Genesis 5:2

Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Benson Commentary

Genesis 5:2. He called their name Adam — He gave this name both to the man and the woman. Being at first one by nature, and afterward one by marriage, it was fit they should both have the same name in token of their union.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

5:1-5 Adam was made in the image of God; but when fallen he begat a son in his own image, sinful and defiled, frail, wretched, and mortal, like himself. Not only a man like himself, consisting of body and soul, but a sinner like himself. This was the reverse of that Divine likeness in which Adam was made; having lost it, he could not convey it to his seed. Adam lived, in all, 930 years; and then died, according to the sentence passed upon him, To dust thou shalt return. Though he did not die in the day he ate forbidden fruit, yet in that very day he became mortal. Then he began to die; his whole life after was but a reprieve, a forfeited, condemned life; it was a wasting, dying life. Man's life is but dying by degrees.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And called their name man. - This name seems to connect man אדם 'ādām with the soil from which he was taken ארמה 'ădāmâh Genesis 2:7. It is evidently a generic or collective term, denoting the species. God, as the maker, names the race, and thereby marks its character and purpose.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

CHAPTER 5

Ge 5:1-32. Genealogy of the Patriarchs.

1. book of the generations—(See Ge 11:4).

Adam—used here either as the name of the first man, or of the human race generally.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

See Genesis 1:26 Matthew 19:4 Mark 10:6. He

blessed them with power to propagate their kind, and with other blessings. See Genesis 1:28.

Called their name Adam; which name is given both to every man, as Genesis 9:6 Psalm 49:20, and to the first man, as Genesis 2:23, and to the whole kind, both the man and the woman, who are called by one name, to show their intimate union and communion in all things.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Male and female created he them,.... Adam and Eve, the one a male, the other a female; and but one male and one female, to show that one man and one woman only were to be joined together in marriage, and live as man and wife for the procreation of posterity; and these were not made together, but first the male, and then the female out of him, though both in one day:

and blessed them; with a power of propagating their species, and multiplying it, and with all other blessings of nature and providence; with an habitation in the garden of Eden; with leave to eat of the fruit of all the trees in it, but one; with subjection of all the creatures to them, and with communion with God in their enjoyments:

and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created; which, as Philo (s) observes, signifies "earth"; and according to Josephus (t) red earth, out of which Adam was made; and as soon as he was made, this name was imposed upon him by God, to put him in mind of his original, that he was of the earth, earthly; and the same name was given to Eve, because made out of him, and because other marriage with him, and union to him; on that account, as ever since, man and wife bear the same name: wherefore I should rather think the name was given them from their junction and union together in love; so the name may be derived from the Arabic word (u) signifying to "join": though some think they had it from their beauty, and the elegance of their form (w), being the most fair and beautiful of the whole creation. The names of Adam and Eve in Sanchoniatho (x), as translated into Greek by Philo Byblius, are Protogonos, the first born, and Aeon, which has some likeness to Eve: the name of the first man with the Chinese is Puoncuus (y).

(s) Leg. Allegor. l. 1. p. 57. (t) Antiqu. l. 1. c. 1. sect. 2.((u) "junxit, addiditque rem rei---amore junxit", Golius, Colossians 48. (w) "pulcher fuit, nituit", Stockius, p. 13. Vid Ludolph. Hist. Ethiop. l. 1. c. 15. (x) Apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 1. p. 34. (y) Martin. Hist. Sinic. l. 1. p. 3.

Geneva Study Bible

Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name {b} Adam, in the day when they were created.

(b) By giving them both one name, he notes the inseparable conjunction of man and wife.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

2. male and female, &c.] This clause is repeated from Genesis 1:27.

blessed them] From Genesis 1:27. The words of the command, “be fruitful and multiply,” &c., which accompanied the blessing, are not repeated; they are implied in the genealogy that follows.

called their name Adam] Better than marg. “called their name Man.” That God gave the name “man” (Heb. adam) is not recorded in ch. 1. The proper name is probably here intended; but, if so, we should read “his name,” as the LXX, τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ.

Genesis 5:2

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The heading in Genesis 5:1 runs thus: "This is the book (sepher) of the generations (tholedoth) of Adam." On tholedoth, see Genesis 2:4. Sepher is a writing complete in itself, whether it consist of one sheet or several, as for instance the "bill of divorcement" in Deuteronomy 24:1, Deuteronomy 24:3. The addition of the clause, "in the day that God created man," etc., is analogous to Genesis 2:4; the creation being mentioned again as the starting point, because all the development and history of humanity was rooted there.