Testament of Adam
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Testament of Adam is a
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 ...
work of
Old Testament pseudepigrapha Pseudepigrapha are falsely attributed works, texts whose claimed author is not the true author, or a work whose real author attributed it to a figure of the past.Bauckham, Richard; "Pseudo-Apostolic Letters", ''Journal of Biblical Literature'', V ...
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 Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...
to his son
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 ...
; Seth records the Testament and then buries the account in the legendary Cave of Treasures. Adam speaks of prayer and which parts of Creation praise God each hour of the day; he then prophesies both the coming of the
Messiah In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; , ; , ; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of ''mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach'' ...
and the
Great Flood A flood myth or a deluge myth is a myth in which a great flood, usually sent by a deity or deities, destroys civilization, often in an act of divine retribution. Parallels are often drawn between the flood waters of these myths and the primaeval ...
; and finally, a description of the celestial hierarchy of angels is given. The work was likely originally written in
Syriac Syriac may refer to: *Syriac language, an ancient dialect of Middle Aramaic *Sureth, one of the modern dialects of Syriac spoken in the Nineveh Plains region * Syriac alphabet ** Syriac (Unicode block) ** Syriac Supplement * Neo-Aramaic languages a ...
. Manuscripts are extant in Syriac,
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 ...
, Karshuni, Ethiopic,
Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...
,
Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...
, and
Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
. The earliest surviving manuscript is dated to the 9th century, and there appear to be three major
recension Recension is the practice of editing or revising a text based on critical analysis. When referring to manuscripts, this may be a revision by another author. The term is derived from Latin ''recensio'' ("review, analysis"). In textual criticism (as ...
s of the text.


Authorship and date

The author of the work is unknown. The date of composition was likely somewhere between the
2nd century The 2nd century is the period from 101 ( CI) through 200 ( CC) in accordance with the Julian calendar. It is considered part of the Classical era, epoch, or historical period. Early in the century, the Roman Empire attained its greatest ex ...
to the
5th century The 5th century is the time period from 401 ( CDI) through 500 ( D) ''Anno Domini'' (AD) or Common Era (CE) in the Julian calendar. The 5th century is noted for being a period of migration and political instability throughout Eurasia. It saw the ...
; S. E. Robinson hypothesizes that the mid-to-late
third century The 3rd century was the period from 201 ( CCI) to 300 ( CCC) Anno Domini (AD) or Common Era (CE) in the Julian calendar.. In this century, the Roman Empire saw a crisis, starting with the assassination of the Roman Emperor Severus Alexander i ...
as the best guess. They probably were a Syrian or Palestinian Christian, as certain wordplay and
pun A pun, also known as paronomasia, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use of homophoni ...
s seem unique to Syriac in the oldest versions, along with a quote of Zechariah 1:8 that matches the Syriac
Peshitta The Peshitta ( syc, ܦܫܺܝܛܬܳܐ ''or'' ') is the standard version of the Bible for churches in the Syriac tradition, including the Maronite Church, the Chaldean Catholic Church, the Syriac Catholic Church, the Syriac Orthodox Church, the ...
version rather than the Greek
Septuagint The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond th ...
version. There appears to be a quotation of the work in the Syriac version of the ''
Transitus Mariae The Assumption of Mary is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Pope Pius XII defined it in 1950 in his apostolic constitution ''Munificentissimus Deus'' as follows: We proclaim and define it to be a dogma revealed by Go ...
'', generally thought to date to the late 4th century. The third section of the work, the celestial hierarchy, does not appear closely linked to the rest of the work; it is thus possible it was composed independently before being combined with the work at some point in the 5th–7th centuries. The author was likely compiling and modifying an existing piece of
Jewish apocrypha The Jewish apocrypha () are books written in large part by Jews, especially during the Second Temple period, not accepted as sacred manuscripts when the Hebrew Bible was canonized. Some of these books are considered sacred by most Christians, and ...
. What was originally a Jewish
midrash ''Midrash'' (;"midrash"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''.
he, מִדְרָשׁ; ...
on the story of Creation was expanded to include a defense of Christianity's claim that Jesus was the promised Jewish Messiah. This suggests a community that was admiring of Judaism, as contrasted to other branches of Christianity which strongly rejected Judaism in the era of the late Roman Empire; for this author, Jesus was a continuation of a grand Jewish tradition.


