HOME ARTICLES BIBLES LINKS the HERETIC

The Two Adams.

~ scriptures are from the Hebraic Roots Bible, and HBR Bible Notes in italics.

Death in Adam, Life in Christ
Rom 5:12-21 Even as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, so also death passed to all men, in as much as all sinned.
For sin was in the world until the Torah, but sin is not charged where there is no instruction;
Yet death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned after the likeness of the transgression of the Torah by Adam, who was a type of Him who was to come.
But the free gift is not also like the offence. For if by the offence of the one the many died how much more the grace and gift of Elohim, because of one Man, Yahshua Messiah, be increased for many.
And the effect of the gift of Elohim was greater than the effect of the offence of Adam; For while the judgment of one man’s offence resulted in the condemnation of many, but the free gift of Elohim in the forgiveness of sins resulted in justification to many more.
For if by the offence of the one death reigned through the one, much more those who are receiving the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness shall rule in life by the One, Yahshua Messiah.
Therefore, as on account of the offence of one, condemnation was to all men; so on account of the righteousness of one, will the victory unto life be to all men.
For as on account of the disobedience of one man, many became sinners; so also on account of the obedience of one, many become righteous.
And the introduction of the Torah caused sin to increase. And where sin had increased, grace much more abounded,
Just as sin had reigned through death, so also grace shall reign through righteousness to everlasting life, through Yahshua Messiah our Master†.

~ Romans 5:21 Paul makes a beautiful comparison how the first man Adam failed and how the literal seed of Adam (Yahshua) succeeded. It is interesting to note that the place where Yahshua was crucified was called the mount of offense and was at the same place that Adam was cast out of Eden when he sinned. This on on the southern slope of the Mount of Olives east of the true Temple Mount across the Kidron valley.

St Irenaeus (c.130–200)
Did much to elaborate on Paul's antithetical parallelism between Adam and Christ, the latter reversing the failure of the first. In a typical passage of his Adversus haereses, he wrote:
The Son of God... was incarnate and made man; and then he summed up in himself the long line of the human race, procuring for us a comprehensive salvation, that we might recover in Christ Jesus what in Adam we had lost, namely the state of being in the image and likeness of God" (3. 18. 1)

1Co 15:21-22 For since through man came death, also through a Man is a resurrection of the dead;
for as in Adam all die, so also in Messiah all will be made alive.

1Co 15:45-49 So also it has been written, "The first man, Adam, became a living soul." The last Adam a life-giving Spirit†.
But not the spiritual first, but the natural; afterward the spiritual.
The first man was out of earth, earthy. The second Man was the MasterYAHWEH† out of Heaven.
As is the earthy man, such also are the earthy ones. And such as is the heavenly Man, such also are the heavenly ones.
And as we bore the image of the earthy man, we shall also bear the likeness† of the heavenly one.

~ 1 Corinthians 15:45 Adam became a living soul but did not give of that life to others, as where the second Adam (Yahshua) came to give life to all. Gen 2:7

~ 1 Corinthians 15:49 Man was supposed to be made in the image, and likeness of YHWH (Gen 1:26). Although he was made in his image, as man has eyes, hands, legs and feet, but one must grow into His likeness, which is His character of love. Only through the Holy Spirit can a human transform from their selfish, earthly human nature to the pure likeness of YHWH.

1 Corinthians 15:48-49 Because all humanity is bound up with Adam, so every human being has an earthly body just like Adam’s. Earthly bodies are fitted for life on this earth, yet they are limited by death, disease, and weakness because of sin which was first brought into the world by Adam.

The Johannine representation
According to Makowiecki, Jesus performs a series of five redemptive actions in John 18-19 which methodically reverse Adam's five fallen actions in Genesis 3.
He writes, "Jesus retraces the steps and corrects the missteps of Adam, but from the opposite direction:

• Adam departed the garden, Jesus enters the garden;
• Adam hid, Jesus comes forward;
• Adam blamed the companion God had given him, Jesus has the companions God has given him spared;
• Adam, who was naked, clothed himself with an apron of sewn fig leaves, Jesus, who was clothed with an unsewn tunic, is stripped naked;
• Adam ate the fruit in disobedience, Jesus drinks the sour wine in obedience."[a]

Makowiecki also claims that, in addition to recapitulating Adam's life, Jesus recapitulates his death as well. [b]
[Mark Makowiecki, "Irenaeus and the Adam-Christ Typology in the Gospel of John," Themelios 49.2 (August 2024), [a]326-327, [b]329.]

