ADAM is the designation and name of the first human creature in the creation narratives found in the Hebrew scriptures (Old Testament). The word adam may refer to the fact that this being was an "earthling" formed from the red-hued clay of the earth (in Hebrew, adom means "red," adamah means "earth"). Significantly, this latter report is found only in Genesis 2:7, where the creator god enlivens him by blowing into his nostrils the breath of life. Here the first being is clearly a lone male, since the female was not yet formed from one of his ribs to be his helpmate (ʿezer ke-negdo; Gn. 2:21–23). In the earlier textual account of Genesis 1:1–24a, which is generally considered to be a later version than that found in Genesis 2:4b–25, God first consults with his divine retinue and then makes an adam in his own "form and image": "in the form...