The Size of an Adam

This anti-Islam Chick Tract has Li’l Susy talking about Islamic belief on Adam.

The bit about Adam being said to be ninety feet tall in the Hadith is true as far as it goes. They make reference to the first man being sixty cubits tall (which would be around ninety feet), and having shrunk since then. The implication that this idea is unique to Islam, however, is inaccurate. Like many of the stories about biblical figures that made their way into Islamic lore, the concept that Adam was a giant first appeared in Jewish legend.

The Talmud mentions that some rabbis had reported Adam’s size as reaching the skies, with it having been reduced after his original sin. The book I’m reading on Jewish mythology reports that one version of the legend had God shrinking Adam in order to show the angels that mankind was weak and helpless. It was sometimes said that his size was reduced by 1000 cubits, making him much bigger than Muhammad would later claim. It was common for these legends to be taken symbolically rather than literally, but the fact remains that they predate Islam by a considerable amount of time. For that matter, some Creationists still hold to the idea that Adam was a giant, although perhaps not quite as tall as the earlier tales had it. This poorly designed Creationist website says he was thirty-six feet tall, and TalkOrigins references a Creationist book that gave the first man’s height as sixteen feet.

In fact, one of the Creationists who has mentioned believing in giants (as well as fire-breathing dragons) is Chick’s old pal Kent Hovind. So why does he find the Islamic tale about Adam’s height so preposterous? I mean, it IS preposterous, but no more so than a lot of what he believes. I guess that’s pretty much always how it goes, though.

This entry was posted in Christianity, Islam, Jack Chick, Judaism, Mythology, Religion and tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

4 Responses to The Size of an Adam

  1. Ozaline says:

    OH! So when the animes Evangelion and Nadia made Adam a giant they actually had something going on there.

    I hope God kept the Square Cubed Law in consideration…

    • Nathan says:

      I’ve never seen either of those, but I think I remember my brother telling me about Evangelion and Adam being a giant. It wasn’t until later that I learned this was based on an old Jewish legend, but apparently a lot of stuff in that series was.

      Maybe Adam walked on all fours when he was a giant.

  2. Don Bowers says:

    (Insert additional sarcastic comment here)

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