Content

The text is pseudepigraphically attributed to Adam's son
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 ...
, who wrote the Testament then sealed it within the Cave of Treasures. The first section, called the
Horarium This is a glossary of terms used within the Catholic Church. Some terms used in everyday English have a different meaning in the context of the Catholic faith, including brother, confession, confirmation, exemption, faithful, father, ordinary, r ...
by S. E. Robinson, consists of describing which creatures praise God at each hour, and how they do so. It is notably a unitary view of God's dominion over creation rather than a
dualist Dualism most commonly refers to: * Mind–body dualism, a philosophical view which holds that mental phenomena are, at least in certain respects, not physical phenomena, or that the mind and the body are distinct and separable from one another ** ...
one: all, from demons to the fire to grass to humans to angels, serve God. In the second section, called the Prophecy by Robinson, Adam reveals hidden information to Seth. He tells of the creation and fall of man, speaks of the coming
Great Flood A flood myth or a deluge myth is a myth in which a great flood, usually sent by a deity or deities, destroys civilization, often in an act of divine retribution. Parallels are often drawn between the flood waters of these myths and the primaeval ...
, prophecies of the
Passion of Jesus Christ In Christianity, the Passion (from the Latin verb ''patior, passus sum''; "to suffer, bear, endure", from which also "patience, patient", etc.) is the short final period in the life of Jesus Christ. Depending on one's views, the "Passion" m ...
, and the final end of the world. God also promises to make Adam a god, but "not right now"; the delay is due to Adam's sin in eating the
forbidden fruit Forbidden fruit is a name given to the fruit growing in the Garden of Eden which God commands mankind not to eat. In the biblical story, Adam and Eve eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and are exiled from Eden. As a ...
, identified here as a
fig The fig is the edible fruit of ''Ficus carica'', a species of small tree in the flowering plant family Moraceae. Native to the Mediterranean and western Asia, it has been cultivated since ancient times and is now widely grown throughout the world ...
. God says he will
deify Apotheosis (, ), also called divinization or deification (), is the glorification of a subject to divine levels and, commonly, the treatment of a human being, any other living thing, or an abstract idea in the likeness of a deity. The term has ...
Adam after God's (Jesus's) resurrection, and Adam will sit at the right hand of God. The third section, called the Hierarchy by Robinson, includes a detailed
angelology In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God. Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles include ...
that describes all nine orders of angels and their functions. In order from lowest to highest,
angel In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God. Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles include ...
s act as
guardian angel A guardian angel is a type of angel that is assigned to protect and guide a particular person, group or nation. Belief in tutelary beings can be traced throughout all antiquity. The idea of angels that guard over people played a major role in A ...
s, with one for each human.
Archangel Archangels () are the second lowest rank of angel in the hierarchy of angels. The word ''archangel'' itself is usually associated with the Abrahamic religions, but beings that are very similar to archangels are found in a number of other relig ...
s care for non-humans such as animals and birds. Archons control the weather. Authorities govern the sources of light in the sky above: the sun, the moon, and the stars.
Power Power most often refers to: * Power (physics), meaning "rate of doing work" ** Engine power, the power put out by an engine ** Electric power * Power (social and political), the ability to influence people or events ** Abusive power Power may a ...
s stop demons from destroying the world in their jealousy of humanity.
Dominion The term ''Dominion'' is used to refer to one of several self-governing nations of the British Empire. "Dominion status" was first accorded to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, South Africa, and the Irish Free State at the 1926 ...
s rule over political kingdoms and control victory and defeat in battle. The text describes one as riding a red horse and killing thousands under the Assyrian king, along with a reference to the
2 Maccabees 2 Maccabees, el, Μακκαβαίων Β´, translit=Makkabaíōn 2 also known as the Second Book of Maccabees, Second Maccabees, and abbreviated as 2 Macc., is a deuterocanonical book which recounts the persecution of Jews under King Antiochus I ...
version of the
Battle of Beth Zur The Battle of Beth Zur was fought between the Maccabees led by Judas Maccabeus (Judah Maccabee) and a Seleucid Greek army led by Regent Lysias in October 164 BC at Beth Zur. According to the books of Maccabees, the rebels won the battle, alt ...
where an angel armed with a golden weapon helped send the Seleucid army to flight.
Thrones A throne is a seat of state for a potentate or dignitary. Throne or Thrones may also mean: People * Throne (surname) Arts and entertainment *The Throne (group), collaboration pseudonym for rappers Jay Z and Kanye West (as on Drake's "Pop Style") * ...
guard the gate of the holy of holies and stand before the throne of God.
Cherubim A cherub (; plural cherubim; he, כְּרוּב ''kərūḇ'', pl. ''kərūḇīm'', likely borrowed from a derived form of akk, 𒅗𒊏𒁍 ''karabu'' "to bless" such as ''karibu'', "one who blesses", a name for the lamassu) is one of the u ...
carry the throne of the Lord and are keepers of the divine seals.
Seraphim A seraph (, "burning one"; plural seraphim ) is a type of celestial or heavenly being originating in Ancient Judaism. The term plays a role in subsequent Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Tradition places seraphim in the highest rank in Chris ...
serve in the inner chamber.


Similar works

The first section of the story is similar to
Psalm 148 Psalm 148 is the 148th psalm of the Book of Psalms, beginning in English in the King James Version: "Praise ye the Lord from the heavens". In Latin, it is known as "Laudate Dominum de caelis". The psalm is one of the Laudate psalms. Old Testamen ...
, another account of how all creation praises God. Similar apocryphal works include the Gnostic
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. ...
, the
Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan The ''Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan'' (also known as ''The Book of Adam and Eve'') is a 6th-century Christian extracanonical work found in Ge'ez, translated from an Arabic original. It does not form part of the canon of any church. Editio ...
, and the
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 ...
. The work (along with the Syriac version of
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, t ...
) seems to have influenced the
Arabic Apocalypse of Peter The Apocalypse of Peter or Vision of Peter (Arabic: ''Ru'ya Buṭrus''), also known as the Book of the Rolls (Arabic: ''Kitāb al-Magāll'') and other titles, is a Miaphysite Christian work probably written in the 10th century; the late 9th centur ...
, another pseudepigraphical text popular in Syrian Christianity dated to the 9th–10th centuries. The angelology of the third section may have influenced the
Book of the Bee __NOTOC__ The ''Book of the Bee'' ( syr, ܟܬܒܐ ܕܕܒܘܪܝܬܐ / Ktābā d-debboritā) is a historiographic and theological compilation, containing numerous Biblical stories. It was written around 1222, by Solomon of Akhlat, who was Bishop of ...
, a 13th century Syriac work.


Notes


References


External links


Early Jewish Writings: ''Testament of Adam''
a discussion of the work.

an English translation of the ''Testament of Adam'' by E. A. Wallis Budge. {{Authority control Old Testament pseudepigrapha Old Testament pseudepigrapha related with Adam and Eve 3rd-century Christian texts Texts in Syriac