Was there one Adam or two by that name?

Answer 1

The word Adam ('Adam) simply means 'man'. So it has always been a matter of personal choice for the translators whether to use the word 'man' or the name Adam. Clearly, if we reverse the usage in some instances, we do get a somewhat different story. Even as traditionally translated, there would seem to be disconnects between narratives about Adam, making it likely that the Yahwist stories really were about more than one Adam.

Some scholars say that the narrative commencing in Genesis chapter 5 begins a third, wholly independent creation story. It begins with saying that God created man in the likeness of God, both male and female, and called their name Adam. This appears to say there were many men called Adam, but would probably read more harmoniously if we read it as "called their name 'man' ". However, it goes on to say that Adam, an identified individual, lived 130 years and had a son called Seth, parallelling the Seth already born to the previous Adam in verse 4:25. There is then a genealogy of the descendants of Seth, that almost exactly matches the genealogy of the descendants of Cain in chapter 4.