Legends of the Patriarchs and Prophets
by S. Baring-Gould · English · Gutenberg #48736 · 848,112 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: Legends of the Patriarchs and Prophets
Author: S. Baring-Gould
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Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LEGENDS OF THE PATRIARCHS AND PROPHETS ***
LEGENDS
OF THE
PATRIARCHS AND PROPHETS.
LEGENDS
OF THE
PATRIARCHS AND PROPHETS
AND OTHER
OLD TESTAMENT CHARACTERS
FROM VARIOUS SOURCES
BY THE
REV. S. BARING-GOULD, M.A.
_Author of “Curious Myths of the Middle Ages,” “The Origin and
Development of Religious Belief,” “In Exitu Israel,” etc._
[Publisher's Logo]
NEW YORK:
AMERICAN BOOK EXCHANGE,
764 BROADWAY.
1881.
PREFACE.
An incredible number of legends exists connected with the personages
whose history is given in the Old Testament. The collection now
presented to the public must by no means be considered as exhaustive.
The compiler has been obliged to limit himself as to the number, it
being quite impossible to insert all. He trusts that few of peculiar
interest have been omitted.
The Mussulman traditions are nearly all derived from the Talmudic
writers, just as the history of Christ in the Koran is taken from the
Apocryphal Gospels. The Koran follows the “Sepher Hajaschar” (Book
of the Just) far more closely than the canonical Scriptures; and the
“Sepher Hajaschar” is a storehouse of the Rabbinic tradition on the
subject of the Patriarchs from Adam to Joshua.
The Jewish traditions are of various value. Some can be traced to
their origin without fail. One class is derived from Persia, as, for
instance, those of Asmodeus, the name of the demon being taken, along
with his story, from Iranian sources. Another class springs from the
Cabbalists, who, by permutation of the letters of a name, formed the
nuclei, so to speak, from which legends spread.
Another class, again, is due to the Rabbinic commentators, who, unable
to allow for poetical periphrasis, insisted on literal interpretations,
and then coined fables to explain them. Thus the saying of David,
“_Thou hast heard me from among the horns of the unicorns_,” which
signified that David was assisted by God in trouble, was taken quite
literally by the Rabbis, and a story was invented to explain it.
Another class, again, is no doubt due to the exaggeration of Oriental
imagery, just as that previously mentioned is due to the deficiency of
the poetic fancy in certain Rabbis. Thus, imagination and defect of
imagination, each contributed to add to the store.
But when we have swept all these classes aside, there remains a
residuum, small, no doubt, of genuine tradition. To this class, if I am
not mistaken, belong the account of Lamech and his wives, and the story
of the sacrifice of Isaac. In the latter instance, the type comes out
far clearer in the Talmudic tradition that in the canonical Scriptures;
and this can hardly have been the result of Jewish interpolation,
knowing, as they did, that Christians pointed triumphantly to this type.
* * * * *
With regard to Jewish traditions, it is unfortunate that both
Eisenmenger and Bartolocci, who collected many of them, were so
prejudiced, so moved with violent animosity against the Rabbinic
writers, that they preserved only the grotesque, absurd, and
indecent legends, and wholly passed over those--and there are many of
them--which are redolent of poetry, and which contain an element of
truth.
* * * * *
A certain curious interest attaches to these legends--at least, I think
so; and, should they find favor with the public, this volume will
be followed by another series on the legends connected with the New
Testament characters.
The author is not aware of any existing collection of these legends,
except that of M. Colin de Plancy, “Legendes de l’Ancien Testament,”
Paris, 1861; but he has found this work of little or no use to him
in composing his volume, as M. de Plancy gives no reference to
authorities; and also, because nearly the whole of the contents
are taken from D’Herbelot’s “Bibliothèque Orientale” and Migne’s
“Dictionnaire des Apocryphes.”
It will be necessary to add a few words on certain works largely quoted
in the following pages.
1. Dr. G. Weil’s “Biblische Legende der Muselmänner,” Frankfurt a. M.,
1845, is derived from three Arabic MS. works--“_Chamis_,” by Husein
Ibn Mohammed Ibn Alhasan Addiarbekri; “_Dsachirat Alulun wanatidjat
Alfuhum_,” by Ahmed Ibn zein Alabidin Albekri; and “_Kissat Alanbija_,”
by Mohammed Ibn Ahmed Alkissai.
2. The Chronicle of Abou-djafar Mohammed Tabari was translated into
Persian by Abou Ali Mohammed Belami, who added sundry traditions
circulating in Persia; and has been rendered into French, in part, by
M. Hermann Zolenberg, for the Oriental Translation Fund, Paris, 1867.
3. The “Sepher Hajaschar,” or Book of Jasher (Yaschar), is quoted from
the translation by Le Chevalier P. L. B. Drach, inserted in Migne’s
“Dictionnaire des Apocryphes.”
4. Eisenmenger, “Neuentdektes Judenthum,” 2 vols. 8vo, Königsburg,
1711, contains a great many Rabbinic traditions collected from sources
inaccessible to most persons.
