The Marcionite Gospel Began at Adumim (= the place of those of Adam/the Red Ones)

[Secret Alias]

It would seem that Theodoret argued that Adam was so named because he was made in Edem - https://books.google.com/books?id=ahZEA ... 22&f=false

[Secret Alias]

Interesting the name adamant(us) means 'of Adam' in Syriac http://dukhrana.com/lexicon//lookup.php?p=39&l=1

ˀdmtn, ˀdmtnˀ n.m. of the genus of Adam = one from Adam, human Syr. CatVat III:390:7 : ܕܦܪܩܬ ܠܓܢܣܢ ܐܕܡܬܢܐ܂ ܒܛܝܒܘܬܟ‏ you who saved our Adamic species through your grace.

changes the context of the other name of Origen (or whomever Adamantus really was).

[Secret Alias]

Curious also that Theodoret thinks that Syriac is the most ancient language because adamtha = 'red earth' https://books.google.com/books?id=3m3jt ... 22&f=false I wonder whether it was understood that Adam was made in Adummim and that Adummim = Edem/Eden (only now a barren waste land because of the sin of man). Under this scenario there is a deliberate contrast between Jesus/Christ's action of rescuing the man/Samaritan as opposed to what appears in the early gnostic narratives where 'God' watches as the angels/powers create man 'helpless' rolling on the ground.

[Secret Alias]

The idea comes up over and over again in Theodoret - viz. that Adam was formed from 'red earth' cf Quest 35 on Numbers The heifer was 'red, in order to shadow forth man's earthly body, even as the name Adam bears allusion to the red earth of which. man's body was fashioned.' I am telling you, the red earth of Adommin must have been understood to have been Eden/Edem. The specificity of Adam being created from 'red earth' is strong also in the early Armenian tradition (= neo-Marcionite) https://books.google.com/books?id=WNUSA ... 22&f=false

[Secret Alias]

A good summary of the situation which goes back as far as Josephus:

The name of the first man, “Adam" was also an Akkadian name. The Hebrew word for “human" is 'adarn. In Old Akkadian, the word “adam" had several meanings, one of which is “a very important person." According to Flavius Josephus, Adam was given his name because it means that he was “madefrom the red earth kneaded together" which was “the color ofthe true virgin soil." Josephus claimed the definition was from the Hebrew language, which modern scholars rejected.

and again

As mentioned in the introduction ofthis book, FlaviusJosephus stated that Adam was ""madefrom the red earth kneaded together" which was ""the color ofthe true virgin soil." The Akkadian word addamu meant "dark red earth used as a dye," proving that Adam was named as such by the Akkadians because he was created out ofthe ingredients already present in the earth.https://books.google.com/books?id=3m3jt ... 22&f=false

There is a very old tradition that Adam was created from red earth which is not rooted in Hebrew.

[Ben C. Smith]

The mysteries of the Bible aren't always so glamorous.

All too true.

[Secret Alias]

I strongly suspect that 'Josephus' was not Jewish at all but a native Syriac speaker. No Jewish source could make this stuff up:

This man was called Adam, which in the Hebrew tongue signifies one that is red, because he was formed out of red earth compounded together ; for of that kind is virgin and true earth. [Ant. 1.1.2]

It is interesting that not one rabbinic authority I can find says anything close to this - this is because you can't get to 'red earth' from Adam in Hebrew.

[Secret Alias]

Here it is laid out - https://books.google.com/books?id=edRu0 ... ed&f=false

[Secret Alias]

Zosimos (c. 300 CE) reports that 'the Hebrews call him Adam, which means "virgin earth" and "bloodred earth" and "fiery red earth." He could just have read this in Josephus.

[Secret Alias]

There is an Adamic connection around Jericho as Joshua 3:16 notes

the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam (באדם) in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (that is, the Dead Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho.

There are dozens of references to 'the Jordan turned back' supposedly in relation to Jesus (but Jos 3:16 is really meant). There are also early legends about 'the χειρόγραφον of Adam' being located at this spot as Michael Stone has noted in a monograph https://books.google.com/books?id=vDIex ... 22&f=false

The verse (Col 2.14) is rather difficult to exegete, but in it χειρόγραφον means either "bond" or "bill of indebtedness" but not "contract".13 The text does not mention Satan or Adam and seems to say that at the Crucifixion, Christ erased the bill of indebtedness that humans had incurred by sinning and nailed it to the Cross

The point however is that having the 'χειρόγραφον of Adam' located near Jericho would add credence to the suspicion that this 'red earth' area was originally understood to be Eden/Edem. Hence Adam's redness comes from this soil. So things related to Adam also appear here as well as the very χειρόγραφον of Adam.

Of course the Samaritans think that Eden stood at the top of Mount Gerizim - a top portion of the mountain which went up to heaven when Israel sinned. Similarly Jeremiah or Ezekiel (I forget which) has a sense that Jerusalem was Eden and the sin of the Israelites banishes them from Paradise a second time. But it would stand to reason that Eden/Edem was somewhere other than these two places. The most likely idea being that Genesis begins where Numbers or Deuteronomy ends or very close thereabouts.