Adam as Golem

The imagination of the ancient Israelites frequently turned to the birth of the first man, who was formed of dust and not born of woman. A principal passage reads as follows: "How was Adam created? In the first hour his dust was collected; in the second his form was created; in the third he became a shapeless mass [golem]; in the fourth his members were joined; in the fifth his apertures opened; in the sixth he received his soul; in the seventh he stood up on his feet; in the eighth Eve was associated with him; in the ninth he was transferred to paradise; in the tenth he heard God's command; in the eleventh he sinned; in the twelfth he was driven from Eden, in order that Ps. xlix. 13 might be fulfilled" (Ab. R. N. ed. Schechter, Text A, i. 5; comp. Pesiḳ. R. ed. Friedmann, 187b, and note 7; Kohut, in "Z. D. M. G." xxv. 13). God created Adam as a golem; he lay supine, reaching from one end of the world to the other, from the earth to the firmament (Ḥag. 12a; comp. Gen. R. viii., xiv., and xxiv.; Jew. Encyc. i. 175). The Gnostics, following Irenæus, also taught that Adam was immensely long and broad, and crawled over the earth (Hilgenfeld, "Die Jüdische Apokalyptik," p. 244; comp. Kohut, l.c. xxv. 87, note 1). All beings were created in their natural size and with their full measure of intelligence, as was Adam (R. H. 11a). According to another tradition Adam was only one hundred ells high (B. B. 75a); according to a Mohammedan legend, only sixty ells (Kohut, l.c. xxv. 75, note 5; the number "sixty" indicates Babylonian influence). When he hid from the face of God, six things were taken from him, one of these being his size, which, however, will be restored to him in the Messianic time (Gen. R. xii.; Num. R. xiii.; Kohut, l.c. xxv. 76, note 1; 91, note 3). Other conceptions, for instance, that Adam was created a hermaphrodite (Androgynos), or with two faces ( = Διπρόσωπος; Gen. R. viii. 7), belongto the literature of Gnosticism.

Jewish Encyclopedia, 1901 - 1906, article "Golem".

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