5. Bartolocci, “Bibliotheca Magna Rabbinica,” 4 vols. fol., Rome,
1675-93, is a very valuable storehouse of information, but sadly
disfigured by prejudice.
CONTENTS.
PAGE.
PREFACE v
I.
THE FALL OF THE ANGELS 15
II.
ADAM 21
1. The Creation of Man 21
2. The Pre-Adamites 27
III.
EVE 29
IV.
THE FALL OF MAN 36
V.
ADAM AND EVE AFTER THE FALL 48
VI.
CAIN AND ABEL 69
VII.
THE DEATH OF ADAM 77
VIII.
SETH 81
IX.
CAINAN SON OF ENOS 84
X.
ENOCH 85
1. The Translation of Enoch 85
2. The Book of Enoch 87
XI.
THE GIANTS 91
XII.
LAMECH 96
XIII.
METHUSELAH 98
XIV.
NOAH 99
XV.
HEATHEN LEGENDS OF THE DELUGE 106
XVI.
THE PLANTING OF THE VINE 121
XVII.
THE SONS OF NOAH 124
XVIII.
RELICS OF THE ARK 126
XIX.
CERTAIN DESCENDANTS OF HAM 127
XX.
SERUG 130
XXI.
THE PROPHET EBER 131
XXII.
THE PROPHET SALEH 136
XXIII.
THE TOWER OF BABEL 144
XXIV.
ABRAHAM 149
1. His Youth and early Struggles 149
2. The Call of Abraham, and the Visit to Egypt 162
3. The War with the Kings 166
4. The Birth of Ishmael 171
5. The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah 172
6. The Birth of Isaac 177
7. The Expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael 181
8. The Strife between the Shepherds 185
9. The Grove in Beer-sheba 186
10. The Offering of Isaac 187
11. The Death of Sarah 197
12. The Marriage of Isaac 201
13. The Death of Abraham 203
XXV.
MELCHIZEDEK 205
XXVI.
OF ISHMAEL AND THE WELL ZEMZEM 210
XXVII.
ESAU AND JACOB 215
XXVIII.
JOSEPH 227
XXIX.
THE TESTAMENTS OF THE TWELVE PATRIARCHS 243
XXX.
JOB 245
XXXI.
JETHRO 251
XXXII.
MOSES 252
1. Israel in Egypt 252
2. The Birth and Childhood of Moses 259
3. The Youth and Marriage of Moses 266
4. Moses before Pharaoh 275
5. The Passage of the Red Sea 283
6. The giving of the Law 288
7. The Manna 292
8. The Smitten Rock 294
9. Moses visits El Khoudr 295
10. The Mission of the Spies 298
11. Of Korah and his Company 301
12. The Wars of the Israelites 304
13. The Death of Aaron 307
14. The Death of Moses 310
XXXIII.
JOSHUA 315
XXXIV.
THE JUDGES 319
XXXV.
SAMUEL 319
XXXVI.
SAUL 325
1. War with the Philistines.--Goliath slain 325
2. Saul’s Jealousy of David 329
3. The Death of Saul 331
XXXVII.
DAVID 323
XXXVIII.
SOLOMON 347
1. How Solomon obtained Power 347
2. How Solomon feasted all Flesh 349
3. The Building of the Temple 351
4. The Travels of Solomon 353
5. The History of the Queen of Sheba 358
6. Solomon’s Adventure with the Apes 364
7. Solomon marries the Daughter of Pharaoh 365
8. How Solomon lost and recovered his Ring 366
9. The Death of Solomon 369
XXXIX.
ELIJAH 371
XL.
ISAIAH 373
XLI.
JEREMIAH 376
XLII.
EZEKIEL 377
XLIII.
EZRA 377
XLIV.
ZACHARIAH 380
LEGENDS OF THE PATRIARCHS AND PROPHETS.
I.
THE FALL OF THE ANGELS.
In the beginning, before the creation of heaven and earth, God made
the angels; free intelligences and free wills; out of His love He made
them, that they might be eternally happy. And that their happiness
might be complete, He gave them the perfection of a created nature;
that is, He gave them freedom.
But happiness is only attained by the free will agreeing in its freedom
to accord with the will of God. Some of the angels by an act of free
will obeyed the will of God, and in such obedience found perfect
happiness; other angels by an act of free will rebelled against the
will of God, and in such disobedience found misery.
Such is the catholic theory of the fall of the angels.
