the adam gave names to all the cattle. Adam, is not a proper name here. adam, means human being in verse 19 and again in verse 20.

Again, the details matter. God is saying to us that he created a human being. We know, we are going to call him adam. But the primary work of creation in this instance, is to bring into existence the crowning acheivement of all of creation, mankind.

We understand because of the pronouns used in context with the verse, that the first human being created was male. That’s a given. But, the detail that we should not neglect here, is that the crowning acheivement of God is the creation of Human beings, “and He called their name adam”.

verse 1:27, “God created the human being, in His own image…” in part B of the verse, it reads, “male and female created He them”.

Watch closely, “male and female created He them”, the Hebrew word we are translating here as ‘male’, is the Hebrew word ‘zakar’. 58 of the 82 times that the Hebrew word zakar appears in scripture, it is translated as “man or male’. Approx, 47 times as ‘male’ and 11 times as man.

Hebrew WordConcordance Ref#123# of times in/ scripture
zakar2145Gen 17:10Gen 17:12Gen 17:14 58/82

The 1st five appearance of ‘zakar’ in scripture, is in Gen 5:2, “…male and female created He them, and He blessed them and called their name adam”. This is a scripture that most have been curious about, because of the language stating, “He called them (their name) adam.” The common question to ask is, “Why would God call, both of them (male and female) Adam? It doesn’t sound correct, because it’s breaking the pattern the word established when we first were introduced to the word, ‘adam’ in Gen 1:26.

The scripture says, “He called them adam”. In this context, adam means human beings, mankind. When we first see the term adam in scripture, man is being called a human being. When God creates zakar’s helpmeet, the female that is appointed to him, (appointed = naqav) together, they are both being called, ‘human beings’.

The 1st three times we see the word zakar used in scripture, it is used in reference to the circumcision. Among the 58 times that ‘zakar’ is translated as ‘man’ instead of ‘male’, it is in reference to the circumcision, Aarons sons, the offerings of the priesthood, or the 5 schekel offering for the redemption of the first born sons of Israel. What common denominator are you seeing in relationship to how scripture applies the meaning of the word, zakar?

Answer: When God uses the term zakar, he applies it to man in relationship to the covenant, i.e. the circumcision, redemption, to man’s service and sacrificial offerings.

Zakar is rooted in the Hebrew word, zakar (Ref# 2142) which means, to remember. Zakar is only connected to remembering the covenant (Ex 2:4, 6:5, Gen 9:16, Lev 26:45), remembering the Name of God (Ex 20:24), the shabbath (Ex 13:3, 20:8), the Patriarchs and the people (Gen 8:1, 19:29, Ex 32:13, Lev 26:42) the blessing & the dreams (Num 10:9, Gen 42:9), remembering the land (Ex 26:42), remembering the supernatural seasons of God (the Moed). Zakar is about GOD remembering mankind, about remembering His people, kindness, etc. Note: Gen 30:22 scripture says GOD remembered Rachel. Gen 8:1, GOD remembered Noah and all his house…,

Let’s go back and look at this again, “…male and female created He them, and He blessed them and called their name adam.” God has 11 other ways He could address the human being as male. God is not limited by words. In English, man is man, is man, is man. We are limited with our words.

But here, in the language of GOD, He calls him zakar…which is connected to the covenant, the blessing, the shabbat, the supernatural seasons, the moedim… When God calls man, zakar, He is remembering you (man) for good. He is adorning man with love, an appelation of kindness, love affection. You are connected to His Covenant!

In Genesis 5:2, when GOD speaks of man in relation to the creation…man as the crowning achievement of creation, along with the female, He calls the male, zakar. Zakar is a term of endearment to the man of God.

Review this material. Make note of the information that I want you to key in on for now when searching the concordance. This is the initial stages of research and for now, I just want to introduce a few newbies to the 1st steps we can take to look into the scripture. We will take a look at 2 additional words for man in our next discussion in Part 5, ish and nephesh. Until then, Shalom….

Be Blessed!

+++Vocabulary: Our elevated understanding of Gods terminology.

Adam ~ human being, the crowning achievement of God; mankind, man.

Zakar ~ male, man, belonging to and in covenant with the GOD of Heaven.

All terms explained in detail above.

All terms will be explained in detail as we continue this study. Stay tuned.

COPYRIGHT 2019, Rev. S. Madison, torahisteaching.blog

[[ NOTE: Should any changes or corrections need to be made after publication of this post, I will place them in brackets so that the reader will know that an amendment has been made.]]