Books of Adam and Eve
The ancient versions of the Life of Adam and Eve are: the Greek Apocalypse of Moses, the Latin Life of Adam and Eve, the Slavonic Life of Adam and Eve, the Armenian Penitence of Adam, the Georgian Book of Adam, and one or two fragmentary Coptic versions. These texts are usually named as Primary Adam Literature to distinguish them from subsequent related texts, such as the Cave of Treasures that includes what appears to be extracts.
Apocalypse of Moses This text is a translation by Gary A. Anderson of the Greek original found in A.-M. Denis Concordance grecque des pseudepigraphes d'Ancien Testament. Universite Catholique de Louvain: Louvain-la-Neuve, 1987. The Greek text is a critical edition that was was prepared by M.Nagel shortly before he died.
1.1 [Introduction. The story and history of Adam and Eve, the protoplasts, revealed by God to Moses his servant, when he received the tablets of the law from His hand, having been instructed by the Archangel Michael. May the Lord be praised]. This is the story of Adam and Eve after they had gone out of Paradise. 1.2 And Adam took his wife Eve and went to the east and abode there eighteen years and two months. 1.3 And Eve conceived and bore two sons; Adiophotos, who is called Cain and Amilabes who is called Abel. 2.1 And after this, Adam and Eve were with one another and while they were sleeping, Eve said to Adam her lord: 2.2 "My lord, Adam, behold, I have seen in a dream this night the blood of my son Amilabes who is styled Abel being poured into the mouth of Cain his brother and he went on drinking it without mercy. But he begged him to leave a little of it. 2.3 Yet he hearkened not to him, but gulped it down completely; nor did it stay in his stomach, but came out of his mouth. 2.4 And Adam said, "Let us arise and go and see what has happened to them. I fear lest the adversary may be assailing them somewhere." 3.1 And they both went and found Abel murdered by the hand of Cain his brother. 3.2 And God said to Michael the archangel: "Say to Adam: 'Reveal not the mystery that you know to Cain your son, for he is a son of wrath. But do not be sad, for I will give you another son instead of him ; he shall show to you all that you shall do. Do not tell him anything.'" 3.3a Thus God spoke to his archangel. But Adam kept the word in his heart, and with him also was Eve, though they were sad concerning Abel their son. 4.1 And after this, Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Seth. 4.2 And Adam said to Eve: "Behold! we have begotten a son in place of Abel, whom Cain killed, let us give glory and sacrifice to God." 5.1a And Adam begat thirty sons and thirty daughters 5.1b and Adam lived nine hundred and thirty years; and he fell sick and cried with a loud voice and said, "Let all my sons come to me that I may see them before I die." 5.2 And all assembled, for the earth was divided into three parts. 5.3 And Seth his son said to him: "Father Adam, what is you pain?" 5.4 And he said, "My children, I am crushed by the burden of pain." And they said to him, "What is pain, what is illness?" 6.1 And Seth answered and said to him: "Did you remember, father, the fruit of paradise of which you used to eat, and have you become sad in yearning for it?" 6.2 "If this be so, tell me, and I will go and bring you fruit from paradise. For I will set dung upon my head and will weep and pray that the Lord will hearken to me and send his angel and bring me some fruit from paradise, and I will bring it you that your pain may cease from you." 6.3 Adam said to him: "Nay, my son Seth, but I have much sickness and pain!" Seth said to him: "And how has this come upon you?" 7.1 And Adam said to him: "When God made us, me and your mother, through whom also I die, he gave us power to eat of every tree which is in paradise, but, concerning that one only, He charged us not to eat of it, and through this one we are to die. 7.2 And the hour drew near for the angels who were guarding your mother to go up and worship the Lord, And the enemy gave it to her and she ate from the tree. You know that I was not near her nor the holy angels. 7.3a Then she gave also to me to eat. 8.1 And God was angry with us, and the Lord came into paradise and set up his throne and called me in a terrible voice and said: "Adam, where art you? And why do you hide from my face? Shall the house be able to hide itself from its builder?" 8.2 And he said to me: "Since you have abandoned my covenant, I have brought upon your body seventy-two strokes; first a stroke to the eyes, second a stroke to the hearing, and likewise in turn strokes shall follow upon all parts of the body." 9.1 As he said this to his sons, Adam groaned sore and said: "What shall I do? I am in great distress." 9.2 And Eve wept and said: "My lord Adam, rise up and give me half of your pain and I will endure it; for it is on my account that this has happened to you, on my account you have these troubles." 9.3 But Adam said to Eve, "Arise and go with my son Seth near to paradise, and put earth upon your heads and weep and pray God 9.4 to have mercy upon me and send his angel to paradise, and give me of the tree out of which the oil flows, and bring it me, and I shall anoint myself and shall have rest from my illness. 9.5 And I will show you the way in which we were deceived at first." 10.1 Then Seth and Eve went to area of paradise. And while they were going, Eve saw her son, and a wild beast assailing him, 10.2 and Eve wept and said: "Woe is me; if I come to the day of the Resurrection, all those who have sinned will curse me saying: 'Eve has not kept the commandment of God.'" 10.3 And she spoke to the beast: "You wicked beast, Do you not fear to fight with the image of God ? How was your mouth opened ? How were your teeth made strong? How did you not call to mind your subjection? For long ago you were made subject to the image of God." 11.1 Then the beast cried out and said: "It is not our concern, Eve, your greed and your wailing, but your own; for it is from you that the rule of the beasts has arisen. 11.2 How was your mouth opened to eat of the tree concerning which God commanded you not to eat of it? On this account, our nature also has been transformed. 11.3 Now therefore you cannot endure it, if I begin to reprove you." 12.1 Then Seth spoke to the beast, "Close your mouth and be silent and stand off from the image of God until the day of Judgment." 12.2 Then the beast said to Seth: "Behold, I stand off from the image of God." And the beast fled and left him wounded and went to his hut. 13.1 And Seth went with Eve near paradise, and they wept there praying to God to send his angel and give them the oil of mercy. 13.2a And God sent the archangel Michael and he said to Seth: 13.2b "Seth, man of God, weary not yourself with prayers and entreaties concerning the tree which flowed with oil to anoint your father Adam. 13.3 For it shall not be your now, but in the end of the times. Then shall all flesh be raised up from Adam till that great day,Ñall that shall be of the holy people. 13.4 Then shall the delights of paradise be given to them and God shall be in their midst. 13.5 And they shall no longer sin before his face, for the evil heart shall be taken from them and there shall be given them a heart understanding the good and to serve God only. 13.6 But do go back to your father since the term of his life is filled in three days, and when his soul goes forth you will see its awesome ascent." 14.1 After the angel said these things it left them. And Seth and Eve came to the hut where Adam was lying. 14.2 And Adam said to Eve: "O Eve, What have you done to us? You have brought great wrath upon us which is death which will rule over our entire race." 14.3 And Adam said to Eve: "Call all our children and the children of our children and tell them the manner of our transgression." 15.1 Then said Eve to them: "Hear all my children and children's children and I will relate to you how the enemy deceived us. 15.2 It befell that we were guarding paradise, each of us the portion allotted to us from God. Now I guarded in my lot, the west and the south. 15.3 But the devil went to Adam's lot, where the male creatures were. For God divided the creatures; all the males he gave to your father and all the females he gave to me. Each of us guarded his own portion. 16.1 And the devil spoke to the serpent saying, "Rise up, come to me and I will tell you a word whereby you may have profit." And he arose and came to him. 16.2 And the devil said to him: "I hear that you art wiser than all the beasts, and I have come to counsel you. 16.3 Why do you eat of the tares of Adam and his wife and not of paradise? Rise up and we will cause him to be cast out of paradise, even as we were cast out through him." 16.4 The serpent said to him, "I fear lest the Lord be wroth with me." The devil said to him: "Fear not, only be my vessel and I will speak through your mouth words to deceive them." 17.1 And instantly he hung himself from the wall of paradise, and when the angels ascended to worship God, then Satan appeared in the form of an angel and sang hymns like the angels. 17.2 And he bent over the wall and I saw him, like an angel. And he said to me: "Are you Eve? "And I said to him, "I am." 17.3 And he said to me, "What art you doing in paradise?" And I said to him, "God set us to guard and to eat of it." 17.4 The devil answered through the mouth of the serpent: "You do well but you do not eat of every plant." 17.5 And I said: "Yea, we eat of all, save one only, which is in the middle of paradise, concerning which, God charged us not to eat of it, for, you shall die the death." 18.1 Then the serpent said to me, "As God lives! I am grieved on your account that you are like animals, for I would not have you ignorant. But arise, come hither, hearken to me and eat and perceive the value of that tree." 18.2 But I said to him, "I fear lest God be angry with me as he told us." 18.3 And he said to me: "Fear not, for as soon as you eat of it, you too shall be as gods, in that you shall know what is good and what is evil. 18.4 But God knew that you would be like Him, so he envied you and said, 'You shall not eat of it.' 18.5 But, do give heed to the plant and you will see its great glory." I gave heed to the plant and saw it great glory. I said to him that it was pleasing to the eyes. 18.6 Yet I feared to take of the fruit. And he said to me: "Come hither, and I will give it you. Follow me." 19.1 And I opened it for him and he entered paradise and went before me. He walked a little way, then turned and said to me: "I have changed my mind and I will not give you to eat." These things he said wishing to trap me in the end. And he said to me: "If you swear to me that you will give also to your husband." 19.2 And I said, "I do not know what sort of oath I should swear to you? Yet what I know, I say to you: By the throne of the Master, and by the Cherubim and the Tree of Life, I will give also to my husband to eat." 19.3 And when he had received the oath from me, he came and entered and placed upon the fruit the poison of his wickedness -- which is the sense of desire, for it is the beginning of every sin -- and he bent the branch on the earth and I took of the fruit and I ate. 20.1 And in that very hour my eyes were opened, and forthwith I knew that I was naked of the righteousness with which I had been clothed upon, and I wept and said to him: "Why have you done this that you has deprived me of the glory with which I was clothed?" But I wept also about the oath, which I had sworn. But he descended from the tree and vanished. And I began to seek, in my nakedness, in my part for leaves to hide my shame, but I found none, for, as soon as I had eaten, the leaves showered down from all the trees in my part, except the fig-tree only. 20.2 I took leaves from it and made for myself a girdle and it was from the same plant of which I had eaten. 21.1 And I cried out in that very hour, "Adam, Adam, where are you? Rise up, come to me and I will show you a great mystery." 21.2 But when your father came, I spoke to him words of transgression which have brought us down from our great glory. 21.3 For, when he came, I opened my mouth and the devil was speaking, and I began to exhort him and said, "Come hither, my lord Adam, hearken to me and eat of the fruit of the tree of which God told us not to eat of it, and you shall be as a God." 21.4 And your father answered and said, "I fear lest God be angry with me. "And I said to him, "Fear not, for as soon as you have eaten you shall know good and evil." 21.5 And speedily I persuaded him, and he ate and his eyes were opened and he too knew his nakedness. 21.6 And to me he said, "O wicked woman! what have you done to us? You have deprived me of the glory of God." 22.1 And in that same hour, we heard the archangel Michael blowing with his trumpet and calling to the angels and saying: 22.2 "Thus says the Lord, Come with me to paradise and hear the judgment with which I shall judge Adam." And when we heard the archangel sound the trumpet we said, "Behold God is coming into paradise to judge us." We feared and we hid. 22.3 And God came into paradise, mounted on the chariot of his cherubim with the angels proceeding before him and singing hymns of praises. As God entered paradise, the plants of Adam's portion flowered but all mine were bereft of flowers. 22.4 And the throne of God was fixed where the Tree of Life was. 23.1 And God called Adam saying, "Adam, where are you? Do you think that I won't find you? Can the house be hidden from the presence of its builder?" 23.2 Then your father answered; "It is not because we think we can't be found by you, Lord, that we hide, but I was afraid, because I am naked, and I was ashamed before your might, my Master." 23.3 God said to him, "Who showed you that you are naked, unless you has forsaken my commandment, which I delivered you to keep it." 23.4 Then Adam remembered the word which I spoke to him when I wished to deceive him "I will make you secure before God "; 23.5 and he turned and said to me: "Why have you done this?" And I said, "The serpent deceived me." 24.1 God said to Adam: "Since you transgressed my commandment and hearkened to your wife, cursed is the earth on your account. 24.2 You shall work it and it shall not give its strength: thorns and thistles shall spring up for you and in the sweat of your face you shall eat your bread. You shall be in manifold toils and you shall not rest; you shall be crushed by bitterness, but of sweetness you shall not taste. 24.3 You shall be crushed from toils and constrained by cold. You shall struggle greatly and not become rich and you shall grow fat, but come to no end. 24.4 The beasts, over whom you ruled, shall rise up in rebellion against you, for you have not kept my commandment." 25.1 And the Lord turned to me and said: "Since you has hearkened to the serpent, and transgressed my commandment, you shall suffer torments and intolerable pains; 25.2 you shall bear children in much trembling and in one hour you shall come to the birth, and lose your life, from your sore trouble and anguish. 25.3 But you shall confess and say: "Lord, Lord, save me, and I will turn no more to the sin of the flesh." But even another time you shall so turn. 25.4 And on this account, from your own words I will judge you, by reason of the enmity which the enemy has planted in you. And you shall return again to your husband and he will rule over you." 26.1 After he said these things to me, he spoke to the serpent in great wrath saying: "Since you has done this, and become a thankless vessel until you has deceived the innocent hearts, be cursed more than all beasts. 26.2 You shall be deprived of the food which you ate and you shall eat dust all the days of your life; on your breast and your belly you shall walk and be robbed of hands and feet. 26.3 There shall not be left you ear nor wing, nor one limb of all that with which you ensnared them in your malice and so caused them to be cast out of paradise; 26.4 and I will put enmity between you and their seed: he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise the heel of that one until the day of Judgment." 27.1 After saying these things he commanded the angels to cast us out of paradise: 27.2 and as we were being driven out amid our loud lamentations, your father Adam besought the angels and said: "Leave me a little space that I may entreat the Lord that he have compassion on me and pity me, for I only have sinned." 27.3 And they left off driving him and Adam cried aloud and wept saying: "Pardon me, O Lord, my deed." 27.4 Then the Lord said to the angels, "Why have you ceased from driving Adam from paradise? Is it I who have done wrong? Or have I judged badly?" 27.5 Then the angels fell down on the ground and worshipped the Lord saying, "You are just, O Lord, and you judge righteously." 28.1 But the Lord turned to Adam and said: "I will not suffer you henceforward to be in paradise." 28.2 And Adam answered and said, "Grant me, O Lord, of the Tree of Life that I may eat of it, before I be cast out." 28.3 Then the Lord said to Adam, "You shall not take of it now, for the cherubim with the flaming sword that turns every way has been stationed to guard it from you that you taste not of it and lived without death forever; 28.4 but you have the war which the adversary has put into you; yet when you have gone out of paradise, if you keep yourself from all evil, as one wishing to die, when again the Resurrection has come to pass, I will raise you up and then there shall be given to you from the Tree of Life and you will be without death forever." 29.1 When the Lord had said these things he ordered us to be cast out of paradise. 29.2 But your father Adam wept before the angels opposite paradise and the angels said to him: "What would you have us to do, Adam?" 29.3 And your father said to them, "Behold, you cast me out. I pray you, allow me to take away fragrant herbs from paradise, so that I may offer an offering to God after I have gone out of paradise that he hear me." 29.4 And the angels approached God and said: "JAEL, Eternal King, command, my Lord, that there be given to Adam incense of sweet odor from paradise." 29.5 And God commanded it to be so for Adam that he might take sweet spices and seeds for his food. 29.6 And as the angels let him go he took four kinds: crocus and nard and calamus and cinnamon and the other seeds for his food: and, after taking these, he went out of paradise. And we were on the earth. 29.7 [The following epitome of the penitence narrative is found in just a few of the Greek manuscripts, most omit it entirely.] And we grieved for seven days and after seven days we grew hungry and I said to Adam: "Rise and give some thought to food that we might eat and live and so that we do not die. Let us get up and circle the earth perhaps God will hear us." We arose and went about the entire earth but we did not find food. 29.8 And I answered and said to Adam: "Rise, O Lord and destroy me that I might cease from before you and from before God and the angels and so that they might cease their anger toward you on my account." 29.9 Then Adam answered and said to me, "For what reason do you call to mind this evil that I could commit murder and impose death upon my rib. How could I lift a hand against the image of God which he made? Rather let us repent for forty days so that God may have mercy on us and give to us better food than the animals. 29.10 I will do forty days of penitence whereas you shall do 34 days for you were not made on the sixth day when God made his creation. Arise and go to the Tigris river and take a stone and put it under your feet and stand there covered in the water up to your neck and let not a word come from your mouth for we are not worthy and our lips are unclean." 29.11 Adam went to the Jordan river and the hair of his head was spread out as he prayed in the water. And he cried in a loud voice saying: "I say to the waters of the Jordan stand still and pray with me even all the beasts, all the birds, and all which creeps on the land and the sea." And all the angels and all things made by God circled Adam like a wall around him and cried while praying to God on behalf of Adam so that God might hearken to him. 29.12 But the devil, not finding a place with respect to Adam, came to the Tigris river to me. And assuming the form of an angel he stood before me weeping and his tears flowed upon the ground. And he said to me, "Come forth from the water and cease your crying, for God has heard your request because even we, the angels, and all things made by him, have beseeched God on your behalf. 