Adam and Eve

The Reading of Adam and Eve’s Expulsion from Paradise And it came to pass when Adam and Eve, his wife, came out of Paradise, they came out from the east side of Paradise. Adam made a tent for his dwelling. And both entered and stayed there seven days. Both wept with great weeping, for they longed for their former abodes of the kingdom from which they had been separated. And after the seven days they became hungry and sought food. Eve said to Adam: “My lord Adam, arise and seek food for me, so that we may eat until we see whether the Lord will have mercy on us and bring us back to that same place of Paradise.” And Adam arose after the seven days and wandered about the face of the earth. And he found no food like that which he had eaten in Paradise. Adam answered Eve and said: “We are dead with death.” Eve said to Adam: “Would that I had died and you alone had been received back into Paradise.” Adam answered Eve and said: “Great is the wrath upon us over all created things. I do not know whether it is because of me or because of you.

Eve answered Adam: “My lord, if it pleases you, kill me, so that I may be removed from the face of God and from his angels, so that the wrath of God upon you, which is because of me, may cease, and he may lead you back into Paradise.” Adam answered and said: “Do not, do not even remember that deed, lest God send another punishment upon us for the killing, as if I were to raise my hand to harm my own flesh.” Then Eve said: “Arise, let us both seek food.” And they found no taste like that fruit which was in Paradise. And Eve said: “This God created for the beasts, that they might be nourished, but for us the food was that life of the angels. Now come, and let us repent with great repentance for forty days, so that God may have mercy upon us and give us better food than that of the animals, so that we may not be like them.” Adam answered Eve and said: “Tell me now, with what kind of repentance do you repent, or for how many days are you able to repent of your repentance, lest we make a vow to God and fail to fulfill that vow which we have made?” Eve answered Adam and said: “Tell me the number of those days, how long the repentance should be; who knows, perhaps I may add to it, for I have brought these troubles upon you.

Adam answered and said to Eve: “I cannot add to you, but as much as I have told you, that much you shall stand and do. And I will repent for forty days, and you shall repent for thirty-four days. Those six days are forgiven me, because you were not created on that sixth day, on which God created every creature? Now you, arise and go to the river Tigris, and take a stone under your feet, and stand in the water, and cover yourself with a garment up to the neck. And until I pray, let no sound come from your mouth, for we are not worthy to open our mouths, because our lips are unclean from the transgression of that commandment concerning the food of paradise, which God did not command us. But be silent, and in that water repent: forty days with all your heart, and I will likewise do in the river Jordan, until God hears us and gives us food.” Eve went to the river Tigris and did as Adam commanded her, while Adam stood in the river Jordan, and the hairs of his head fell out.

And Adam said: “I tell you, Jordan, you shall toil together with me and gather all the beasts that are around you, so that they may stand around me and weep for me, not for their own sake, but for ours, for God has not deprived them of pasture, which God gave them from the beginning, whereas I have been deprived of my life and my food.” When Adam said this with bitter weeping, all the beasts gathered with him and stood around him like a wall. At that time, as the water of the Jordan ceased its flow, then Adam raised his voice toward God and turned the knee of his voice into a likeness of the voice of all the angels at all times. When those twelve days of his weeping were completed, the devil was terrified and changed his form and his garment by the deceit of his craftiness, and he went to Eve at the river Tigris and stood outside, and wept and dripped his false tears onto his garment and with the garment onto the ground. And he said to Eve: “Come out of the water and rest from your labors, for God has heard the repentance of you and of Adam, your husband. And we also have prayed because of your sorrows, which we have seen. And God sent me to bring you out and to give you food, for which you have repented.

Now when she came out of the water, for I am a messenger of Adam, and he sent me and said to me: "Go and tell my wife Eve and bring her to me." And I came and will take you to Adam, to that place where he is and where your sustenance is. Eve came out of the water, and her flesh was like grass withered by the scorching of the water. The whole form of her created beauty was transformed. And when she came out of the water, she fell upon the face of the earth with great weakness and lay motionless for two days. And after two days she arose, and the devil led her to where Adam was. And when Adam saw Eve, how she was following that devil, he began to weep bitterly and cried out with a loud voice and said: "Where are the commandments of repentance which you gave me, that I might again be deceived by that one through whom we are estranged from our abodes?" When Eve realized that it was the devil who had deceived her, she fell down before him, but Adam had twofold sorrow for Eve, for he saw her lying on the earth like a dead person. He was troubled and said with great lamentation, crying out: "Woe to you, our adversary, what evil have we done to you, for by your deceit our expulsion from paradise came about.

