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Adam Kadmon
In Kabbalah, Adam Kadmon (אָדָם קַדְמוֹן, ʾāḏām qaḏmōn, “Primordial Man”) also called Adam Elyon (אָדָם עֶלִיוֹן, ʾāḏām ʿelyōn, “Most High Man”), or Adam Ila’ah (אָדָם עִילָּאָה, ʾāḏām ʿīllāʾā, “Most High Adam” in Aramaic), sometimes abbreviated as A’K (א”ק, ʾA.Q.), is the first of Four Worlds that came into being after the contraction of God's infinite light. Adam Kadmon is not the same as the physical Adam Ha-Rishon (אָדָם הָרִאשׁוֹן).
In Lurianic Kabbalah, the description of Adam Kadmon is anthropomorphic. Nonetheless, Adam Kadmon is divine light without vessels, i.e., pure potential. In the human psyche, Adam Kadmon corresponds to the yechidah, the collective essence of the soul.
The first to use the expression “original man,” or “heavenly man,” was Philo, in whose view this γενικός or οὐράνιος ἄνθρωπος, “as being born in the image of God, has no participation in any corruptible or earthlike essence; whereas the earthly man is made of loose material, called a lump of clay.” The heavenly man, as the perfect image of the ‘’Logos‘’, is neither man nor woman, but an incorporeal intelligence purely an idea; while the earthly man, who was created by God later, is perceptible to the senses and partakes of earthly qualities. Philo is evidently combining philosophy and Midrash, Plato and the rabbis.[citation needed]
Setting out from the duplicate biblical account of Adam, who was formed in the image of God (Genesis 1:27), and of the first man, whose body God formed from the earth (Genesis 2:7), he combines with it the Platonic theory of forms; taking the primordial Adam as the idea, and the created man of flesh and blood as the “image.” That Philo’s philosophic views are grounded on the Midrash, and not vice versa, is evident from his seemingly senseless statement that the “heavenly man,” the οὐράνιος ἄνθρωπος (who is merely an idea), is “neither man nor woman.” This doctrine, however, becomes quite intelligible in view of the following ancient Midrash.[citation needed]
The remarkable contradiction between Genesis 1:27 and Genesis 2:7 could not escape the attention of the Pharisees, for whom the Bible was a subject of close study. In explaining the various views concerning Eve’s creation, they taught that Adam was created as a man-woman (androgynos), explaining “זָכָ֥ר וּנְקֵבָ֖ה” (Genesis 1:27) as “male and female” instead of “man and woman,” and that the separation of the sexes arose from the subsequent operation upon Adam’s body, as related in the Scripture. This explains Philo’s statement that the original man was neither man nor woman.
This doctrine concerning the Logos, as also that of man made “in the likeness,” although tinged with true Philonic coloring, is also based on the theology of the Pharisees. Genesis Rabbah:
Thou hast formed me behind and before’ (Psalms 139:5) is to be explained ‘before the first and after the last day of Creation.’ For it is said, ‘And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters,’ meaning the spirit of the Messiah ["the spirit of Adam" in the parallel passage, Midr. Teh. to cxxxix. 5; both readings are essentially the same], of whom it is said (Isaiah 11:2), ‘And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him.’
This contains the kernel of Philo’s philosophical doctrine of the creation of the original man. He calls him the idea of the earthly Adam, while with the rabbis the spirit (רוח) of Adam not only existed before the creation of the earthly Adam, but was preexistent to the whole of creation. From the preexisting Adam, or Messiah, to the Logos is merely a step.
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Adam Kadmon
In Kabbalah, Adam Kadmon (אָדָם קַדְמוֹן, ʾāḏām qaḏmōn, “Primordial Man”) also called Adam Elyon (אָדָם עֶלִיוֹן, ʾāḏām ʿelyōn, “Most High Man”), or Adam Ila’ah (אָדָם עִילָּאָה, ʾāḏām ʿīllāʾā, “Most High Adam” in Aramaic), sometimes abbreviated as A’K (א”ק, ʾA.Q.), is the first of Four Worlds that came into being after the contraction of God's infinite light. Adam Kadmon is not the same as the physical Adam Ha-Rishon (אָדָם הָרִאשׁוֹן).
In Lurianic Kabbalah, the description of Adam Kadmon is anthropomorphic. Nonetheless, Adam Kadmon is divine light without vessels, i.e., pure potential. In the human psyche, Adam Kadmon corresponds to the yechidah, the collective essence of the soul.
The first to use the expression “original man,” or “heavenly man,” was Philo, in whose view this γενικός or οὐράνιος ἄνθρωπος, “as being born in the image of God, has no participation in any corruptible or earthlike essence; whereas the earthly man is made of loose material, called a lump of clay.” The heavenly man, as the perfect image of the ‘’Logos‘’, is neither man nor woman, but an incorporeal intelligence purely an idea; while the earthly man, who was created by God later, is perceptible to the senses and partakes of earthly qualities. Philo is evidently combining philosophy and Midrash, Plato and the rabbis.[citation needed]
Setting out from the duplicate biblical account of Adam, who was formed in the image of God (Genesis 1:27), and of the first man, whose body God formed from the earth (Genesis 2:7), he combines with it the Platonic theory of forms; taking the primordial Adam as the idea, and the created man of flesh and blood as the “image.” That Philo’s philosophic views are grounded on the Midrash, and not vice versa, is evident from his seemingly senseless statement that the “heavenly man,” the οὐράνιος ἄνθρωπος (who is merely an idea), is “neither man nor woman.” This doctrine, however, becomes quite intelligible in view of the following ancient Midrash.[citation needed]
The remarkable contradiction between Genesis 1:27 and Genesis 2:7 could not escape the attention of the Pharisees, for whom the Bible was a subject of close study. In explaining the various views concerning Eve’s creation, they taught that Adam was created as a man-woman (androgynos), explaining “זָכָ֥ר וּנְקֵבָ֖ה” (Genesis 1:27) as “male and female” instead of “man and woman,” and that the separation of the sexes arose from the subsequent operation upon Adam’s body, as related in the Scripture. This explains Philo’s statement that the original man was neither man nor woman.
This doctrine concerning the Logos, as also that of man made “in the likeness,” although tinged with true Philonic coloring, is also based on the theology of the Pharisees. Genesis Rabbah:
Thou hast formed me behind and before’ (Psalms 139:5) is to be explained ‘before the first and after the last day of Creation.’ For it is said, ‘And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters,’ meaning the spirit of the Messiah ["the spirit of Adam" in the parallel passage, Midr. Teh. to cxxxix. 5; both readings are essentially the same], of whom it is said (Isaiah 11:2), ‘And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him.’
This contains the kernel of Philo’s philosophical doctrine of the creation of the original man. He calls him the idea of the earthly Adam, while with the rabbis the spirit (רוח) of Adam not only existed before the creation of the earthly Adam, but was preexistent to the whole of creation. From the preexisting Adam, or Messiah, to the Logos is merely a step.