29.13 And when he said these things, the enemy deceived me a second time. And I came out of the water. 30.1 Now then, my children, I have shown you the way in which we were deceived; and do guard yourselves from transgressing against the good." 31.1 And when Eve had said this in the midst of her sons, while Adam was lying ill and had one more day from the sickness prior to his going from his body. 31.2 Eve said to Adam: "How is it that you die and I live or how long have I to live after you are dead? Tell me." 31.3 And Adam said to her: "Give no thought to this, for you will not tarry long after me, but both of us are to die together. And as to this one he shall set her in my place. But when I die, anoint me and let no man touch me till the angel shall says something concerning me. 31.4 For God will not forget me, but will seek the vessel he made. Now, arise, and pray to God until I give up my soul, which he gave me, into His hands. For we know not how we are to meet our Maker, whether He will be angry with us, or will turn to show mercy on us." 32.1 And Eve rose up and went outside and fell on the ground and said: 32.2 "I have sinned, O God, I have sinned, O Father of All, I have sinned against You. I have sinned against your elect angels. I have sinned against the Cherubim. I have sinned against Your unshakable Throne. I have sinned, o Lord, I have greatly sinned, I have sinned before You and all sin has begun through my doing in the creation." 32.3 Even as Eve prayed on her knees behold, the angel of humanity came to her, and raised her up and said: 32.4 "Rise up, Eve, from your penitence, for behold, Adam your husband has gone out of his body. Rise up and behold his spirit borne aloft to meet his Maker." 33.1 And Eve rose up and put her hand on the face of Adam, and the angel said to her, "Lift up your hand from that which is of the earth." 33.2 And she gazed steadfastly into heaven, and beheld a chariot of light, borne by four bright eagles, and it was impossible for any man born of woman to tell the glory of them or behold their face - and angels going before the chariot - 33.3 and when they came to the place where your father Adam was, the chariot halted and the Seraphim were between the father and the chariot. 33.4 And I beheld golden censers and three bowls, and behold all the angels with censers and frankincense came in haste to the incense-offering and blew upon it and the smoke of the incense veiled the firmament. 33.5 And the angels fell down to God, crying aloud and saying, "JAEL, Holy One, have pardon, for he is Your image, and the work of Your holy hands." 34.1 And then I Eve beheld two great and fearful mysteries before the presence of God and I wept for fear, and I cried aloud to my son Seth and said, 34.2 "Rise up, Seth, from the body of your father Adam, and come to me, and see a spectacle which no man's eye has yet beheld and how they supplicate on behalf of your father, Adam." 35.1 Then Seth arose and came to his mother and said to her: "Why do you weep?" 35.2 And she said to him: "Look up and see with your eyes the seven heavens opened, and see how the body of your father lies on its face and all the holy angels are praying on his behalf and saying: 'Pardon him, Father of All, for he is Your image.'" 35.3 Pray, my child Seth, what shall this mean? And will he one day be delivered into the hands of our Invisible God? 35.4 But who are, my son Seth, the two Ethiopians who stand by at the prayers for your father?" 36.1 And Seth said to his mother, "They are the sun and moon and themselves fall down and pray on behalf of my father Adam." 36.2 Eve said to him: "And where is their light and why have they taken on such a black appearance? " 36.3 And Seth answered her, "The light has not left them, but they cannot shine before the Light of all things, the Father of Light; and on this account their light has been hidden." 37.1 Now while Seth was saying this to his mother, behold, an angel blew the trumpet, and all the angels who were lying on their faces rose up, and they cried aloud in an fearsome voice and said: 37.2 "Blessed be the glory of the Lord from the works of His making, for He has pitied Adam, the creature of His hands." 37.3 But when the angels had said these words, behold, there came one of the seraphim with six wings and snatched up Adam and carried him off to the Acherusian lake, and washed him thrice, and led him before God. 37.4 And he stayed there three hours, lying down, and thereafter the Father of all, sitting on his holy throne stretched out his hand, and took Adam and handed him over to the archangel Michael saying: 37.5 "Lift him up into paradise unto the third Heaven, and leave him there until that fearful day of my reckoning, which I will make in the world." 37.6 Then Michael took Adam and left him where God told him. And all the angels sang an angelic hymn being amazed at the pardoning of Adam. 38.1 But after this joyous event of Adam, the archangel Michael cried to the Father concerning Adam. 38.2 And the Father commanded him that all the angels should assemble before God, each in his order, some having censers in their hands, and others lyres, bowls and trumpets. 38.3 And behold, the Lord of Hosts entered and four winds drew Him and cherubim mounted on the winds and the angels from heaven escorting Him and they came on the earth, where was the body of Adam. 38.4 And they came to paradise and all the leaves of paradise were stirred so that all men begotten of Adam slept from the fragrance save Seth alone, because he was born according to the appointment of God. 39.1 And God came to the body of Adam and grieved greatly over him and God said to him: "Adam, what is this you done? Had you kept my commandment, those who born you down to this place would not have rejoiced. 39.2 Yet, I tell you that I will turn their joy to grief and your grief will I turn to joy, and I will return you to your rule, and seat you on the throne of your deceiver. 39.3 But that one; the one who sat on it prior to his becoming arrogant; shall be cast into this place that he may see you seated upon it. Then he himself shall be condemned along with those who obeyed him and he shall grieve when he see you sitting upon his throne. 40.1 Then God said to the archangel Michael: "Go away to Paradise in the third heaven, and carry away three fine linen clothes." 40.2 And God said to Michael and to Gabriel and Uriel: "Spread out the clothes and cover the body of Adam." And they bore the sweet olive oil and poured it upon him. And the three great angels prepared him for burial. 40.3 When they finished preparing Adam, God said they should bear the body of Abel also. And they brought more linen and prepared him for burial. 40.4 For he was unburied since the day when Cain his brother slew him; for Cain took great pains to conceal him but could not, for the body sprang up from the earth and a voice went out of the earth saying: 40.5 "No other body can be covered until --with respect to the first creature who was taken from me -- the earth from which he was taken is returned to me." And the angels took at that moment and put him upon a rock until Adam, his father, was buried. 40.6 And God commanded that after they had prepared the body of Abel for burial that they bear Abel up also to the area of paradise, to the spot where God had taken the earth and fashioned Adam. And God made them dig the spot for two. 40.7 And God sent seven angels to paradise and they brought many fragrant spices and placed them in the earth, and afterward they took the two bodies and placed them in the spot which they had dug and built a sepulcher. 41.1 And God called and said, "Adam, Adam. "And the body answered from the earth and said: "Here am I, Lord." 41.2 And God said to him: "I told you that earth you are and to earth shall you return. 41.3 Again I promise to you the Resurrection; I will raise you up in the Resurrection with every man, who is of your seed." 42.1 After these words, God made a three-fold seal and sealed the tomb, that no one might do anything to him for six days till his rib should return to him. 42.2 Then the Lord and his angels went to their place. 42.3 And Eve also, when the six days were fulfilled, fell asleep. But while she was living, she wept bitterly about Adam's falling asleep, for she knew not where he was laid. For when the Lord came to paradise to bury Adam all were asleep until he finished the burial of Adam except Seth alone. And no one knew this on the earth, except her son Seth. 42.4 And Eve prayed while weeping that she might be buried in the place where her husband Adam was. And after she had finished her prayer, she said: 42.5 "Lord, Master, God of all virtue, do not alienate me from the body of Adam, from whose members you made me. 42.6 But deem me worthy, even me who is unworthy and a sinner, to enter into his tabernacle. Just as I was with him in paradise, both of us not being separated from the other; 42.7 just as in our transgression, we were both led astray and transgressed your command, but were not separated, even so now, o Lord, do not separate us." 42.8 But after she had prayed, she gazed heavenwards and groaned aloud and smote her breast and said: "God of All, receive my spirit," and she delivered up her spirit. 43.1 And Michael came and taught Seth how to prepare Eve for burial. And there came three angels and they bore her body and buried it where Adam and Abel's bodies were. 43.2 And afterwards Michael spoke to Seth saying; "Lay out in this manner every man that dies until the day of the Resurrection." 43.3 And after giving him this rule he said: "Mourn not beyond six days, but on the seventh day, rest and rejoice on it, because on that very day, God and we the angels rejoice with the righteous soul, who has passed away from the earth." 43.4 After the angel said these things he ascended into heaven, glorifying God and saying: "Allelujah, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord, to the glory of God the Father, Amen." |
Vita Adae et Evae The Latin text has been supplied by Mr. Wilfried Lechner-Schmidt. It basically follows the Group I text from which Meyer printed in his critical edition ["Vita Adae et Evae" Abhandlungen der koeniglichen Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philsoph.-philologische Klasse. Munich: 14.3: 185-250] It has been translated by B. Custis with the assistance of G. Anderson and R. Layton. 1.1 When Adam and Eve were expelled from paradise they made for themselves a tent and spent seven days mourning and lamenting in great sadness. 2.1 But after seven days they began to be hungry and sought food to eat and did not find any. 2.2 Eve told Adam: "Adam, my lord, Then Eve said to Adam: "My lord, I am hungry. Go, seek for us something to eat. Perhaps the Lord God will look upon us and have mercy on us and will call us back to the place where we were previously." 3.1 And Adam arose after seven days and And Adam arose and walked for seven days over all that land but did not find food such as they had in paradise. 3.2 Eve said to Adam: "My lord, would that I might die. Perhaps then the Lord God would bring you back into paradise, for it was because of me that the Lord God grew angry with you. Do you wish to kill me, that I might die? Perhaps the Lord God will bring you back into paradise, since on account of my action you were expelled from there." 3.3 Adam responded: "Don't say such things Eve lest the Lord God bring upon us some other curse. How could it be that I should raise my hand against my own flesh? Let us arise and seek for ourselves something by which we might live so that we might not perish." 4.1 Walking about, they searched for many days but did not find anything like they had in paradise. They only found what animals eat. 4.2 Adam said to Eve: "The Lord gave these things to animals and beasts to eat. Ours, however was the angelic food. 4.3 But justly and worthily do we lament before the face of God who made us. Let us perform a great penitence. Perhaps the Lord God will yield and have mercy on us and give us something by which we might live." 5.1 Eve said to Adam: "My lord, tell me what is penitence and how long should I perform it, lest perhaps we place on ourselves a labor which we cannot endure, and he not hear our prayers, 5.2 And the Lord turned his face from us because we did not fulfill what we promise. 5.3 My lord, how much penitence are you thinking of doing since I brought labor and tribulation upon you." 6.1 Adam said to Eve: "You cannot do as much as I, but do as much so that you might be saved. For I will do forty days of fasting. You, however, arise and go to the Tigris River and take a stone and stand upon it in the water up to your neck in the depth of the river. Let not a word go forth from your mouth since we are unworthy to ask of the Lord for our lips are unclean from the illicit and forbidden tree. 6.2 Stand in the water of the river for thirty-seven days. I however, will do forty days in the water of the Jordan. Perhaps the Lord will have mercy on us." 7.1 Eve walked to the Tigris River and did just as Adam told her. 7.2 Likewise, Adam walked to the Jordan River and stood upon a rock up to his neck in the water. 8.1 Adam said: "I say to you, water of the Jordan, mourn with me and separate from me all swimming creatures which are in you. Let them surround me and mourn with me. 8.2 Let them not lament for themselves, but for me, for they have not sinned, but I." 8.3 Immediately, all living things came and surrounded him and the water of the Jordan stood from that hour not flowing in its course. 9.1 Eighteen days passed. Then Satan grew angry and transfigured himself into the brilliance of an angel and went off to the Tigris River to Eve. 9.2 He found her weeping, and then, the Devil himself, as if mourning with her began to weep and said to her: "Come out of the water and rest and weep no longer. Cease now from your sadness and lamenting. Why are you uneasy, you and your husband Adam? 9.3 The Lord God has heard your lamenting and accepted your penitence. All of us angels have pleaded for you, praying to the Lord, 9.4 and he sent me to lead you forth from the water and to give you the nourishment which you had in paradise and for which you have grieved. 9.5 Now, therefore, come out of the water and I will lead you to the place where your food is prepared." 10.1 Hearing this, Eve believed him and went out of the water of the river. Her flesh was like grass from the waters coldness. 10.2 When she had come out, she fell to the ground, but the Devil stood her up and led her to Adam. 10.3 When Adam saw her and the Devil with her, he cried out with tears, saying: "O Eve, O Eve, where is the work of your penitence? How have you again been seduced by our adversary, through whom we were alienated from the dwelling of paradise and spiritual happiness? 11.1 When Eve heard this, she knew that it was the Devil who had persuaded her to go out from the river and she fell on her face on the ground and her grief was double, as was her wailing and lamentation. 11.2 She cried out, saying: "Woe to you, Devil. For what reason do you fight against us? What concern do you have with us? What have we done to you that you should persecute us so grievously? Why does your malice extend to us? 11.3 Did we ever take your glory from you or cause you to be without honor? Why do you persecute us, O enemy, impiously and jealously unto death?" 12.1 Groaning, the Devil said: "O Adam, all my enmity, jealousy, and resentment is towards you, since on account of you I was expelled and alienated from my glory, which I had in heaven in the midst of the angels. On account of you I was cast out upon the earth." 12.2 Adam answered: "What have I done to you? 12.3 What fault do I have against you? Since you have not been harmed nor injured by us, why do you persecute us?" 13.1 The Devil answered: "Adam what are you saying to me? On account of you I was cast out from heaven. 13.2 When you were formed, I was cast out from the face of God and was sent forth from the company of the angels. When God blew into you the breath of life and your countenance and likeness were made in the image of God, Michael led you and made you worship in the sight of God. The Lord God then said: 'Behold, Adam, I have made you in our image and likeness.' 14.1 Having gone forth Michael called all the angels saying: 'Worship the image of the Lord God, just as the Lord God has commanded.' 14.2 Michael himself worshipped first then he called me and said: 'Worship the image of God Jehovah.' 14.3 I answered: 'I do not have it within me to worship Adam.' When Michael compelled me to worship, I said to him: 'Why do you compel me? I will not worship him who is lower and posterior to me. I am prior to that creature. Before he was made, I had already been made. He ought to worship me.' 15.1 Hearing this, other angels who were under me were unwilling to worship him. 15.2 Michael said: 'Worship the image of God. If you do not worship, the Lord God will grow angry with you.' 15.3 said: 'If he grows angry with me, I will place my seat above the stars of heaven and I will be like the Most High.' 16.1 Then the Lord God grew angry with me and sent me forth with my angels from our glory. On account of you we were expelled from our dwelling into this world and cast out upon the earth. 16.2 Immediately we were in grief, since we had been despoiled of so much glory, 16.3 and we grieved to see you in such a great happiness of delights. 16:4 By a trick I cheated your wife and caused you to be expelled through her from the delights of your happiness, just as I had been expelled from my glory." 17.1 Hearing this, Adam cried out with a great shout because of the Devil, and said: "O Lord my God, in your hands is my life. Make this adversary of mine be far from me, who seeks to ruin my soul. Give me his glory which he himself lost." 17.2 Immediately the Devil no longer appeared to him. 17.3 Adam truly persevered for forty days standing in penitence in the waters of the Jordan. 18.1 Eve said to Adam: "Long may you live, my lord to you is my life submitted, since you did not take part in either the first or second collusion. But I conspired and was seduced, because I did not keep the commandment of God. Now separate me from the light of this life. I will go to the west and I will be there until I die. 18.2 She then began to walk toward the western regions and began to wail and weep bitterly with great moaning. 18.3 She made there a dwelling, being three months pregnant. 19.1 When the time of her delivery approached, she began to be distressed with pains, and she cried out to the Lord, saying: 19.2 "Have mercy on me, O Lord, help me." She was not heard, nor was the mercy of God toward her. She said to herself: "Who will tell my lord Adam? I beseech you, lights of the heavens, when you turn again to the east, tell my lord Adam. 20.1 In that very hour Adam said: "The lament of Eve has come to me. Perhaps the serpent has fought with her again." 20.2 Walking, he found her in great distress. Eve said: "How is it that I see you, my Lord. My soul has grown cold being in such pains. Now pray to the Lord God on my behalf that he might hear you and look down upon me and free me from my very bad pains." 20.3 Adam then prayed to the Lord for Eve. 21.1 And behold, twelve angels came and two Virtues, standing to the right and to the left of Eve. 21.2 Michael was standing to her right and touched his face to her chest and said to Eve: "Blessed are you, Eve, on account of Adam, for his prayers and supplications are great. I was sent to you that you might receive our help. Arise now and prepare yourself for birth." 21.3 She brought forth a son who shone brilliantly. At once the infant stood up and ran out and brought some grass with his own hands and gave it to his mother. His name was called Cain. 22.1 Adam took Eve and the boy and led them to the east. 22.2 The Lord God sent various seeds by Michael the angel, who gave them to Adam and showed them how to work and tend the ground, in order to have fruit, from which they and all their generations might live. 22.3 Afterwards, Eve conceived and bore a son, whose name was Abel, and Cain and Abel remained together as one. 22.4a Eve said to Adam: 22.4b "My lord, while asleep I saw a vision like the blood of our son Abel on the hand of Cain who tasted it with his mouth. On account of this I am pained." 