Now if we have cast you out, is your anger toward us? Or did we rob you of your glory? Or are you so diminished by our creation, for we alone are created by God, for we alone are called?" The devil began to weep with a weeping of compulsion, and the devil said to Adam: "O Adam, all the sorrow and anger, and all the affliction of my heart is toward you, for because of you I came out from my dwelling places, because of you I was made alien from my throne, my wings, which were more than those of the cherubim, were folded over me and I was hidden beneath them, because of you now my feet walk upon the earth, which I did not believe." Adam answered the devil and said: "What is my fault, by which you have done all this?" The devil answered and said: "You have not done this to me, but because of you I came down to earth, for on the day you were created, on that same day I came out from the face of God, for when God breathed the spirit into your face, you had the image and likeness of divinity. And Michael came, presented you, and made you bow down to God. And God said to Michael: 'I have created Adam in the likeness of my image and divinity.'

Then Michael came and summoned all the orders of angels and said to them: "Bow down to the likeness and image of the Godhead." And when Michael summoned them, all bowed down to you, and I too was summoned, and I said: "Remove yourself from me, for I will not bow down to one younger than me, for before him I am lord and he is not worthy of my bowing down." This was heard by the other angels of the six ranks, and my word pleased them, and they did not bow down to you. Then God became angry with us and commanded the casting down of me and of them from our dwelling place to earth, while he commanded that you should dwell in that paradise. When I realized that because of you I had fallen, and I was in distress while you were in repose, I envied you, so that I might make you also alien to that paradise of repose, just as I was made alien because of you." When Adam heard this, he cried out with a loud voice and said: "Lord, my life is in your hands; remove this enemy from me, who desires my deception and who seeks the destruction of my race, by whom Eve is ruined." At that moment Beliar became invisible. And Adam remained in that water and repented, while Eve lay prostrate on the ground as if dead.

And after that she rose from the earth and said to Adam: "Bless you, Adam, for you did not transgress the commandment either the first or the second. The word of God has overcome me." And Eve said: "Behold, I will go toward the west and eat grass like a beast until I die, for I am not worthy of the food of the living." And Eve went toward the west and dwelt there in mourning and lamentation. And after those days a flood came from the west. When she was three months pregnant and bore Cain in her womb, when the days of her delivery came, she was terrified and cried out with a loud voice to God and said: "Where is Adam, that he might comfort me in these my pains, or who will hear these my lamentations? There is none among the birds; come and go to Eve, your wife. I beseech you, all the races of heaven, and when you go to the east, tell my lord these my lamentations." And Adam heard the sound of her weeping and her wailing in the river Jordan. Then God heard the prayer of Adam and sent the angel Michael, and he brought to him a seed sealed with the divine seal to give to Adam.

And he taught them sowing and his work, so that they and all his descendants might live by it. And when Adam heard Eve’s prayer and that cry of her weeping from the west, he recognized her voice and said in his heart: “It is the voice of my rib, the voice of my ewe lamb; let me rise and see why she is crying out, or whether the serpent is again fighting her.” Adam rose and followed her track, and when he came to her from the west, where Eve was, and when Eve saw Adam, she wept with great weeping and said: “My lord Adam, have you not heard the voice of my weeping? For today it is nine days, and day and night this cry of mine has been to you; have not the creatures of the east told you of their rising, or have not the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth told you, for I besought them all that they might tell you! Rise and pray to your Creator, that he may have mercy and that God may hear you, and deliver me from my pains; or if it seems fitting, let him send death upon me, or deliver me from my sufferings by your prayer.” Adam prayed and spoke a petition for her before God. And the Lord heard him. And behold, twelve angels and two powers came from heaven. And they came to that place of Eve.

