1.  God FORMED Adam

A few years ago, I made the startling discovery in scripture that Adam was a black man. The truth lies under our noses in the imagery of the Book.  First of all, we need to review the truth that God formed Adam:

And the LORD God formed man [of] the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul (Genesis 2: 7).

Yatsar  is the Hebrew word used for FORMED in the text. Here is the CLUE. Yatsar is used in the following ways:

  • earthen vessels (2 Samuel 17: 28)
  • potters (1 Chronicles 4: 23; Psalm 2: 9; Isaiah 29: 16; Jeremiah 18: 2 – 4 & 6; Jeremiah 19: 1 & 11; Zechariah 11: 13)
  • formed the eye (Psalm 94: 9)
  • formed the dry land (Psalm 95: 5)
  • God forming body parts (Psalm 139: 16)
  • potter’s clay (Isa 29: 16)
  • potter’s vessel (Isa 30: 14)
  • potter treading clay (Isa 41: 25)

Yatsar is also used in relation to silversmiths who “make a graven image” and fashion a piece of metal into a finished product (Isa 44: 9 & 12). Can you picture the Father shaping and fashioning man’s body parts?  Even more interestingly, yatsar comes from a Hebrew verb which carries the picture of something being spread  into shape (Strong’s in blueletterbible.com).

 

2.  Clay is the “dust”  from which God made Adam

Clay is “dust”  combined of clay minerals such as iron, the component responsible for the color.  It becomes plastic when mixed with water. Maybe this is the reason why water comprises 70 %  of  the human body  composition (Wikipedia.com).  In order to determine the Hebrew meaning and usage of  dust in scripture, I explored the texts in which the Hebrew word was used. However, its usage mainly turned up the word “dust”.   However, God (with His usual sense of humor), revealed in the imagery of the scriptures that he used  clay to make Adam and Eve.

The scriptures further paint a picture in which  God is a Potter who shaped man like clay and from clay. Prophet Isaiah must have been shown a video of the creation of man, because he repeatedly drew the imagery of  Potter God molding and shaping clay into a man. Other writers in scripture also point to this truth:

Remember that you molded me like clay. Will you now turn me to dust again? (Job 10: 9)

But now, O LORD, thou [art] our father; we [are] the clay, and thou our potter (yatsar) ; and we all [are] the work of thy hand (Isaiah 64: 8).

Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! [Let] the potsherd [strive] with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth (yatsar)  it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands? (Isaiah 45: 9)

The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter (yatsar) !(Lamentations 4: 2)

Behold, I [am] according to thy wish in God’s stead: I also am formed out of the clay. (Job 33: 6)


3. Adam was God’s “potsherd” or earthen vessel

As Prophet Isaiah compared God to the Potter who made Adam from clay,  he warned humans not to strive against God because we are just  “potsherds” or earthen vessels:

Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! [Let] the potsherd [strive] with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth (yatsar)  it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands? (ISaiah 45: 9)

Cheres,  the Hebrew word used in the text for “potsherd” is rendered 9 out of 17 times in the following ways in scriptures:

  • earthen vessel
  • vessel of earth
  • earthen bottle
  • earthen pitchers

Since Prophet Isaiah also used the word potsherd as a synonym with clay in Isaiah 45 : 9;  he reinforces the revelation that Adam and Eve were formed from clay.

 

4. What was the color of the clay from which Adam was formed?

Chamar  is the root word for clay used in Isaiah 64: 8) and Job 33: 6).  Scriptures reveal through this word that clay:

  • could be daubed (Exodus 2: 3)
  • was red (Psalm 75: 8)

When the members of the God Family said, “let us make man/‘adam in our image, after our likeness…” (Genesis 1: 26),  they were speaking about making a reddish man who would derive color from the clay from which he was made.  Amusingly, Adam means reddish or “dyed red”.

Further astonishing revelation in scripture revealed through the meaning of his name confirms that he was indeed a black man.  ‘Adam is the Hebrew word used in Genesis for  Adam or man.  However, ‘Adam   comes from the root word ‘adam   (H 119)  which means “red”, “dyed red”  and “ruddy”.   The similarities between the color  of clay and the description of Adam’s color  strongly confirm the revelation that Adam was a black man.

 

5. What was Adam’s color or race?

What color red was Adam?  Was he bright red?  Well,  I doubt there are races of people whose color is red.  If you Google  “images of red clay” , an astonishing range of  hues turn up.  The red clay color wheel reveals a wide range of colors from red to reddish brown to to pink to brownish. Obviously Adam was not a frank red, but carried one of the colors in the  color wheel as well as the genes for  a variety of  human skin colors.

I would safely say that brown is the dominant hue of  red clay. 

In fact, dictionary.com (2012) defines “red clay” as “brown to red”  in color.

We can safely conclude that Adam our forefather was a black man.

 

6.  Who is a potter and how does he or she form  clay into a vessel?

A potter is someone who makes pottery or “earthen vessels”, the material referred to in scripture. We know from 2 Samuel 17: 28 that  potters of the day made “earthen vessels”  which were derived from clay.  There is no doubt that God made man from clay since the scriptures made this direct comparison.

The  Scriptures of Truth  reveal the following truths about the formation of pottery from clay and therefore the formation of man:

  • the potter treaded the clay with his feet (Isaiah 41: 25)
  • the potter used his hands to carefully mold the clay into shape (Isaiah 45: 9; Psalm 95: 5)
  • the finished product could be dashed into pieces (Psalm 2: 9). The human body can indeed be broken

Can you imagine how God carefully took time to fashion and mold Adam? I encourage you to celebrate the God who created you and to thank Him for His manifold wisdom in creating you in His own image and likeness.

Blessings! Celebrate your creation.