22.5 Adam said: "Woe, let not Cain kill Abel, but let us separate them from each other and make separate houses for them." 23.1 They made Cain to be a farmer, and Abel to be a shepherd that they might thus be separated from each other. 23.2 But even after this, Cain killed Abel. Adam was then 130 years old. Abel was killed when he was 122 years old. 23.3 After this Adam knew his wife and begot a son and called his name Seth. 24.1 Adam said to Eve: "Behold, I have begotten a son in place of Abel, whom Cain killed." 24.2 After Adam begot Seth, he lived for 800 years and begot 30 sons and 30 daughters 63 altogether and they were multiplied over the earth in its nations. 25.1 Adam said to Seth: "Let me recount for you what I have heard and seen. After I and your mother were cast out of paradise, 25.2 when we were at prayer, the archangel Michael, the messenger of God, came to me. 25.3 I saw a chariot like the wind, and its wheels were afire, and I was caught up into the paradise of the just. I saw the Lord seated, his face like fire burning intolerably. Many thousands of angels were at the right and the left of his chariot. 26.1 Seeing this, I was disturbed and fear seized me and I worshipped before God above the face of the earth. 26.2 Then God said to me: 'Behold, you shall die because you transgressed the commandment of God, because you harkened more to the voice of your wife whom I gave over to your control that you might have her in your will. You listen to your her and transgressed my words.' 27.1 When I heard these words of God, falling down on the ground I worshipped the Lord and said: 'My Lord, Almighty and merciful God, holy and faithful, do not let the name of the memory of your majesty be destroyed, but turn my soul around, for I will die and my spirit will go forth from my mouth. 27.2 Do not cast me out from your sight, whom you formed from the dust of the earth, nor put me out from your grace whom you nourished. 27.3 Behold, your word has come over me.' Then the Lord God said to me: 'Since your days are numbered, you have become attentive to knowledge. my very bad pains." On account of this no one shall ever be taken from your offspring to minister unto me.' 28.1 When I heard these words, I prostrated myself on the ground and worshipped the Lord God saying: 'You are the eternal and most high God. All creatures give you honor and praise. 28.2 You are above all, the shining light, the true light, the living life, the Virtue of incomprehensible greatness. To you the spiritual virtues give honor and praise. With the human race you show the great deeds of your mercy.' 28.3 After I worshipped the Lord God, straightway Michael, the archangel of God, took my hand and threw me out of the paradise of God's visitation and commanding. 28.4 Michael, holding in his hand a rod, touched the waters which surrounded paradise and they froze. 29.1 Then I crossed over, and Michael crossed over with me and brought me again to the place from which he had taken me. 29.2 Hear also, my son Seth, the other mysteries and promised things to come which have been revealed to me. By eating of the tree of knowledge I have known and understood the things which are in this age, 29.3 which God will do to his creature, the human race. 29.4 The Lord will appear in a flame of fire. From the mouth of his majesty he will give commandment and precepts to all; from his mouth will go forth a sword, sharp on both edges; and they will sanctify him in the house of the dwelling of his majesty. He will show to them the marvelous place of his majesty. 29.5 Then they will build a house for the Lord God on my behalf that he might hear you and look down upon me and free me from Lord their God in the land which he will prepare for them, and there they will transgress his precepts. Their sanctuary will be set afire, and their land shall be desolate, and they themselves will be dispersed because they provoked God. 29.6 But again, on the third day, he will save them from their dispersion and they will build once more the house of God, and it will then be higher than it was before. 29.7 But once again, iniquity will conquer justice. After this, God will dwell, living with men on the earth. Then justice will begin to shine, and the house of the Lord will be honored forever. The opponents will no more be able to kill men who believe in God. God will then receive unto himself a faithful people, who will be saved forever and ever. But the impious who did not wish to love his law will be punished by God their King. 29.8 Heaven and earth, night and day, and all creatures will obey him and will not transgress his commandment, nor will they alter his works. Men who forsake the law of the Lord, however, will be changed. 29.9 On account of this, the Lord will cast away from himself the impious, but the just will shine like the sun in the sight of God. At that time, men will be purified by water of their sins. 29.10 Those unwilling to be purified by water will be condemned. Blessed will be the man who shall amend his soul when the judgments and great deeds of God will be among men. Their deeds will be investigated by God, the just judge. 30.1 After Adam reached the age of 930 years, knowing that his days were ended, he said to Eve: "Gather about me all my children that I might bless them before I die, and that I might speak with them." 30.2 They were gathered before his sight, in front of the oratory where he worshipped the Lord God. They numbered 15,000 men, not counting women and children. 30.3 They asked him, and when they all had been gathered, they said with one voice: "What is wrong with you, father, that you have gathered us together? Why are you lying on your bed?" 30.4 Answering, Adam said: "My children, I am in great pain." All his children said to him: "What does mean, father, to have great pain?" 31.1 Then his son, Seth, said: "Lord, do you perhaps long for some of the fruit of paradise, which you used to eat, and therefore you lie there saddened? Tell me and I will go up to the gates of paradise and cast dust on my head and throw myself on the ground before the gates of paradise, mourning in great lamentation, beseeching the Lord. Perhaps he will hear me and send his angel to bring me some of the fruit you desire." 31.2 Adam answered and said: "No, my son, I do not desire it, even though I am suffering infirmity and great pain in my body." 31.3 Seth answered: "What is pain, my lord, father, for I do not know. Do not send us away, but tell us, for inwardly we do not know." 32.1 Adam answered and said: "Hear me, my children. When God made us, me and your mother, and placed us in paradise and gave us all fruitbearing trees for food, he forbade us, saying: 'Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which is in the midst of paradise, you may not eat.' 32.2 God, however, gave part of paradise to me, and part to your mother: to me he gave the tree of the eastern and northern part which is against the north, and to your mother he gave the southern and western part. 33.1 The Lord God gave us two angels to watch over us. 33.2 The hour came for the angels to ascend to the sight of God for worship. At once, the Devil, our adversary, found the place. 33.3 Then she ate and gave to me to eat. 34.1 Immediately, the Lord God grew angry with us and said to me: 'Because you have forsaken my mandate and have not kept my word which I entrusted to you, I will bring upon your body seventy afflictions. You will be racked with pains from the top of your head, eyes, and ears, to the bottom of your feet, and in every single member.' This he counted as punishment fitting in suffering, to the seriousness of our transgression, concerning the trees of suffering for the transgression of the fruit of the tree. 34.2 The Lord sent all these ills upon me and all our generations." 35.1 Saying this to all his children, Adam was seized with great pains, and crying out with a great voice, he said: "What shall I do, I who am unfortunate, being in so much pain?" 35.2 When Eve saw him, she began to cry and said: "My Lord God, transfer his pain over to me, since it was I who sinned." Eve then said to Adam: "My lord, give me part of your pain, since by me this blame came upon you." 36.1 Adam then said to Eve: "Rise, go with my son, Seth, near to the gates of paradise and cast dust on your heads, and prostrate yourself on the ground, lamenting in the sight of God. 36.2 Perhaps he will take pity and send his angel over to the tree of his mercy from which flows the oil of life, and will give you a little of it with which to anoint me so that I may have rest from these pains with which I am consumed." 37.1 Seth and his mother went away to the gates of paradise. As they were walking, there suddenly appeared the serpent, the beast, who attacked and bit Seth. 37.2 When Eve saw this, she said: "Alas, woe is me, for I am cursed because I did not keep the precepts of the Lord." 37.3 Eve said to the serpent in a great voice: "O cursed beast, why are you not afraid to cast yourself at the image of God, but dare to fight against it? Why have your teeth prevailed?" 38.1 The beast answered in a human voice: "O Eve, was our malice ever not against you? Isn't our anger against you? 38.2 Tell me, Eve. How could you open your mouth to eat the fruit which the Lord God commanded you not to eat. Now, however, you are not able to bear it, if I should begin to reproach you?" 39.1 Then Seth said to the beast: "May the Lord God reproach you. Be mute, grow silent, close your mouth, cursed enemy of the truth, disorder of destruction. Fall back from the image of God until the day when the Lord God shall order you to be brought in for trial." 39.2 The beast said to Seth: "Behold, I am going away, just as you have said, from the face of the image of God." At once the wound from its teeth disappeared from Seth. 40.1 Seth and his mother then walked to the region of paradise for the oil of mercy to anoint the sick Adam. Arriving at the gate of paradise, they picked up dust from the ground and cast it on their heads, and prostrated themselves on the ground and began to lament with a great moan, beseeching the Lord God that He might have mercy on Adam in his pains, and send his angel to give them some oil from the tree of his mercy. 41.1 After they had prayed and pleaded for many hours, behold, the angel Michael appeared to them and said: "I was sent to you by the Lord. I was given power over the human body. 41.2 I tell you, Seth, man of God, do not weep, praying and pleading for the oil of the tree of mercy to anoint your father Adam on account of the pains of his body. 42.1 For in no wise can you receive any until the last days, after 550 years have passed. 42.2 Then the most loving king of God will come upon the earth to resurrect the body of Adam, and, with him, the bodies of all the dead. 42.3 The very Son of God, when he comes, will be baptized in the river Jordan, and when he comes forth from the water of the Jordan, he will then anoint all who believe in him with the oil of his mercy. 42:4 This oil of mercy will be from generation to generation on those who are reborn of water and the Holy Spirit into eternal life. 42:5 Then, the most loving Son of God will descend into the earth and lead your father, Adam, back into paradise to the tree of mercy. 43.1 But you, Seth. go to your father, Adam, for the time of his life is complete. Six days hence, his soul will go forth from his body, and, when it does, you will see great wonders in heaven and on earth, and in the lights of heaven." 43.2 Saying this, Michael at once withdrew from Seth. Seth and Eve went home, carrying with them a small branch and spices -- nard, crocus, calaminth, and cinnamon. 44.1 When Seth and his mother reached Adam, they said to him all that had been done on the way, and said] that the beast, the serpent, had bitten Seth. 44.2 Adam said to Eve: "What have you done? You have brought on us a great affliction, fault and sin unto all our generations. 44.3 What you have done will be passed on to your children after my death, for those who arise from us will not have all they need from their labors, but will be lacking. They will curse us, saying: 44.4 "Our parents, who were from the beginning, brought all these evils on us.'" Hearing this, Eve began to weep and moan. 45.1 Just as Michael had predicted, after six days the death of Adam came. 45.2 When Adam knew that the hour of his death had come, he said to all his children: Now I am 930 years old, and if I die, bury me beside the great garden of God near his dwelling." 45.3 And it happened that, when he had finished all his words, he gave up his spirit. 46.1 The sun, moon and stars grew dark for seven days. Seth embraced the body of his father and mourned over it. Eve cast her eyes upon the ground with her hands clasped above her head and her head placed on her knees. All her children wept with very bitter tears. 46.2 Then Michael the angel appeared, standing at Adam's head, and said to Seth: "Arise from the body of your father, and come with me and see what the Lord God has arranged for him. He is his creature and he has taken pity on him. 47.1 Then all the angels, playing trumpets, said: "Blessed are you, Lord, for you have taken pity on your creature." 47.2 Then Seth saw the hand of the Lord outstretched, holding Adam. He handed him over to Michael, saying: 47.3 "Let him be in your care until the day of retribution, in supplication until the last years when I shall change his mourning into joy. Then he will sit on the throne of him who beguiled him." 48.1 Again the Lord said to the angels Michael and Uriel: "Bring me 3 linen shrouds and stretch them over Adam. Bring other shrouds and stretch them over Abel, his son. Then bury Adam and his son." 48.2 And all the virtues of the angels processed before Adam, and thus was the dormition of the dead sanctified. 48.3 The angels Michael and Uriel buried Adam and Abel in the regions of paradise which Seth and his mother saw, but no one else. Michael and Uriel: "Just as you see us doing, likewise bury your dead." 49.1 Six days after Adam's death, Eve knew her own death was near, so she gathered together all her sons and daughters, who were Seth along with his thirty brothers and thirty sisters. Eve said to them all: 49.2 '"Hear me, my children, that I might recount for you how I and your father transgressed the precept of God. Michael the archangel said to us: 49.3 'On account of your conspiracies, our Lord will bring upon your race the wrath of his judgment, first by water, and second by fire. By these two will the Lord judge all the human race.' 50.1 But hear me, my children! Make tablets of stone, and other tablets of earth, and write on them my whole life, and that of your father, which you have heard from us and seen. 50.2 If he judges our race by water, the tablets of earth will dissolve, but the tablets of stone will endure. If, however, he judges our race by fire, the tablets of stone will be destroyed, but the tablets of earth will be fired." 50.3 When she had said all these things to her children, she stretched out her hand toward heaven, knelt upon the earth, worshipped God, and giving thanks, gave up her spirit. 51.1 Afterwards, all her children buried her with great weeping. After they had mourned her for four days, Michael appeared to them and said to Seth: 51.2 "Man of God, mourn no longer than 6 days, for the 7th day is the sign of the resurrection, the repose of the coming age, and on the 7th day the Lord rested from all his works. Indeed, the 8th day is the sign of the future and eternal blessedness, in which all the holy will reign throughout endless ages with the Creator and Savior himself, in both soul and body, never again to die. Amen. 51.3 Then Seth made tablets. 52.1 Then Seth made 2 tablets of stone and two of earth, and he devised the caps of letters, and wrote on them the life of this father, Adam, and his mother, Eve, which he had heard from them and seen with his own eyes. He placed the tablets in the middle of his father's house in the oratory where he prayed to the Lord. After the flood, these written tablets were seen by many men but were legible to no one. Solomon, however, being wise, saw the writing and prayed to the Lord. There appeared to him an angel of the Lord, saying: "I am he who held the hand of Seth, that he might write these stones with his finger. You will be knowledgeable of these writings, so that you might know and understand what all these stones contain, and where the oratory was where Adam and Eve worshipped the Lord God. You must build there the temple of the Lord, which is the house of prayer. Then Solomon completed the temple of the Lord God, and called these letters 'achiliacae,' that is, written without the teaching of words by the finger of Seth, while the angel of the Lord held his hand. 53.1 On these stones was found what Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied before the flood about the coming of Christ: "Behold the Lord will come in his sanctuary to render judgment on all and to accuse the impious of all their works by which they have spoken concerning him; sinners, impious murmurers, and the irreligious who have lived according to their feelings of desire, and whose mouths have spoken pridefully. Those whose mouths have spoken pridefully will go to Hades, but the just will surely go rejoicing into the kingdom of heaven. 54.1 Adam entered paradise after forty days, and Eve after eighty. Adam was in paradise for seven years and near to the day they moved each one of the beasts. 55.1 It must be known that the body of Adam was formed of eight parts. The first part was of the dust of the earth, from which was made his flesh, and thereby he was sluggish. The next part was of the sea, from which was made his blood, and thereby he was aimless and fleeing. The third part was of the stones of the earth, from which his bones were made, and thereby he was hard and covetous. The fourth part was of the clouds, from which were made his thoughts, and thereby he was immoderate. The fifth part was of the wind, from which was made his breath, and thereby he was fickle. The sixth part was of the sun, from which were made his eyes, and thereby he was handsome and beautiful. The seventh part was of the light of the world, from which he was made pleasing, and thereby he had knowledge. The eight part was of the Holy Spirit, from which was made his soul, and thereby are the bishops, priests, and all the saints and elect of God. 56.1 It must also be known that God made and formed Adam in that place where Jesus was born, that is, in the city of Bethlehem, which is in the center of the earth. There Adam was made from the four corners of the earth, when angels brought some of the dust of the earth from its parts, namely, Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel. This earth was white and pure like the sun and it was gathered together from the four rivers, that is, the Geon, Phison, Tigris, and Euphrates. Man was made in the image of God, and he blew into his face the breath of life, which is the soul. For just as he was gathers from the four rivers, thus from the four winds he received his breath. 57.1 When Adam was made, and there was no name assigned to him yet, the Lord said to the four angels to seek a name for him. Michael went out to the east and saw the eastern star, named Ancolim, and took its first letter from it. Gabriel went out to the south, and saw the southern star, named Disis, and took its first letter from it. Raphael went out to the north, and saw the northern star, named Arthos, and took its first latter from it. Uriel went out to the west, and saw the western star, named Mencembrion, and took its first letter from it. When the letter were brought together, the Lord said to Uriel: "read these letters." He read them and said, "Adam." The Lord said: "Thus shall his name be called. "Here ends the life of our protoplast, Adam, and his wife, Eve. |
Slavonic Life of Adam and Eve Translation of Slavonic original. Translators: Steve French with the assistance of R. Layton and Gary A. Anderson. Source: V. Jagic, "Slavische Beitrage zu den biblischen Apocryphen, I Die altkirchenslavishcen Texte des Adamsbuche," Denkschr. kais. Akademie der Wissenschaften Philos.-hist. Klasse , (Vienna, 1893) 42:1-104.