One of the powers came and touched Eve’s face and her breast and said to Eve: “Blessed are you, Eve, of Adam, the chosen one and servant of God, for great are his prayers before God, and because of him God has saved you. If it had not been for his intercession on your behalf, such a thorn would have been opened in your womb, and you would not have been able to escape from your sufferings. Arise now and prepare to give birth to a child.” Eve arose, as the angel taught her, and gave birth to a child, and its color was like that of a star. And it fell upon the hands of the threshing-floor, and began to gnaw at the grass, for on the floor of its mother’s womb there grew a plant of grass. That threshing-floor answered and said: “God is just, for he has never abandoned you in my hands, for you are Cain, the perverter and curser of good, for you are the uprooter of the fruitful tree and not the planter, you are the embitterer and not the sweetener.” And the power said to Adam: “Stay with Eve until the time of her child’s birth, so that you may teach him.” Then Adam brought forth Eve and that child and led them toward the east and settled them there. And when eight years were completed and the second month, Eve approached and gave birth to another son, to whom the power of God gave the name Abel, and settled him there together with the other.

At that time Eve said to Adam: “My lord Adam, in my sleep I saw that the blood of my son Abel was entering the mouth of Cain, his brother, and he was swallowing it mercilessly. And Abel was begging that he might release some of his blood, but he did not listen to him, but swallowed all of it, and it did not remain in his belly, but came out, was scattered among all his limbs, and did not depart from his body at all.” Adam answered Eve and said: “If indeed Cain intends murder, let us separate them from each other and let us be with them, so that we do not give place to wrath.” And they did so, as Adam said, and he said: “My children, come and let us each go to our own place.” Then God said to the angel Gabriel: “Tell Adam the secret counsel which you know, do not reveal it to Cain, for he is a child of wrath, for his brother is to be killed by him. But let Adam not be troubled on his account, for I will raise up Seth in his stead, and he will be like my image, and I will teach him everything that I remember, but do not reveal this to anyone without Adam.” This God said to that angel, and that angel said this word to Adam, and Adam kept that word in his heart. And both—Adam and his wife—were sorrowful.

And that time came, for Abel was killed by Cain, his brother, and he said: "God set an end for all men; it was not something else, that death, but that slaying, by which Abel was killed by Cain, and Cain's envy gave him over to death, for the race was of a jealous heart. And there were times when Cain and Abel were fulfilling their tasks in their field; two demons came, resembling Abel and Cain, and that demon was contending with the other demon, grew angry at him, and brought forth a knife of stone, which was a flint, and cut his throat and killed him. And when Cain saw that blood, he went quickly and took that stone in his own hand. But when Abel saw him coming upon him, he begged him: 'Do not kill me, brother Cain.' But he did not heed his plea and shed Abel's blood before him. And Adam and Eve grieved for a long time with great sorrow. And after this, Adam went in to his wife. Eve approached and bore Seth, resembling Adam. And Adam said to Eve: 'Behold, we have begotten a son in place of Abel, whom Cain killed before me.' And after this, Adam again begot thirty sons and thirty daughters, for all the years of Adam were nine hundred and thirty years. And from him they multiplied upon the earth and settled upon it.

And when the nine hundred and thirty years were completed, Adam fell ill, cried out with a loud voice and said: “Gather to me all my offspring, and let me see them before my death.” And all his descendants who were settled gathered to him, and three parts of the earth were occupied by his offspring. And all his offspring gathered to Adam, for they were settled before his gates, in the place which Adam had made, where he would enter and pray to God. And his sons said: “What is this, father Adam, or how does a man fall ill?” Seth, his son, answered and said: “Father Adam, what is the matter with you, or have you perhaps desired the fruit of paradise and your heart has told you and you grieve over it? If it is so, tell me and I will go before that paradise and pour dust on my head and weep. And let God hear me, and send his angel and bring me the fruit of paradise, and I will bring it to you, so that you may be relieved of your grief.” And Adam said: “My son Seth, it is not so, but I am sick and I am dying.” Seth answered: “Father, what is sickness, or how do you die?

Adam said to Seth: "My child, when God created me and your mother, and placed us in that paradise of delight, there was one of the trees, beautiful in that paradise, concerning which God commanded us, saying, 'Do not eat.' And the serpent deceived your mother and made her eat of it, from which we now die. At the time when those guardian angels and the worship of God were present, the enemy deceived her, and she ate of it, and she deceived me, my children, for I did not know. And God expelled us from paradise, me and your mother Eve, so that we might guard it. But to me He gave the east side and the north, and to your mother Eve He gave the south side and the west. And with us were, each one, seventy angels until the time of dawn, but every day they ascended upward. And at the time of their ascent, the serpent deceived your mother, and made her eat of that tree. And she saw that neither I nor the angels were there. She also made me eat, and I did not understand. When we ate, God became angry with us and said to us: 'You have despised my commandment, and I too will despise you.' And He sent seventy afflictions upon us, from the eyes and ears to the feet, beatings and unsparing wonders with treasures. This God did to me for the destruction of the fulfillment.

