Life of Adam and Eve
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The Life of Adam and Eve is a Jewish pseudepigraphical writing, the original of which was perhaps written around 70 BCE.
Pseudepigraphy
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(Redirected from Pseudepigrapha)
Pseudepigrapha (from the Greek words pseudos = false and epigrapho = write) describes texts whose claimed authorship is unfounded in actuality. The authenticity or value of the work itself, which is a separate question for experienced readers, often becomes sentimentally entangled in association. Yet few Hebrew scholars would insist that the Song of Solomon was written by the king of Israel, or ascribe the Book of Enoch to the prophet Enoch. Few Christian scholars would insist today that the Second Epistle of John was written by the “Beloved Disciple.” Nevertheless, in some cases, especially for books belonging to a religious canon, the question of whether a text is pseudepigraphical elicits sensations of loyalty and can become a matter of heavy dispute: though the inherent value of the text is not called in question, the weight of a revered or even apostolic author lends authority to a text. This is the essential motivation for pseudepigraphy in the first place.
Pseudepigraphy also covers the false ascription of names of authors to works, even to perfectly authentic works that make no such claim within their text. Thus a widely accepted but incorrect attribution of authorship may make a perfectly authentic text pseudepigraphical.
On a related note, a famous name assumed by the author of a work is an allonym.
These at least are the basic and original meanings of the terms.
There have probably been pseudepigrapha almost from the invention of full writing. For example ancient Greek authors often refer to texts which claimed to be by Orpheus or his pupil Musaeus but which attributions were generally disregarded.
Biblical studies
In Biblical studies, pseudepigrapha refers particularly to works which purport to be written by individuals mentioned in either the Old and New Testaments or by persons involved in Jewish or Christian religious study or history. These works can also be written about Biblical matters, often in such a way that they appear to be as authoritative as works which have been included in the many versions of the Judeo-Christian scriptures. Eusebius of Caesarea Historia ecclesiae 6,12 indicates this usage dates back at least to Serapion whom he records to have said: But those writings which are falsely inscribed with their name (ta pseudepigraphs), we as experienced persons reject…
Many such works were also referred to as Apocrypha, which originally connoted “secret writings”, those that were rejected for liturgical public reading. An example of a text that is both apocryphal and pseudepigraphical is the Odes of Solomon (http://www.miseri.edu/users/davies/thomas/odes.htm), pseudepigraphical because not actually written by Solomon but instead a collection of early Christian (first to second century) hymns and poems, originally written not in Hebrew in the Syriac language, apocryphal because not accepted either in the Tanach nor the New Testament.
But Protestants have also applied the word Apocrypha to texts found in the Roman Catholic scriptures which were not found in Hebrew manuscripts. Roman Catholics called those texts “deuterocanonical“. Accordingly, there arose in Protestant Biblical scholarship an extended use of the term pseudepigrapha for works that appeared as though they ought to be part of the Bibical canon, because of the authorship ascribed to them, but which stood outside both the canons recognized by Protestants and Catholics. These works were also outside the particular set of books that Roman Catholics called deuterocanonical and to which Protestants had generally applied the term Apocryphal. The term accordingly as now used often among both Protestants and Roman Catholics, allegedly for the clarity it brings to discussion, may make it difficult to discuss questions of pseudepigraphical authorship of canonical books dispassionately with an unsophisticated audience.
To confuse the matter, some churches accept books as canonical which Roman Catholics and almost all Protestant denominations consider pseudepigraphical or at best of much less authority. And some churches reject books that both Roman Catholics and Protestants accept. The same is true of some Jewish sects. These are matters more appropriately discussed at Apocrypha.
There is a tendency not to use the word pseudepigrapha when describing works later than about 300C.E. when referring to Biblical matters. But see Gospel of Barnabas, Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius, and the author traditionally referred to as the “Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite“—a classic example of pseudepigraphy. There is also a category of modern pseudepigrapha.
Examples of Old Testament pseudepigrapha are the Ethiopian Book of Enoch, Jubilees, both of which are canonical in the Abyssinian Church of Ethiopia); the Life of Adam and Eve and the Pseudo-Philo. Examples of New Testament pseudepigrapha (but here also likely to be called New Testament Apocrypha) are the Gospel of Peter, the attribution of the Epistle to the Laodiceans to Paul, and Acts of Thomas, which few would claim was actually written by Thomas.
