Zev Steinhart and dougie_monty, I think you’re both right.
The name Adam, spelled aleph-daleth-mem, can be analyzed as aleph + dam ‘blood’, in addition to the whole word originally meaning ‘red earth’. That it’s red earth is significant here.
Why is the Red Sea called that? Some say it’s because of the red color of the ground near its shores. The ancient land of Edom near the Red Sea is named from the same Hebrew root as Adam, because of its red earth.
What makes earth red is the presence of iron oxide, the same compound that makes blood red.
Hemoglobin in blood turns red when oxidized, which is why arterial blood (coming from the lungs) is a brighter red color, as it’s carrying oxygen.
In Kabbalah symbolism, the letter aleph is associated with the element “Air.” The air of the breath combined with the blood makes red. Therefore, red earth (iron oxide), similar to red blood (hemoglobin iron oxide): Adam.
> Seriously, he usually pulls this stuff, says things like, “I know I
> read it somewhere, but can’t remember where,” but then
> expects us to take what he’s saying as God’s honest truth.
I don’t think your problem is one that can be solved in General Questions. Your problem is not the answer to a specific question (that was solved very quickly, and it’s not really a help to you); rather, your problem is that your father is stubborn and unwilling to listen to you or anyone else when he is contradicted. Why don’t you go over to the forum IMHO and start a thread called something like “What can I do about my father who refuses to be corrected by anyone else, no matter how wrong he is?”.
Really? I would imagine that the vast majority of the people in the world have no opinion on the subject. Christians make up only about a third of the population of the world (http://www.religioustolerance.org/worldrel.htm), and I doubt that most of them have any idea what language the bible may have been written in.
Even adding Muslims and Jews (if we’re speaking of the OT) only brings up the total to 53%, hardly a “vast majority”, even if they all believed it.
Sure it can, and as you said, it basically was. av8rDad (;)) gave me some factoid that he thought he’d heard somewhere but wasn’t sure about. The factual question was, “was the Old Testament originally written in Hebrew or something else? Where/how might this misconception have originated?” DDG and zev have provided enough evidence to convince me he’s wrong; if he wants to prove himself right, he’ll have to show me his evidence.
If there’s any more factual evidence (either way) anyone wants to present, please do so, otherwise, take the rest of the discussion to GD. And thanks, Wendell, but I’ll figure out how to deal with my dad.
Fair enough, I suppose. I may have overstated it a bit. But, in any event, we’ve pretty much established here that the Bible (or at least the “OT”) was written in Hebrew.
