101 Myths of the Bible: how ancient scribes - Conscious Evolution TV

Myths of the Beginning 47
These Egyptian traditions show several parallels to the Genesis account, in which
man is shaped from the earth and God breathes life into his nostrils. But the most
important influence on Genesis was probably the birth of Atum. In the Heliopolitan
Creation myth that lies behind the stories of Adam and Eve, the first being was Atum,
whose name is phonetically identical to that of Adam. Atum was formed out of the
first land that emerged from the primeval waters. He was literally a figure made of the
dust of the earth. Additionally, like Adam, the first female emerged from him without
the benefit of sexual intercourse with a woman.
As we note in Myth #11, when the Bible says that God created man from the dust
of the earth, the phrase translated as “man” is actually “ha-adam,” the Adam, and the
term is a plural form incorporating both male and female: “and [God] called their
name Adam, in the day when they were created”(Gen. 5:2).
The name Atum also has a plural sense, encompassing both male and female. It
means “he who is completed by absorbing others,” the others being the male and
female members of the Ennead.
Since the stories of Adam and Eve derive in part from the Heliopolitan Creation
myth, the several parallels between Atum and Adam indicate that originally the
Hebrew scribes named the first being Atum, after the first being in the Heliopolitan
story. Later, because of confusion between Atum and the Semitic word for “ground,”
adamah, the first being’s name evolved into Adam.