Adam is the chief character in an allegory in the Bible portraying the erroneous record of creation. He was not a personage of ancient history. In fact, he never existed. Yet all who wish to understand the origin and nature of man may learn much of what man is not from the allegory of Adam.
This narrative is wholly fictitious and starts in the second chapter of Genesis (verse 6). In this allegory the author pictures the material, false concept of the beginning of mankind and the universe. He names his mythical first man Adam, which is from the Hebrew word adamah, meaning the red color of the ground. The very name suggests that Adam's origin and nature are dust, dirt—mindless matter. The allegory indicates the creation, experience, associates, and destiny of Adam to be the exact opposite of spiritual man, as previously recorded in the first chapter of Genesis.
Because the Adam story is an allegory of the opposite of true creation it has value for us as an object lesson. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, clearly declares this allegory to be the opposite of the truth of God and His creation. On page 580 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" she defines "Adam" as "an unreality as opposed to the great reality of spiritual existence and creation; a so-called man, whose origin, substance, and mind are found to be the antipode of God, or Spirit; an inverted image of Spirit; the image and likeness of what God has not created, namely, matter, sin, sickness, and death; the opposer of Truth, termed error." A careful examination of our Leader's complete definition of Adam (ibid., pp. 579, 580) further reveals his status as a false belief, a usurper, a counterfeit, the symbol of nothingness.
