CHAPTER XIV - Moses Maimonides, A Guide for the Perplexed [1186]
Edition used:
A Guide for the Perplexed, translated from the original Arabic text by M. Friedlaender, 4th revised ed. (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1904).
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CHAPTER XIV
The homonymous term adam is in the first place the name of the first man being, as Scripture indicates, derived from adamah, “earth.” Next, it means “mankind,” as “My spirit shall not strive with man (adam)” (Gen. vi. 3). Again “Who knoweth the spirit of the children of man (adam)” (Eccles. iii. 21); “so that a man (adam) has no pre-eminence above a beast” (Eccles. iii. 19). Adam signifies also “the multitude,” “the lower classes” as opposed to those distinguished from the rest, as “Both low (bene adam) and high (bene ish)” (Ps. xlix. 3).
It is in this third signification that it occurs in the verses, “The sons of the higher order (Elohim) saw the daughters of the lower order (adam)” (Gen. vi. 2); and “Forsooth! as the humble man (adam) you shall die” (Ps. lxxxii. 7).
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