While Adam was saying this to his son Seth, he cried out and said: "What shall I do? I am in great suffering." [Eve] said with weeping: "My lord Adam, give me some of your pains, and let me bear this suffering of yours, for your pain is because of me, and I have caused these sufferings." And Adam said to Eve: "Arise and go with Seth, with my son, to the paradise, and sprinkle earth on your heads and weep before God, that he may have mercy upon us and send his angel to the paradise, where the tree of life is, from which oil flows, so that he may give you a little of that oil. And bring it to me here, that I may anoint myself and be relieved from my pains. Then I will reveal to you the whole manner by which we were deceived." When she heard this, Seth and Eve went to where Adam's paradise was. On their way, she saw one of her offspring, whom a beast was attacking and biting, that child. Then Eve began to weep and said: "Woe is me, for when I come to that day of judgment, all my sins will reproach me and say: 'First of all, you did not keep the commandments of God.'" Eve cried out and said to that evil beast: "O wicked beast, are you not afraid? Do you dare to attack and fight the image of God?

how did you dare to open your mouth, or how did your teeth not rot, or how did you not remember that first commandment of God? And you raised your mouth against the image of God?" Then that beast answered Eve and said to her: "It is not because of our anger that you are grieving and weeping, but because of your own anger you are grieving and weeping, for in the beginning you heeded that serpent-beast. How did you dare to open your mouth and eat from that tree, from which God forbade you to eat? But as for that which changes the taste of all forms, now you could not endure it, if I were to begin to speak and reproach you." Seth answered and said to that beast: "Shut your mouth and be silent, beast, and depart from us, away from the image of the Godhead, until that day when God will set you forth." Then the beast said to Seth: "Behold, I depart from you, from the image of God, from the God who is before the eyes." And when it left, that beast fled from Seth. And the man came, wounded, to that tent of Adam, his father, while Seth went to Eve in Paradise, and they wept by the wall of Paradise and there prayed to God that he might send his angel.

[And the Lord God sent the chief angel Michael], who is over the souls, and he said to Seth: "Man of God, do not begrudge that prayer of yours concerning that olive tree for anointing your father Adam; now it is not to be, but in those later times, when five thousand years are completed. And in the five-thousandth and half year, the beloved Son of God, Christ, will come down to earth, to fulfill the body of that Adam from his fall through the transgression of the commandments. He will come and be baptized in the river Jordan, and when he comes out of that water with oil, he will anoint him with it and all his descendants, so that they may rise at that time of resurrection. The Lord said: I will bring them there into paradise and anoint him with this ointment. But now go to your father Adam, for the days of his times are fulfilled; in three days his soul will depart from his body, and he will see many wonders in the heavens." When the angel had said this, he hid himself under that plant of paradise. Then Seth and Eve went to that tent of Adam's, and Adam was weeping over that wound from the beast, and he said to Eve: "What has happened to us, for a blow has come upon us, and upon all our race. For what your sins are, tell your children, for we shall die, I and you, and troubles will spread over the earth.

All the descendants who have come forth from us curse us and say: "Our parents brought this affliction upon us." Then Eve began to weep and said: "Hear me now, my children, and I will tell you how we sinned. And it was thus: your father tended his own portion of Paradise to the east and north, while I tended my own portion to the west and south. And the devil came to Adam's portion, and there were beasts there, for the Lord had divided the beasts among us: every male he gave to Adam, and every female he gave to me. And we each tended them separately. When the devil came to that portion of your father's, the devil called to the serpent and said: 'Arise and come to me, and I will reveal to you the benefit of deceit.' Then the serpent came, and the devil said to the serpent: 'You are wiser than all the animals, and I have come to test your knowledge, for Adam gives food to all the animals, even to you, when all the animals come to worship Adam day by day and morning by morning. Every day you too go to worship him. Were you not created before him, that you, so great, should worship that little one? And why do you eat the leftover and despised things, and not the good fruits of Paradise?'

