The first of us is described in the Torah and again in the Recitation, and the two tellings sit beside each other without being forced.
Made from the ground
The Torah is unhurried about it.
The Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
Dust, and then breath. That is the whole account of what we are made of. The Recitation uses a different word for the material. Man was created out of clay from an altered black mud (The Recitation 15:26). When He has proportioned him, He will breathe into him of His soul (The Recitation 15:29).
The man is put in a garden to cultivate and keep it (Genesis 2:15). He may freely eat of every tree but one (Genesis 2:16–17).
Taught the names
The Recitation has a scene the Torah does not have. Before Adam is placed on the Earth, the angels are told what is coming, and they raise an objection.
And, when your Lord said to the angels, "Indeed, I will make upon the earth a successive authority." They said, "Will You place upon it one who causes corruption therein and sheds blood, while we declare Your praise and sanctify You?" The God said, "Indeed, I know that which you do not know."
Then comes the answer to their objection. Adam is taught the names of all things. The angels are asked to say them, and answer that they know nothing except what they have been taught (The Recitation 2:31–32). When Adam says them, the angels are told to prostrate before Adam, and all do but one (The Recitation 2:34).
Two things are worth noticing. The gift is knowledge, and it is given rather than earned. And the angels' worry about bloodshed is not called wrong. It is answered with "I know that which you do not know".
The tree, and what went wrong
Both books tell of one forbidden tree and one voice arguing for it. In the Torah the serpent tells the woman she will not surely die, and that her eyes will be opened (Genesis 3:4–5).
In the Recitation the whisper is that the tree was forbidden only so they would not become angels or live forever. He swears he is a sincere adviser (The Recitation 7:20–21). Then they eat, and both accounts say the same next thing: they suddenly see themselves, and cover up with leaves (Genesis 3:7, The Recitation 7:22).
In the Torah the man blames the woman and the woman blames the serpent (Genesis 3:12–13). In the Recitation they answer together, and the answer is different.
They said, "Our Lord, we have wronged ourselves, and if You do not forgive us and have mercy upon us, we will surely be among the losers."
Where the two tellings differ, we say what each one says and stop there.
Sent out, and forgiven
The Torah records the consequence: the ground is hard now, and the body goes back where it came from (Genesis 3:19). They are sent out of the garden to till the ground (Genesis 3:23).
The Recitation records the same sending out (The Recitation 2:36), and then records something else.
Then Adam received from his Lord words, and He accepted his repentance. Indeed, it is He who is the Accepting of repentance, the Merciful.
Another chapter puts it in two short signs. Adam disobeyed his Lord and erred. Then his Lord chose him, turned to him in forgiveness, and guided (The Recitation 20:121–122). So the account of the first man does not end in the fall. It ends with him turning round and being met.
What Adam leaves us with
- We are dust with His breath in us, and both halves are true at once (Genesis 2:7).
- We were given knowledge before we were given anything to do with it (The Recitation 2:31).
- We were warned about the voice that argues, and told it is a clear enemy (The Recitation 7:22).
- The way back is words received from Him, not a scheme of our own (The Recitation 2:37).
- He accepts repentance, and that is said of Him as a name rather than as an exception (The Recitation 2:37).
Adam is the first man and also the first person to be forgiven. Perhaps that is the more useful of the two facts.
Questions people might ask
Was Adam forgiven?
The Lord God revealed to us in the Recitation that he received words from his Lord and his Lord accepted his repentance (The Recitation 2:37). The Torah shows the Lord God clothing him before sending him out (Genesis 3:21).
What does it mean that he was taught the names?
The Torah has him name every living creature (Genesis 2:19-20). The Recitation says He taught Adam the names, all of them, and that the angels could not (The Recitation 2:31-33). Knowing and naming is part of what we were made for.
Do we carry his sin?
The Lord God revealed to us in the Recitation that no soul bears the burden of another (The Recitation 6:164). Ezekiel says the soul that sins shall die, and the son shall not bear the guilt of the father (Ezekiel 18:20). Each of us answers for our own.