[Before the trespass, Adam was in Paradise and had everything he wanted and everything happened according to his will: the wild animals and the domestic animals and all the feathered birds--all drew near, left and fled at his command. Apart from Adam's command nothing was allowed to move around, or land, or eat anything before Adam permitted it. It was the same with Eve. But after he committed the trespass and violated the command of the Lord, Adam was expelled from Paradise, and as he took his wife and went out, he sat near Eden, before the door of Paradise, and he saw a vision, how Cain and his brother Abel would be begotten, and he saw, how Cain would kill Abel, and Adam was very troubled. Then the Archangel Michael came to Adam and said to him, "O Adam, Adam, don't be troubled, don't speak about this and don't have Cain on your heart." And here, near Eden, Adam spent eighteen years, and here Cain and his brother Abel were born to him. And when they were grown, they sent them to tend the flocks at a place called Cyrene. And when fourteen years had passed, Adam called his wife Eve and said, "Fourteen years have passed and Cain has spilled his brother Abel's blood, as it was announced, in a merciless way. Let us go out to see." And when they went out they found Abel murdered in a merciless manner by the hand of Cain. And the Lord spoke to the archangel Michael, "Warn Adam, 'You should not say anything to your son Cain about this matter, and don't be troubled on account of it, instead keep it in your hearts.'" Afterwards, Eve bore a son and called him Seth, and she said to Adam, "I have borne a son in the place of Abel, whom Cain killed; come my husband, that you may thank God, and that we may make an offering to Him." And Adam fathered thirty sons and thirty daughters, and he lived 930 years. And he fell ill and cried out in a loud voice and said, "My children, gather around me." Adam, of course, was very anxious, since he didn't know what illness was. And his children gathered around and stood on three sides. And his son Seth said, "Father, Father Adam, what is your sickness?" Adam said, "My child, a great pain is in me." And his children said to him, "Father, perhaps you brooding about the delights of Paradise and for this reason it hurts you so." And Seth said, "Father, I will go with my mother and bring something out of Paradise, by which perhaps your pain will be eased." Adam, however, said, "My child, how will you be admitted into Paradise?" Seth said, "Father, I will go to the great plaza before Paradise and cry out from my heart, perhaps the Lord will hear us and permit the angel from Paradise to come and your pain will be stilled." And Adam said, "Not so, my son, not so, I have pain in my belly." And Seth said, "In what way are you ill, how did it come over you?" And Adam said, "When God created me and your mother, through whom we die and through whom you will all be mortal, he gave us the Garden in Paradise, which we lost on account of Eve. That is, when it was the sixth hour, Eve saw Satan and venerated him, because he came in the form of an angel, and he gave to Eve from the tree and she transgressed the commands of the Lord and ate of what the serpent had handed her." And Seth asked, "Who instructed the serpent?" Adam said to his son, "The devil changed himself into radiant form and came to the serpent in the form of an angel and said to it, "You are very intelligent, give to Eve from the tree, she will taste it and also give it to Adam." And thus she did and for this reason we have fallen prey to sickness and death. "Then the Master came, and in the center of Paradise his throne was set up, and he called out in a frightful voice, 'Adam, Adam, where are you?' I said, 'I am naked, O Lord, and I cannot come out.' And the Lord said, "You have never hidden yourself from me. Since you hide from me, you have thus transgressed my commandment. I will inflict your body abundantly with injuries and your heart with pains. The first sickness will be a pain in the belly, the second sickness will be dimness of vision and deafness, and on top of this, there will follow seventy-two illnesses of all sorts besides." Then Adam sighed again and spoke to his sons, "I have a great pain, my children." Then Eve said to him amid tears, "Stand up, my husband, and give me a portion of your pain, we will both share it together; for on account of me you suffer such agony." Adam, however, said to Eve, "It is impossible to share it, but rise up together with your son Seth and go to Paradise, and cry with dust sprinkled on your heads, perhaps God will hear your prayer and grant to me from the Tree of Oils, that I might learn if perhaps my pain may be eased." And Eve arose along with her son Seth and set off for Paradise, and she saw a huge animal, called Mongrel, which followed her son Seth, to devour him. Eve began to cry bitterly and said, "Woe is me, my sweet child, from now on until the end and until the second coming all will curse me, because it is on my account all sorts of evil have multiplied." And she screamed in a loud voice at the animal and said, "O beast, aren't you afraid before the image of the divine countenance? Will you devour him? How do you dare to open your mouth against the image of God and to bare your teeth against him? Don't you remember, O beast, how I fed you with my own hand?" Then the animal said to her, "O Eve, from now on you have no power over us to command us, for it has departed from you. How did you dare to open your mouth and eat from the tree, which the Lord did not allow you? On account of this I will also kill you and devour your child." At this Eve didn't answer, Seth, however, spoke to the animal, "Your mouth will be closed until the judgment, for you yourself were so bold against the image of God; you will stay in your lair right into eternity. And so it will remain even in eternity." And Seth came with his mother to Paradise, they cried and sobbed and entreated God, their heads sprinkled with dust. And God sent his Archangel Michael and he spoke to Seth, "Man of God, go back to your father, for his day of death is drawing near, and there is no cure for him." And he gave him three branches from the tree, on account of which he was expelled: from the spruce, from the cedar, and from the cyprus. And Seth took the branches and brought them to his father. And Adam saw and recognized them, and with a heavy sigh he coiled a wreath, and set it on his head, and called his sons and grandchildren to him. When all his children had assembled themselves; and they were altogether nearly two thousand people; they bid Eve, saying, "Our Mother, you know every secret and open thing of our father Adam, tell us, our mother, what does this incredible manifestation which we see mean?" Then Eve said, "I will share with you, my children, in what manner our enemy deceived us, so that he will not be able to incite you as well against our law. Adam watched the eastern and northern sides of Paradise, I guarded the western and southern side. Adam guarded the male animals, I tended the female animals. And so the enemy entered in from that side on which Adam was, and he called the serpent to himself and said to it: You are loved by God, therefore she will give credence to you before any other creature. And he instructed it in everything and sent it to me. The serpent believed that it was an angel, and came to me. And the devil had changed to the form of an angel and came here with radiance, singing an angel's song, just like an angel, and said to me: 'Do you eat from everything in Paradise?' And at that time I took him for an angel, because he had come from Adam's side, so I said to him, 'From one tree the Lord commanded us not to eat, the one which stands in the middle of Paradise.' The devil said, 'I am very sorry for you, because you don't understand; I alone will tell you so much: That tree is better than all the others. If you tasted from that tree, you would become like gods and radiant like the angels.' And I listened to these words and as I tasted from the tree, immediately my eyes were opened and I saw, that I was naked, and I cried bitterly about what I had done. The devil, however, became invisible. "I, however, gathered fig leaves to cover my shame. Because of how Paradise was apportioned, the one half to Adam, and the other to me, all the trees in my half had let fall all their leaves. The fig tree, however, did not do this. And I took from its leaves and wrapped myself and went under the tree, from which I had tasted, and called in a loud voice to Adam, saying, 'Adam, Adam, where are you? Stand up and come here so that I can share something incredible with you.' And Adam came to me and I opened my mouth and the devil spoke through me about the tree and about knowledge, so that he would also want to taste of it. And Adam tasted, and his eyes were opened, and he saw his and my nakedness, and he said to me, 'O wife, what have you done to me? Why have we departed from the grace of God?' "Then we heard the voice of the archangel Michael in the heavenly realm, who called together all the angels and said to them: Thus says the Lord, 'We will go down to Paradise to hold a hearing where Adam has sinned, and I will pronounce the verdict on him.' And the Lord came down on the shoulders of the Cherubim and a host of angels with him, singing the eternal song, glorifying God without end. And the throne of God was set up in the center of Paradise: the trees of Adam burst forth in great blossoms, the trees of my half became withered and all their leaves were fallen. And the Lord called Adam, 'O Adam, Adam.' Adam said, 'Lord, I heard your voice and was terribly afraid, since I am naked.' And the Lord said to him, "Who told you that you are naked, unless you have tasted from the tree, of which I told you not to taste?' And the angel took us and brusquely drove us away. "And so he exiled us from Paradise. We, however, bid the angel saying to him, 'Be a little patient with us, so that we may entreat God.' And Adam cried out in a loud voice, 'Have mercy on our sin, O Master, be merciful with us O Lord.' Then the angel allowed us to carry on more still and Adam prayed and said, 'O Lord, furnish me with nourishment, that I might live.' The angel guided us out of Paradise and barricaded it off from us. Then Adam prayed and said, 'Have mercy on us, O Master, let me have pleasing aromas, that whenever I make an offering to God, I may also bring incense to him.' Angel Joel prayed unceasingly and said, 'Have mercy, O Master, on your first creation.' And all the angels spoke the same word to God concerning Adam, 'Have mercy, O Master, on your first creation.' And the Lord said to his angels, 'Is it right, that Adam suffers thus, just as the verdict was pronounced on him, or is it unjust?' The angels spoke in one accord, 'Just is your judgment, O Lord, in truth it is just.' Then God allowed him to provide the pleasing aromas: incense, laudanum, and libanum]. 28.1 "And we sat ourselves down before the gates of Paradise. Adam lay down on the ground and cried for seven days and nights, and we had nothing to eat and felt horrible hunger. I, Eve, cried out with a loud voice, 'Have pity on me, O Creator, for on my account Adam suffers so severely.' 29.1 And I said to Adam, 'Get up, my husband, that we may seek nourishment; for my spirit is already diminishing in me and my heart is going numb within me.' Then Adam said to me, 'Eve, I have half a mind to give you over to death, but I shrink from this, because God created your countenance. Thus, I cannot destroy the creation of God, on the contrary, because you now are filled with remorse and pray to God, my heart can never part from you.' 30.1 And Adam stood up and we traveled about the whole earth but found nothing to eat, except thorns, a wild grass. And when we returned to Eden, we cried together praying: 'Have pity, O Master and Creator, on your creatures, furnish us with nourishment.' 31.1 And as we prayed unceasingly for fifteen days, we heard the archangel Joel praying for us. And the Lord commanded the archangel Joel and he took a one-seventh portion from Paradise and gave it to us. Then the Lord spoke: 'Thorns and thistles shall come forth from your hands and from your sweat you will have nourishment, and your wife will look on you in trembling.' 32.1 And the archangel Joel said, 'Thus says the Lord to Adam, I have not created your wife to command you, but to obey you; why do you obey your wife? 'Moreover, the archangel Joel told Adam, that he was to make a separation between farm animals and every sort of flying and creeping creature, namely, the wild and the tame, and to give to each creature a name. Accordingly, Adam took oxen and began to till, that he might obtain nourishment. 33.1 "Then the devil appeared and stood steadfastly in front of the oxen and wouldn't allow Adam to till the earth, and the devil said to Adam, 'the earth is mine, God owns Heaven and Paradise. If you want to become mine, then, by all means, till the earth. If, however, you want to belong to God then go only into Paradise. 'Adam said, 'God owns Heaven and Paradise, but God also owns the earth and the sea and the entire world. 34.1 'The devil said, 'I will not permit you to till the earth, unless you sign a contract, pledging that you belong to me. 'Adam said, 'Whoever is Lord of the earth, to him both I and my children belong. 'Adam knew of course that the Lord would come down to the earth and take on himself the form of a man and trample down the devil. The devil was, nevertheless, extremely pleased and said, 'Write for me your cheirograph.' And Adam wrote and said, 'Whoever is Lord of the earth, both I and my children belong to him.' The devil took the contract for himself. 35.1 But I, my children, said to your father, 'Arise, my husband, pray to God, that he deliver us from the devil, for you suffer so on my account.' But Adam said to me, 'Eve, now you feel such remorse over your error, that you will listen to my heart, for God created you from my rib. We will fast for forty days, perhaps the Lord will pity us and leave for us understanding and a portion of life. 'I said, 'My husband, you fast forty days, and I will fast forty-four days.' 36.1 And Adam said to me, 'Come to the river called Tigris, take a stone and place it under your feet, stand up in the water and cover yourself with water, as with a coat up to the neck, and pray to God in your heart, but no word should come out across your lips. 'And I said, 'My husband, I will call out to God with my whole heart. 'And Adam said to me, 'Guard yourself carefully; if you don't see me and all my features, don't climb up out of the water, give no credence to words, so that you won't get into any more trouble.' And Adam went to the Jordan and stood up in the water and immersed himself in water and also dampened the hair on his head. 37.1 While he prayed to God and his prayers went up, the angels assembled themselves and every flying creature, the wild and the domestic and every winged bird, and they stood as a wall around Adam, while they entreated God for him. 38.1 "The devil came to me in the form and radiance of an angel, there where I stood in the water, leting passionate tears fall to the ground, he said to me, 'Come forth, Eve, out of the water, God has heard your prayer and also we angels, we who prayed for you, and the Lord has sent me to you, that your should emerge from this water.' 39.1 And I discerned that he was the devil, and answered him nothing at all. But when after forty days, Adam emerged from the Jordan, he noticed the footprints of the devil and was very afraid lest the devil had duped me. But when he saw me standing in the water, he was very happy. And he took me and led me out of the water." 40.1 Then Adam called in a loud voice, "Stop talking, Eve, my spirit is already diminished in me, but arise, go out and pray to God, until I have given my spirit to God." R.H. Charles' Version xxviii 1 And we sat together before the gate of paradise, Adam weeping with his face bent down to the earth, lay on the ground lamenting. And seven days passed by and we had nothing to eat and were consumed with great hunger, and I Eve cried with a loud voice: 'Pity me, O Lord, My Creator; for my sake Adam suffereth thus!' xxxix 1 And I said to Adam: 'Rise up! my lord, that we may seek us food; for now my spirit faileth me and my heart within me is brought low.' Then Adam spake to me: 'I have thoughts of killing thee, but I fear since God created thine image and thou showest penitence and criest to God; hence my heart hath not departed from thee.' xxx 1 And Adam arose and we roamed through all lands and found nothing to eat save nettles and grass of the field. And we returned again to the gates of paradise and cried aloud and entreated: 'Have compassion on thy creature. O Lord Creator, allow us food.' xxxi 1 And for fifteen days continuously we entreated. Then we heard Michael the archangel and Joel praying for us, and Joel the archangel was commanded by the Lord, and he took a seventh part of paradise and gave it to us. Then the Lord said: 'Thorns and thistles shall spring up from under thy hands; and from thy sweat shalt thou eat bread, and thy wife shall tremble when she looketh upon thee.' xxxii 1 The archangel Joel said to Adam: 'Thus saith the Lord; I did not create thy wife to command thee, but to obey; why art thou obedient to thy wife?' Again Joel the archangcl bade Adam separate the cattle and all kinds of flying and creeping things and animals, both wild and tame; and to give names to all things. Then indeed he took the oxen and began to plough. xxxiii 1 Then the devil approached and stood before the oxen, and hindered Adam in tilling the field and said to Adam: 'Mine are the things of earth, the things of Heaven are God's; but if thou wilt be mine, thou shalt labour on the earth; but if thou wilt be God's, pray go away to paradise.' Adam said: 'The things of Heaven are the Lord's, and the things of earth and Paradise and the whole Universe.' xxxiv 1 The devil said: 'I do not suffer thee to till the field, except thou write the bond that thou art mine.' Adam replied: 'Whosoever is lord of the earth, to the same do I belong and my children.' Then the devil was overcome with joy. But Adam was not ignorant that the Lord would descend on earth and tread the devil under foot. The devil said: 'Write me thy bond.' And Adam wrote: 'Who is lord of the earth, to the same do I belong and my children.' xxxv 1 Eve said to Adam, 'Rise up, my lord, let us pray to God in this cause that He set us free from that devil, for thou art in this strait on my account.' But Adam said: 'Eve, since thou repentest of thy misdeed, my heart will hearken to thee, for the Lord created thee out of my ribs. Let us fast forty days perchance the Lord will have pity on us and will leave us understanding and life.' I, for my part, said: 'Do thou, my lord, fast forty days, but I will fast forty-four.' xxxvi 1 And Adam said to me: 'Haste thee to the river, named Tigris, and take a great stone and place it under thy feet, and enter into the stream and clothe thyself with water, as with a cloak, up to the neck, and pray to God in thy heart and let no word proceed out of thy mouth.' And I said: 'O my lord, with my whole heart will I call upon God.' And Adam said to me: 'Take great care of thyself. Except thou seest me and all my tokens, depart not out of the water, nor trust in the words, which are said to thee, lest thou fall again into the snare.' And Adam came to Jordan and he entered into the water and he plunged himself altogether into the flood, even to the hairs of his head, while he made supplication to God and sent up prayers to Him. xxxvii 1 And there, the angels came together and all living creatures, wild and tame, and all birds that fly, and they surrounded Adam, like a wall, praying to God for Adam. xxxviii 1 The devil came to me, wearing the form and brightness of an angel, and shedding big teardrops, and said to me: 'Come out of the water, Eve, God hath heard thy prayers and heard us angels. God hath fulfilled the prayers of those who intercede on thy behalf. God hath sent me to thee, that thou mayst come out of the water.' xxxix 1 But I perceived that he was the devil and answered him nothing. But Adam, when he returned from Jordan, saw the devil's footprints, and feared lest perchance he had deceived me; but when he had remarked me standing in the water he was overcome with joy and he took me and led me out of the water. xl 1 Then Adam cried out with a loud voice: 'Be silent, Eve, for already is my spirit straitened in my body; arise, go forth, utter prayers to God, till I deliver up my spirit to God.' [Passage follows exactly parallel to Apocalypsis Mosis xxxii. seq., but in abbreviated form]. [Then Eve stood up, went out and fell with her face to the ground, and prayed to God and said, "I have sinned before you, O Lord, sinned, O Master, before the angels and six- winged Seraphim, sinned before your awesome throne, sinned, O Lord, sinned; for each and every sin occurs through me." And the angel of the Lord came to Eve and said, "Rise up, Eve, from your repentance, for Adam has already departed out of his body and his spirit is separated and gone before God." And Eve returned again to where the corpse of our father Adam lay, and she saw a golden incense pot and three burning flares and three angels attending them, and the corpse of Adam anointed and the scent of fragrance ascending to Heaven. And as the angels assembled, they bowed before the throne and the archangel Joel said, "Holy above holy, O Lord, forgive your creature, for it is the creation of your hands." Eve saw great marvels, which were being performed before God and cried in great distress and called her son Seth and said to him, "Arise, Seth, from the corpse of your father and come to see a marvelous thing, such as you have never seen before." Seth arose and came to his mother and she said to him, "Look, my son, toward heaven." And looking up Seth saw the whole angelic host standing before the throne of the Lord, saying in prayer, "Pity your creation O Master." Again Seth spoke to his mother, "Look there, how the Sun and Moon bow down to the throne, praying for our father Adam." And Eve said, "Where is their light?" Seth said to his mother, "When the archangel Michael himself arose in order to pray, all the power of the angels before throne of the Lord ceased." Then came a multitude of angels, Cherubim and Seraphim, and they took the corpse of Adam and laid him in the Sea of Gerusia and honoring him, they washed him three times. In the third hour, however, the Lord, seated on the throne, stretched forth his hand and took Adam and gave him to the archangel Michael and said to him, "Carry his corpse into Paradise; his spirit shall tarry in the third Heaven, but his corpse shall remain here until my resurrection." Then the archangel took Adam and carried him there, to the place God had commanded him. Once again the Lord spoke to the archangel, "Go into Paradise and take the purple cloth and cover the corpse of Adam and take the olive oil and pour it over him." Once again the Lord spoke to the archangel, "Go into Paradise and take the purple cloth and cover the corpse of Adam and take the olive oil and pour it over him." Eve lived six days beyond Adam; she prayed and said crying, "Lord God, as you created me from the rib of Adam, so I want to be with him." And she lowered her head onto her breast, during which she said, "Lord God, receive my spirit." And so she gave her spirit to God. And the archangel Michael came to Seth and instructed him as to how he should bury his mother. And three angels came, took Eve's corpse and buried it, where also the corpse of Adam and their son Abel were buried. And the archangel said to Seth, "So shall you bury every person who dies until the resurrection." Again he said to him, "Arrange a memorial ceremony on the third day and on the ninth and on the twentieth and on the fortieth, and arrange everything in proper order, so that we angels might take joy in it along with the souls of the righteous." Then the archangel Joel glorified God with words, "Holy, Holy, Holy, Allelulia, Holy is the Lord, heaven and earth are full of His glory]." |