Historically, it is represented as a war in heaven. “_And there was
war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and
the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their
place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out,
that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the
whole world; he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast
out with him._”[1] The reason of the revolt was that Satan desired to
be as great as God. “_Thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend
into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit
also upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north; I
will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most
High._”[2]
The war ended in the fall of Satan and those whom he had led into
apostasy; and to this fall are referred the words of Christ, “_I saw
Satan like lightning fall from heaven._”[3]
Fabricius, in his collections of the apocryphal writings of the Old
Testament, has preserved the song of triumph which the Archangel
Michael sang on obtaining the victory. This is a portion of it:--
“Glory to our God! Praise to His holy Name! He is our God; glory be
to Him! He is our Lord! His be the triumph! He has stretched forth
His right hand; He has manifested His power, He has cast down our
adversaries. They are mad who resist Him; they are accursed who depart
from His commandments! He knoweth all things, and cannot err. His will
is sovereignly just, and all that He wills is good, all that He advises
is holy. Supreme Intelligence cannot be deceived; Perfect Being cannot
will what is evil. Nothing is above that which is supreme, nothing is
better than that which is perfect. None is worthy beside Him but him
whom He has made worthy. He must be loved above all things and adored
as the eternal King. You have abandoned your God, you have revolted
against Him, you have desired to be gods; you have fallen from your
high estates, you have gone down like a fallen stone. Acknowledge that
God is great, that His works are perfect, and that His judgments are
just. Glory be to God through ages of ages, praises of joy for all His
works!” This song of the Archangel is said to have been revealed to S.
Amadeus.[4]
According to the Talmudists, Satan, whose proper name is Sammael, was
one of the Seraphim, with six wings.[5] He was not driven out of heaven
till after he had led Adam and Eve into sin; then Sammael and his host
were precipitated out of the place of bliss, with God’s curse to weigh
them down. In the struggle between Michael and Sammael, the falling
Seraph caught the wings of Michael and tried to drag him down with him,
but God saved him, whence Michael derives his name (the Rescued). This
is what the Rabbi Bechai says in his commentary on the Five Books of
Moses.[6]
According to a Talmudic authority, the apostate angels having fallen in
a heap, God laid his little finger on them and consumed them.[7]
Sammael was the regent of the planet Mars, and this he rules still, and
therefore it is that those born under the influence of that star are
lovers of war and given to strife.[8]
He was chief among the angels of God, and now he is prince among
devils.[9] His name is derived from Simmé, which means to blind and
deceive. He stands on the _left_ side of men. He goes by various names;
such as the Old Serpent, the Unclean Spirit, Satan, Leviathan, and
sometimes also Asael. In his fall he spat in his hatred against God,
and his spittle stained the moon, and thus it is that the moon has on
it spots.
After his fall, Satan took to himself four wives, Lilith and Naama the
daughter of Lamech and sister of Tubal-cain, Igereth and Machalath.
Each became the mother of a great host of devils, and each rules with
her host over a season of the year; and at the change of seasons there
is a great gathering of devils about their mothers. Lilith is followed
by four hundred and seventy-eight legions of devils, for that number
is comprised in her name (לילית--478). According to some, Lilith is
identical with Eve. She rules over Damascus, Naama over Tyre, Igereth
over Malta and Rhodes, and Machalath over Crete.[10]
Many traditions date the existence of angels and demons from a remote
period before the creation of the world, but some connect the fall of
Satan and his host with the creation of man.
Abou-Djafar-Mohammed Tabari says that when God made Adam, He bade all
the angels worship him as their king and superior, as says the Koran,
“All the angels adored Adam” (xv. 30), but that Satan or Eblis answered
God, “I will not adore Adam, for he is made of earth and I of fire,
therefore I am better than he” (vii. II), and that God thereupon cursed
Eblis and gave him the form of a devil, because of his pride, vain
confidence, and disobedience.[11]
Abulfeda says, “After God had made man He thus addressed the angels.
‘When I have breathed a portion of my spirit into him, bow before him
and adore.’ After He had inspired Adam with His spirit, all the angels
of every degree adored him, except Eblis; he, through pride and envy,
scorned to do this, and disobeyed God. Then God cursed him, and he cut
him off from all hope in divine mercy, and He called him Scheithanan
redjiman (Satan devoted to misery), and He cast him out who had been
before an angel of the earth, and keeper of terrestrial things, and a
guardian of Paradise.”[12]
But the general opinion seems to have been that the fall of the angels
preceded the creation of man. Ibn-Ezra dates it on the second day of
creation, others on the first day when God “_divided the light from the
darkness_.” Manasseh Ben Israel says that God has placed the devils
in the clouds, that they might torment the wicked with thunder and
lightnings, and showers of hail and tempests of wind, and that this
took place on the second day, when the firmaments were divided.
As the fall of Satan took place through his aspiration to be God, so it
is closely connected with the origin of idolatry and false worship; for
now that Satan is cast out of heaven, he still seeks to exalt himself
into the place of God, and therefore leads men from the worship of the
true God into demonolatry. Thus the gods of the heathens were regarded
by the first Christians as devils aspiring to receive that worship
from men on earth which they sought and failed to obtain in heaven.
Thus St. Paul tells the Corinthians that “_the Gentiles sacrifice to
devils_.”[13] The temptation of Christ can only be fully understood
when we bear in mind that pride and craving for worship is the prime
source of Satan’s actions. “_All these will I give thee_,” he said to
Christ, “_if Thou wilt fall down and worship me._” It was a second
attempt of Satan to set himself above the Most High.
