The ''Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan'' (also known as ''The Book of Adam and Eve'') is a 6th-century
Christian
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
extracanonical work found in
Ge'ez, translated from an
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
original.
It does not form part of the canon of any church.
Editions and translations
It was first translated from the
Ge'ez Ethiopic version into German by
August Dillmann
Christian Friedrich August Dillmann (25 April 18237 July 1894) was a German orientalist and biblical scholar.
Life
The son of a Württemberg schoolmaster, he was born at Illingen. He was educated at the University of Tübingen, where he became ...
. It was first translated into English by
S. C. Malan from the German of
Ernest Trumpp
Ernest Trumpp (13 March 1828 – 5 April 1885) was a Christian missionary sponsored by the Ecclesiastical Mission Society. He was also German professor of Oriental Languages at the University of Munich and a philologist. With an intent to convert ...
. The first 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 Lost Books of the Bible and the Forgotten Books of Eden
''The Lost Books of the Bible and the Forgotten Books of Eden'' (1926) is a collection of 17th-century and 18th-century English translations of some Old Testament Pseudepigrapha and New Testament apocrypha, some of which were assembled in the 1820s ...
''. The books mentioned below were added by Malan to his English translation; the Ethiopic is divided into sections of varying length, each dealing with a different subject.
Content
Books 1 and 2 begin immediately after the expulsion from the
Garden of Eden
In Abrahamic religions, the Garden of Eden ( he, גַּן־עֵדֶן, ) or Garden of God (, and גַן־אֱלֹהִים ''gan-Elohim''), also called the Terrestrial Paradise, is the Bible, biblical paradise described in Book of Genesis, Genes ...
, and end with the testament and translation of
Enoch
Enoch () ''Henṓkh''; ar, أَخْنُوخ ', Qur'ān.html"_;"title="ommonly_in_Qur'ān">ommonly_in_Qur'ānic_literature__'_is_a_biblical_figure_and_Patriarchs_(Bible).html" "title="Qur'ānic_literature.html" ;"title="Qur'ān.html" ;"title="o ...
. Great emphasis is placed in Book 1 on Adam's sorrow and helplessness in the
world
In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...
outside the
garden
A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate both ...
.
In Book 1, the punished
Serpent
Serpent or The Serpent may refer to:
* Snake, a carnivorous reptile of the suborder Serpentes
Mythology and religion
* Sea serpent, a monstrous ocean creature
* Serpent (symbolism), the snake in religious rites and mythological contexts
* Serp ...
attempts to kill Adam and Eve, but is prevented by God, who again punishes the Serpent by rendering it mute and casting it to India.
Satan
Satan,, ; grc, ὁ σατανᾶς or , ; ar, شيطانالخَنَّاس , also known as Devil in Christianity, the Devil, and sometimes also called Lucifer in Christianity, is an non-physical entity, entity in the Abrahamic religions ...
also attempts to deceive and kill Adam and Eve several times. In one of his attempts on their life, he throws a boulder which ends up encompassing Adam and Eve. God eventually saves them and compares this event with the upcoming
Resurrection of Christ
The resurrection of Jesus ( grc-x-biblical, ἀνάστασις τοῦ Ἰησοῦ) is the Christian belief that God raised Jesus on the third day after his crucifixion, starting – or restoring – his exalted life as Christ and Lord. ...
. God also predicts several other future Biblical events, including
Noah and the flood.
In Book 2, the "sons of God" who appear in are identified as the children of
Seth
Seth,; el, Σήθ ''Sḗth''; ; "placed", "appointed") in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Mandaeism, and Sethianism, was the third son of Adam and Eve and brother of Cain and Abel, their only other child mentioned by name in the Hebrew Bible. A ...
, and the "daughters of men" as women descended from
Cain
Cain ''Káïn''; ar, قابيل/قايين, Qābīl/Qāyīn is a Biblical figure in the Book of Genesis within Abrahamic religions. He is the elder brother of Abel, and the firstborn son of Adam and Eve, the first couple within the Bible. He wa ...
, who successfully tempt most of the Sethites to come down from their mountain and join the Cainites in the valley below, under the instigation of Genun, son of
Lamech. This Genun, as the inventor of musical instruments, seems to correspond to the Biblical
Jubal; however he also invents weapons of war. The Cainites, descended from Cain the first murderer, are described as exceedingly wicked, being prone to commit murder and incest. After seducing the Sethites, their offspring become the
Nephilim
The Nephilim (; ''Nəfīlīm'') are mysterious beings or people in the Hebrew Bible who are large and strong. The word ''Nephilim'' is loosely translated as ''giants'' in some translations of the Hebrew Bible, but left untranslated in others. ...
