Adam The Last And First

The Jewish mystical tradition certainly does. It paints a fascinating, and sometimes even controversial, picture of Adam as both the first and the last of God's creations.

Now, we all know the basic story. God creates the world, then Adam. But some traditions suggest Adam's role was even grander. According to some, Adam was involved in the very act of creation. This idea, however, caused a bit of a theological kerfuffle.

The story goes that when God wished to create the world, Adam was His first act. God initially made Adam’s lifeless body. But before breathing life into him, God thought, "If I complete him now, he'll think he was My partner in creation!" So, God paused, leaving Adam as a lifeless form while He finished the rest of creation. Only after everything else was complete did the angels ask, "Are you going to make man, like you said?" God replied that he already made him, and all he lacks is a soul. As we read in Genesis 2:7, "Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living creature."

The Midrash Avkir and Yalkut Shimoni 34 tell us that God began and completed the world with Adam. That’s why it is said that Adam was the last and first. As Psalm 139:5 puts it, "Last and first You did form me."

Why this emphasis on Adam being "last and first?" Well, this story is a direct response to those traditions that suggested Adam shared in the work of creation. These traditions, some believe, leaned dangerously close to Gnostic ideas – a belief system that suggests a duality in the divine, multiple powers at play. In other words, they threatened the core concept of monotheism, the belief in one God.

The Talmud, in B. Sanhedrin 38a, explicitly addresses this: "Adam was created last on the eve of the Sabbath. Why? Lest the heretics should say, 'God has a partner in the work of Creation.'" The phrase "lest the heretics should say" is a clear indication that some people were saying exactly that! These "heretics" (minim) were likely Gnostics, who saw Adam as a key figure in the universe's formation.

The text "2 Enoch 30:11-12" echoes this idea, where God says, "I assigned him (Adam) to be a second angel, honored and glorious… to reign on earth and to have My wisdom. There was nothing comparable to him, not even among the angels." The Testament of Abraham goes even further, describing Adam on a throne of glory, surrounded by angels, with a terrifying appearance. In other words, Adam seemed to be playing a demiurgic role.

So, this idea of "Adam the Last and First" is actually part of a larger trend: polemical myths. These are stories designed to counter beliefs that might undermine core Jewish theological principles. This wasn't the only time the rabbis combatted beliefs that they considered heretical. Take the story of Elisha ben Abuyah, also known as Aher (meaning "Other"). He saw Metatron, a powerful angel, seated on a throne in heaven. Since only God was thought to sit on a throne in heaven, Elisha exclaimed, "There must be two powers in heaven!" (B. Hagigah 15a). This led to his apostasy.

This tells us that myths can be more than just stories. They can be arguments, attempts to define and defend the very essence of faith. The story of Adam isn't just about the creation of man; it's about the nature of God, the dangers of straying from monotheism, and the ongoing struggle to understand our place in the cosmos.

What does it all mean? Perhaps that even in the most ancient stories, we find echoes of our own struggles with faith, doubt, and the search for meaning. And maybe, just maybe, that Adam, in all his complexity, represents the eternal human quest to understand our relationship with the Divine.

Commentary

This myth is a polemic about the traditions that indicate that God shared some of the work of creation with a heavenly Adam. Since this implies Gnostic duality and threatens monotheism, the present myth is offered as an antidote. It says that yes, Adam was God's first creation, but only his lifeless body. God held off giving him a soul until the sixth day, as is stated in Genesis 2:7: Then God formed man of the dust of the ground , and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul This myth serves to prove that Adam was not God's partner in Creation. This is stated explicitly in B. Sanhedrin 38a: "Adam was created last on the eve of the Sabbath. Why? Lest the heretics should say, 'God has a partner in the work of Creation.'" Here, as in the other passages, the phrase "lest the heretics should say" indicates that there were those who did say such things. Because the existence of such a partner for God would dispute monotheism, those who argued for such a partner are regarded as heretics — minim. In this case it is likely that the heretics the rabbis had in mind were the Gnostics, who taught that everything came into being through Adam. A similar tradition about Adam is found in 2 Enoch 30:11-12, where God says, "I assigned him (Adam) to be a second angel, honored and glorious. I assigned him to be a king, to reign on earth and to have My wisdom. There was nothing comparable to him, not even among the angels." The Testament of Abraham, chapter 8 (rec. B) goes even further, describing Adam as sitting upon a throne of glory at the gates of Paradise, surrounded by angels. Later, in the same text, Adam is described as "adorned in glory, with a terrifying appearance, like that of the Lord" (chapter 11, rec. A.) Here Adam clearly plays a demiurgic role. "Adam the Last and First" alerts us to an entire category of polemical myths. A classic example of such a myth is the talmudic account of Elisha ben Abuyah's vision of Metatron. Here Elisha was said to have seen Metatron seated on a heavenly throne. Since he had understood that there was no sitting in heaven other than for God, he announces, "There must be two powers in heaven" (B. Hagigah 15a). The intention of this myth is clear: to undermine the extensive myths about Enoch /Metatron, demonstrating that such belief in Metatron as the Prince of the Presence, the second in command after God, would endanger belief in monotheism. Here it causes Elisha to become an apostate, thereafter known as Aher , "the Other." See "A Vision of Metatron," p. 174. Another example of a polemical myth is that of the homunculus of Maimonides, probably created by the opponents of Maimonides in the anti-Maimonidian controversy. See "The Homunculus of Maimonides," p. 284. See also "The Image of Jacob Cast Out of Heaven," p. 368 for a third example of a polemical myth. This is a polemic against the myths that raise Jacob from a human to a heavenly figure, another example of the First Created Being. This myth has God cast Jacob's image, which was on God's throne, out of heaven.

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