Among the heathen, traditions of the Angelic apostasy and war have
remained.
The Indian story is as follows:--
At the head of the apostate spirits is Mahisasura, or the great Asur;
he and those who followed him were once good, but before the creation
of the world they refused obedience to Brahma, wherefore they were
cast down by the assistance of Schiva into the abyss of Onderah.[14]
Mahisasura is also represented as the great serpent Vrita, against
which Indra fought, and which after a desperate struggle he overcame.
The Persian tradition is that Ahriman, the chief of the rebels, is not
by nature evil. He was not created evil by the Eternal One, but he
became evil by revolting against his will; and the ancient books of the
Parsees assert that at the last day Ahriman will return to obedience,
and having been purified by fire, will regain the place among the
heavenly beings which he lost. In this war the Izeds fought against the
Divs, headed by Ahriman, and flung the conquered into Douzahk or hell.
The Norse story is that Loki, the spirit of evil, is one of the gods,
and sat with them at their table till he declared himself their enemy,
when he with his vile progeny, the wolf and the serpent, were cast out.
The wolf is bound, Thorr constrains the serpent, and Loki is chained
under the mountains, and a serpent distils poison on his breast; when
he tosses in agony, the earth quakes.
In Egypt, Typhon was brother of Osiris, but he revolted against him.
Maximus of Tyre, and Apollonius of Rhodes, following Orpheus, speak
of the war of the gods against the angels who rebelled under their
chief Ophion, or the Serpent, and Pherecydes, according to Origen,
sang of this event as having taken place in pre-historic times; so
that the knowledge of it could only have reached man by revelation. He
described the two armies face to face,--one commanded by Saturn, the
supreme Creator; the other by Ophioneus, the old Dragon, and the defeat
of the latter and its expulsion from the realms of bliss to Ogenos,
the regions of annihilation.[15] The story of the Titans is connected
with this. They were the sons of Uranus (heaven) and Ge (earth), and
dwelt originally in heaven, whence they are called Uranidæ. They were
twelve in number. Uranus threw out of heaven his other sons, the
Hecatoncheires and the Cyclopes, and precipitated them into Tartarus.
Whereupon Ge persuaded her sons, the Titans, to rise up against their
father, and liberate their brethren. They did as their mother bade
them, deposed Uranus, and placed on his throne their brother Cronus,
who immediately re-imprisoned the Cyclopes. But Zeus with his brothers
fought against the reigning Titans, cast them out of heaven, and
enthroned himself on the seat of Cronus; and the Titans he enchained
in the abyss under Tartarus.
This is simply the same story told over twice, and formed into a
dynasty. Chronos Titan is the same as the Arabic Scheitan, the Erse
Teitin, the Time-god, and the Biblical Satan, or Lucifer, the Son of
the Morning.
Amongst the Battas of Sumatra exists a myth to this effect: Batara
Guru, the supreme God, from whose daughter Putiarla Buran all mankind
are descended, cast the mountain Bakkara out of heaven upon the head of
the serpent, his foe, and made the home of his son Layanga-layaad-mandi
on the top of this mountain. From this summit the son descended that he
might bind the hands or feet of the serpent, as it shook its head and
made the earth rock.
Connected with the fall of Satan is his lameness. The devil is
represented in art and in legion as limping on one foot; this was
occasioned by his having broken his leg in his fall.
Hephæstus, who pursued Athene and attempted to outrage divine Wisdom,
was precipitated from heaven into the fire-island Lemnos, and was
lamed thereby. Hermes cut the hamstring out of Typhon, therewith to
string his lyre. The Norse god Loki lusted after Freya, and was lamed
therefor. Wieland the smith (Völundr), who ventured to do violence to
Beodohild, was lamed, and was known thereby. Phaethon, daring to drive
his father’s chariot of the sun, was cast out and thrown to earth.
The natives of the Caroline Islands relate that one of the inferior
gods, named Merogrog, was driven by the other gods out of heaven,
and he took with him a spark of fire which he gave to men.[16] This
myth resembles that of Prometheus, “the contriver, full of gall and
bitterness, who sinned against the gods by bestowing their honors
on creatures of a day, the thief of fire,” as Hermes calls him. He
reappears as Tohil among the Quiches, the giver of fire, hated, yet
adored.
The Northern Californians say that the supreme God once created
invisible spirits, of whom one portion revolted against him, headed
by a spirit named War or Touparan, and that the Great Spirit having
overcome him, drove him from the plains of heaven, and confined him
along with his comrades in a cavern, where he is guarded by whales.[17]
The Egyptian Typhon, already alluded to, did not belong to Egypt alone,
but also to Phœnicia and Asia Minor, and thence the story passed into
Greece, where it took root, and has been preserved to us as the attack
of the hundred-headed dragon against the heaven-god Zeus. Typhon
desired to obtain supremacy over gods and men, and, in order to win
for himself this sovereignty, he fought against the gods; but he was
defeated, bound, and precipitated into Tartarus, or, according to
another version, was buried under the flaming mountains.