Philippians
Php 2:5-11 For think this within you, which mind was also in Messiah Yahshua, who existed in the very form of Elohim, thought it not robbery to be the equal with Elohim†, but emptied Himself†, taking the image of a servant, having become in the image of the sons of men and being found in form like a man, He humbled Himself, having become obedient until death, even the death of a torture stake.
For this reason also, YAHWEH highly exalted Him and gave Him a name above every name†, that at the name of Yahshua "every knee should bow," of those in heaven, and those on earth, and those under the earth, and "every tongue should confess" that Yahshua Messiah is YAHWEH, (the Son) to the glory of YAHWEH His Father†.

~ Philippians 2:7 Yahshua temporarily laid aside His divinity* and came to earth as a human being.

~ Philippians 2:9 There is only one name given to the Son of Yahweh and it is Yahshua, which means Yahweh's Salvation. Act 4:12, Mat 1:21

~ Philippians 2:11 Yahweh is a family name consisting of Yah Yahweh the Father and Yahshua Yahweh the Son. Isa 45:23

Philippians 2:5-11
Scholars such as Oscar Cullmann and James D.G. Dunn suggest the author of the "Christ hymn" in Philippians 2:5-11 may be drawing a parallel between Adam and Jesus. Cullmann notes the parallel between "form of God" in Phil. 2:5 and "image of God" in Genesis 1:26, "The expression morphe (form) firmly establishes the connection between Jesus and the creation story of Adam... this Greek word corresponds to the Hebrew 'image' of Genesis 1:26... morphe in Phil. 2:6 is immediately related to the concept eikon (image) since the Semitic root word or its synonym can correspond to either of the two Greek words. This means that v. 6 does not refer to Jesus' divine 'nature' but rather to the image of God which he possessed from the beginning."
[Cullmann, Oscar (1959). The Christology of the New Testament (Revised ed.). Philadelphia: The Westminster Press. p. 176. ISBN 9780664243517.]

According to this interpretation, the first Adam was made in the "image of God" (Genesis 1:26) but sinned by trying to grasp equality with God (Genesis 3:5). In contrast, Jesus, also made in the image of God (Phil. 2:5) did not try to grasp equality with God, but instead, humbled himself in obedience to God. Dunn sees the Philippians 2 hymn as an archetypal parallel to the Genesis account of creation and fall, in which Jesus through obedience reverses the curse originally brought upon the world by Adam's sin: "The Philippians hymn is an attempt to read the life and work of Christ through the grid of Adam theology... the hymn is the epochal significance of the Christ-event, as determinative for humankind as the 'event' of Adam's creation and fall... Christ by his life, death, and resurrection has so completely reversed the catastrophe of Adam, has done so by the acceptance of death by choice rather than as punishment, as has thus completed the role of dominion over all things originally intended for Adam... It was Adam who was 'in the form of God'... the language was used... to bring out that Adamic character of Christ's life, death, and resurrection. So archetypal was Jesus' work in its effect that it can be described in language appropriate to archetypal man and as a reversal of the archetypal sin."
[Dunn, James D.G. (1980). Christology in the Making: An Inquiry into the Origins of the Doctrine of the Incarnation (2nd ed.). London: SCM Press Ltd. pp. xix, 120. ISBN 9780802842572.]

1Ti 2:14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived has come to be in transgression;
In Christian theology, while Eve was deceived by the serpent, Adam's decision to eat the forbidden fruit is often interpreted as a choice driven by love for Eve, rather than deception. This interpretation suggests Adam understood the consequences but chose to disobey YAHWEH and partake in the fruit alongside Eve, demonstrating a love that prioritized their union.

Eve's Deception: The biblical narrative in Genesis 3 describes Eve being tempted and deceived by the serpent to eat the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Adam's Choice: In contrast, 1 Timothy 2:14 states that Adam was not deceived. This implies that Adam understood the consequences of his actions but chose to disobey YAHWEH, choosing to eat the fruit alongside Eve.

Love as a Motive: Some theologians and scholars interpret Adam's choice as an act of love and solidarity with Eve, prioritizing their relationship over obedience to YAHWEH's command. This interpretation suggests that Adam's love for Eve led him to share her fate, even knowing the potential consequences.

Basic Bible Doctrine series
Chapter 22 - The Sin and Fall of Our Father Adam.
~ Pastor Don Fortner (1950-2020) Grace Baptist Church of Danville, KY.
The Word of God declares that both Adam and Eve, the first man and the first woman, sinned against God, first Eve, then Adam (1 Tim. 2:13-14). Eve was first in the transgression (Gen. 3:1-6). She was beguiled and deceived by the old serpent, the devil. He persuaded her to eat of the forbidden fruit. However, it was by Adam’s transgression and sin that sin and death entered the world and plunged all the human race into sin and death, under the wrath of God.

