Adam, begotten son of God

 Luke and Scripture

The Function of Sacred Tradition in Luke-Acts

By Craig A. Evans, James A. Sanders · 2001

[According to Luke 3:38] just as God's breath/Spirit generated Adam, so it generated Jesus." If by virtue of this generation Jesus may be called "Son of God," then by the same token Adam may be called "son of God." 

Philo apparently followed the same line of reasoning; Adam received "his soul not from any other thing created but through the breath of God [empneusantos theou] imparting of his own power [dynamis] such measure as mortal nature could receive" (On the Virtues 37 §203).[1]

Because of this unique creation Philo is able to assert that Adam's "Father was no mortal but the eternal God, whose image [eikon] he was" (On the Virtues 37 §204).[2]

In a highly allegorical discussion of the ideal man, in part based on Adam, and the real meaning of the garden of Eden (Gen 2:8) Philo says, "For that man is the eldest son, whom the Father of all raised up, and elsewhere calls him his first-born, and indeed the son thus begotten followed the ways of his Father" (On the Confusion of the Languages 14 §63).[3]

In another passage he says: "But if there be any as yet unfit to be called 'son of God,' let him press to take his place under God's First-born, the Word, who holds eldership among the angels, their ruler as it were. And many names are his, for he is called, 'the Beginning,' Name of God,' Word,' and the 'Man after His Image [kat' eikona]' [Gen 1:27] " (On the Confusion of the Languages 28 §146).[4]

In other words, Adam, the man created after God's image, is "son of God" and model for all others who aspire to qualify as "sons of God" (cf. On the Confusion of the Languages 28 § 147, "For if we have not yet become fit to be thought sons of God . . ."). 

[1] Translation based on F. H. Colson, Philo (LCL 7; Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1939) 289. 

[2] Colson, Philo (LCL 7) 289. Neyrey (The Passion according to Luke, 168) cites these texts to demonstrate that Adam was "son of God" because of his righteousness. True, but it is significant that Philo links Adam's creation by the breath of God to God as Adam's Father. 

[3] Translation based on F. H. Colson and G. H. Whitaker, Philo (LCL 4; Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1935) 45. 

[4] Translation based on Colson and Whitaker, Philo (LCL 4) 89, 91.