According to a tradition of the Salivas, a people of New Granada, a
serpent slew the nations, descended from God, who inhabited the region
of the Orinoco, but a son of the God Puru fought him and overcame
him, and bade him depart with his curse, and never to enter his house
again, and, say these Salivas, from the flesh of the serpent sprang the
Caribees, their great foes, as maggots from putrid meat.[18]
But these stories might be infinitely extended. How far they refer to
a tradition common to the human race, and how far they relate to the
strife between summer and winter, sun and storm-cloud, I do not pretend
to decide. It is one of those vexed questions which it is impossible to
determine.
II.
ADAM.
1. THE CREATION OF MAN.
Certain of the angels having fallen, God made men, that they might take
their vacated places.
According to the most authoritative Mussulman traditions, Adam was
created on Friday afternoon at the Assr-hour, or about three o’clock.
The four archangels--Gabriel, Michael, Israfiel, and Asrael--were
required to bring earth from the four quarters of the world, that
therefrom God might fashion man. His head and breast were made of
clay from Mecca and Medina, from the spot where later were the Holy
Kaaba and the tomb of Mohammed. Although still lifeless, his beauty
amazed the angels who had flocked to the gates of Paradise. But
Eblis, envious of the beauty of Adam’s as yet inanimate form, said to
the angels: “How can you admire a creature made of earth? From such
material nothing but fragility and feebleness can come.” However, most
of the angels praised God for what he had done.
The body of Adam was so great, that if he stood up his head would reach
into the seventh heaven. But he was not as yet endowed with a living
soul. The soul had been made a thousand years before, and had been
steeped all that while in the sea of light which flowed from Allah. God
now ordered the soul to enter the body. It showed some indisposition to
obey; thereupon God exclaimed: “Quicken Adam against your will, and,
as a penalty for your disobedience, you shall leave the body sorely
against your will.” Then God blew the spirit against Adam with such
force that it entered his nose, and ran up into his head, and as soon
as it reached his eyes Adam opened them, and saw the throne of God
with the inscription upon it: “There is no God but God, and Mohammed
is His prophet.” Then the soul ran into his ears, and Adam heard the
song of the angels; thereupon his tongue was unloosed, for by this time
the soul had reached it, and he said, “Praise be to Thee, my Creator,
one and only!” And God answered him: “For this purpose are you made.
You and your successors must pray to me, and you will find mercy and
loving-kindness at my hands.” Then the soul penetrated all the members,
reaching last of all the feet of Adam, which receiving strength, he
sprang up, and stood upon the earth. But when he stood upright he
was obliged to close his eyes, for the light of God’s throne shining
directly into them blinded them. “What light is this?” he asked, as
he covered his eyes with one hand, and indicated the throne with the
other. “It is the light of a prophet,” God answered, “who will spring
from thee in later ages. By mine honor I swear, for him alone have I
created the world. In heaven he bears the name of the much lauded, and
on earth he will be called Mohammed. Through him all men will be led
out of error into the way of truth.”
God then called all created animals before Adam, and told him their
names and their natures. Then He called up all the angels, and bade
them bow before Adam, the man whom He had made. Israfiel obeyed first,
and God gave to him in recompense the custody of the Book of Fate; the
other angels obeyed in order; only Eblis refused, in the pride of his
heart, saying, “Why shall I, who am made of fire, bend before him who
is made of earth?” Therefore he was cast out of the angel choirs, and
was forbidden admission through the gates of Paradise. Adam also was
led out of Paradise, and he preached to the angels, who stood before
him in ten thousand ranks, a sermon on the power, majesty, and goodness
of God, and he showed such learning and knowledge--for he could name
each beast in seventy languages--that the angels were amazed at his
knowledge, which excelled their own. As a reward for having preached
this sermon, God sent Adam a bunch of grapes out of Paradise by the
hands of Gabriel.[19]
In the Midrash, the Rabbinical story is as follows: “When God wished to
make man, He consulted with the angels, and said to them, We will make
a man in our image. Then they said, What is man, that you regard him,
and what is his nature? He answered, His knowledge excels yours. Then
He placed all kinds of beasts before them, wild beasts and fowls of the
air, and asked them their names, but they knew them not. And after Adam
was made, He led them before him, and He asked Adam their names, and he
replied at once, This is an ox, that is an ass, this is a horse, that
is a camel, and so forth.”[20]
The story told by Tabari is somewhat different.
When God would make Adam, He ordered Gabriel to bring Him a handful of
every sort of clay, black, white, red, yellow, blue, and every other
kind.[21] Gabriel went to the middle of the earth to the place where
now is Kaaba. He wished to stoop and take the clay, but the earth
said to him, “O Gabriel, what doest thou?” And Gabriel answered, “I
am fetching a little clay, dust, and stone, that thereof God may make
a Lord for thee.” Then the earth swore by God, “Thou shalt take of me
neither clay nor dust nor stone; what if of the creatures made from me
some should arise who would do evil upon the earth, and shed innocent
blood?” Gabriel withdrew, respecting the oath, and took no earth; and
he said to God, “Thou knowest what the earth said to me.”