The Penitence of Adam In general, the Penitence of Adam was characterized as "another version of the Adam book, most probably translated into Armenian from Greek," which "must take its place alongside the Greek and Latin versions as a major witness to the Adam book. This work is closely related to the Georgian Book of Adam, which was translated and published after the publication of the Armenian version. 1.1 It came to pass, when Adam went forth from the Garden with his wife, outside, to the east of the Garden, they made themselves a hut to live in and went inside. Their tears fell ceaselessly and they spent their days in unison of mind, weeping and saddened, and they said to one another, "We are far from life." 2.1 Then, after seven days, they grew hungry and looked for food. 2.2 Eve said to Adam. "My lord, I am hungry. Arise, seek food so that we may live and know that God is going to come and bring us to the Garden, to our place." 3.1They arose and went about upon the earth, and they did not find food like the food by which they had been nourished in the Garden. 3.2a Eve said to Adam, "I am dying of this hunger. It would be better if I were dead, my lord; perhaps then they would bring you into the Garden, for because of me God is angry." 3.2b Adam said, "Great wrath has come upon us, I know not whether because of you or because of me." 3.2c Eve said, to him, "Kill me if you wish, so that the wrath and anger may abate from before you–for this has come about because of me – and they will bring you into the Garden." 3.3 Adam said to her. "Eve, do not even mention this matter; lest God bring upon us even greater evils and we become contemptible. How, indeed, can I do you any evil, for you are my body?" 3.4 Eve said "Arise, so that we may seek vegetable food." 4.1 They sought and they did not find vegetable food like that which was in the Garden. 4.2 Eve said "[. . .] because God established this vegetable food as food for the beasts that they might eat on the earth, but our food is that which the angels eat. 4.3 Arise, let us repent for forty days; perhaps God will pity us and give us food which is better than that of the beasts so that we should not become like them." 5.1 Adam said to Eve, "In what fashion will you repent? How many days can you endure toils? Perhaps you will begin and be unable to repent, and God will not hearken, 5.2 so that we will not be able to keep that which we originally received." 5.3 Eve said, "Set me the number of days which I might think to repent; perhaps the days will be too long – for I brought this penitence upon you." 6.1a Adam said, "You cannot endure the same number of days as I, but do what I tell you and abide by this instruction." – Adam said, "I shall be in penitence for forty days, six days more than you, because you were created on the sixth day of those upon which he accepted his works. 6.1b Now, therefore, arise, go to the Tigris river and take a stone and place it under your feet and stand in the water up to your neck, in your clothes. Let no word of supplication to God escape your mouth, for we are unworthy of soul and our lips are impure and unclean, because of the transgressions which we committed in the Garden when we ate of the tree. 6.2 Stand silent there in the middle of the water until you have done penitence for thirty-four days, and I will be in the Jordan river, until we learn that, behold, God has hearkened to us and will give us our food." 7.1 Then Eve went to the Tigris and did as Adam had instructed her, 7.2 and Adam went to the Jordan. And the hair of his head was uncovered. 8.1 He prayed and said, "I say to you, waters of Jordan, be fellow sufferers for me and assemble all the moving things which are in you, and let them surround me and bewail me, 8.2 not for their own sakes, but for mine. Because God did not withhold their food from them, which God appointed from the beginning, but I have been withheld from my food and from life." 8.3 When Adam said that, all moving things which were in the Jordan gathered to him and stood around him like a wall. And the waters of the Jordan stopped at that time and became stationary from their flow. Adam cried to God and he set apart six hundred orders of them to call to God in prayers all the days. 9.1 When eighteen days of their weeping were completed, then Satan took on the form of a cherub with splendid attire, and went to the Tigris river to deceive Eve. 9.2 Her tears were falling on her attire, down to the ground. Satan said to Eve, "Come forth from the water and rest, for God has hearkened to your penitence, to you and Adam your husband, 9.3 because we beseeched God. 9.4 And God sent me to lead you forth from there and to give you your food, on account of which you repented. 9.5 Since just now I went to Adam and he sent me to you and said, ‘Go, son, summon my wife,’ now come, let us go to Adam and I will lead you to the place where your food is." 10.1 When Eve came forth from the water, her flesh was like withered grass, for her flesh had been changed from the water, but the form of her glory remained brilliant. 10.2 When she came forth from the water she fell down and remained upon the ground in great distress for two days, for she was quite unable to move from the spot. Then she arose and Satan also led her to where Adam was. 10.3 When Adam saw Satan and Eve who was following him, he wept loudly and called out with a great voice and said to Eve, "Where is my command of repentance, which I gave you? How did you go astray, to follow him by whom we were alienated from our dwelling?" 11.1 When Eve heard this, she knew that he who deceived her was Satan; she fell down before Adam. From that time Adam’s distress increased twofold when he saw the sufferings of his wife, for she was overcome and fell like one dead. 11.2 He was sad and called out great lamentation and said to Satan, "Why have you engaged in such a great conflict with us? What are our sins against you, that you have brought us out of our place? 11.3 Did we take your glory from you? Did we reject you from being our possession, that you fight against us unnecessarily?" 12.1 Satan also wept loudly and said to Adam. "All my arrogance and sorrow came to pass because of you; for, because of you I went forth from my dwelling; and because of you I was alienated from the throne of the cherubs who, having spread out a shelter, used to enclose me; because of you my feet have trodden the earth." 12.2 Adam replied and said to him, 12.3 "What are our sins against you, that you did all this to us?" 13.1 Satan replied and said, "You did nothing to me, but I came to this measure because of you, on the day on which you were created, for I went forth on that day. 13.2 When God breathed his spirit into you, you received the likeness of his image. Thereupon, Michael came and made you bow down before God. God said to Michael, ‘Behold I have made Adam in the likeness of my image.’ 14.1 Then Michael summoned all the angels, and God said to them, ‘Come, bow down to god whom I made.’ 14.2 Michael bowed first. He called me and said. ‘You too, bow down to Adam.' 14.3 I said, ‘Go away, Michael! I shall not bow down to him who is posterior to me, for I am former. Why is it proper for me to bow down to him?’ 15.1 The other angels, too, who were with me, heard this, and my words seemed pleasing to them and they did not prostrate them-selves to you, Adam. 16.1 Thereupon, God became angry with me and commanded to expel us from our dwelling and to cast me and my angels, who were in agreement with me, to the earth; and you were at the same time in the Garden. 16.2 When I realized that because of you I had gone forth from the dwelling of light and was in sorrows and pains, 16.3 then I prepared a trap for you, so that I might alienate you from your happiness just as I, too, had been alienated because of you.' 17.1 When Adam heard this, he said to the Lord, "Lord, my soul is in your hand. Make this enemy of mine distant from me, who desires to lead me astray, I who am searching for the light that I have lost." 17.2 At that time Satan passed away from him. 17.3 Adam stood from then on in the waters of repentance, and Eve remained fallen upon the ground for three days, like one dead. Then, after three days, she arose from the earth, 18.1 and she said to Adam, "You are innocent of the first sin and of this second one. Only me alone did Satan overcome, as a result of God’s word and yours." Again Eve said to Adam, "Behold, I shall go to the west and I shall be there and my food will be grass until I die; for henceforth I am unworthy of the foods of life." 18.2 Eve went to the west and she mourned and was sad; 18.3 and then she made a hut for herself in the west, and she was advanced in her pregnancy and she had Cain, the lawless one, in her womb. 19.1 When the times of her parturition came, she began to cry out in a loud voice and said, 19.2 "Where is Adam, that he might see this pain of mine? Who, indeed, will relate my afflictions to Adam? Is there a wind under the heavens that will go and tell Adam, ‘Come and help Eve?!" And she said, "I implore you, all luminaries, when you come to the east, tell my lord Adam about my pains." 20.1a Then Adam, in the river Jordan, heard Eve’s cry and her weeping. 20.1b When God hearkened to the sound of Adam’s penitence, he taught him sowing and reaping and that which was to come upon him and his seed. 20.1c Then Adam heard the sound of Eve’s entreaty in the west, and Adam said to himself, "That voice and weeping are of my flesh. Let me arise and go to her and see why she is crying out. Perhaps the beast is fighting with her once more!" 20.2a Adam arose and followed the noise to where Eve was. When Eve saw him, she spoke and said to Adam, "Did you hear the sound of my crying? Did the winds inform you, whom I entreated concerning you? Did the luminaries of heaven inform you, who are in the eastern regions every day, in their courses? Did the birds of the heavens inform you, or the beasts of the earth whom I summoned and dispatched to you, to tell you? 20.2b Now arise, entreat your Creator to deliver me from these pains." 20.3 Adam wept and prayed to God on her behalf. 21.1 And behold, two angels and two powers descended from heaven, came to Eve and stood before her. 21.2 The powers said to her, "Eve, you are blessed because of Adam, God’s elect one, for his prayers are mighty and through him help from God has come to you. Apart from him, you would not be able to survive this birth." The angel said to Eve, "Prepare yourself, and I will be a midwife for you." 21.3a Then, when she bore the child, the colour of his body was like the colour of stars. 21.3b At the hour when the child fell into the hands of the mid-wife, he leaped up and, with his hands, plucked up the grass of the earth near his mother’s hut; and infertilities became numerous in that place. 21.3c The angel said to him, "God is just, that he did not make you fall into my hand, for you are Cain, the lawless one, who will be destroyer of the good and [. . .] and living plant and adultery, bitterness and not sweetness." 21.3d And again the angel said to Adam, "Remain by Eve, so that she will do what I commanded." 22.1.2 Thenceforth Adam took Eve and the child and brought them to the eastern region, and he was there with her, and then eighteen years and two months were completed. 22.1.3 She became pregnant and bore a son, Gap’at’ whom the midwife named and called Abel; and they dwelt together. 23.2.1 Eve said to Adam, 23.2.2 "My lord, Adam, I fell asleep and I saw in a night vision that the blood of my son Abel was entering the mouth of our son Cain, his brother, and he drank his blood without mercy. Abel beseeched him to leave a little, 23.2.3 and he did not leave any, and did not hearken to him, but drank his blood completely." 23.2.4a Adam said to Eve, "Surely Cain is killing Abel. Come, let us separate them from one another. Let us make individual places for them and leave them there, and let us not provide room in us for the evil one." 23.2.4b They acted according to this proposal. Adam said to them, "My sons, arise, go each of you to your place." They arose and went according to this proposal. 23.3.2a Then, after these proposals God said to the archangel Michael, "Go say to Adam, ‘Do not relate the mystery that you know to Cain, for he is a son of wrath and he is killing Abel, his brother. 23.3.2b However, do not be sad because of him; instead of him I shall give you Seth, who is like my first image, and he shall show all memories through me, and not only what you shall say to him.’" 23.3.3 God said this to the angel, and he came and spoke to Adam and Adam kept it in his own heart; and he and Eve were sad. 24.4.1 After this, Eve became pregnant and bore Seth. 24.4.2 Adam said to Eve when they were speaking with each other, "Behold, we have begotten a son in place of Abel, whom Cain killed before us." 30.5.1 Then, after that, he had sons and daughters, 30 of each kind, and they grew up. Adam was upon the earth 930 years, 30.5.2 and then Adam fell sick with a mortal affliction, and he cried out in a loud voice and said, "Let all my sons come and gather by me, so that I may see them first, before I die." 30.5.3 All his sons who were in every part of the world gathered by him. They assembled by him inside the place which Eve had entered, and he prayed to the Lord God. 31.6.1 His son Seth said to Adam, "My father, did you remember the fruit of the Garden, of which you used to eat, and have you become sad from that longing? 31.6.2 If indeed this is the case, tell me, so that I may go close to the Garden and cast dust upon my head and weep. For, perhaps God will give me of the fruit, that I might bring it to you, and this pain may be driven away from you." 31.6.3 Adam said to him, "It is not so, my son, Seth; rather do I have mortal sickness and pain." 31.6.4 Seth said to him, "Through whom did this pain come to you?" 32.7.1 Adam said to him, "When God made us, me and your mother, he gave us a command not to eat of that tree. 32.7.2 Satan deceived us at the hour when the angels who were guardians of the tree ascended to worship God. Then, Satan caused Eve to eat that fruit; 32.7.3a Eve gave it to me to eat when I did not know. 32.7.3b For, my son Seth, God divided the Garden between me and your mother Eve, that we might watch it. To me he gave the eastern portion and the northern, and to your mother, the western and the southern. 33.1 We had twelve angels who went around with each of us, because of the guarding of the Garden, until the time of the light. 33.2 Since, every day they would go forth to worship the Lord, at the time when they went to the heavens, at that time Satan deceived your mother and caused her to eat of the fruit. Satan knew that I was not with her, nor the angels, at that time he caused her to eat. 33.3 Afterwards, also, she gave it to me. 34.8.1 I knew then, when I ate the fruit, that God was angry with us. 34.8.2 God said, ‘Because you transgressed my commandment, I shall bring seventy afflictions upon your body, pain of the eyes and ringing of the ears and all the joints.' It will be reckoned for me among the afflictions of sickness which are preserved in the treasuries, so that God might send them in the last times." 35.9.1 When Adam said this to his son Seth, he cried out and said, "What shall I do, for I am in great pains and toils." 35.9.2 Eve wept and said, "My lord Adam. Arise, give me some of your pain, so that I might receive and bear it, for these pains which have come upon you, came about because of me." 36.9.3 Adam said to her, "Arise, go with your son Seth, close to the Garden and there cast dust on your heads and weep before God. 36.9.4 Perhaps God will pity me and send his angel to the Garden, and he will go to the place where the olive-tree stands, from which oil comes forth, and give you a little of it, so that you might bring it to me and I might anoint my bones and be separated from pain, 36.9.5 and I might teach you this way [. . .] which we were tried formerly." 37.10.1 There-after, Seth and Eve went in the direction of the Garden. As they were going, Eve saw that a wild beast was fighting with her son Seth and was biting him. Eve began to weep and she said, 37.10.2 "When the day of Judgment comes; all sins will be blamed upon me and men will say, ‘Our mother did not hearken to the commandment of the Lord God!" 37.10.3 Eve called out against the wild beast and said, "O wild beast, how do you not fear the image of God, that you dared to fight with the image of God? How was your mouth opened and your fangs bared, and your hair stood on end? Howdid you not remember the obedience which you formerly displayed, that your mouth was opened against the image of God?" 38.11.1 Then the wild beast cried out and said to Eve, "In truth, our insolence is because of you, for the example came from you. 38.11.2 How was your mouth opened to dare to eat of the fruit concerning which God commanded you not to eat of it? 38.11.3 Until he will change all of our natures, hence-forth you are unable to resist that which I speak to you, or if I begin to rebuke you." 39.12.1 Then Seth said to the wild beast, "Close your mouth, O Satan. Get away from the image of God until the day will come on which God will bring you to rebuke." 39.12.2 Then he said to Seth, "Behold, I am standing apart from you, the image of God." 39.12.3 The beast fled from him. 40.13.1 Seth, with Eve, went close to the Garden, and they wept with loud lament and asked God to send an angel to help them. 41.13.2a God sent to them the angel Michael, who is prince of souls, and he spoke these words to them, 41.13.2b "Seth, man of God. Do not labour to supplicate for the oil which issues forth from the tree–that oil of joy–to anoint your father Adam. 42.13.3a This can-not be now: but then, at that time when the years of the end are filled and completed, 42.13.3b then the beloved Christ will come to resurrect Adam’s body, because of his sins which took place. 42.13.3c He will come to the Jordan and be baptized by him, and when he will come forth from the water, then Michael will come and anoint the new Adam with the oil of joy. 42.13.4 Then, after that, it shall happen in the same fashion to all the wild beasts of the earth, who will arise in resurrection and be worthy of entering the Garden. I shall anoint them with that oil. 43.13.6 But you, go to Adam your father, for his times will be full in three days and you have to see many wonders in heavens and upon earth and in all luminaries which are in the heavens." 