Adamah

Adamah (Biblical Hebrew : אדמה) is a word, translatable as ground or earth, which occurs in the Genesis creation narrative.^[1] The etymological link between the word adamah and the word adam is used to reinforce the teleological link between humankind and the ground, emphasising both the way in which man was created to cultivate the world, and how he originated from the "dust of the ground".^[1] Because man is both made from the adamah and inhabits it, his duty to realise his own potential is linked to a corresponding duty to the earth.^[2] In Eden, the adamah has primarily positive connotations, although Adam's close relationship with the adamah has been interpreted as likening him to the serpent, which crawls upon the ground, thus emphasising his animal nature.^[3]

After the fall of man, the adamah is duly corrupted with Adam's punishment of lifelong agricultural toil. This explains why Yahweh (God) favours Abel's sacrifice of sheep to Cain's offering of the "land's produce" - Abel has progressed from the sin of his father, while Cain has not.^{[citation needed]} The adamah is also complicit in Cain's later murder of Abel, swallowing Abel's innocent blood as if to try to conceal the crime.^[1] Yahweh punishes Cain by making the ground barren to him, estranging him from the adamah.^[4]

In Hebrew, adamah is a feminine form, and the word has strong connections with woman in theology. One analogy is that the adamah is to man as a woman is to her husband: man has a duty to cultivate the earth in the same way that a husband has a duty to be fruitful with his wife.^[5] Irenaeus likened the Virgin Mary, who bore the Christ, to the adamah from which Adam came.^[6]