Becoming God
Deification from Antiquity to the Present
Lecture 2: Adam
Dr. Nickolas P. Roubekas
University of Vienna
Email: nickolas.roubekas@univie.ac.at
Adam
Genesis: The Desire for Divinity?
Transgression & Punishment
But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die;
for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be
opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and
evil.” (Gen 3:4-5)
Then the Lord God said, “See, the man has become
like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might
reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life,
and eat, and live forever”—therefore the Lord God sent
him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground
from which he was taken. (Gen 3: 22-23)
Being like/a God
Adam:
• a boundary breaker;
• a transgressor of externally imposed limitations,
• one whose mind was now mature (knowing evil,
good, and all that lies between);
• Yahweh exiled him so that the newborn god
would die.
Genesis Transgression: Questions
Does Adam claim to be a God?
Is this a self-deification case?
How and why does Adam become a God?
What constitutes divinity in this episode?
Symbolic or literal reading?
Why is it a problem that Adam (and Eve) might
become gods?
What’s the story’s morale/teaching?
An Alternative Story?
Adam, Adam, do not fear. You wanted to be a god;
I will make you a god … I will set you at the right
hand of my divinity, and I will make you a god just
like you wanted.
Testament of Adam 3.2, 4
Ezekiel’s Oracles (ch. 38)
Against Tyre’s King (1)
The word of the Lord came to me: Mortal, say to the prince of
Tyre, Thus says the Lord God: Because your mind was exalted,
and you said, “I am god; I dwell in the dwelling of gods, in the
heart of the seas”—though you are human and not god, still
you make your mind like the mind of a god. Behold, you are
wiser than Danel! No secret is dark to you! By your wisdom
and by your understanding you have made yourself rich. You
set gold and silver in your treasuries. In the surplus of your
wisdom and by your trafficking, you have a surplus of wealth.
Now your heart is exalted because of your wealth.
Against Tyre’s King (2)
Therefore thus Lord Yahweh has spoken: Because you make
your heart like the heart of a god, for this reason—watch out
—I am bringing foreigners upon you—terrifying peoples.
They will unsheathe their sword against the beauty of your
wisdom, and defile your splendor. To the pit they will bring
you down! Then you will die the death of the defiled in the
heart of the seas. Will you say, “I am a god” in the presence
of your killer? But you are human and not a god in the
hands of those who stab you! The death of the
uncircumcised you will die by the hands of foreigners. For
I have spoken! Oracle of Lord Yahweh. (Ez 28:1-10)
Against Tyre’s King / Against Human Deification
(Adam) (1)
You were a seal, an image, full of wisdom and abounding in
beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God. Every precious
stone was your covering: carnelian, topaz and moonstone;
beryl, onyx, and jasper; sapphire, ruby, and emerald. Gold
was the work of your settings and your sockets. They were
established on the day of your birth. You were a cherub,
stretched out and overshadowing; and I set you on the holy
mountain. You were a god. You roamed amidst stones of fire.
You were perfect in your pathways from the day of your birth
until iniquity was found in you. In the surplus of your
trafficking, you filled your midst with violence. Then you
sinned, and I profaned you from the mount of God.
Against Tyre’s King / Against Human Deification
(Adam) (2)
I destroyed you, overshadowing cherub, from amidst the
stones of fire! Your heart was exalted by your beauty. You
corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. I thrust
you to earth! Before the kings I set you, to make you an
object of their gaze. In the surplus of your guilty acts, by the
injustice of your trafficking, you profaned your sanctuaries.
Then I brought out fire from your insides. It devoured you.
I made you ash upon the earth in the eyes of all who see you.
All who knew you among the peoples were appalled at you.
You became a fatality; you are nothing forevermore!
(Ez 28:12-18)
The Alternative Story: Parallels
• a primal human figure
• a Garden of Eden
• a cherub
• precious stones
• an act of primal sin
• an exile from the garden
• a turning to ash or dust
Differences / Problems
• The first human’s status
• The cause of his exile
• Ezekiel’s primal human is not the man of dust in
Genesis
• How can there be a human being who is
simultaneously divine?
1. The problem of dichotomy
2. The anachronism
3. The reality in antiquity
Adam the Divine
Appears in a fantastic garment encrusted with
jewels
Has great wisdom and beauty
He is blameless
He walks amid stones of fire
He is directly called a deity:  “you were a god” (Ez
28:14) = cf. Genesis 3:5,“You shall be as gods!”
The Fall
• Gen: act of disobedience / Ez: Adam’s proclamation “I am
god. I sit in the seat of the gods” (Ez 28:2).
• Ez: Yahweh thrusts or shoves the primal human to the earth /
Gen: God sends Adam to work the soil.
• Gen: Yahweh sends the first human into exile / Ez: sends the
primordial man to death.
• Both figures, are broken down into the meanest elements of
earth: Gen = dust / Ez = ash.
• Gen: Adam must first suffer / Ez: Adam shall die immediately.
• Gen: Adam the man will eventually die / Ez: Adam the divine
shall die as a man (cf. Psalm 82: 6-7: “I said, ‘You are gods’ …
but you will die like a human being).
Ezekiel’s Aim
• Combining the divine and the human was like
uniting the sacred and the profane: it constituted a
pollution.
• God (Yahweh) is in complete control.
• All other deities are demoted / burned to ashes
• Divine humanity is attacked as a wicked
perversion.
• Divine and human are fundamentally different.
• “There is only one god!” demands that all the
other gods must die.
Deification as a Primordial Desire
• Deification is sought since the beginning of time
• The blurry line between humanity and divinity
• Ancient vs. Modern understanding of divinity/
humanity
• Myth/Story as cosmological and social hierarchy
• Desire for deification vs. Proclamation
• Why do humans want to be gods?
• Seeking power / seeking eternity
The Persistence of Adam’s Divinity
“When our father Adam came into the garden of Eden, he
came into it with a celestial body, and brought Eve, one of his
wives, with him. He helped to make and organize this world.
He is MICHAEL, the Archangel, the ANCIENT OF DAYS!
about whom holy men have written and spoken—He is our
FATHER and our GOD, and the only God with whom WE have to
do. Every man upon the earth, professing Christians or nonprofessing,
must hear it, and will know it sooner or later.”
Bringham Young (April 9, 1852) in Watt, G. D., Journal of Discourses by
Brigham Young, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, His
Two Counsellors, the Twelve Apostles, and Others, p. 50.
Next: Amenhotep III