Porthos
|
Adam=ManDid you know that in Turkish, the word for "man" is "adam"? I wonder if this has any connection to the Adam of the Genesis account. I found that to be very interesting...
|
Bashar
|
"Adam" was one word for "man" in ancient Hebrew, as well as in Arabic which is related to Hebrew (although it's rarely used in Arabic). I might guess that the Turkish word is a borrowing from Arabic, since there are so many other Arabic loanwords in Turkish.
|
Uriel
|
Kind of like the way most Native Americans' names for their own tribes often simply translate as "the people". 
|
Julian
|
| Bashar wrote: | | "Adam" was one word for "man" in ancient Hebrew, as well as in Arabic which is related to Hebrew (although it's rarely used in Arabic). I might guess that the Turkish word is a borrowing from Arabic, since there are so many other Arabic loanwords in Turkish. |
Quite possible. In fact, highly likely.
The first few chapters of Genesis in it's original Hebrew form refers to 'ha-adam' (the man), but in later chapters the definite article 'ha-' is dropped, turning 'adam' into a proper noun. So, in essence, biblical 'Adam' originally wasn't a person's name but a common noun that existed in other earlier Semitic languages in one form or another.
Proto-Semitic: adam - man, mankind
Akkadian: adamu - man (also means blood-red)
Ugaritic: adm - man
Phoenician: dm - man
Hebrew: adam - man (adamah - ground, soil)
Judaic Aramaic: adam - man
Syrian Aramaic: adammay - human
Modern Arabic: adami - man, human; awadim - men, humankind
Tigre: addam - people, men
However,
South Arabic: dm, dym - vassals, servants
Ge'ez: dom - slave
Servant of God perhaps?
Possibly related to:
Proto-Semitic: (a-)dam - red
Akkadian: adamatu - dark red earth
Ugaritic: idm - red; admanu - red earth
Hebrew: adom - reddish-brown
Arabic: dmm - red tint/dye
Ge'ez: addamawi - red
Amharic: addämä - to be blood-red; dama - brown, reddish
Harari: däma - brown, of dark color
Since the story of Adam and Eve comes to us from an earlier Akkadian story, the similarity in sound of adamu (man) and adamatu (red earth) seems to tie in nicely to this notion of God having molded man from dust, dirt, or clay.
|
Uriel
|
Sounds like a pretty compelling line of reasoning to me. I know most of the major stories of the old testament were permutations of other myths common to the surrounding areas, although I've never really read the Bible, of course.
|
Daniel
|
What about "Eve"?
I've heard claims that it means "woman" in Classical Hebrew.
I've always known that "Adam" means "man", but not sure about "Eve".
| Uriel wrote: | | Kind of like the way most Native Americans' names for their own tribes often simply translate as "the people". |
And "Tagalog" (an agglutinative language from the Philippines) literally means "river dwellers". 
tagá- = from (prefix)
ílog = river
"Katagalugan" means "land of the river-dwellers".
|
Uriel
|
"Eden" is another name that might come from any of an assortment of Middle Eastern languages. Etymology Online gives the most commonly-held derivation:
| Quote: | | c.1225, "delightful place," fig. use of the place described in Genesis, usually referred to Heb. edhen "pleasure, delight," |
But also notes:
| Quote: | | but perhaps from Ugaritic base 'dn and meaning "a place that is well-watered throughout." |
Remember those rivers that are supposed to run through the originally Garden? Modern scholars place its supposed location in southern Iraq, near the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.
It may also come from the Sumerian word edinu, meaning plain or steppe, which goes back to the idea that it was a natural, untamed environment.
|
greg in noord-frankrijk
|
| Uriel wrote: | | Sounds like a pretty compelling line of reasoning to me. I know most of the major stories of the old testament were permutations of other myths common to the surrounding areas, although I've never really read the Bible, of course. |
Ha ha !!! Me too... And I agree : it's all recycled.
|
Uriel
|
Boring, too. I had a friend who took a university course on "The Bible as Literature", and had me read some of it to her out loud; it was tedious stuff. I don't know how people get through that!
|
Josh Lalonde
|
| Quote: | | Boring, too. I had a friend who took a university course on "The Bible as Literature", and had me read some of it to her out loud; it was tedious stuff. I don't know how people get through that! |
Depends on the translation of course. I'm partial to the KJV, just because it has a bit of grandeur that modern ones lack. There are some serious scholarship errors though. It depends on which parts also. Numbers for example, is mostly just a list of the number of people in each tribe, so it's pretty boring, but Judges is full of great stories like Samson and Delilah.
|
Julian
|
| Daniel wrote: | What about "Eve"?
I've heard claims that it means "woman" in Classical Hebrew. |
Eve, or hawwa in classical Hebrew (Modern Hebrew transliteration: chavvah; Arabic: hawwa) means "life".
|
|
|
|