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.

After that the holy archangel entreated the Most High concerning the body of Adam.  And God commanded all the angels to come before Him, every one in his order; and they gathered themselves together, bearing censers and trumpets and vials full of odours.  And the Lord of Hosts went up, and the great winds before Him, and the Cherubim flying upon the winds, and the angels of heaven round about Him.  And they bore up the body of Adam and carried it into the garden.  And all the trees of the garden bowed and swayed and gave forth their odours.  And because of the greatness of that sight, and of the sweetness of the odours of Paradise, all the sons of Adam, and all that were on the earth, were cast into a deep sleep, saving Seth only.

Now as the body of Adam lay in Paradise, God said, “O Adam, why didst thou transgress My commandment?  For if thou hadst kept it, they that persecute thee would not have rejoiced against thee.  Nevertheless I say unto thee, that hereafter I will turn their joy into sorrow, and thy sorrow into joy.”

Then the angels brought shrouds of silk and fine linen, and God commanded Michael, Gabriel, Uriel, and Raphael, and they wrapped up the body of Adam therein, and anointed it with sweet odours.  And the Lord said, “Bring hither also the body of Abel.”  For since the day when Gain slew him, the body of Abel had not been buried:  because Gain often sought to hide it, but the earth would not receive it, until the dust that was first taken out of her and made into a body, that is, the body of Adam, should be restored to her.

So the body of Abel was brought and wrapped in grave-clothes like that of Adam; and they were both of them buried in the place from which God took the dust when He formed Adam at the first, and the angels dug the grave and covered it in.

And when this was done, God called to the body, saying, “Adam, Adam!” And the body answered, “Here am I, Lord.”  And the Lord said, “I said unto thee, ‘Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return.’  Behold now I promise thee that in the last days I will raise thee up yet again out of the dust, even thee and all thy seed with thee.”  And God sealed the tomb that no man should touch it until six days were fulfilled, and the rib which was taken out of Adam should be given back to him.

After these things Eve awoke out of her sleep, and was troubled because she knew not what had become of the body of Adam; and she prayed, saying, “Lord, as Thou didst make me out of the flesh of Adam, and as I was with him in the garden, and after we were cast out I was never parted from him, so now, I beseech thee, suffer me to be buried with him, and let no man part us asunder.”  And on the seventh day after the death of Adam, Eve was thus praying; and when she had ended her prayer, she looked up into heaven and smote her breast and said, “Lord God of all things, receive my spirit.”  And so she gave up her soul to God.

And immediately the angels came and took her body, and buried it in the place where the bodies of Adam and Abel were laid.

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Project Gutenberg
Old Testament Legends from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.