Retrieved from “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudepigraphy“
Life of Adam and Eve
The Life of Adam and Eve is a Jewish pseudepigraphical writing, the original of which was perhaps written around 70 BCE.
The texts that have survived are later variants written in Greek, Latin, Slavonic, Armenian, Georgian and Coptic (fragments only). These obviously go back for the most part to a single source and contain (except for obvious inserts in individual texts) no undeniable Christian teaching. Each language version contains material unique to itself as well as variations in the texts found in that language in what appears and doesn’t appear. The Greek variant was confusingly and incorrectly called Apocalypsis Mosis ‘Apocalypse of Moses‘ by Tischendorf, its first editor, and the name has stuck.
What appear to be extracts are also found in other later texts such as the Cave of Treasures.
The story begins immediately after Adam and Eve‘s exile from the Garden of Eden and continues to the death of Adam and then the death of Eve. There is no trace of the common story found elsewhere that Cain and Abel had twin sisters and Cain’s killing of Abel is passed over quickly. We are told however that Adam and Eve had thirty sons and thirty daughters.
For other pseudepigraphical works about Adam and Eve see Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan, Apocalypse of Adam and Testament of Adam.
The Adam and Eve Archive is an ongoing project by Gary Anderson and Michael E. Stone to present all the original texts in the original languages and in translation. It currently contains English translations of the most important texts and also a synopsis guide allowing the viewer to easily jump from a section in one source to the parallel sections in other sources
Adam and Eve
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
“Adam” and “Eve” redirect here. For other uses, see Adam (disambiguation) and Eve (disambiguation).
According to the Book of Genesis of the Bible and to the Qur’an, Adam was the first man created by God. Adam’s mate, Eve (or Hawa) was either created from his rib (Genesis 2.21-22), or created at the same time (Genesis 1.27) as Adam, depending on which part of Genesis is read and how it is interpreted. Depending on which tradition is believed, she may or may not have been the first woman, or Adam’s first wife.
Adam—אָדָם in Standard Hebrew, ʾĀḏām in Tiberian Hebrew, and آدم (ʾĀdam) in Arabic—means “man,” “earthy,” or “red.” Eve—חַוָּה (Ḥavva) in Standard Hebrew, Ḥawwāh in Tiberian Hebrew, and حواء (Ḥawwāʾ) in Arabic—means “living.” In Aramaic (חיויה,חיווי,xywy)— means snake.
“God created man [i.e. Adam] in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” According to this account, Adam was absolutely the first man whom God created. He was formed out of the dust of the earth (hence his name, which means “red earth”), and God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and gave him dominion over all the lower creatures (Gen. 1:26; 2:7).
According to the text, he died aged 930 years (the interpretation of how long a “year” is meant to be interpreted is the subject of much debate). Judaism holds the Cave of Machpelah in Hebron as the traditional burial place of Adam and Eve.
Later tales
In the Book of Jubilees, a daughter (Awân) is born to Adam and Eve after the birth of Abel, Seth, a daughter named Azûrâ, and nine other sons who are not named. Cain later marries Awân and Seth marries Azûrâ. But according to Genesis Rabba and other later sources, Cain had a twin sister and Abel had two twin sisters or Cain had a twin sister named Lebuda and Abel a twin sister named Qelimath. In The Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan, Cain’s twin sister is named Luluwa, and Abel’s twin sister is named Aklia.
There are a number of pseudepigraphical works about Adam and Eve:
· The Life of Adam and Eve in variant versions,
· The Testament of Adam,
· The Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan,
· The Gnostic Apocalypse of Adam.
According to some traditions, Adam had an earlier mate, Lilith.
A tradition not found in the Bible text holds that the forbidden fruit was an apple. The larynx in the human throat has been called Adam’s apple because of a notion that it was caused by the forbidden fruit sticking in the throat of Adam.
Some Biblical scholars have placed the Garden of Eden in what is now the Persian Gulf region. Others have suggested a location in Anatolia (Asia Minor)). Biblical geography had four rivers flowing from it: Tigris, Euphrates, Pishon and Gihon.
Adam in Islam
The Qur’an tells the story of Adam and Eve mainly in 2:30-39, 7:11-25, 15:26-44, 17:61-65, 20:115-124, 38:71-85. Eve is not mentioned by name in the Qur’an, but referred to as Adam’s spouse; however, her name is given in Islamic tradition as Hawwa, as in Hebrew.
