The Loneliness of Adam

Ain Soph – The Unknown God

Chapter 21

Fred Mayers

Genesis II, v. 18

“And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should he alone. I will make him an help meet for him.” (English R.V.)

Even without going below the surface of the literal English translation, there is much of great interest and importance to be gathered from this verse. As far as literal translations can go, the first part of the verse is a good rendering of the original, and does not contain any of that distortion of meaning which we have often found in verses which the translators have tried to bring into agreement with some preconceived ideas of their own. The statement is quite a simple one, and at first sight it appears to be a detached one, not clearly connected with what has preceded,- and what immediately follows it. We shall, however, soon see that that is really not the case at all. It is, as we have found everything else to be, quite logically connected with its context; and it is just in its proper place.

Whenever God is revealed as “saying” anything, that is “expressing” anything-either to another or to Himself-it is always something which He either wills or knows. In this case He expresses something that He “knew.” As we said in Chapter XX, and elsewhere, the Hebrew idea of “knowledge” was what was known at first hand, from one’s own experience; so it is perfectly clear that when He said that it was “not good” for the “Adam” to be “alone,” He was revealing the fact that He Himself knew from experience what “loneliness” was. We know that the deepest and most intense of human feelings are often revealed, not in any deliberate statement or set words, but in some unpremeditated, unstudied, spontaneous, or casual word, or the tone in which a word is uttered. So it is with what God “says” here. “Not good!”-Were ever two simple words so full of meaning as these must have been for God? No created being who ever existed could ever have experienced such infinite loneliness as the Creator Himself had experienced. He had “inhabited Eternity” when nothing existed but Himself. Is it any mere flight of fancy, then, to conceive the idea that the “loneliness” of God was the primal cause of the whole creative -scheme?

When we review the complete story of creation, in Genesis, and note how,- step by step, everything leads up. logic ally and directly to one filial purpose; and when we find that that purpose was to produce beings in whom the “likeness” of the Creator would be reflected; beings with whom He could commune; does not the suggestion begin to grow into a probability-or something more? The idea receives further confirmation when we notice that the Creator is not only concerned with banishing His own loneliness, but that He is continually making provision that no sentient beings in His creation, from the lowest to the highest, should suffer loneliness. We find that the very earliest “life forms” that He created, were created in “swarms,,-’ and that to all the varied species of living beings he says: “Be fruitful and multiply.” So, when “Adam” comes to earth, he comes not to an empty world, but to- one that was teeming with living creatures. It is true that they were not of his own “kind.” but at least the were living, sentient beings,- and they could be to him the “little brothers and sisters” that they were to St. Francis of Assisi. No man is utterly lonely if he has a dog for a companion.

So much, in passing, for the “loneliness” that the literal translation of the text is limited to the consideration of, but when we work our way deeper into the old text, we find some-thing more. The original word, translated: “alone,” is “l’baddo.” The first and last letters are really separate words in themselves. The first “I” is the “directive” participle, which we have had to deal with several times before. It signifies here: “according to” or “in a state of.” The final letter, “0,- “ is the possessive pronoun “his’,- or “its.” The root word is “Bd,” or rather, “bdd,” as the “d’,- has the point called “Dagesh” in it, which makes the letter double. The real starting point -in the construction of the word “badd” is the root “ad”; the “A,” as we know, is the sign of “potentiality,” “origin,” “be-ginning,” etc. The “D” is the sign of “divisional abundance”; -anything that becomes numerous by sub-division, etc. The two signs combined, “AD,” denote the “potentiality of division or abundance”; “relative unity;’,- etc. The root “dd” suggests all ideas of “abundance,” “division,- “ “propagation,” “influence,” etc. When this root is verbalised, as in “DOD,” it means to act by “sympathy” or “affinity”; “to attract or be attracted”-to “please”; to “love”; something “mutually satisfying,” etc. As a noun, “d-d” (or “dod”) means a “friend” or a “lover,” or “friendship” or “love.” For instance, this root is the base of the name “David,” which means “Beloved.,-’ Having now the letters “AD-D,” the “B” is prefixed. This is the “internal” sign, and gives to the word the idea of something -which is “inside,” “inward,” “contained,” or “enclosed,” etc. Putting these ideas together we see that the meaning of “l’baddo” is that Adam was in a state in which all his “potentialities” or capabilities of propagation, self-expression, multiplication. all the “abundance” of his being,- including social intercourse and love, just lay latent within him,- because he was still solely a spiritual, universal being. As long as he remained in the state of spiritual “Unity” of being, he was precluded from being “Fruitful” and “Multiplying,” or of being in any full sense, “himself.’,- He was “formed” of Divine elements or qualities, but his activities were limited to passively reflecting the Divine “Will.”