But come and hear me, so that I may cast it outside the wall of Paradise. "And the devil entered into that serpent, cast his head over that wall of Paradise, cried out and said: 'Hail to you, woman, who are in the Paradise of delight, who are blind, come to me and I will tell you some secret word.' And when I came, he said to me: 'Eve!' And I said: 'Here I am.' He answered and said to me: 'What do you do in Paradise?' I answered and said: 'God appointed me to guard Paradise and to eat.' That devil answered and said to me through the mouth of the serpent: 'Do you eat well the fruit from every tree that is in that Paradise?' I answered and said: 'I eat every fruit, except that one tree, which is in the middle of this Paradise,' for God commanded us that we should not eat from it, lest you die by death.' "Then that serpent said to me: 'I am hungry, for your sake, for you are like beasts. God envied you and did not let you, but I do not desire your ignorance, but come and eat and see that glory which is to be with you.' But I said: 'I am afraid, lest I die, as God said.' That serpent answered and said to me: 'What is death, or how does one die? Death is life.'

I answered and said: "I do not know." He answered and said to me: "God is merciful, that you may not die; but when you eat, your eyes will be opened and you will be knowing, like God, of good and evil. God knew that you would become like him, and God was jealous of you; therefore God said to you: 'Do not eat of it.' Go to that tree and behold the glory around it." And as I went and beheld the glory around it, I said: "This tree is good, and its fruit is pleasing to my eyes; but I am afraid to reach out my hand and take it. But if you are not afraid, give it to me and I will eat and know whether these words of yours are true or not." That serpent answered and said to me: "Come and open the door for me, and I will give you some of it." And when I went and opened the door, and as it entered Paradise, it went and stood a little. I answered and said to it: "Why do you stand?" "But it, my children, began to speak deceitfully to me.

He answered and said to me: "For this I am lying, because I repented, lest you should have it and eat, and your eyes be opened, and you become like God, and know good and evil, and be filled with pride and envy Adam and not give to him to eat, and he remain like a beast before you, as you were before God, because God envied you. But if you wish, swear to me truly, that if I give you to eat, you will not envy your husband Adam, but will give to him also to eat." I answered and said to him: "I do not know an oath, how shall I swear to you?" And he said to me: "Say, I swear by those plants of paradise and by the cherubim upon which the Father sits, and who descends into that paradise. If I eat and know all, I will not envy, but will give to Adam also." And when he had exacted the oath from me, he plucked for me from that tree, and I ate. "And I gave to your father and we knew, for we were ashamed. And when God came into paradise, we hid ourselves from the face of the Lord, for we had both covered ourselves with a fig leaf. "And God called to Adam: 'Adam, Adam, where are you?' And he said: 'Here I am, Lord, for I was ashamed and hid myself.' But God said: 'And who told you that you were ashamed, if not he from whom you learned not to eat, from whom you ate?' And he said: 'This woman gave me.

And the Lord said to me: "What is this you have done?" And I said: "The serpent deceived me." And the Lord said to the serpent: "Be accursed, you also, and be cursed among all beasts; be deprived of your food, which you ate, and let earth be your food for all the days of your life; go upon your breast and your belly; be deprived of your hands and your feet; and let your ears and your nails not be; and let not even one of your bones remain; I have condemned you by the honorable cross, which my son shall raise up upon the earth, because of the deception with which you deceived. But you shall again be a flatterer and a tempter by the perversity of your heart; and I have placed enmity between you and the race of that woman; she shall strike your head, and you shall strike her heel, until the day of judgment." "Thus spoke the Lord and commanded the expulsion of us both from Paradise. Adam besought the angels and said: 'Wait for me, that I may pray to the Lord; who knows, perhaps the Lord will grant me repentance for this which I have done, and I shall not go out of Paradise.'" "Then the angels delayed our expulsion; Adam prayed to the Lord and said: 'I beseech you, forgive me, O Lord, for this which I have done.'