While Adam is regarded as the first human in Islam, he is also seen as a prophet, in the sense that he was one of the people to whom God spoke. In the Qur’an, Allah (God) creates Adam of clay, and then told him “Be!” and he was. When God had announced his intention of creating Adam, the angels expressed dismay, asking why he would create a being that would do evil. But when He “taught Adam the names,” they saw that he knew more than they, and learned from Adam.
When God orders the angels to bow to Adam, the jinn Iblis (approximately equivalent to Satan) refuses due to his pride and is summarily banished from the heavens. However, he promises God that he will lead as many humans astray as he can, to which God replies that those who will it will follow Satan, while those who will it will follow God.
Adam and Eve were sent to live in the Garden of Eden. They were allowed to live as they pleased there, but not to taste the fruit from a certain tree. However, they both eventually succumbed to the temptation of Satan, who promised them immortality if they ate from it, and ate; they then saw their nakedness and covered themselves with leaves. God punished them by sending them out into the earth amid mutual enmity, but then took mercy upon them; warning them not to follow Satan, he promised them that all would be well for those who followed God’s guidance, while those who rejected it would suffer hellfire.
The Qur’an also describes the two sons of Adam (named Qabil and Habil in Islamic tradition, but not mentioned by name in the Qur’an) that correspond to Cain and Abel. Islamic traditions also hold that Adam’s Peak in Sri Lanka has an enormous footprint of Adam.
Liberal movements within Islam have used God’s command to bow before Adam as a means of supporting human rights.
Apocalypse of Adam
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The Apocalypse of Adam discovered in 1945 as part of the Nag Hammadi Library is a Gnostic work written in Coptic. It has no necessary references to Christianity and it is accordingly debated whether it is a Christian Gnostic work or an example of Jewish Gnosticism. It proclaims some sort of Sethian Gnosticism.
Adam in his 700th year tells Seth how he learned a word of knowledge of the eternal God from Eve and that he and Eve were indeed more powerful than their supposed creator. But that knowledge was lost in the fall when the subcreator separated Adam and Eve. Adam relates how three mysterious strangers brought about Seth’s begetting and so a preservation of this knowledge. Adam then prophecies at length attempts of the subcreator god to destroy mankind, including the prophecy of the great Deluge and of attempted destruction by fire but an Illuminator will come in the end. When the Illuminator comes, thirteen kingdoms proclaim thirteen different standard but conflicting birth legends about the Illuminator, but only the “generation without a king” proclaims the truth.
Non-Gnostic last words of Adam to Seth are found in Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan, the Life of Adam and Eve and the Testament of Adam.
[ Testament of Adam
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The Testament of Adam is a Christian pseudepigraphical work extant in Syriac and Arabic. The earliest manuscript is dated to the 6th century, but the text is 4th century CE in origin, probably composed in Edessa. It purports to relate the final words of Adam to his son Seth in which he speaks of prayer and then prophesies both the coming of the Messiah and the Great Flood.
Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan is a Christian pseudepigraphical work found in Ethiopic and Arabic, 5th century CE at earliest.
It was first translated from the Ethiopian version into German by Dillman, “Das christliche Adambuch” (Göttingen, 1853) translated into English by S. C. Malan as The Book of Adam and Eve, also called The Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan, 1882 London, Williams and Norgate, ISBN 0766145999.
About half of Malan’s translation is included as the “First Book of Adam and Eve” and the “Second Book of Adam and Eve” in the anthology The Forgotten Books of Eden (Alpha House, 1927), a volume many times reissued on its own (ISBN 051730886X, ISBN 1564596362, ISBN 0529033852) and combined with The Lost Books of Eden as The Lost Books of the Bible and the Forgotten Books of Eden (ISBN 0452009448, ISBN 1881316637, ISBN 9995244381).
The work begins immediately after the expulsion from the Garden of Eden and ends with the testmament and translation of Enoch.
Great emphasis on Adam’s sorrow and helplessness in the world outside the garden. The Sons of God who appear in Genesis are identified as the children of Seth and the Daughters of Men as women descended from Cain who successfully tempt most of the Sethites under the instigation of Genum son of Lamech, this Genum seemingly a conflation of the Biblical Jubal and Tubal-Cain.
