The First Book of Adam and Eve
today; but only when the covenant I have made with you is fulfilled."
2 Then Adam, when he heard the Word of God, and the fluttering of the
angels whom he did not see, but only heard the sound of them with his
ears, he and Eve cried, and said to the angels:--
3 "O Spirits, who wait on God, look at me, and at my being unable to
see you! For when I was in my former bright nature, then I could see
you. I sang praises as you do; and my heart was far above you.
4 But now, that I have transgressed, that bright nature is gone from
me, and I am come to this miserable state. And now I have come to
this, that I cannot see you, and you do not serve me like you used to
do. For I have become animal flesh.
5 Yet now, O angels of God, ask God with me, to restore me to that
wherein I was formerly; to rescue me from this misery, and to remove
from me the sentence of death He passed on me, for having trespassed
against Him."
6 Then, when the angels heard these words, they all grieved over him;
and cursed Satan who had misled Adam, until he came from the garden to
misery; from life to death; from peace to trouble; and from gladness to
a strange land.
7 Then the angels said to Adam, "You obeyed Satan, and ignored the Word
of God who created you; and you believed that Satan would fulfil all he
had promised you.
8 But now, O Adam, we will make known to you, what came over us though
him, before his fall from heaven.
9 He gathered together his hosts, and deceived them, promising to give
them a great kingdom, a divine nature; and other promises he made them.
10 His hosts believed that his word was true, so they yielded to him,
and renounced the glory of God.
11 He then sent for us--according to the orders in which we were--to
come under his command, and to accept his vein promise. But we would
not, and we did not take his advice.
12 Then after he had fought with God, and had dealt forwardly with Him,
he gathered together his hosts, and made war with us. And if it had
not been for God's strength that was with us, we could not have
prevailed against him to hurl him from heaven.
13 But when he fell from among us, there was great joy in heaven,
because of his going down from us. For if he had remained in heaven,
nothing, not even one angel would have remained in it.
14 But God in His mercy, drove him from among us to this dark earth;
for he had become darkness itself and a worker of unrighteousness.
15 And he has continued, O Adam, to make war against you, until he
tricked you and made you come out of the garden, to this strange land,
where all these trials have come to you. And death, which God brought
to him, he has also brought to you, O Adam, because you obeyed him, and
trespassed against God."
16 Then all the angels rejoiced and praised God, and asked Him not to
destroy Adam this time, for his having sought to enter the garden; but
to bear with him until the fulfillment of the promise; and to help him
in this world until he was free from Satan's hand.
Chapter LVI - A chapter of divine comfort.
1 Then came the Word of God to Adam, and said to him:--
2 "O Adam, look at that garden of joy and at this earth of toil, and
behold the garden is full of angels, but look at yourself alone on this
earth with Satan whom you obeyed.
3 Yet, if you had submitted, and been obedient to Me, and had kept My
Word, you would be with My angels in My garden.
4 But when you transgressed and obeyed Satan, you became his guests
among his angels, that are full of wickedness; and you came to this
earth, that brings forth to you thorns and thistles.
5 O Adam, ask him who deceived you, to give you the divine nature he
promised you, or to make you a garden as I had made for you; or to fill
you with that same bright nature with which I had filled you.
6 Ask him to make you a body like the one I made you, or to give you a
day of rest as I gave you; or to create within you a reasonable soul,
as I created for you; or to take you from here to some other earth than
this one which I gave you. But, O Adam, he will not fulfil even one of
the things he told you.
7 Acknowledge, then, My favor towards you, and My mercy on you, My
creature; that I have not avenged you for your transgression against
Me, but in My pity for you I have promised you that at the end of the
great five and a half days I will come and save you."
8 Then God said again to Adam and Eve, "Get up, go down from here,
before the cherub with a sword of fire in his hand destroys you."
9 But Adam's heart was comforted by God's words to him, and he
worshipped before Him.
10 And God commanded His angels to escort Adam and Eve to the cave with
joy, instead of the fear that had come over them.
11 Then the angels took up Adam and Eve, and brought them down from the
mountain by the garden, with songs and psalms, until they arrived at
the cave. There the angels began to comfort and to strengthen them,
and then departed from them towards heaven, to their Creator, who had
sent them.
12 But after the angels had departed from Adam and Eve, Satan came with
shamefacedness, and stood at the entrance of the cave in which were
Adam and Eve. He then called to Adam, and said, "O Adam, come, let me
speak to you."
13 Then Adam came out of the cave, thinking he was one of God's angels
that was come to give him some good counsel.
Chapter LVII - "Therefore I fell. . . . "
1 But when Adam came out and saw his hideous figure, he was afraid of
him, and said to him, "Who are you?"
2 Then Satan answered and said to him, "It is I, who hid myself within
the serpent, and who spoke to Eve, and who enticed her until she obeyed
my command. I am he who sent her, using my deceitful speech, to
deceive you, until you both ate of the fruit of the tree and abandoned
the command of God."