God’s covenant was not made with Eve. It was made with Adam. I do not minimize the fact that Eve personally transgressed God’s law and his covenant; but she was not the covenant head and representative of the race. When she ate the forbidden fruit, nothing happened. But when Adam, with his eyes wide open, took the fruit in defiance of God, immediately, the human race was corrupted by sin and plunged into spiritual darkness and death, under the wrath of God (Gen. 3:6-7).

Adam was Eve’s federal head and representative in exactly the same way as he was our federal head and representative. I stress this because it is very important. God arranged it so that the entire human race would stand or fall by the obedience or disobedience of one representative man. He did that because he had purposed that all his elect would be recovered from Adam’s fall by the obedience of one man, the God-man, his darling Son, our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 15:21-22).

In his act of sin, by which we were all made sinners, in his spiritual death, by which death passed upon all men, our father Adam was, by Divine appointment, a type and figure of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is not merely a matter of theological reasoning. These are the words of God' Spirit. Adam was “the figure of him that was to come” (Rom. 5:14).

Adam’s transgression was a horrible, treasonous act of rebellion against the Lord God. He knew exactly what the consequences of Eve’s sin would be. She had sinned. Therefore, she must die. Adam, therefore, with his eyes wide open, in a fit of fury against his Creator, snatched the fruit from Eve’s hands and willfully plunged himself into death, under the curse of God.

How does this typify and portray our Lord Jesus Christ? As Adam loved Eve, so Christ loved his bride, the Church. Because of his love for Eve, rather than be separated from her forever, Adam chose to become what she was, to become a sinner with her. Even so, the Lord Jesus Christ, because of his great love for us, rather than be separated from his people forever, chose to become one of us and to be made sin for us. When Adam took that forbidden fruit, he knew full well that the result would be his own death under the terrible wrath of almighty God; but he willingly chose that death because of his love for Eve. So, too, the Son of God, because of his great love for us, chose to become sin for us, knowing that when he was made to be sin he must also suffer all the wrath of God and be banished from his Father as a cursed thing as our Substitute.

There are, however, two great disparities between the first Adam and the last Adam.

1. When Adam chose sin and death for Eve’s sake, it was an act of the highest and greatest possible rebellion and disobedience.
   -- When the Lord Jesus chose sin and death for us, it was an act of the highest and greatest possible love and obedience to God.
2. Adam’s disobedience brought ruin, and judgment, and death.
   -- Christ’s obedience brought righteousness, and life, and salvation.

Thus it has come to pass exactly as the Lord God purposed from eternity that where sin abounded grace did much more abound; and as sin reigned unto death, so grace now reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by our Lord Jesus Christ!

Adam broke the covenant. In this covenant, Adam was YAHWEH’s appointed substitute, and representative of all men. It is in this sense that he was a type and figure of him that was to come (Rom. 5:14). Nothing happened when Eve sinned. The covenant was not made with Eve, Eve was not the one responsible. Adam was the covenant head and representative even of Eve; just as he was the covenant head and representative of the entire race. This is, itself, a sign of hope. If we were lost by a representative, there is hope that we might be saved by a representative (Rom. 5:17-19).

The breaking of this covenant did not take YAHWEH by surprise. Remember that nothing is out of YAHWEH’s control or outside His purpose. He said to Adam, “In the day thou eatest thereof,” (not if you eat, but when), “thou shalt surely die.” The breaking of this covenant, Adam’s disobedience to YAHWEH led to the sin, corruption, and death of the whole human race. The sin and fall of Adam made way for the coming of the second Adam, the Master from heaven, the Master Yahshua Messiah. Just as sin had reigned through death, so also grace shall reign through righteousness to everlasting life, through Yahshua Messiah our Master , Romans 5:21.

1Pet 1:19-20 but with the precious blood of Messiah, as a lamb without blemish and without spot,
indeed having been preordained for this very purpose before the foundation of the world - את,
but revealed in the last times because of you,

Rev 13:8 And all those dwelling in the earth will worship him,
those of whom the names had not been written in the Book of Life of
the Lamb having been slain from the foundation of the world - את.

את - preordained before the foundation of the world ~ Genesis 1:1 see the article.

Return to top

HOME ARTICLES BIBLES LINKS the HERETIC