The noun πηλος (pelos) means mud or clay: the material used by potters, and by builders (i.e. mortar: the Septuagint version of Genesis 11:3 uses this word). Greek mythology held that humanity was created from clay, specifically by Prometheus, who continued to famously provide humanity with fire from the gods. Myths from Egypt and Persia myths told of the same event, and even the much younger Quran maintained that Allah created man from clay (Q.23.12), and that Jesus made a bird from clay and animated it (5.110). Entirely likewise, Israel's prophets declared that God is a potter and humans are his clay creation (Isaiah 64:8, Jeremiah 18:6, Romans 9:21).

Since Darwin, folks have sought for mankind's nature and thus origin somewhere among the animals, but the ancients obviously understood that the core nature of man is rather that which distinguishes him from the animals: not his material body (because all stones, plants and animals have those), nor his soul (because all animals have those: see our article on πνευμα, pneuma, for the details), but his mind, his ability to think in algorithms: his lawfulness.

Before man began to think in general rules and hence became lawful, a mere animal was, and man did not exist (Psalm 73:22, Ecclesiastes 3:18, 2 Peter 2:12, Jude 1:10). The creation of man was the creation of a lawful mind, not the creation of an ape body or a hunk of matter (compare Genesis 2:7 to Acts 2:4 via Genesis 13:16 and Galatians 3:7).

Paul wrote that Jesus was a son of David according to his human "flesh" (Romans 1:3), which Paul clearly understood to be a legal matter rather than a biological one (as Jesus' human genes solely came from Mary who was a niece of Elizabeth, who was a Levite). Likewise, the literary character Adam portraits a mind rather than a body. Likewise, Eve was a mental entity, the snake was mental and every Biblical character after them, likewise, were minds (stages of awareness and schools of thought), and not animated bodies or material objects

The Greeks obviously maintained a similar world view, with humans essentially minds (with a body attached, like a shadow) rather than bodies (with a mind swimming inside it). That is why the Greek deities could be reckoned both very real elements of human reality, and even human ancestors: they too were minds.

The ancients were also quite aware of the hydrological cycle (see our article on νεφελη, nephele, cloud), and even applied this same cycle to the mind, with "dry land" being the same as one's certainties (one's consciousness, one's words, one's knowledge), and "the waters" as one's uncertainties (one's subconsciousness, one's wordless thoughts, one's emotions). The Hebrews rightly considered their language and cultural library as pretty solid, and as they imported their alphabet into the Greek language basin to be adapted for the Greek tongue, so many terms and ideas went along with it (see our article on the Hebrew roots of the Greek language). The Greek language that developed out of this, became an intermediate phase between the dry land of the Hebrew mind and the waters of the animal mind (Greek became the dog to the shepherd that was Hebrew: see our article on κυων, kuon, dog).

The name Adam relates to the noun אדמה (adama), meaning solid and arable land. The name Javan (that's the Hebrew name for Greece), however, comes from יון (yawen), meaning mire of mud.

Much of the frictions in Jesus' days was between Jews who wanted to stay "pure" and devoted solely to the Mosaic code, and those who recognized that Greek and other mythologies have their merit and may even be used in order to create a great human farm, in which a human shepherd (Hebrew) and his dog (Greek) governed vast herds (the Indo-European languages). Jesus and his disciples were obviously of the latter camp, and Jesus' healing of the blind man by means of mud made from his spittle rather obviously comments on that.

Our noun πηλος (pelos), mud, is of unclear origin. Here at Abarim Publications we surmise that it is one of the many Semitic terms that were imported into the Greek language basin along with the alphabet, and that it stems from the root פלל (palal), to pray or intercede, or even פלא (pala'), to be wonderful or extraordinary. Also note the mythological figure Peleus (Πηλευς, Mud-man), on whose wedding to sea-nymph Thetis, Eris created the Apple of Discord and set in motion what would become the Trojan War. The son of Peleus and Thetis was Achilles, and his story and the sack of Troy is obviously a Greek adaptation of the Hebrew story of Adam and the loss of Paradise.

Our noun πηλος (pelos), mud, is used 6 times in the New Testament; see full concordance.