Bible Dictionary
ADAM, CITY OF
The city of Adam stood in the Jordan valley near Zarethan. It is associated with the place where the Jordan’s waters stopped when Israel crossed under Joshua.
Definition
The city of Adam was a city in the middle of the Jordan valley near Zarethan. Its name is associated with the place where the Jordan’s waters stopped when Israel crossed under Joshua.
Biblical Usage
The city is named in the account of the Jordan crossing, when the waters were halted above it and Israel crossed on dry ground.
Historical Background
The name may survive at the Damieh Ford near the mouth of the Jabbok, about twenty miles above Jericho. The narrow gorge and high banks could permit an obstruction that caused the waters to pile up above the crossing.
Related Figures
Historical Bible Dictionaries
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>('adham, "red" or BDB "made"): A city in the middle of the Jordan valley near ZARETHAN (Jos 3:16), which see. The name probably survives at the Damieh Ford, near the mouth of the Jabbok twenty miles above Jericho. An Arabian historian asserts that about 1265 AD the Jordan was here blocked by a land slide. The inner gorge of the Jordan is here narrow with high banks which would facilitate such an obstruction as permitted the waters to "pile up" above to Adam and run out below, permitting Joshua's host to cross on dry land (SWP, II, 15; Wright, SCOTH, 130-34).</p><p>George Frederick Wright</p>