Life of Adam and Eve
The Life of Adam and Eve, also known in its Greek version as the Apocalypse of Moses (Ancient Greek: Ἀποκάλυψις Μωϋσέως, romanized: Apokalypsis Mōuseōs; Biblical Hebrew: ספר אדם וחוה), is a Jewish apocryphal group of writings.
[2] They differ greatly in length and wording, but for the most part appear to be derived from a single source that has not survived.
While the surviving versions were composed from the early 3rd to the 5th century AD,[3]: 252 the literary units in the work are considered to be older and predominantly of Jewish origin.
[3]: 252 The main theological issue in the texts is that of the consequences of the Fall of Man, of which sickness and death are mentioned.
Other themes include the exaltation of Adam in the Garden, the fall of Satan, the anointing with the oil of the Tree of Life, and a combination of majesty and anthropomorphism in the figure of God, involving numerous merkabahs and other details that show a relationship with 2 Enoch.
The idea of resurrection of the dead is present and Adam is told God's son Christ will come at that time to anoint all who believe in him with the Oil of Mercy, a fact that has led many scholars to think part of the text is of Christian origin.
For two ideas are prominent in it which have been perpetuated in the younger religion, namely, that of baptism by trine immersion after repentance and forgiveness of sins, and that of the resurrection in the flesh and restoration to the Garden of Eden of the descendants of Adam.
and xliii.After being banished from the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve go to the East and live there for eighteen years and two months.
(chapters 5–14) Eve recounts to her sons and daughters the story of the Fall from her point of view: in the Garden, she is separated from Adam.
(chapters 15–21) Michael sounds a trumpet, and God enters the Garden mounted on the chariot of his Cherubim and preceded by the angels.
Before being cast out, Adam is allowed to take sweet spices (to offer sacrifices) and seeds for his food.
While Eve is praying on bended knee, the "angel of humanity" (probably Michael) comes and shows her the spirit of Adam gone from his body and ascending to God.
A chariot of light, borne by four bright eagles with Seraphim and angels, arrives where Adam's body lies.
The seven heavens are opened and Seth explains to his mother who are the two fearful figures in mourning: the sun and the moon, deprived of their light, because God is present.
(chapters 38–41) Six days later, Eve asks to be buried near Adam and dies praying to the Lord.
[20] The story begins immediately after Adam and Eve's banishment from the Garden of Eden and continues to their deaths.
After being banished from the Garden of Eden, they go to the West and after six days they become hungry, but the only food they find is that for animals.
Adam reaches her and prays to the Lord: because of his prayer many angels arrive to help her in the delivery: Cain is born and immediately is able to run.
Adam and Eve make Cain a husbandman and Abel a shepherd in order to separate them from each other.
[24] "As for Adam, he knew not again his wife Eve, all the days of his life; neither was any more offspring born of them; but only those five, Cain, Luluwa, Abel, Aklia," and Seth alone.
Josephus in endnotes 8) "The number of Adam's children, as says the old tradition was thirty-three(33) sons, and twenty-three(23) daughters."
Adam recounts to Seth that, after the Fall, he was caught up into the Paradise of righteousness and saw a chariot with the Lord seated on it among angels (a merkabah).
Seth and Eve travel to the gates of the Garden to beg for some oil of the Tree of Life.
Adam's soul is consigned to Michael till the day of Judgment, when his sorrow will be converted into joy.
(chapters 45–49) Eve perceives that she will die and assembles all her sons and daughters for her testament, predicting a double judgment of water (probably the deluge) and fire.
(chapters 49–50) Six days later, Eve dies, and Michael tells Seth never to mourn on the Sabbath.
This Armenian version of the Life of Adam and Eve was first published in 1981 by Stone[27] and is based on three manuscripts.
In 1975, O. H. E. Burmester reported a possible fragment of a Copto-Arabic version of the Life of Adam and Eve in the Hamburg University Library, but it has since gone missing.
Brian O. Murdoch produced a comparative study on the development of the western European medieval vernacular translations of the Vita Adae et Evae including glosses of quotations from the original texts.