For other pseudepigraphical books on Adam and Eve see Life of Adam and Eve, Apocalypse of Adam and Testament of Adam.
Other books concerning the life of Adam and Eve are The Apocalypse of Moses
and The Slavonic Adam and Eve
ix 1 And eighteen days passed by; then Satan was wroth and transformed himself into the brightness of angels, and went away to the river
2 Tigris to Eve, and found her weeping, and the devil himself pretended to grieve with her, and he began to weep and said to her: ‘Come out of the river and lament no more. Cease now from sorrow and moans. Why art thou anxious
3 and thy husband Adam? The Lord God hath heard your groaning and hath accepted your penitence, and all we angels have entreated on your behalf, and made supplication to the Lord;
4 and he hath sent me to bring you out of the water and give you the nourishment which you had in paradise, and for which you are crying
5 out. Now come out of the water and I will conduct you to the place where your victual hath been made ready.’
x 1 But Eve heard and believed and went out of the water of the river, and her flesh was (trembling)
2 like grass, from the chill of the water. And when she had gone out, she fell on the earth and the devil raised her up and led her to Adam.
3 But when Adam had seen her and the devil with her, he wept and cried aloud and said: ‘O Eve, Eve, where is the labour of thy penitence?
4 How hast thou been again ensnared by our adversary, by whose means we have been estranged from our abode in paradise and spiritual joy?’
xi 1 And when she heard this, Eve understood that (it was) the devil (who) had persuaded her to go out of the river; and she fell on her face on the earth and her sorrow and groaning and wailing
2 was redoubled. And she cried out and said: ‘Woe unto thee, thou devil. Why dost thou attack us for no cause? What hast thou to do with us? What have we done to thee? for thou pursuest us with craft? Or why doth thy malice
3 assail us? Have we taken away thy glory and caused thee to be without honour? Why dost thou harry us, thou enemy (and persecute us) to the death in wickedness and envy?’
xii 1 And with a heavy sigh, the devil spake: ‘O Adam! all my hostility, envy, and sorrow is for thee, since it is for thee that I have been expelled from my glory, which I possessed in the heavens
2 in the midst of the angels and for thee was I cast out in the earth.’ Adam answered, ‘What dost
3 thou tell me? What have I done to thee or what is my fault against thee? Seeing that thou hast received no harm or injury from us, why dost thou pursue us?’
xiii 1 The devil replied, ‘Adam, what dost thou tell me? It is for thy sake that I have been hurled
2 from that place. When thou wast formed. I was hurled out of the presence of God and banished from the company of the angels. When God blew into thee the breath of life and thy face and likeness was made in the image of God, Michael also brought thee and made (us) worship thee in the sight of God; and God the Lord spake: Here is Adam. I have made thee in our image and likeness.’
xiv 1 And Michael went out and called all the angels saying:
‘Worship the image of God as the Lord God hath commanded.’
And Michael himself worshipped first; then he called me and said: ‘Worship the image of God
3 the Lord.’ And I answered, ‘I have no (need) to worship Adam.’ And since Michael kept urging me to worship, I said to him, ‘Why dost thou urge me? I will not worship an inferior and younger being (than I). I am his senior in the Creation, before he was made was I already made. It is his duty to worship me.’
xv 1,2 When the angels, who were under me, heard this, they refused to worship him. And Michael saith, ‘Worship the image of God, but if thou wilt not worship him, the Lord God will be wrath
3 with thee.’ And I said, ‘If He be wrath with me, I will set my seat above the stars of heaven and will be like the Highest.’
xvi 1 And God the Lord was wrath with me and banished me and my angels from our glory; and on
2 thy account were we expelled from our abodes into this world and hurled on the earth. And
3 straightway we were overcome with grief, since we had been spoiled of so great glory. And we
4 were grieved when we saw thee in such joy and luxury. And with guile I cheated thy wife and caused thee to be expelled through her (doing) from thy joy and luxury, as I have been driven out of my glory.
xvii 1 When Adam heard the devil say this, he cried out and wept and spake: ‘O Lord my God, my life is in thy hands. Banish this Adversary far from me, who seeketh to destroy my soul, and give 2,3 me his glory which he himself hath lost.’ And at that moment, the devil vanished before him. But Adam endured in his penance, standing for forty days (on end) in the water of Jordan.
Walking by Faith 