Old Testament Legends eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 118 pages of information about Old Testament Legends.

Old Testament Legends eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 118 pages of information about Old Testament Legends.

Adam and Eve therefore took the sheep-skins, and there came an angel who showed them how to sew them together with palm-thorns and sinews, and they made them into raiment.

Again, God showed them a land where corn was growing, and told them how they might use it for bread; for it was ripe, and they gathered the ears and made an offering of the first ears.  And Satan came and burnt part of the corn; but the angels drove him away.

Many other times also did Satan try to destroy Adam and Eve, coming to them disguised as an angel and enticing them into the wilderness; and again, when they were sleeping on the side of a mountain outside their cave, he loosened a great rock above them that it might fall and crush them; but the angels of God caught it and fixed it like a roof over the heads of Adam and Eve, and when they awoke they were astonished.  And once he fell upon Adam and smote him in the side with a sharp stone so that he almost slew him.  Nevertheless, in all these perils Adam and Eve put their trust in God, and He protected them and healed them.  And after a time Satan perceived that he would not be able to destroy them by injuring their bodies, and that they would not listen to him when he tempted them to disobey God.  So Satan’s war against Adam was defeated.

This is the first part of the story of Adam, as it is told in an old book called The Conflict of Adam and Eve.  It is only part of the story; I have left out a great deal.  The second part of the story is taken from a Greek book called The Revelation of Moses, and a Latin one called The Life of Adam and Eve.  It tells how Adam died and was buried.

THE DEATH OF ADAM AND EVE

Adam lived for 930 years; and there were born to him thirty sons and thirty daughters.  And when he was 930 years old he fell sick, and sent for all his children, and for their children also, saying, “Come and let me see you before I die.”  They all gathered together therefore at the door of his dwelling, saving Gain, who was a wanderer upon the face of the earth; but Seth was the eldest of those that came, and he was the most beloved son of Adam and Eve.

And Seth said to his father, “Father, what is the matter with you?” And Adam answered, “Great pain and sickness is upon me.”  And his children said, “What mean you by pain and sickness?” For as yet no one had died upon the earth except Abel, whom Gain slew.  Then said Seth, “Father, is it because you long after the garden and desire the fruit of it?  If it be so, command me, and I will go to the gate, and cast dust upon my head, and weep and pray; and God will send His angel, and it may be He will suffer me to bring you some of the fruit of the garden, and you shall eat it and recover.”  Eve also wept and said, “My lord Adam, give me the half of your disease, and let me bear it for you; because it is through my fault that this evil has come upon you.”  Then said Adam, “I will tell you what you shall do, even you and my son Seth:  you shall go to the garden and pray there as you have said, and ask the angel to give me some of the oil of mercy that flows from the Tree of Life, and bring it to me that I may anoint my body with it, and be eased from my pain.”

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Old Testament Legends from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.