Adam and Adapa : two anthropological characters

Because of the enormous impact of the Bible upon both the Jewish and Christian communities, any ancient Near Eastern literary discovery that may offer a parallel to some segment of biblical literature is greeted with interest. One such literary discovery is the Adapa myth. Its early discoverers and investigators claimed it as a true Babylonian parallel to the biblical story of Adam. However, after the initial flush of excitement, other voices arose to point out the differences between Adam and Adapa, claiming that no parallels exist between them. This position is retained in some of the more recent examinations of the material, but with the provision that some of the issues raised in the Adapa myth also occur in the biblical material. Finally, renewed attempts at showing an essential parallel between Adam and Adapa (with due allowances for functional shifts in the material) have been made. Such a "seesaw effect" of ancient Near Eastern parallels to the Bible is quite typical and suggests that the word "parallel,"