Tag: "Man versus human"

tag name	Man versus human	type:	Terminology; Translation, languages
web link	bahai-library.com/tags/Man_versus_human
variations or mis-spellings	Mankind versus humanity; O Son of Man
related tags	Adam and Eve; Criticism and apologetics; Gender; God, Image of; Kalimat-i-Maknunih (Hidden Words); Men; Women
notes	"... The truth is that all mankind are the creatures and servants of one God, and in His estimate all are human. Man is a generic term applying to all humanity. The biblical statement “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” does not mean that woman was not created. The image and likeness of God apply to her as well. In Persian and Arabic there are two distinct words translated into English as man: one meaning man and woman collectively, the other distinguishing man as male from woman the female. The first word and its pronoun are generic, collective; the other is restricted to the male. This is the same in Hebrew..." – 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Promulgation of Universal Peace. The following is feedback from Claude AI (December 2025): 'Abdu'l-Bahá is drawing attention to a linguistic distinction that exists in Persian, Arabic, and Hebrew but is obscured in English. In Persian, insān (انسان) refers to humanity collectively, while mard (مرد) specifically means a male person. Similarly, in Arabic, insān (إنسان) is the generic term for human being, whereas rajul (رجل) denotes a male specifically. Hebrew preserves the same distinction: adam (אָדָם) is the collective term for humanity, while ish (אִישׁ) refers to a male individual. His point regarding Genesis 1:26—"Let us make man in our image"—is that the Hebrew text uses adam, the generic term, not the gender-specific ish. The English word "man" collapses both meanings into one, leading to the mistaken impression that the divine image applies primarily or exclusively to males, when in fact the scriptural statement encompasses all humanity, women and men alike.
references	bahai9.com/wiki/Vocabulary; www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/search#q=Son of Man; www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/search#q=Man; www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/search#q=Human; www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/search#q=Mankind; www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/search#q=Humanity

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