3 But when Adam heard these words from him, he said to him, "Can you
make me a garden as God made for me? Or can you clothe me in the same
bright nature in which God had clothed me?
4 Where is the divine nature you promised to give me? Where is that
slick speech of yours that you had with us at first, when we were in
the garden?"
5 Then Satan said to Adam, "Do you think that when I have promised one
something that I would actually deliver it to him or fulfil my word?
Of course not. For I myself have never even thought of obtaining what
I promised.
6 Therefore I fell, and I made you fall by that for which I myself
fell; and with you also, whosoever accepts my counsel, falls thereby.
7 But now, O Adam, because you fell you are under my rule, and I am
king over you; because you have obeyed me and have transgressed against
your God. Neither will there be any deliverance from my hands until
the day promised you by your God."
8 Again he said, "Because we do not know the day agreed on with you by
your God, nor the hour in which you shall be delivered, for that reason
we will multiply war and murder on you and your descendants after you.
9 This is our will and our good pleasure, that we may not leave one of
the sons of men to inherit our orders in heaven.
10 For as to our home, O Adam, it is in burning fire; and we will not
stop our evil doing, no, not one day nor one hour. And I, O Adam,
shall set you on fire when you come into the cave to live there."
11 When Adam heard these words he cried and mourned, and said to Eve,
"Hear what he said; that he won't fulfil any of what he told you in the
garden. Did he really then become king over us?
12 But we will ask God, who created us, to deliver us out of his hands."
Chapter LVIII - "About sunset on the 53rd day. . ."
1 Then Adam and Eve spread their hands before God, praying and begging
Him to drive Satan away from them so that he can't harm them or force
them to deny God.
2 Then God sent to them at once, His angel, who drove away Satan from
them. This happened about sunset, on the fifty-third day after they
had come out of the garden.
3 Then Adam and Eve went into the cave, and stood up and turned their
faces to the ground, to pray to God.
4 But before they prayed Adam said to Eve, "Look, you have seen what
temptations have befallen us in this land. Come, let us get up, and
ask God to forgive us the sins we have committed; and we will not come
out until the end of the day next to the fortieth. And if we die in
here, He will save us."
5 Then Adam and Eve got up, and joined together in entreating God.
6 They continued praying like this in the cave; neither did they come
out of it, by night or by day, until their prayers went up out of their
mouths, like a flame of fire.
Chapter LIX - Eighth apparition of Satan of Satan to Adam and Eve.
1 But Satan, the hater of all good, did not allow them to finish their
prayers. For he called to his hosts, and they came, all of them. Then
he said to them, "Since Adam and Eve, whom we deceived, have agreed
together to pray to God night and day, and to beg Him to deliver them,
and since they will not come out of the cave until the end of the
fortieth day.
2 And since they will continue their prayers as they have both agreed
to do, that He will deliver them out of our hands, and restore them to
their former state, see what we shall do to them." And his hosts said
to him, "Power is thine, O our lord, to do what you list."
3 Then Satan, great in wickedness, took his hosts and came into the
cave, in the thirtieth night of the forty days and one; and he beat
Adam and Eve, until he left them dead.
4 Then came the Word of God to Adam and Eve, who raised them from their
suffering, and God said to Adam, "Be strong, and be not afraid of him
who has just come to you."
5 But Adam cried and said, "Where were you, O my God, that they should
punish me with such blows, and that this suffering should come over us;
over me and over Eve, Your handmaiden?"
6 Then God said to him, "O Adam, see, he is lord and master of all you
have, he who said, he would give you divinity. Where is this love for
you? And where is the gift he promised?
7 Did it please him just once, O Adam, to come to you, comfort you,
strengthen you, rejoice with you, or send his hosts to protect you;
because you have obeyed him, and have yielded to his counsel; and have
followed his commandment and transgressed Mine?"
8 Then Adam cried before the Lord, and said, "O Lord because I
transgressed a little, You have severely punished me in return for it,
I ask You to deliver me out of his hands; or else have pity on me, and
take my soul out of my body now in this strange land."
9 Then God said to Adam, "If only there had been this sighing and
praying before, before you transgressed! Then would you have rest from
the trouble in which you are now."
10 But God had patience with Adam, and let him and Eve remain in the
cave until they had fulfilled the forty days.
11 But as to Adam and Eve, their strength and flesh withered from
fasting and praying, from hunger and thirst; for they had not tasted
either food or drink since they left the garden; nor were the functions
of their bodies yet settled; and they had no strength left to continue
in prayer from hunger, until the end of the next day to the fortieth.
They were fallen down in the cave; yet what speech escaped from their
mouths, was only in praises.
Chapter LX - The Devil appears like an old man. He offers "a place of
rest."
1 Then on the eighty-ninth day, Satan came to the cave, clad in a
garment of light, and girt about with a bright girdle.
2 In his hands was a staff of light, and he looked most awful; but his
face was pleasant and his speech was sweet.
3 He thus transformed himself in order to deceive Adam and Eve, and to
make them come out of the cave, before they had fulfilled the forty