Slavanic Life of Adam and Eve

SLAVONIC VITA ADAE ET EVAE

From-The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament
R.H. Charles
Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1913

xxviii 1 And we sat together before the gate of paradise, Adam weeping with his face bent down to the earth, lay on the ground lamenting. And seven days passed by and we had nothing
2 to eat and were consumed with great hunger, and I Eve cried with a loud voice: 'Pity me, O Lord, My Creator; for my sake Adam suffereth thus!'

xxxix 1 And I said to Adam: 'Rise up! my lord, that we may seek us food; for now my spirit faileth me and my heart within me is brought low.' Then Adam spake to me: 'I have thoughts of
2 killing thee, but I fear since God created thine image and thou showest penitence and criest to God; hence my heart hath not departed from thee.'

xxx 1 And Adam arose and we roamed through all lands and found nothing to eat save nettles (and) grass of the field. And we returned again to the gates of paradise and cried aloud and entreated: 'Have compassion on thy creature.
2 O Lord Creator, allow us food.'

xxxi 1 And for fifteen days continuously we entreated. Then we heard Michael the archangel and Joel
2 praying for us, and Joel the archangel was commanded by the Lord, and he took a seventh part of paradise and gave it to us. Then the
3 Lord said: 'Thorns and thistles shall spring up from under thy hands; and from thy sweat shalt thou eat (bread), and thy wife shall tremble when she looketh upon thee.'

xxxii 1 The archangel Joel said to Adam: 'Thus saith the Lord; I did not create thy wife to command thee, but to obey; why art thou obedient to thy wife?' Again Joel the archangcl bade Adam separate the cattle and all kinds of flying and creeping things and animals, both wild and tame; and to give names to all things. Then indeed
3 he took the oxen and began to plough.

xxxiii 1 Then the devil approached and stood before the oxen, and hindered Adam in tilling the field and said to Adam: 'Mine are the things of
2 earth, the things of Heaven are God's; but if thou wilt be mine, thou shalt labour on the earth; but if thou wilt be God's, (pray) go away to paradise.' Adam said: 'The things
3 of Heaven are the Lord's, and the things of earth and Paradise and the whole Universe.'

xxxiv 1 The devil said: 'I do not suffer thee to till the field, except thou write the bond that thou art mine.' Adam replied: 'Whosoever is lord of
2 the earth, to the same do I (belong) and my children.' Then the devil was overcome with joy. (But Adam was not ignorant that the Lord
3 would descend on earth and tread the devil under foot.) The devil said: 'Write me thy
4 bond.' And Adam wrote: 'Who is lord of the earth, to the same do I belong and my children.'

xxxv 1 Eve said to Adam, 'Rise up, my lord, let us pray to God in this cause that He set us free from that devil, for thou art in this strait on my account.'

But Adam said: 'Eve, since thou repentest of
2 thy misdeed, my heart will hearken to thee, for the Lord created thee out of my ribs. Let us fast forty days perchance the Lord will have pity on us and will leave us understanding and life.' I, for my part, said: 'Do thou, (my) lord,
3 fast forty days, but I will fast forty-four.'

xxxvi 1 And Adam said to me: 'Haste thee to the river, named Tigris, and take a great stone and place it under thy feet, and enter into the stream and clothe thyself with water, as with a cloak, up to the neck, and pray to God in thy heart and let no word proceed out of thy mouth.' And
2 I said: 'O (my) lord, with my whole heart will I call upon God.' And Adam said to me:
3 'Take great care of thyself. Except thou seest me and all my tokens, depart not out of the water, nor trust in the words, which are said to thee, lest thou fall again into the snare.' And
4 Adam came to Jordan and he entered into the water and he plunged himself altogether into the flood, even (to) the hairs of his head, while he made supplication to God and sent (up) prayers to Him.

xxxvii 1And there, the angels came together and all living creatures, wild and tame, and all birds that fly, (and) they surrounded Adam, like a wall, praying to God for Adam.

xxxviii 1 The devil came to me, wearing the form and brightness of an angel, and shedding big teardrops, (and) said to me: 'Come out of the water,
2 Eve, God hath heard thy prayers and (heard) us angels. God hath fulfilled the prayers of those who intercede on thy behalf. God hath sent me to thee, that thou mayst come out of the water.'

xxxix 1 But I (Eve) perceived that he was the devil and answered him nothing. But Adam (when) he returned from Jordan, saw the devil's footprints, and feared lest perchance he had deceived me; but when he had remarked me standing in the water he was overcome with joy (and) he took
2 me and led me out of the water.

xl 1 Then Adam cried out with a loud voice: 'Be silent, Eve, for already is my spirit straitened in my body; arise, go forth, utter prayers to God, till I deliver up my spirit to God.'

(Passage follows exactly parallel to Apocalypsis Mosis xxxii. seq., but in abbreviated form.)

Scanned and Edited by
Joshua Williams
Northwest Nazarene College, 1995