Man in Fausset's Bible Dictionary

(See ADAM; CIVILIZATION; CREATION.) Hebrew "Aadam," from a root "ruddy" or fair, a genetic term. "iysh," "man noble and brave". "Geber," "a mighty man, war-like hero", from gabar, "to be strong". "nowsh" (from 'aanash, "sick, diseased"), "wretched man": "what is "wretched man" (nowsh) that Thou shouldest be mindful of him?" (Psalm 8:4; Job 15:14.) "methim," "mortal men"; Isaiah 41:14, "fear not ... ye men (mortals few and feeble though ye be, methey) of Israel." In addition to the proofs given in the above articles that man's civilization came from God at the first, is the fact that no creature is so helpless as man in his infancy. The instincts of lower animals are perfect at first, the newborn lamb turns at once from the mother's breast to the grass; but by man alone are the wants of the infant, bodily and mental, supplied until he is old enough to provide for himself. Therefore, if Adam had come into the world as a child he could not have lived in it. Not by the natural law of evolution, but by the Creator's special interposition, man came into the world, the priest of nature, to interpret her inarticulate language and offer conscious adoration before God. As Adam's incarnation was the crowning miracle of nature, so Christ's incarnation is the crowning miracle of grace; He represents man before God, as man represents nature, not by ordinary descent but by the extraordinary operation of the Holy Spirit. Not a full grown man as Adam; but, in order to identify Himself with our weakness, a helpless infant.