Then God sent Michael and bade him fetch a little mud. But when Michael
arrived, the earth swore the same oath.
And Michael respected the oath and withdrew.
Then God sent Azrael, the angel of death. He came, and the earth swore
the same oath; but he did not retire, but answered and said, “I must
obey the command of God in spite of thine oath.”
And the angel of death stooped, and took from forty ells below the
earth clay of every sort, as we have said, and therefrom God made Adam.
No one in the world had seen a form like that of Adam. Hâreth or Satan
went to look at him. Adam had lain stretched in the same place for the
space of about forty years. No one thought of him or knew what sort of
a thing he was. Hâreth coming up to him, saw him stretched from east to
west, of huge size and as dry as dry palm leaves. Then Hâreth pushed
Adam, and the dry earth rattled. Hâreth was astonished. He examined the
form more attentively, and he found that it was hollow. Then he went to
the mouth and crept in at it, and crept out again and let the angels
know the doubt that was in his breast, for he said, “This creature is
nothing, its inside is empty, and a hollow thing can easily be broken.
Now that God has made him, He has given him the empire of the world,
but I will fight against him and drive him from the earth as I drove
out the Jins. What is your advice?”
The angels answered, “O Hâreth, if we overcame the Jins it was in
obedience to God’s command. Now that God has created this thing, if He
orders us to submit to it, we must do so.” Now when Hâreth saw that the
angels thought otherwise, he changed his discourse and said, “You speak
the truth, I agree with you, but I wanted to prove you.”
When God gave the soul to Adam, it entered his throat and passed down
into his bosom and belly, and wherever it passed, the earth, the clay,
the dust, and the black mud became bones, nerves, veins, flesh, skin,
and the like. And when his soul entered his head, Adam sneezed, and
said, “Praise be to God.” And when he turned his head, he saw Paradise
and all its delights; and when the soul entered his belly, he wanted to
eat, so he tried to rise and get some food, but the soul had not yet
reached his extremities, which were as yet mere clay, so Gabriel said:
“O Adam, don’t be in a hurry.”[22] Then follows the story of Eblis
refusing to adore Adam. According to another version of the Mussulman
story, the soul showed such repugnance to enter the body, that the
angel Gabriel took a flageolet, and sitting down near the head of the
inanimate Adam, played such exquisite melodies that the soul descended
to listen, and in a moment of ecstasy entered the feet, which began
immediately to move. Thereupon the soul was given command by Allah not
to leave the body again till special permission was given it by the
Most High.[23]
In the Talmud we are told that the Rabbi Meir says that the dust from
which Adam was made was gathered from all parts of the earth: the Rabbi
Hoshea says that the body of the first man was made of dust from Babel;
the head, of earth from the land of Israel, and the rest of his limbs
from the soil of other countries: but the Rabbi Acha adds that his
hinder quarters were fashioned out of clay from Acre.[24] When Adam was
made, some of the dust remained over; of that God made locusts.[25]
A Rabbinical tale is to this effect. God was interrupted by the Sabbath
in the midst of creating fauns and satyrs, after He had made man, and
was obliged to postpone their completion till the Sunday, consequently
these creatures are misshapen. A Talmudic account of the way in which
were spent the hours of the day in which Adam was made, is sufficiently
curious.
At the first hour, God gathered the dust of the earth; in the second,
He formed the embryo; in the third, the limbs were extended; in the
fourth, the soul was given; at the fifth hour Adam stood upright; at
the sixth, Adam named the animals. Having done this, God asked him,
“And I, what is my name?”
Adam replied--“Jehovah.”
At the seventh hour, Adam married Eve; at the eighth, Cain and his
sister were born; at the ninth, they were forbidden to eat of the tree;
at the tenth hour Adam fell; at the eleventh he was banished from Eden;
and at the twelfth, he felt the sweat and pain of toil.[26]
In the Apocryphal Little Genesis, we are told that Adam did not disobey
God till the expiration of the seventh year, and that he was not
punished till forty-five days after. It adds, that before the Fall,
Adam conversed familiarly with the animals, but that by the Fall they
lost the faculty of speech.
God, say the Rabbis, made Adam so tall that his head touched the sky;
and the tree of life, planted in the midst of the garden of Eden, was
so broad at the base that it would take a good walker five years to
march round it, and Adam’s proportions accorded with those of the tree.