, the "mighty men" of Gen. 6 who are all destroyed in the deluge, as also detailed in other works such as ''
I Enoch'' and ''
Jubilees
The Book of Jubilees, sometimes called Lesser Genesis (Leptogenesis), is an ancient Jewish religious work of 50 chapters (1,341 verses), considered canonical by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church as well as Beta Israel (Ethiopian Jews), where it is ...
''.
Books 3 and 4 continue with the lives of
Noah
Noah ''Nukh''; am, ኖህ, ''Noḥ''; ar, نُوح '; grc, Νῶε ''Nôe'' () is the tenth and last of the pre-Flood patriarchs in the traditions of Abrahamic religions. His story appears in the Hebrew Bible (Book of Genesis, chapters 5– ...
,
Shem
Shem (; he, שֵׁם ''Šēm''; ar, سَام, Sām) ''Sḗm''; Ge'ez: ሴም, ''Sēm'' was one of the sons of Noah in the book of Genesis and in the book of Chronicles, and the Quran.
The children of Shem were Elam, Ashur, Arphaxad, L ...
,
Melchizedek
In the Bible, Melchizedek (, hbo, , malkī-ṣeḏeq, "king of righteousness" or "my king is righteousness"), also transliterated Melchisedech or Malki Tzedek, was the king of Salem and priest of (often translated as "most high God"). He is f ...
, etc. through to the destruction of Jerusalem by
Titus
Titus Caesar Vespasianus ( ; 30 December 39 – 13 September 81 AD) was Roman emperor from 79 to 81. A member of the Flavian dynasty, Titus succeeded his father Vespasian upon his death.
Before becoming emperor, Titus gained renown as a mili ...
in AD 70. The genealogy from Adam to Jesus is given, as in the Gospels, but including also the names of the wives of each of Jesus' ancestors, which is extremely rare.
Textual origin
''The
Cave of Treasures
The ''Cave of Treasures'' (Syriac ''M'drāth Gazzē'', Arabic ''Maghārat al-Kunūz'', Ge'ez ''Baʿāta Mazāgebet'' Tigrinya መዝገብ ገዛ ) sometimes referred to simply as ''The Treasure'', is an apocryphal and pseudoepigraphical work, th ...
'' is a Syriac work containing many of the same legends; indeed, as Malan remarks, a whole body of stories expanding upon the Old Testament is found in the Talmud, in the Koran, and in other late antique texts.
Contradiction with the Bible
* 1st Adam and Eve LXXVIII:16 says "Then on the morrow Adam said unto
Cain his son, 'Take of
thy sheep, young and good, and offer them up unto thy God; and I will speak to thy
brother, to make unto his God an offering of
corn.'" while says "And in process of time it came to pass, that
Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD. And
Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering:".
* Book 2 has discrepancies with Old Testament saint lifetimes:
** Enos lived 985 years (2nd Adam and Eve XIV:4) whereas the Bible says that he lived 905 years ().
** Mahalaleel lived 870 years (2nd Adam and Eve XVI:2) whereas the Bible says that he lived 895 years ().
** Jared lived 989 years (2nd Adam and Eve XXI:13
) whereas the Bible says that he lived 962 years ().
See also
*
Life of Adam and Eve
The ''Life of Adam and Eve'', also known in its Greek version as the ''Apocalypse of Moses'' (, ''Apokalypsis Mōuseōs''; Hebrew: ספר אדם וחוה), is a Jewish apocryphal group of writings. It recounts the lives of Adam and Eve from aft ...
*
Apocalypse of Adam
The Apocalypse of Adam, discovered at Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt in 1945, is a Sethian work of Apocalyptic literature dating to the first-to-second centuries AD. This tractate is one of five contained within Codex V of the Nag Hammadi library.
...
*
Testament of Adam
The Testament of Adam is a Christian work of Old Testament pseudepigrapha that dates from the 2nd to 5th centuries AD in origin, perhaps composed within the Christian communities of Syria. It purports to relate the final words of Adam to his son ...
*
Books of Adam
The Books of Adam is a collective name of several apocryphal books relating to Adam and Eve.
*The Book of Adam or "Contradiction of Adam and Eve", denigrated as "a romance made up of Oriental fables" by the 1913 edition of the ''Catholic Encyclop ...
References
External links
The ''First Book of Adam and Eve'' and the ''Second Book of Adam and Eve'', Malan's translation as modernized by Dennis Hawkins:
* From Project Gutenberg
First Book* From Blackmask
an
* From Dubjockey
an
* From Internet Archive:
Complete translation, including Books 3 and 4
* Fro
Live Search Books*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Conflict Of Adam And Eve With Satan
6th-century Christian texts
Old Testament apocrypha
Texts in Ge'ez
Satan
Old Testament apocrypha related with Adam and Eve