43.14.1a When the angel had spoken this, he disappeared behind a tree of the Garden. 44.14.1b Thence-forth, Seth and Eve came to the hut where Adam lay sick. Adam remembered about the transgression of the eating of the tree, 44.14.2 and he said to Eve, "Oh, what did you do? What sort of pain did you bring upon us and upon our seed? 44.14.3a Now, then, tell your children how the sin took place; for, behold, I am weakened unto the exhaustion of my strength. 44.14.3b For, perhaps, when we die, toils will come upon the earth and all the generations who will issue from us will labor. And they will curse us and say, 44.14.4 ‘Our father and our mother brought these evils upon us.'" 44.15.1 Then Eve began to weep and said, "Come near me and I will tell you this way, how our sin took place. 44.15.2 At the time when your father was guarding the lot of his portion which had been given to him by God and I was guarding in my lot, at the southern and western side, 44.15.3 Satan went to your father’s lot, where the wild beasts were. He summoned the serpent and said to him, ’Arise, come to me!’ 44.15.4 For God had divided the wild beasts and given them to us–the male ones he gave to your father and the female ones he gave to me. We used to nourish them according to whichever of us it had been allotted. 44.16.1 Satan said to the serpent, ‘Arise, come to me and I will tell you something which is of profit to you.' 44.16.2a Then the serpent came to him and Satan said to it, ‘I hear that you are wiser than all the wild animals and I have come to see you. I found that there is none like you in your cunning among all the animals. Even as Adam gave nourishment to all the wild beasts, so also you did." 44.16.2b And then, when the wild beasts went to worship Adam, Satan went with them and said to the serpent, ‘Why do you worship Adam every morning? You came into being before him: why is it that you, who are the former one, worship the later? Rather should the younger worship the older. 44.16.3 Why do you worship Adam or why are you fed by Adam and are not fed by the fruit of the Garden? Come on, rise up, come to me and hear what I say to you. Let us expel Adam from the Garden like us so that we may re-enter the Garden.' 44.16.4a The serpent said, ‘In what way or how can we expel him from the Garden?’ 44.16.4b Satan said to the serpent, ‘Be you, in your form, a lyre for me and I will pronounce speech through your mouth, so that we may be able to help. " 44.17.1 Then the two of them came to me and hung their feet around the wall of the Garden. When the angels ascended to the worship of the Lord, at that time Satan took on the form of an angel and began to praise God with angelic praises. I knelt down by the wall and attended to his praises. 44.17.2a I looked and saw him in the likeness of an angel; when I looked again, I did not see him. 44.17.2b Then he went and summoned the serpent and said to him, ‘Arise, come to me so that I may enter into you and speak through your mouth as much as I will need to say.' 44.17.2c At that time the serpent became a lyre for him, and he came again to the wall of the Garden. He cried out and said, ‘Oh, woman, you who are blind in this Garden of delight, arise come to me and I will say some words to you.' 44.17.2d When I went to him, he said to me, ‘Are you Eve?’ I said, ‘Yes, I am.' He replied and said, ‘What do you do in the Garden?’ 44.17.3 I said to him, ‘God set us to guard the Garden’, 44.17.4 Satan replied and said to me through the mouth of the serpent, ‘This work is good, but come, do you eat of all the trees which are in the Garden?’ 44.17.5 I said to him, ‘Yes, we eat of all of them except only of that one tree which is in the very middle of the Garden, concerning which God commanded us, "Do not eat of it, for if you eat you will surely die."’ 44.18.1 Then the serpent said, ‘As the Lord lives, I am greatly concerned about you for you are like beasts, since God has withheld it from you, but I do not wish you to be ignorant. Come on, come and eat of the tree, and you see what honour will be yours.' 44.18.2 I said to him, ‘I fear lest I die as God said to us.' 44.18.3 The serpent, together with Satan, replied and said to me, ‘As the Lord lives, you will not die, but when you eat, your eyes will be opened and you will become like God, knowing good and evil. 44.18.4 But God knew that you will become like him; he deceived you, that he said, "Do not eat of it."’ 44.18.5 And he said, ‘Look at the tree and see what glory is around the tree.' When I looked at the tree, I saw that great glory was around it. I said to him, 44.18.6 ‘The tree is good and it looks pleasing to me, but I cannot go and take of the fruit: I am afraid. Come here! If you are not afraid, bring me of the fruit and I will eat, so that I may know whether your words are true or not.' Then the serpent called to me and said, ‘Come, open the gate for me and I will enter and I will give you of the fruit.' 44.19.1a When he entered, he proceeded a little way into the Garden and stopped. 44.19.1b I said, ‘Why did you stop?’ 44.19.1c He said to me, ‘Perhaps, when I shall give you to eat and your eyes are opened and you become like God, you will deceive Adam and will not give him to eat of the fruit and he will become like a beast before you. 44.19.1d But you, if you wish, swear to me truly that you will give him to eat, and will not deceive your husband Adam.' 44.19.2 I said to him, ‘I do not know any oath by which I can swear to you, but I will say to you that which I do know: By the plants of the Garden and by the Cherubs and the Seraphs and by the Father who sits in the heavens to descend to the Garden, if I eat and learn everything, I shall not withhold, but I will give to my husband Adam to eat.' 44.19.3 When he had caught me through an oath, he then led me and brought me to the tree and he went forth to the tree. He set the deception in its fruit, that is desire of sins, harlotries, adulteries, greeds. He lowered the branches of the tree to the earth. Then I took some of the fruit and I ate. 44.20.1 At that hour I learned with my eyes that I was naked of the glory I with which I had been clothed. Thenceforth, I began to weep and said, 44.20.2 ‘What did you do to me?’ But I was no longer mortified about the war which the enemy had made against me; then I learned, thenceforth, that he will lead me to the depths of hell. 44.20.3 When Satan did this, he descended from the tree and hid in the Garden. 44.20.4 In my parts of the Garden I sought leaves of a tree to cover my nakedness, and I could not find any on all the trees. For, at that hour all the trees of the Garden became leafless, except for the fig-tree alone. 44.20.5a I took its leaves and covered my nakedness, and I stood by the tree of which I had eaten. 44.20.5b I was afraid, my son Seth, because of the oath I swore that I would give my husband Adam to eat. 44.21.1 I cried out to Adam in a loud voice, ‘Arise, come to me and I will show you this way.' 44.21.2 Then Adam came to me with his great glory, 44.21.5 and I gave him to eat of the fruit, and I made him like me. Subsequently, he, too, came and took a fig leaf and covered his nakedness. 44.22.1 After that, we heard the angel Gabriel blowing a trumpet and summoning all the angels and saying to them, 44.22.2 ‘Thus says the Lord, "Come to me so that I may descend to the Garden with you, and listen to my judgement with which I will judge Adam."’ When we heard the sound of the angel’s trumpet, we knew that God was about to come to the Garden to judge us. 44.22.3 He set forth upon the Cherub chariot and the angels were praising him; consequently, we were afraid and hid. God reached the Garden and all of the plants of the Garden flowered. 44.22.4 He set up his throne close to the tree of life. 44.23.1 God summoned Adam and said, ‘Adam where are you?’ Do you think that you have hidden and do you say, "He does not know me?" Can the building hide from the Builder, that you hide near that olive-tree?’ 44.23.2 Adam replied and said, ‘No, Lord, it is not that having hidden, I think that you will not find me, but I was afraid, for I am naked and I am ashamed.’ 44.23.3 God said to him, ‘Who showed you to be naked, if you have not abandoned my commandment which I gave you to observe?’ 44.23.4 Then Adam remembered the injunction which He had spoken to him, to do and observe. Adam said, ‘This woman, whom you gave, deceived me and I ate.' He turned to me and said, ‘Why did you do that?’ 44.23.5 I recalled the serpent’s speech and said, ‘The serpent deceived me.' 44.24.1 Subsequently God said to Adam, ‘Because you obeyed your wife’s voice and transgressed my commandment, you will be condemned upon the earth. 44.24.2 You will toil upon it, and it will not give you its strength; thorns and thistles will sprout forth for you. By the sweat of your brow you shall eat your bread 44.24.3 and you shall have no rest; you shall hunger and you shall be sated and you shall be afflicted by bitterness then you shall eat of sweetness; you shall be tormented by heat and afflicted by cold; you shall be pauperized and become great; you shall grow fat and you will be weakened 44.24.4 and the beasts which you ruled will rise up against you malignantly, because you transgressed my commandment and did not observe it.' 44.25.1 God turned and said to me, ‘Because you obeyed the serpent and transgressed my command-ment, you shall suffer torments and pains. 44.25.2 You shall bear many children and at the time of birth you shall bring your life to an end and, from your great agonies and pains 44.25.3 you shall promise with your mouth and say, "If I survive these agonies, I shall never go back to my husband." And when you emerge from the agonies, you shall return immediately to the earth. 44.25.4 For you shall be condemned by your own mouth, since you promised when the pain was acute, "I will never go back to this earth" and then you returned to the same. In pain you shall bear children and in pity you shall return to your husband and he will rule over you.' 44.26.1 After he had said all this to me, the Lord became very angry at the serpent and said, ‘Because you did this and became a lyre to lead astray those who were weak of heart, be cursed more than all the animals. 44.26.2 Be withheld from your foods which you used to eat. Dust will be your food and you shall go upon your breast and your stomach; your feet and hands will be withheld 44.26.3 and your ears will not hear, and none of your limbs. A likeness of the cross will bring my son to the earth, because of him whom you deceived. Be disabled and broken because of the evil of your heart. 44.26.4 I have set enmity between you and Adam’s seed. You will lie in wait for his heel and he for your head, until the day upon which you will be punished.' 44.27.1 When God had said this, he commanded our expulsion from the Garden, 44.27.2 and the angels set about expelling us. Adam beseeched the angels and said, ‘Let me be for a little, so that I may beseech God about my sins. Perhaps he will grant me penitence and not expel me from the Garden.' 44.27.3 The angels let him be from expelling him from the Garden, and Adam said, ‘Be gracious to me, Lord God, for I have sinned against you.' 44.27.4 Then the Lord said to the angels, ‘Do not let him stand still, but expel him from the Garden. Were the sins mine? Do I pronounce judgement in vain?’ 44.27.5 Then the angels worshipped God and said, You are just, O Lord, and your judgements are upright. 44.28.2 Adam said again to God, ‘My Lord, I beseech you, give me of the tree of life, so that I may eat before I shall have gone forth from the Garden.' 44.28.3 God said to Adam, ‘You cannot take of it in your lifetime, be-cause I have given an order to the Seraphs to guard it round about with weapons because of you, lest you should eat more of it and become immortal and say, "Behold, I shall not die;" and you will be boastful of it and be victorious in the war which the enemy has made with you. 44.28.4 Rather, when you go out of the Garden, guard yourself from slander, from harlotry, from adultery, from sorcery, from the love of money, from avarice and from all sins. Then, you shall arise from death, in the resurrection which is going to take place. At that time, I will give you of the tree of life and you will be eternally undying.' 44.29.1 When God had said this, he commanded to expel us from the Garden. 44.29.2 Adam began to cry before the angels, and the angels said to him, ‘What do you want us to do for you?’ 44.29.3 Adam replied and said to the angels, ‘I beseech you, let me be a little, so that I may take sweet incenses with me from the Garden, so that when I go out of here, I may offer sweet incenses to God, and offerings, so that, perhaps, God will hearken to us.' 44.29.6 The angels let him be, and he took sweet incenses with him, iris and balsam. We took them and went forth from the Garden to this land. 44.30.1 Now, my son, Seth, I have shown you the way, how we sinned. But you, take care to do the good things. Do not abandon God’s command and do not depart from his mercy. Behold, I will show you every sort of recompense, both of good and of evil." 45.31.1 At the time when Adam was ill and they were standing around him, because one more day remained of his life and Adam’s soul was going forth from his body, Eve related all this. And again Eve said to Adam, 45.31.2 "Why do you die and I live? Tell me, what shall I do for you? How long shall I be on the earth after your death?" 45.31.3 Adam said to her, "Do not concern yourself with earthly things, but consider that we will both die as a couple, and they will place you where I will be. But when I die, do not come near me to move me from the place, until God speaks with you about me. 45.31.4 For God will not forget me, but he seeks the vessel which he made. Now, arise, pray to God until I give up my soul, which he gave me, into his hands. For I do not know how we shall preserve for the Father of all, whether he will be angry or will be merciful to us." 45.32.1 Then Eve arose, beseeched God and said, 45.32.2 "I have sinned, God; I have sinned against you, my beloved Lord; I have sinned against your elect angels; I have sinned against the Cherubs; I have sinned against the Seraphs; I have sinned before you, Lord. I beseech all you whom God created in the heavens and on the earth, that you intercede with the Father in heaven." 45.32.3 While Eve was praying on bended knee, behold, the archangel Michael came to her, stood her up and said, 45.32.4 "Arise, Eve, from your penitence. Behold, the soul of your husband Adam has gone forth from the body." 45.33.1 Eve arose, 47.38.2 and all the angels assembled before her, each according to his rank. Some of them bore censers in their hands, others bore trumpets and others bore blessings. 47.38.3 Behold, the Lord of hosts upon a Cherub chariot and four winds were drawing him, and Cherubs were serving those winds and the angels were proceeding before him: God came to the earth, to the place where Adam’s body lay, and all of the angels were before him with praises. 47.38.4 God came to the Garden and all the plants moved, and all the people who were with Adam fell asleep. Only Seth alone, the virtuous one, was awake, according to God’s direction. 47.39.1 God came to Adam’s body, where he was lying dead. God mourned greatly and said in a sweet voice, "Oh, Adam. Why did you do that? If you had observed my commandment, those who brought you down to this place would not have rejoiced over you. 47.39.2 But I will turn their rejoicing into sorrow, and I will turn your sorrow into rejoicing. I shall make you the beginning of rejoicing and I shall set you on the throne of him who deceived you, 47.39.3 and I shall cast them into a place of darkness and death." 48.40.1 After this, God spoke to Michael and said, "Go to the Garden of the third heaven and bring me three linen cloths". 48.40.2 When he had brought them, God said to Michael and to Ozel and to Gabriel, ‘Bring these linen cloths and cover Adam’s body, and bring sweet oil." They brought them and set them around him and wound him in that garment. 48.40.3 When they had finished everything, God ordered them to bring Abel’s body. They brought still other linen cloths and dressed him. 48.40.4 For he had remained from that day upon which Cain the lawless one had killed him and had wished to hide him, and had been unable. For, as soon as his body was in the dust, a heavenly voice came and said, 48.40.5a "It is not permitted to hide him in the earth before the first creature has returned to the earth from which he came." 48.40.5b Thenceforth, they took him into that same cave where he was until Adam died. Then, after this, they brought him and treated him just as they had treated his father Adam. 48.40.6 After the dressing, God commanded that both of them be taken to the region of the Garden and be brought to the place from which the dust had been taken and Adam created. God caused them to dig 48.40.7 in that place and sent them to bring sweet incenses and iris incense and he caused them to put oils upon the dust and to cover the spices. Then after this, they took the bodies of both of them and put them in the place in which he had fashioned them. They dug and made a sepulchre over them. 48.41.1 God called to Adam’s body through the dust and said, "Adam, Adam." Adam’s body said to the dust, "Answer and say, ‘Here I am, Lord.'" 48.41.2 The Lord said to him, "Behold, just as I said to you, ‘Adam, you are dust and you return to dust;’ 48.41.3 but I will raise you in the resurrection which I promised you." 48.42.1 After God had said this, he took a three-fold seal and sealed Adam’s tomb and said, "Let none approach in these days,until their bodies return to it." 48.42.2 Then, at that time, the Lord ascended to the heavens with his angels, Seraphs and chariot of light, each to his station. 48.42.3 The times of Eve were filled and completed and she was dying. She began to weep and sought to know the place where Adam was buried, because she was ignorant of it. For, at the time when God came for the death of Adam, all the plants of the Garden were moved and, through the Holy Spirit, sleep overcame all those who were upon the earth, until they had dressed Adam, and none upon the earth knew, except Seth alone. 48.42.4 Again Eve began to cry out, to beseech God that they should bring her to the place where Adam was buried. When she had completed that prayer, she said, 48.42.5 "My God, God of miracles, do not alienate me from Adam’s place, 48.42.6 but command to place me in his tomb. 48.42.7 Just as we were together in the Garden, and were not separate from one another, just as in life, so in our death. In the place in which Adam was buried let me, too, be buried with him." 48.42.8 When, beseeching, she had said this, her soul left her. 51.43.1 Michael, the archangel, came and spoke to Seth and taught him how to dress her. Three angels came and took Eve’s body and brought it and placed it where Adam’s and Abel’s bodies were. 51.43.2 After this, Michael spoke to Seth and said, ‘Thus shall you dress every human being who dies, until the day of the end, through the resurrection." 51.43.3 When the angel had said this to Seth, he ascended to heaven, praising the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and forever. |