The angels murmured, and told God that there were two sovereigns, one
in heaven and one on earth. Thereupon God placed his hand on the head
of Adam and reduced him to a thousand cubits.[27]
To the question, How big was Adam? the Talmud replies, He was made
so tall that he stood with his head in heaven, till God pressed him
down at the Fall. Rabbi Jehuda says, that as he lay stretched on the
earth he covered it completely;[28] but the book Sepher Gilgulim says
(fol. 20, col. 4), that when he was made, his head and throat were in
Paradise, and his body in the earth. To judge how long he was, says
the same book, understand that his body stretched from one end of the
earth to the other, and it takes a man five hundred years to walk that
distance.[29] And when Adam was created, all the beasts of earth fell
down before him and desired to worship him, but he said to them, “You
have come to worship me, but come and let us clothe ourselves with
power and glory, and let us take Him to be king over us who has created
us; for a people chooses a king, but the king does not appoint himself
monarch arbitrarily.” Therefore Adam chose God to be king of all the
world, and the beasts, fowls, and fishes gladly consented thereto.[30]
But the sun, seeing Adam, was filled with fear and became dark; and the
angels quaked and were dismayed, and prayed to God to remove from them
this mighty being whom He had made. Then God cast a deep sleep on Adam,
and the sun and the angels looked on him lying helpless in his slumber,
and they plucked up courage and feared him no more. The book Sepher
Chasidim, however, says, that the angels seeing Adam so great and with
his face shining above the brightness of the sun, bowed before him, and
said, “Holy, holy, holy!” Whereupon God cast a sleep upon him and cut
off great pieces of his flesh to reduce him to smaller proportions.
And when Adam woke he saw bits of flesh strewed all round him, like
shavings in a carpenter’s shop, and he exclaimed, “O God! how hast Thou
robbed me?” but God answered, “Take these gobbets of flesh and carry
them into all lands and drop them everywhere, and strew dust on them;
and wherever they are laid, that land will I give to thy posterity to
inherit.”[31]
Many are the origins attributed to man in the various creeds of ancient
and modern heathendom. Sometimes he is spoken of as having been made
out of water, but more generally it is of earth that he has been made,
or from which he has been spontaneously born. The Peruvians believed
that the world was peopled by four men and four women, brothers and
sisters, who emerged from the caves near Cuzco. Among the North
American Indians the earth is regarded as the universal mother. Men
came into existence in her womb, and crept out of it by climbing up
the roots of the trees which hung from the vault in which they were
conceived and matured; or, mounting a deer, the animal brought them
into daylight; or, groping in darkness, they tore their way out with
their nails.[32]
The Egyptian philosophers pretended that man was made of the mud
of the Nile.[33] In Aristophanes,[34] man is spoken of as πλάσματα
πηλοῦ. Among some of the Chinese it is believed that man was thus
formed:--“The book Fong-zen-tong says: When the earth and heaven were
made, there was not as yet man or peoples. Then Niu-hoa moulded yellow
earth, and of that made man. That is the true origin of men.”[35]
And the ancient Chaldeans supposed man was made by the mixing of the
blood of Belus with the soil.[36]
2. THE PRE-ADAMITES.
In 1655, Isaac de la Peyreira, a converted Jew, published a curious
treatise on the Pre-Adamites. Arguing upon Romans v. 12-14, he
contended that there were two creations of man; that recorded in the
first chapter of Genesis and that described in the second chapter
being distinct. The first race he supposed to have peopled the whole
world, but that it was bad, and therefore Adam had been created with
a spiritual soul, and that from Adam the Jewish race was descended,
whereas the Gentile nations issued from the loins of the Pre-Adamites.
Consequently the original sin of Adam weighed only on his descendants,
and Peyreira supposed that it was his race alone which perished, with
the exception of Noah and his family, in the Deluge, which Peyreira
contends was partial. This book was condemned and burnt in Paris by
the hands of the executioner, and the author, who had taken refuge in
Brussels, was there condemned by the ecclesiastical authorities. He
appealed to Rome, whither he journeyed, and he was received with favor
by Alexander VII., before whom he abjured Calvinism, which he had
professed.
He died at the age of 82, at Aubervilliers, near Paris, and Moreri
wrote the following epigrammatic epitaph for him:--
“La Peyrère ici gît, ce bon Israélite,
Huguenot, catholique, enfin pré-Adamite.
Quatre religions lui plurent à la fois;
Et son indifférence était si peu commune,
Qu’après quatre-vingts ans qu’il eut à faire un choix,
Le bon homme partit et n’en choisit aucune.”
The Oriental book Huschenk-Nameh gives a fuller history of the
Pre-Adamites. Before Adam was created, says this book, there were
in the isle Muscham, one of the Maldives, men with flat heads, and
for this reason they were called by the Persians, Nim-ser. They were
governed by a king named Dambac.
When Adam, expelled the earthly Paradise, established himself in the
Isle of Ceylon, the flat-heads submitted to him. After his death they
guarded his tomb by day, and the lions relieved guard by night, to
protect his body against the Divs.
III.
EVE.[37]
That man was created double, _i. e._ both male and female, is and has
been a common opinion. One Rabbinical interpretation of the text, “And
God created man in His own image, male-female created He them,” is
that Adam and Eve were formed back to back, united at the shoulders,
and were hewn asunder with a hatchet; but of this more presently.