Then the Lord said to the angels: "Why did you delay the expulsion of Adam from paradise? Is it my fault, or did I not judge rightly?" Then the angels fell upon the earth and said with prostration to the Lord: "You are just, O Lord, and your judgment is righteous." The Lord turned and said to Adam: "You are not to remain in paradise." Adam answered and said to the Lord: "I beseech you, O Lord, give me also of that tree of life, that I may eat before my departure." Then the Lord spoke to Adam and said: "You shall no longer receive that for your life; I have stationed a fiery cherub and a revolving sword to guard it against you," so that you may not taste of it and be immortal and boast, saying: I have not died unto eternity. And the battle that the enemy waged against you took place. If you depart from paradise and keep yourself from all evil, and say: I have died and after death I shall rise again, then I shall give you of that tree of paradise and you shall be immortal unto eternity." When the Lord said this in paradise, your father wept before the angels, and they said to him: "What is it, or what has been done to you?

Then the Lord your Lord answered and said: "Behold, I am departing. Now I beseech you, that at this my departure I may take incense from paradise, so that when I go forth, I may offer incense of fragrant substances and God may hear me." And the angels permitted it. And he brought forth four fragrant spices: nard, crocus, reed, and jasmine—these Adam brought forth from paradise onto the earth. "But now, my children, I have revealed to you this entire form which we have learned, and I beseech you to guard yourselves and not to neglect the doing of good." This Eve said among her children, while Adam was sleeping in his illness. And on the second day his soul was to depart from his body. Eve said to Adam: "Why do you alone die while I am alive, or how long shall I remain, or what is to become of me after your death? Tell me." Then Adam said to Eve: "Do not be troubled, whatever you do. If we both die, you too are to be laid with me; and if I die, let them not remove me from my place until God commands you concerning me, for the Lord will not abandon me, but will seek the clay which he created. Arise and pray to God, that my soul may be commended into the hands of my Creator.

Because I do not know how I shall meet the Creator of all, whether He is angry or whether He will receive me." Then Eve arose and went out from Adam and said: "I have sinned against You, O God, I have sinned and I sinned before You, I sinned before Your chosen angels, I sinned before the cherubim, I sinned before the altar of Your holiness, I sinned before the races of heaven, I sinned before the birds of heaven, I sinned before the beasts of the earth, I have sinned against You, O God, with all my desire among all Your creatures, I beseech you all, creatures of heaven and earth, pray for me to the Lord of all." Eve prayed only upon her own feet, and immediately Michael the angel of men came and raised Eve up and said to her: "Arise from that repentance of yours, for Adam, your husband, has departed from the body. Arise and behold his soul, how it fares with its Creator." Eve arose and placed her hand upon her own face, and the angel ascended and said to Eve: "Lift up your eyes and separate yourself from earthly cares.

Then Eve, when she opened her eyes to heaven, saw the fiery chariots and the ascending light upon the four [wheels]; they were so brilliant that nothing could be compared to them in speech, and she was unable to perceive whether by belly or by back, and angels preceded those chariots. And when they arrived where the Father was, that chariot stopped, and the Seraphim stood between Him and the chariots. And I, Eve, saw a censer of three golds, and three angels came swiftly upon the altar. They brought incense and poured it into the censer, and those angels cast it upon it. And as they fanned it, smoke arose and covered the whole firmament of heaven. Those angels praised and worshipped, crying out and saying: "O God, forgive Adam, for he is Your image and the work of Your hands and Your creation." And I, Eve, saw two great lights fallen in fear before Him, and I wept and said to my son Seth: "Arise from the body of your father and come to me, and see what your eyes have not seen for the sake of your father." Then Seth arose and went to Eve, his mother, and said: "Why do you weep? Open your eyes and see the seven firmaments opened, and see the likeness of father Adam, how he stands before God.

And all the angels beseech for him and say: "Forgive, O God, Adam, for he is your image and likeness, for you created him." "O my child, let them not give those blood-colored ones to the deeds, for they were before God." Eve answered Seth and said: "Not so, mother, you do not know this, that you spoke of the blood-colored ones' redness." Eve answered and said: "I do not know, my child." Seth answered and said: "These are the sun and the moon, and they are prostrate and beseech for Adam, my father." "Where is the light of the sun, for there is no longer any with him? Or why is he so injured?" Seth answered and said to Eve: "Because his light was scattered before the God of all, and his light is black from fear of God." While Seth was saying this to Eve, suddenly a great angel blew the trumpet, and the angels who were fallen on their faces arose. They besought for Adam, cried out with a great voice and said: "Blessed are you, O Lord, who have accepted the first-created." And when the angels uttered this voice, one of the seraphim with six wings was sent to him, and he seized Adam at that lake of the cherubim and washed him three times, brought him before God, and laid him on his face for three hours.