That is, he was still a being acting according to instinct, in the same way as the creatures -of the Animal Kingdom. The higher faculties of his nature, the qualities that raised him to a higher state of being than the animals,- and that gave him power over the sub-human Kingdoms, were unable to develop beyond the animal stage. He could act as the evolving life force in the animal realm, but not yet commence to evolve himself in the “human” realm. He had to be given powers for self-realisation. So the verse goes on to tell us that God judged it “not good” that Adam should continue to be in the “loneliness” of his own spiritual being. God, therefore, decided to do for Adam what He, through Elohim, had done to escape from His own loneliness: “I will make him a help meet for him.” Let us see what this “help” was to be. The word translated a “help is “ezer.” Hieroglyphically,- the sign “ayin” = anything “real; the sign ‘zain” denotes purpose ; aim; intention; and the sign “resh” denotes any direct movement or activity, so the word conveys the idea of something which will realise “purpose” or “intention” in one’s activities. That means something which would enable Adam to determine his own actions. In a general way, also,- “ezer” means some “auxiliary force”; some “added faculty”; “help”; “support”; “corroboration,” etc. There is nothing in the word to suggest that God makes any separate “being” to be a “companion” to Adam. It denotes a development of some faculty he already possesses to give it new powers.

We shall also see soon that it was to be something that-would be the first step towards sex differentiation. We were told in Gen. I, v. 27, that Adam was created male and female, but in the spiritual realm, the male and female elements are “fused” in one being. (“In heaven they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels.” etc., Mark XII, v. 25.) As long as Adam remained in his spiritual unity he included male and female, but the separation of sex is a necessity for reproduction and multiplication in the physical realm; and to bring about that separation, certain changes had first to be effected in the spiritual realm.

The word translated “meet” is “be-negid-o.” “Meet” merely means, in a general way, “suitable”; but by a curious coincidence (which it is just possible that the translators noticed and thought might make the word specially appropriate), when “meet” is used as a verb: “to meet,” it happens to have some meanings which, at least slightly, resemble the meaning of the Hebrew word. Both words. in one sense, mean “suitable,” but the Hebrew word means “suitable’,- in a very definite, special sense. The word “negid” is a combination of the roots “NO” and “GD.” The first of these two roots is applied to any “reflected light,” such as a reflection in a mirror. It also means “putting something in sight”; “making something visible.” In Isaiah XIII,- v. 10. for instance, “NGH” is translated “to shine” (“the moon shall not cause her light to shine”), i.e., “shall not reflect light.” Again in the word “NHG,” we have the meaning of “leading” anyone; making anyone “willing” to do something; of “inducing” or “suggesting” ideas, of “receiving an impulse” or an “opinion.” The root “NO” also conveys the idea of “becoming” the “channel” or “medium” by which anything is realised. The second root, “GD,- “ means to be the “means” of “increasing” or “multiplying.” “Gad” means “good fortune,- “ “prosperity,” increase”; “Gadol” means “great,” “strong,” etc. “Migdol” means “being strengthened.” “fortified,” “a tower,” or “a fortified town.” Thus we can see that the word “negid” contains quite a lot of ideas. In the first place it indicates that the “help” provided for Adam is something which is a reflection of Adam’s being, or his ideas, or his desires. Secondly, it is something by which Adam’s ideas or wishes can be realised and made fruitful. It is a “help” or “auxiliary faculty” by which Adam is able to carry out his own -ideas. Lastly it is a “help” by which something in the spiritual being of Adam is so acted upon that it divides into two complementaries-one of a masculine and the other of a feminine -nature.

We said in one of our early chapters that every “divine principle” was universal; that is, that it would be found working on every plane of manifestation. The “principle” we are at present concerned with is that of Self-Expression.

We saw in the first place that “Ihoah”-the “Eternal” (“God the Father” in Christian terms) found His “Self-Expression,” that is, was “manifested” in “Elohim” (The “Word”). Then “Adam” was created to become the “Likeness,” that is, the outward expression of “Elohim.” Lastly “Adam,” the “spiritual ideal humanity” has to find outward expression in physical, “flesh-and-blood” human beings, and by means of the promised “help” he is to be prepared for entrance into the state of physical human existence.

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