Book of Adam Translated from the Georgian original. Translator: J.-P. Mahe 1.1 It came to pass, when Adam went out from paradise with his wife Eve, they went out at the eastern part of paradise. And Adam made a hut to live in. They both entered it and resided there for seven days. They both wept with abundant tears for they regretted the residences of the kingdom from which they had been expelled. 2.1 And after seven "days, they were hungry and looked for something to eat. 2.2 Eve told Adam: "Adam, my lord, arise and go search for food for me that we may eat, while waiting to try -- who knows -- that for the Lord to accept us and take us back to the same place in paradise. 3.1 And Adam arose after seven days and went about upon the face of the earth and he did not find any food like that which they used to eat in paradise. Adam replied to Eve and told her, "We are going to die a death." 3.2 Eve told Adam, "Oh, if I were dead then God would have accepted you in paradise!" Adam replied to Eve and said to her, "Because of us a great anger lies against upon all creatures. However I do not know this: whether it is because of me or because of you." Eve replied to Adam, "My lord, if you think it wise, kill me so that I will be exterminated from the sight of God and his angels, so that God's anger against you may cease, which happened because of me: and he will bring you back into paradise. 3.3 Adam replied and told her, "No, no! Do not mention this matter, lest God send another judgment upon us because of this killing. How could I raise my hand and cause my own flesh to suffer?" Then Eve told him, "Arise, let us both seek vegetables." 4.1 And they did not find anything tasting like the fruit of the tree which was in paradise. 4.2 And Eve told him, "God created that for the wild-beasts to get their food; but our food was that by which the angels live. 4.3 Now, come and let us repent in penitence for forty days, so that God may pity us and then give us better food than that of the dumb animals, lest we should become like them." 5.1 Adam replied to Eve and told her, "Explain to me now what penitence you wish to repent, or for how many days will you be able to repent in your penitence, lest, perchance, we make a promise to God. 5.2 and we be unable to fulfill the promise which we will have made to him." 5.3 Eve replied to Adam and she told him, "Tell me about the number of days to me, then; For what period of time will you consider doing penitence -- who knows, perhaps I will add more to that -- for it is I who have brought these tribulations upon you." 6.1 Adam replied and said to Eve, "You will not be able to add anything to it. On the contrary, hold to the number of days which I will tell you and keep it. And I will do penitence for forty days, and you, do penitence for thirty-four days. Leave me these six days, since were you not created upon the sixth day, when God completed the creation of all creatures? Now, You arise and go to the river Tigris; and put a stone under your feet and stay in the water and clothe yourself with it up to your neck. While you pray, beware let no sound come from your mouth, for we are not worthy to open our mouths, for our lips are impure because we transgressed the commandments, concerning the food so as to eat from the tree of paradise which God had forbidden us. 6.2 Rather, be silent, only do penitence in the water for thirty-four days with all your heart and I will do the same in the Jordan river, until God hearkens and gives us food." 7.1 Eve went off to the Tigris river and she did as Adam had ordered her. 7.2 But Adam, he remained in the Jordan river and the hair of his head spread out. 8.1 And Adam said, "I tell you, O Jordan, suffer with me and assemble all the dumb- animals which are around you, so that they may come to surround you and bewail me, 8.2 not for their own sakes, but for me. Because God did not withhold their fodder from them, which God gave them from the beginning, but I have been withheld from my means of life and from my food." 8.3 When Adam had said that with bitter tears, all the cattle gathered close to him and stood around him like walls. At the moment when the water of the Jordan had restrained its flow, then Adam raised his voice towards God and he varied his tone of voice six times, like the voices of all the angels in all times. 9.1 When the twelve days of his weeping were completed, the devil trembled and changed his shape and his clothes by his artful deceit. He went close to Eve, on the Tigris river, and stood beside the bank. 9.2 He was weeping and had his false tears dripping trickling down on his garment and from his garment down to the ground. Then he told Eve, "Come out of that water where you are and stop your tribulations, for God has hearkened to your penitence and to Adam your husband." 9.3 Moreover, we too have besought favor because of your misfortunes which we have seen. 9.4 Thus God sent me to have you come forth and to give you the food on account of which you repented. 9.5 Now, come up from there , for I have gone to Adam and he sent me and told me, 'Go and speak with Eve, my spouse; bring her back to me.' Come, now, and I will lead you to Adam to the place where he is and where your food also is." 10.1 And Eve came up out of the water and her flesh was withered like rotten vegetables because of the coldness of the water. All the form of her beauty had been destroyed. 10.2 And when she had come up out of the water, she fell on the face of the earth in great weakness and remained lying on the ground without moving for two days. And after two days she arose and the devil led her to where Adam was. 10.3 And as soon as Adam saw Eve and how she was following the devil, he started to weep with burning tears and called out with a great voice and told her, "Where are the commands of repentance which I gave you? How have you been deceived again by him, because of whom we are aliens to our dwellings?" 11.1 When Eve heard that, that it was the devil who had deceived her, she fell down before him and Adam's distress for Eve increased twofold for he saw her lying on the earth like one dead. 11.2 He was sad and said, groaning, "Woe to you who fight against us! What evil have we done to you? For it is because of your calumnies that we went out from paradise. Is it because we have caused you to be expelled that you are angry against us? 11.3 Or is it because of us that you were despoiled of your glory? Or is it, in some way, by our action that you are in such deficiency? Or are we the only creatures of God that you fight against us alone? 12.1 the devil began to cry with forced tears and the devil told Adam, "O Adam, all the greed and the anger and all the grief of my heart are directed against you because it was through you that I fell from my dwellings, it was by you that I was alienated from my own throne. My wings were more numerous than those of the Cherubim, and I concealed myself under them. Because of you, now my feet walk on the earth, which I would never have believed." 12.2 Adam replied to the devil and told him, 12.3 "What is my fault, by which I have done all that to you?" 13.1 The devil replied to him and told him, "You did nothing to me, but it is because of you that I have fallen upon the earth." 13.2 The very day when you were created, on that day, I fell from before the face of God, because when God breathed a spirit onto your face, you had the image and likeness of the divinity. And then Michael came; he presented you and made you bend down before God. And God told Michael, "I have created Adam according to my image and my divinity." 14.1 Then Michael came; he summoned all the troops of angels and told them, "Bow down before the likeness and the image of the divinity." 14.2 And then, when Michael summoned them and all had bowed down to you, he summoned me also. 14.3 And I told him, "Go away from me, for I shall not bow down to him who is younger than me; indeed, I am master prior to him and it is proper for him to bow down to me. 15.1 The six classes of other angels heard that and my speech pleased them and they did not bow down to you. 16.1 Then God became angry with us and commanded us, them and me, to be cast down from our dwellings to the earth. As for you, he commanded you to dwell in paradise. 16.2 When I had realized that I had fallen by your power that I was in distress and you were in rest, 16.3 then I aimed at hunting you so that I might alienate you from the paradise of Delights, just as I had been alienated because of you. 17.1 When Adam heard that, he cried in a loud voice and said, "Lord, my life is in your hands. Make this enemy distant from me, who desires to lead me astray and seeks to destroy my race. It is by him that Eve has been lost." 17.2 At that moment, Beliar became invisible. 17.3 As for Adam, he remained in the water and did repentance. But Eve had fallen upon the earth like one dead. Then she stood up from the earth. 18.1 and told Adam, "Be saved, Adam, for you did not join me in the transgression of the commandments, neither in the first instance nor in the second. But the word of God will prevail against me." And Eve said to him, "Behold, I shall so leave in the direction of the setting sun and I will eat grass like a dumb-animal until I die, for by no means am I worthy of having a part in the food of the living." 18.2 Then Eve went away in the direction of the setting sun and she remained there in mourning and moaning. 18.3 And after these days, she made for herself a hut in the direction of the setting sun. Now she had conceived three months before, and Cain was in her womb, 19.1 when the days of her parturition arrived, then she started to tremble; she wailed towards God in a loud voice and said: 19.2 "Where is Adam so that he can console me in my present pain, or who will relate my sufferings to him? Is there none among the birds, who would go to him and tell him, 'Come, help Eve, your spouse.' I beg of you, all you races of heaven, and when you go to the east, relate my present sufferings to my lord." 20.1a Then Adam heard in the river Jordan her crying of tears and misfortunes. 20.1b Then God hearkened to Adam's prayer and sent him the angel Michael who brought him a seeds, sealed with the divine seal, destined to be brought to Adam. Then he taught him sowing and the work related to it, so that thus they might be saved, they and all their descendants. 20.1c And when Adam had heard the prayer of Eve and the wailing of her tears from the west, Adam recognized her voice and said in his heart, "This is the voice of my rib, the voice of my SHEEP; I will arise and I will see why she cries. Is it that the serpent is attacking her again?" 20.2 Adam arose and followed her footsteps. And he came close to her, in the part of the West where Eve was, and when Eve saw Adam, she was crying with abundant tears and said, "My lord, Adam, have you not heard the sound of my tears? For, today, it is nine days, day and night, that there has been this crying of mine towards you. Is it that the generations of the east have not informed you when they arose? And have not the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the earth informed you, for I begged them all that they tell you about it. Arise, entreat your Creator to have pity, so that God may answer your prayer and deliver me from my sufferings or, if it seems fitting to Him, send death to me or, by your prayers, liberate me from my torments." 20.3 Adam prayed and spoke a plea to God on her behalf and the Lord hearkened to him. 21.1 And behold, twelve angels and two powers came from heaven. And they came to the place where Eve was. 21.2 One of the powers came, touched Eve's face and her breast, and told Eve, "Blessed are you, Eve, because of Adam, elect one and servant of God, for his prayers are great before God and, because of him, God will deliver you. If you had not been brought help because of him, you would have conceived such a thorn that you could not have rescued yourself from your sufferings. Rise up now and prepare yourself to give birth to a child." 21.3a Eve arose as the angel had instructed her: she gave birth to an child and his color was like that of the stars. He fell into the hands of the midwife and at once he began to pluck up the grass, for in his mother's hut grass was planted. 21.3b The midwife replied to him and told him, "God is just that he did not at all leave you in my hands. For, you are Cain, the perverse one, killer of the good, for you are the one who plucks up the fruit-bearing tree, and not him who plants it. You are the bearer of bitterness and not of sweetness." 21.3c And the power told Adam, "Remain by Eve until she has done with the infant what I have taught her." 1.2 As for Adam, he took Eve and the child and he brought them into a part of the East and he stayed there. And when the eighth year and the second month were completed, 1.3 Eve became pregnant and bore another son whom the power of God called by name Abel, and they remained there together. 2.1 At that time Eve told Adam, 2.2 "Adam, my lord, in my sleep I saw that the blood of my son Abel was pouring into the mouth of Cain his brother and he drank it without mercy. And Abel beseeched him to leave him a little of his blood, 2.3 and he did not agree to hearken to him but he drank it completely and it did not remain in his stomach but it went forth and he was smeared with it and it could not at all be removed from his body." 2.4a Adam replied to Eve and told her, "Lest Cain plan to kill him, let us separate them from one another, 2.4b and let us be with them, so as to provide no room to anger." And they acted as Adam had said, and he told them, "My sons, come and let us disperse, each to his own place." 3.2 Then God told the angel Gabriel, "Say to Adam: 'Do not reveal to Cain the secret plan which you know, for he is a son of wrath, because his brother will be killed by him!' However, let Adam not be sad, for I will raise up Seth for him instead of Abel, and he will resemble my image and he will teach you everything of which I have a memory. But do not reveal this to anyone but Adam!" 3.3a That is what God told the angel and the angel spoke this word to Adam. Then Adam kept the word in his heart. And they both were sad, Adam and his spouse. 3.3b And the time arrived when Abel was killed by Cain his brother and he = Adam told her = Eve, "God has established an end for all human beings. Was death anything else but the killing by which Abel has been killed by Cain and Cain's jealousy delivered him to death because Cain was of a perverse race?" 3.3c And the times arrived when Cain and Abel had gone up towards their fields. Two demons resembling Cain and Abel came. One demon reproached the other demon. He became angry with him and took a stone sword, which was of a transparent stone. He cut his throat and killed him. 3.3d And when Cain saw the blood, he went quickly and took the stone in his hands. But when Abel saw him coming upon him, he begged him, "Do not make me die, O my brother Cain!" He, however, did not accept his prayer and he spilled Abel's blood in front of him. And Adam and Eve afflicted themselves all that time with great sadness. 4.1 And after this, Adam entered his spouse and Eve became pregnant and bore Seth who resembled Adam. 4.2 Adam told Eve, "Behold, I have born a son in place of Abel, whom Cain killed before me." 5.1a And again, after that, Adam had thirty sons and thirty daughters. For all the years of Adam were 930 years. And from him they multiplied over the earth and settled over it. 5.1b And when the 930 years were completed Adam fell ill and cried out in a loud voice and said, "Gather to me ye all my descendants and I will see them before my death." 5.2 And all his progeny gathered to him who had settled, and he divided the three parts of the earth among his descendants. And all Adam's descendants assembled by him, for they had taken a position before his doors, in the place which Adam had made, and into which he would enter and address his prayers to God. 5.3 And his sons told him, "What is this, Father Adam?" 5.4 He told them, "I am sick, my sons." And they told him, "What is your illness and how does a human being fall ill?" 6.1 Seth, his son, replied to him and told him, "Father Adam, what has befallen you? Have you remembered, perchance, the fruit of the Garden, and you longed for it and you become sad yourself because of it? 6.2 If it is thus, tell me and I will go before paradise and I will cast dust upon my head and I will weep. And, if only God hears me, let him send his angel and he will bring me the fruit of paradise and I will bring it to you so that you may calm your distress." 6.3 And Adam told him, "My son Seth, it is not so, rather I am sick and I have pain." Seth replied to him, "Father, what is pain and how do you have pain?" 7.1 Adam told Seth, "Son, when God made us, me and your mother, he set us in the the paradise of Delights to eat its fruit. But there was one plant in the middle of paradise, very beautiful, concerning which God commanded us, 'Eat not of it.' 7.2 And the serpent deceived your mother and caused her to eat of it, because of which, now, we are going to die. When it was the hour for the guardian angels to ascend to worship God, the enemy deceived her and she ate of it 7.3a and she deceived me, my children, for I did not know. 7.3b And God had divided paradise between us, between me and your mother Eve, so that we might guard it. As for me, he had given me the eastern and northern portion; to your mother Eve he had entrusted the southern and the western portion. 8.1 And there were twelve angels with each of us to guard us 8.2 until the time of the dawn, but at each time, at day, they ascended there. And at the moment of their ascent, the serpent deceived your mother and caused her to eat of the tree, for he had seen that I was not with her any more than the angels. 8.3 She also made me eat of it and I did not understand. 8.4 When we had eaten, God became angry with us and he told us, 8.5 'You have, therefore, scorned my commandment; I too will scorn you.' And he sent 70 evils upon us, to our eyes, and to our ears and as far as our feet, plagues and portents, treasured in his treasuries. This God did to me to cause me to perish through death." 9.1 Eve said, weeping, "My lord Adam, give me half of your sufferings and I will bear your present pain, for your suffering is due to me and it is I who caused these pains to come upon you." 9.2 And Adam told Eve, "Arise and go with Seth, my son, to paradise; cast soil on your head and weep before God so that he might give us grace. 9.3 And God will send his angel to paradise where the tree of life is, from which the oil flows out, so that he may give you a little of that oil. And you will bring it here to me and I will anoint myself and I will be healed of my sufferings. 9.4 Then I will let you know the whole way in which we were tried." 10.1 "Woe is me, for when arrive at the day of judgment, all my sins will burn me and people will tell me, 'In the first instance, it was you who did not observe God's orders." 10.2 Eve called out and told the wicked beast, "O evil beast, have you no fear? Did you dare to fight the image of God? How did you take it upon yourself to open your mouth and how have you thought to sink your teeth? Or how have you not recalled the first order of God and have opened your mouth against the image of God?" 11.1 Then the beast replied to her and told Eve, "It is not from our greediness that your discontent and your weeping come, but your discontent and your weeping come from your own greediness, for at the beginning of creation, it was you who hearkened to the beast, the serpent. 11.2 How did you dare to open your mouth and eat of the tree of which God had commanded you not to eat? It is you, because of whom the aspect of everything has changed. 11.3 Now, you will not be able to endure, if I start talking and rebuking you." 12.1 Seth replied to him and told the beast, "Let your mouth be closed and be silent, beast, and get away from us, the image of the divinity, until the day when God will have you standing before him." 12.2 Then also the beast told Seth, "Behold, then, that I get away from you, image of God, dazzling splendor of God." And when the beast had left him her, the beast fled far from Seth and the wounded man went to the hut of Adam his father." 13.1 And God sent to them the archangel Michael, who is in charge of the souls, and he told Seth, 13.2 "Man of God, do not labor to supplicate thus concerning the olive tree, in command to anoint your father Adam. 13.3 This is not to be right now but in the future times, when five thousand years will be completed. Then, at the five and a half thousandth year, the beloved son of God, Christ, will come upon the earth to resurrect Adam's body from his fall, because of the transgression of the commands. 13.4 He will come and he will be baptized in the river Jordan. And as soon as he will have come forth from of the water with the anointing of oil, he will anoint him, him 13.5 and all his descendants, so that they will rise at the time of the resurrection. The Lord said, 'I will admit them into paradise and I will anoint them with that unction.' 13.6 But now, go to your father Adam, because the days of his times are completed. In three days his soul will go out of his body and numerous wonders will be seen in the heavens." 14.1 When the angel had told that to him, immediately he was hidden underneath the plant of paradise. Now as for Seth and Eve they departed for Adam's hut. And Adam wept because of the wound of the beast 14.2 and he told Eve, "What have all of us done? For an evil has come upon us and upon all our descendants. 14.3 Indeed, tell your children what are your sins: for we will die, you and I, and misfortunes will spread over the earth. All the descendants who have come forth from us will curse us saying, 14.14.4 'It was our father and mother who brought this misfortune upon us.'" 15.1 Then Eve began to cry and she said, "Now hearken to me, my children, and I will tell you how we were tricked. 15.2 It happened, then, that your father was guarding his portion of paradise, the east and the north, 15.3 while I was guarding my own portion, the west and the south. And the devil came to Adam's portion. And there were beasts there 15.4 for the Lord had also divided the beasts between us. All that were male He had given to Adam, and all that were female, he had given to me. And we each fed our own ones. 16.1 When the devil came to your father's portion 16.2 the devil summoned the serpent and told him, "Arise and come to me, and I will teach you a useful word." 16.3a Then, the serpent came and the Devil told the serpent, "I hear that you are wiser than all the dumb animals and I have come to test your wisdom science, for Adam gives food to all the dumb-animals, thus also to you. 16.3b When then all the dumb animals come to bow down before Adam from day to day and from morning to morning, every day, you also come to bow down. You were created before him, as large as you are, and you bow down before this little one! 16.3c And why do you eat food inferior to Adam's and his spouse's and not the good fruit of paradise? But come and hearken to me so that we may have Adam expelled from the wall of paradise just as we are outside. Perhaps we can re-enter somehow to paradise." 