And after that, God reached out his hand from his throne and raised up Adam, and gave him to Michael and said to him: "Lead this one to the third enclosure of paradise and leave him before the altar until the day of the resurrection, which I have in store together with all the fleshly ones with my beloved son." Then Michael led Adam to that place which God had commanded, and all the angels chanted the angelic psalm. They praised that wonder, the forgiveness of Adam, and that promise of the future. After this, Michael cried out to God, and God commanded the sanctuary to descend and the assembly of all the angels before God, each according to their orders, those who had censers and those who had hymns and those who struck the cymbals. And behold, the Lord of Hosts ascended upon the wings of the cherubim, and the angels from the seven heavens preceded him, and they came down to the earth, where the body of Adam lay. And all the angels sang hymns. And he first arrived at his own paradise, and the flowers of paradise were stirred by their fragrance; from the fragrance of the glorious God, all the descendants of Adam were lulled to sleep, except for Seth alone, for he was a descendant of the wealth of God.

And when the Lord came upon the prostrate body of Adam, the Lord grieved over him and said with a voice of sorrow: "If only you had kept my commandments, you would not be lying in this place, but I would have turned your joy into sorrow and brought you back to that dominion and seated you upon the thrones of your enemy, who sat upon that place, with whom that deception was found. He would depart from that place, and you would be seen sitting upon the thrones in that place." And after this, God commanded Michael and sent him to paradise, which is in the third heaven. They took three linen sheets inscribed with letters, and God said to Michael and Gabriel: "Unfold these sheets and wrap the body of Adam, and bring anointing oil from the fruit of the olive tree and pour it upon him." And three angels clothed him. And when they had clothed the body of Adam, God said: "Bring also the body of Abel, and take other sheets and clothe him as well, for he has lain unclothed from that day when Cain the wicked killed him, and he wished to bury him in the earth but could not, for his body came forth from the earth. And a voice was heard from heaven. And it said to him: 'This one cannot be buried in the earth, unless the first-created returns to the earth from which he was made.'

At that time, he brought him upon some rock and laid him there, until Adam died. Then they brought and clothed him as their own father. God commanded the taking of both from the side of Paradise toward the east, at that place where God took the earth and created Adam, and God commanded Michael to dig. And God sent seven angels to Paradise, and they brought much fragrance from Paradise and spread it over them. And they anointed the bodies of both of them. They placed them in the tomb and covered them, and God turned and called to Adam. The body of Adam answered from the earth and said: "Behold, here is Pharaoh." And the Lord said to him: "Behold, I told you that you are earth and to earth you shall return, but the resurrection which I promised you, I shall raise you at the time of resurrection." And after this, God took the seal, the key, and sealed the tomb of Adam and said: "Let no one touch these until the days when your side returns to you." Then God ascended to heaven, and the angels each to their own orders. But Eve was exhausted, behold, she saw everything. Eve wept and wished to see where they had laid Adam, for she did not know. When the Lord descended to earth, the fragrance of all the trees of Paradise was surpassed by his fragrance, for from that fragrance all were exhausted.

Until the clothing and burial of Adam, no one knew except Seth; and Eve prayed, weeping, that they might bring her and show her where they had laid Adam. And when she had finished that prayer, she said: "Lord, do not make me a stranger to that place of Adam, but command that I also be with him, just as we both were in Paradise inseparable from each other; in our death do not separate me, but wherever he is laid, there let me be also." And after her prayer, she gave up her spirit. And the angel Michael came and taught Seth how to clothe Eve. Three angels came and took the body of Eve and laid it where they had laid the body of Adam. After this, the angel Michael said: "Clothe every dead person who dies in this way, until the end of all men." When he had taught Seth all this, he ascended to heaven from Seth and said to him: "Do not mourn for the dead more than five days, but on the seventh day rejoice, for on that day the Lord rested from all his works which the Lord had made," whose glory and honor and worship are with the Father and the Holy Spirit now and forever and unto the ages of ages, amen.