16.4 And the serpent told him, "How can we have them excluded?" The devil replied and told the serpent, "Be a sheath for me and I will speak to the woman through your mouth a word by which we will trick them." 17.1 And the two of them came together and they allowed their heads to hang on the wall of the paradise at the time where the angels had ascended to bow down to God. Then the devil changed himself into the image of an angel; he praised the praises of the angels. And I was gazing in the direction of the enclosure to hear the praises. 17.2a I stared and I saw him like an angel and at once he became invisible 17.2b for he had gone forth to bring the serpent. And he told him, 'Arise and come and I will be with you and I will speak though your mouth that which it is proper for you to say.' 17.2c He took on the form of the serpent to go close to the wall of paradise and the devil slipped inside the serpent and he allowed his head to hang on the wall of paradise. He cried out and said, 'Shame on you, woman, you who are in the the paradise of Delight and who are blind! Come to me and I will tell you a certain secret word.' 17.2d And when I had come, he told me, 'Eve!' and I told him, 'Here I am.' He replied to me and told me, 'What do you do in paradise?" 17.3 I replied and told him, 'God has set me to guard paradise and eat of it.' 17.4 The devil replied to me and told me through the mouth of the serpent, 'Well done! Do you eat the fruit of every tree which is in paradise?' 17.5 I replied to him and told him, 'Yes, we eat all the fruit except for only one tree which is here in the middle of paradise, for God commanded us, 'Do not eat of it, so that you will not die of death.' 18.1 Then the serpent told me, 'I am distressed for you, for you are like the dumb animals. God was jealous of you and he has not permitted you, but I, I do not desire your ignorance. Rather come, eat and you will see the glory which is to be with you.' 18.2 However, I told him, 'I am afraid of dying, perhaps, as God said.' 18.3 The serpent replied to me and told me, 'What is death and how does one die? Death is life!' I replied to him and told him, 'I do not know.' He replied to me and told me, 'God is living, just so that you will not die, but at the moment when you eat your eyes will be opened and you will be instructed, like God, about good and evil. 18.4 God knew that you would become like him and God was jealous of you. Because of that God told you, 'Do not eat of it!' 18.5 Look at the tree and see the glory around it.' As for me, when I had gone and I had seen its glory around it, then I said, 18.6 'This tree is good and its fruit is well-known in my eyes. However, I am afraid to stretch out my hand and take it. But you, if you are not afraid, bring it out to me and I will eat of it and I will know whether your present words are true or not.' The serpent replied to and told me, 'Come, open the gate and I will give you of it.' 19.1 And when I had gone to open the gate for him and he had entered Paradise, he went forth, and then he stopped a little. I replied to him and said, 'Why have you stopped?' But he, my children, began to use trickery with me. He replied to me and told me, 'If I have stopped it is because I changed my mind for fear that, perhaps if I should give you of it and you eat it, and your eyes will be opened and you will become like God, and you will know good and evil, and you will become prideful and become jealous of Adam and you will not make him eat of it, and he will be like a dumb animal before you, as you were before God, because God was jealous of you. If you wish it, swear to me truly that, if I make you eat it, you will not be jealous of Adam, your husband, but will make him eat of it and give of it also to him.' 19.2 I replied to him and told him, 'I do not know any oath, how could I swear to you?' And he told me, 'Say: I swear by the plants of paradise and by the Cherubs upon whom sits the Father and upon which he descends to paradise, that if I eat and know it all, I will not be jealous but will give of it also to Adam." 19.3 And when he had made me take the oath, he bound me to it, gave me of the tree and I ate it. 20.4 [. . .] I was searching for leaves to cover my nakedness and found none on all the trees, for at the moment at which I had eaten, the leaves from all the trees of paradise, in my portion, fell down. 20.5 I took some and made a covering for myself and stood by the tree of which I had eaten, my children. I was afraid because of the oath which I had sworn by paradise and in which I had said, 'I will make Adam eat of it as well.' 21.2 Then your father Adam came. He had thought thus: that a beast had entered paradise and he told me, 'What are you thinking for and why do you have this fig-leaf on yourself?' 21.3 I replied to him and I told him, 'Do you wish me to tell you something or not? Until today we were like dumb- animals. When I understood that of which the Lord had said to us, 'Do not eat of this' and when I saw its splendor, I took of it and ate of it and I knew good and evil. Now, eat also of it and you will you become like God.' 21.4a Adam replied to me and told me, 'I fear lest God be angry with me and tell me, "My commandment which I gave you, you did not keep it!"' 21.4b But I told the father, "On me shall be this blame. If He asks you, say thus: 'This woman whom you have given me is to blame for that; she said: See the flavor of this glory.'! 21.5 Then I gave him of it and he ate of it and became like me, and he also took a leaf of the fig tree and covered his nakedness with it. 22.1 After which we heard that, through an angel, God blew the trumpet. He had summoned the angels and told them, 22.2 "Thus says the Lord, come to paradise and hear the sentence to which we are going to judge them." Adam told me, "We have sinned, for God is going to come to judge us." We were afraid and we hid. 22.3 And God came to paradise sitting upon the Cherubs and the angels were singing hymns before him. When he had arrived at paradise, at once all the trees cast off their its foliage, 22.4 and thrones were set up near the tree of life. 23.1 And God summoned Adam and told him, "Adam, Adam, where are you? Are you hiding from me? Or how will a house hide from its builder? Or why have you hidden near the tree of paradise?" 23.2 Then your father replied and told the Lord, "I have hidden because I am afraid: I am naked and I am ashamed." 23.3 God replied to him and told him, "Who told you that you are naked? Have you scorned the commandment which I gave you?" 23.4 Then Adam remembered my words which I had said, "Do not be concerned for the blame for it will lie upon me." And Adam said, "Lord, it is this woman whom you gave to me who deceived me." Then He turned towards me and told me, "What have you done?" 23.5 And I remembered the serpent's word and I said, "It is the serpent who deceived me!" 24.1 God replied to Adam and told him, "Because you hearkened to your wife and disobey my commandment, let the earth be cursed in your deeds. 24.2 May you work it and it will give you no fruit; it will sprout only thorns and thistles for you. By the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread. 24.3 May you be with many sighs, labor in labors and you shall have no rest. You shall hunger and you shall not be sated. You shall be affected by bitterness and you shall not taste sweetness; you shall be tormented by heat and will undergo cold; you shall be pauperized and you shall not be enriched; you shall eat and shall not grow fat; you shall warm yourselves with fire, and you shall not be heated. You will soak yourselves with water and it will draw back. 24.4 And the beasts over whom you ruled shall rise up against you. You shall be weakened because you have not kept my commandments." 25.1 God turned to me and told me, "Why did you hearken to the serpent and abandon my commandments with which I commanded to you? May you be in toils and pains; 25.2 may you give birth to many fruits and when you give birth to them you will despair of your life because of the torments and pains. 25.3 You shall promise yourself that if you are ever delivered from the agonies, you will never go back to your husband and you will harden your heart in view of the great combat which the serpent instituted with you. 25.4 But may you return at once to the same point, may you bear your offspring in hurt and return in pity to your husband, and he will rule over you." 26.1 When he had said all this to me, he became very angry with the serpent, and he told it, "You, too, perish and be cursed among all the dumb animals. 26.2 May you be withheld from you food which you used to eat and may the soil be to you as food all the days of your life; you shall go on your breast and on your stomach; your hands and your feet will be taken from you. 26.3 May you have neither ears nor nails and may not even one limb remain for you. Let the precious cross which my Son will take upon the earth condemn you because of the deceit by which you deceived Adam. But may you again be crushed and broken because of the evil of your heart. 26.4 And I will set enmity between you and the offspring of the woman: she will lay in wait for your head and you will lay in wait for her heel until the day of judgment." 27.1 Thus God said, and he commanded both of us to be expelled from paradise. 27.2 Adam besought the angels and told them, "Wait for me to beseech the Lord; who knows, perhaps the Lord will grant me a penitence for that which I have done and I will not go out of paradise." 27.3 Then the angels waited for us to ask. Adam besought the Lord and said, "I beseech you, Lord, pardon me for what I have done." 27.4 Then the Lord told the angels, "Why have you been waiting before separating Adam from paradise? Is the blame mine Am I to blame or have I not judged justly?" 27.5 Then the angels fell to the ground and told him, bowing before the Lord, "You are just, Lord, and you sentence is upright." 28.1 The Lord turned and told Adam, "You are not to remain in paradise." 28.2 Adam replied to the Lord and told him, "I beseech you, Lord, give me of the tree of life so that I may eat before I have gone forth." 28.3 Then the Lord addressed a speech to Adam and told him, "You will not take any of it anymore in your lifetime. I have posted burning Cherubs and a turning sword to keep it from you, lest you should taste it and become immortal and boast saying, 'I shall not die ever'; and you will conduct the fight which the enemy has conducted against you. 28.4 If you go out of paradise and guard yourself from every evil, you will die and after death you will arise in the future resurrection. Then, indeed, I will give you of the tree of life and you will be immortal for ever." 29.1 When the Lord had said that he commanded us to be chased out of paradise. 29.2 And your father wept before the angels, but they told him, "What is this or what shall we do for you?" 29.3 Then your father replied to them and told them, "Behold, I am going out. Now I beseech you that at the very moment of my leaving paradise I may take incense from paradise so that, when I go out, I may offer a sweet odored incense-fragrance and God will be willing to hearken to me." 29.6 And the angels let him and he took four sweet odored incenses-fragrances: nard, saffron, reed, cinnamon; that is what Adam brought from paradise onto the earth. 30.1 Now, therefore, my children I have taught you the whole way in which we were tricked and I beseech you to watch yourselves and not to stop doing good.' 31.1 That, then, is what Eve said in the midst of her children when Adam was lying ill. And on the second day his soul was about to go out of his body. Eve told Adam, 31.2 "Why are you alone dying and I am alive? Or, how long shall I exist? Or, what will become of me after your death? Let me know about me that." 31.3 Then Adam told Eve, "Be not concerned, whatever you have done. If we must both die, you too will be set near me. And if I am to die alone, do not move me from my place until God gives you an command about me, 31.4 for the Lord will not forget me, but rather he will seek out the vessel which he has made. Arise and pray a prayer to God that my soul be commended into the hands of my Creator. For I do not know how I am going to reach the Creator of all, or whether he is angry with me or whether he will accept me." 32.1 Then Eve arose and went out from Adam's place. She did penitence and said, 32.2 "I have sinned against you, God; I have sinned against you and I have sinned before you. I have sinned before your elect angels. I have sinned before the Cherubs. I have sinned before the altar of your holiness. I have sinned before the generations of the heavens. I have sinned before the birds of heavens. I have sinned before the beasts of the earth. I have sinned against you, God, by all my greed, among all your creatures. I beseech you all, you creatures of heaven and earth, beseech the Lord of all for me." 32.3 While Eve was on her knees to pray, suddenly Michael came, the angel of mankind, he stood and raised Eve up, and told her, 32.4 "Arise from that penitence, for Adam your husband has gone forth from the body. Arise and see his soul, how his Creator has already got it." 33.1 Eve arose and put her hand on her face and the angel went up again, and he told Eve, "Raise you eyes and abandon earthly concerns." 33.2 As for Eve, when she had raised her eyes towards the heavens, she saw chariots of fire and a light which went up, borne by four winds: they were so resplendent that no word could express it, and it was impossible to sound them out, neither from the front nor from the back. And angels were proceeding before these chariots. 33.3 And when they had arrived at the place where the father was, the chariot stopped and the Seraphs stood between him and the chariots. 33.4 And I, Eve, saw three gold censers, and three cups and three angels come quickly upon the altar. These angels took a burning coal and put it in the censer and set the censer upon the altar. And while they blew, the smoke went up and veiled the firmaments of the heavens. 33.5 the angels were praising God, they were bowing before him, crying out and saying, "God, forgive Adam for he is your image and the work of your hands: he is your creature." 34.1 And I, Eve, saw two great lights prostrated in fear before God and I wept and told my son Seth, 34.2 Rise from near your father's body, come towards me and see that which your eyes have not seen, concerning Adam your father." 35.1 Then Seth arose and went close to his mother Eve and told her, "Why are you weeping? 35.2 Raise your eyes and see the seven firmaments open and see the likeness of the father Adam, as he lies before God and all the angels are beseeching him and saying, 'God, forgive Adam, for he is your image and your likeness, because it is you who have created him.'" 35.3 "What is this, then, my son Seth, 35.4 do they deliver the blood of my spouse to these Indians, for they were before God?" Seth replied to Eve and told her, "No, mother, did you not recognize those whom you called Indians in these colors of blood?" Eve replied to him and told him, "I do not know them, my son." 36.1 Seth replied to her and told her, "These are the sun and the moon: they are prostrated and they are beseeching for Adam, my father." 36.2 "Where is the light of the sun, for it is no more with it, or why is it darkened thus?" 36.3 Seth replied to her and told Eve, "Because its light has been eclipsed before the God of all and its light had become darkened by fear of God." 37.1 As Seth was telling that to Eve, at once a great angel blew the trumpet and all the angels who were prostrated on their faces stood up again. They besought Adam and cried out in a loud voice, and said, 37.2 "Blessed is God, by all blessing. You pardoned the protoplast." 37.3 And when the angels had said these words, one of the six-winged Seraphs was sent towards him Adam. He took Adam to the lake of Acheron, 37.4 and he dipped him in it three times. Then he led him back before God and Adam remained prostrate on his face for three hours. And after that, God stretched out his hand from his Throne, raised Adam up and gave him to Michael, and he told him, 37.5 "Take him to the third heaven, to paradise, and set him before the altar until the day of the "oikonomia" which I contemplate concerning all the fleshly beings with my well beloved Son." 37.6 Then Michael took Adam to the place which God had commanded and all the angels were chanting angelic psalms. They were praising this wonder: the forgiveness of Adam and the promise of a future life. 38.1 After which Michael cried out towards God, 38.2 and God commanded that the trumpet be sounded and that all the angels assemble before God, each one in his rank: those who held a censer; those who held a psaltery; and those who sounded the trumpet. 38.3 And behold, the Lord of Sabaoth rose upon the winds of the Cherubs, and 38.4 And God first reached his paradise, and the flowers of paradise, with their sweet odors, were moved at the sweet odor of the glorious God. All the children of Adam were breathless, except only for Seth, for he was son of the greatness of God. 39.1 And when the Lord had come to the body of Adam which had fallen in the earth, the Lord was sorrowful for him and told him in a sad voice, "If you had kept my commandments, you would not have fallen in that place and your enemy would not have been able to see that he had caused you to be expelled in that place. 39.2 But I will change his joy into sorrow and I will lead you back towards this realm and I will set you upon your enemy's throne, where he was seated, close by the place where his rebellion was discovered. 39.3 He will fall in the place where you are and he will see you in that other place sitting upon a throne." 40.1 And after that, God gave an command to Michael 40.2 who took Adam back to paradise, which is in the third heaven. They seized three folded shrouds of cloth and God told Michael and Gabriel, "Unfold these shrouds and envelop Adam's body and take the ointment from the olive tree and pour it upon him." And three angels dressed him in it and when they had dressed Adam's body in it, 40.3 God told them, "Take Abel's body as well, seize other shrouds and dress him in them also 40.4 for he had remained lying naked since the day when wicked Cain killed him. And he wished to bury him in the earth and he was unable to do so, because his body came back out of the earth. For a voice made itself heard from heaven and said to him, 40.5a "He will not be able to be buried in the earth before he who was created first has returned to the earth from which he was created." 40.5b Then he took it to a rock and it remained spread out there until the death of Adam. Thus the angels took him and dressed him like his father. 40.6 God commanded that both of them should be taken up to paradise, on the eastern part, in the place from which God had taken some soil and created Adam. And God commanded Michael to dig. 40.7 And God sent seven angels to paradise: they gathered much incense from paradise and they brought them to them. Then they took both bodies, put them into the grave and covered them with earth. 41.1 Then God turned and called Adam. Adam's body answered him from the soil and said, "Here I am, Lord." 41.2 And the Lord told him, "Behold, as I told you, you are soil and you have returned to the soil, 41.3 but I will raise you up in the resurrection which I have promised you, at the time of resurrection. 42.1 Then, after that, God took the triangular seal and sealed the tomb of Adam and he said, "Let no person touch it during these six days, until your rib returns to you. 42.2 Then God reascended to the upper heaven and each of the angels to his office. 42.3 But Eve grew numb when she saw all that. Eve wept and wished to see where they had put Adam, for she did not know. When the Lord had descended upon the earth, the sweet odor of all the trees of paradise did not [. . .] because of his sweet odor all had grown numb. Until the wrapping and the burial of Adam, nobody understood anything except Seth. 42.4 Then Eve begged and wept so that God might lead her off, show her the place where they had put Adam. And when she had completed her prayer, she said, 42.5 "Lord, do not alienate me from Adam's place, 42.6 but command me, me also, to be with him, 42.7 as we both were in paradise, inseparable from one another. 42.8 Do not separate us in our death, but place me where you have placed him." And after this prayer she gave up her soul. 43.1 And the angel Michael came and taught Seth how to dress Eve. Three angels came and took Eve's body and placed it where they had placed Adam's body. 43.2 And after that, the angel Michael told him, "Thus dress every dead person who dies, until the death of all human beings." 43.3 When he had taught Seth all that, he ascended to the uppermost heaven, far from Seth, and he told him, "Do not mourn for the dead more than five days and on the seventh day rejoice, for on that day God rested from all his works which the Lord had made." 43.4 To him is glory and honor and adoration, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and for ever and for ever and ever. Amen. |