The Rabbis say that when Eve had to be drawn out of the side of Adam
she was not extracted by the head, lest she should be vain; nor by
the eyes, lest they should be wanton; nor by the mouth, lest she
should be given to gossiping; nor by the ears, lest she should be an
eavesdropper; nor by the hands, lest she should be meddlesome; nor
by the feet, lest she should be a gadabout; nor by the heart, lest
she should be jealous; but she was drawn forth by the side: yet,
notwithstanding all these precautions, she has every fault specially
guarded against.[38]
They also say that, for the marriage-feast of Adam and Eve, God made a
table of precious stone, and each gem was a hundred ells long and sixty
ells wide, and the table was covered with costly dishes.[39]
The Mussulman tradition is, that Adam having eaten the bunch of grapes
given him as a reward for having preached to the angels, fell asleep;
and whilst he slept, God took from his left side a woman whom He called
Hava, because she was extracted from one living (Hai), and He laid her
beside Adam. She resembled him exactly, except that her features were
more delicate, her hair longer and divided into seven hundred locks,
her form more slender, her eyes softer, and her voice sweeter than
Adam’s. In the mean time Adam had been dreaming that a wife had been
given to him; and when he woke, great was his delight to find his dream
turned into a reality. He put forth his hand to take that of Hava,
but she withdrew hers, answering his words of love with, “God is my
master, and I cannot give my hand to thee without His permission; and,
moreover, it is not proper for a man to take a wife without making her
a wedding present.”
Adam thereupon sent the angel Gabriel to ask God’s permission to take
to him Hava as his wife. Gabriel returned with the answer that she
had been created to be his helpmate, and that he was to treat her
with gentleness and love. For a present he must pray twenty times for
Mohammed and for the prophets, who, in due season, were to be born of
him. Ridhwan, the porter of Paradise, then brought to Adam the winged
horse Meimun, and to Eve a light-footed she-camel. Gabriel helped them
to mount and led them into Paradise, where they were greeted by all the
angels and beasts with the words: “Hail, father and mother of Mohammed!”
In the midst of Paradise was a green silk tent spread for them,
supported on gold pillars, and in the tent was a throne upon which Adam
and Hava were seated. Then they were bathed in one of the rivers of
Paradise and brought before the presence of God, who bade them dwell
in Paradise. “I have prepared you this garden for your home; in it you
shall be protected from cold and heat, from hunger and thirst. Enjoy
all that meets your eye, only of one fruit taste not. Beware how you
break my command, and arm yourself against the subtlety of your foe,
Eblis; he envies you, and stands by you seeking to destroy you, for
through you was he cast out.”[40]
Tabari says that Adam was brought single into Paradise, through which
he roamed eating from the fruit trees, and a deep sleep fell upon him,
during which Eve was created from his left side. And when Adam opened
his eyes, he saw her, and asked her who she was, and she replied, “I am
thy wife; God created me out of thee and for thee, that thy heart might
find repose.” The angels said to Adam: “What thing is this? What is
her name? Why is she made?” Adam replied, “This is Eve.” Adam remained
five hundred years in Paradise. It was on a Friday that Adam entered
Eden.[41]
The inhabitants of Madagascar have a strange myth touching the origin
of woman. They say that the first man was created of the dust of the
earth, and was placed in a garden, where he was subject to none of
the ills which now affect mortality; he was also free from all bodily
appetites, and though surrounded by delicious fruit and limpid streams,
yet felt no desire to taste of the fruit or to quaff the water. The
Creator had, moreover, strictly forbidden him either to eat or to
drink. The great enemy, however, came to him, and painted to him in
glowing colors the sweetness of the apple, the lusciousness of the
date, and the succulence of the orange.
In vain: the first man remembered the command laid upon him by his
Maker. Then the fiend assumed the appearance of an effulgent spirit,
and pretended to be a messenger from Heaven commanding him to eat and
drink. The man at once obeyed. Shortly after, a pimple appeared on his
leg; the spot enlarged to a tumor, which increased in size and caused
him considerable annoyance. At the end of six months it burst, and
there emerged from the limb a beautiful girl.
The father of all living was sorely perplexed what to make of his
acquisition, when a messenger from heaven appeared, and told him to let
her run about the garden till she was of a marriageable age, and then
to take her to himself as his wife. He obeyed. He called her Bahouna,
and she became the mother of all races of men.
The notion of the first man having been of both sexes till the
separation, was very common. He was said to have been male on the right
side and female on the left, and that one half of him was removed to
constitute Eve, but that the complete man consists of both sexes.
Eugubinus among Christian commentators, the Rabbis Samuel, Manasseh
Ben-Israel, and Maimonides among the Jews, have given the weight of
their opinion to support this interpretation. The Rabbi Jeremiah
Ben-Eleazer, on the authority of the text “_Thou hast fashioned me
behind and before_” (Ps. cxxxix. 4), argued that Adam had two faces,
one male and the other female, and that he was of both sexes.[42]
The Rabbi Samuel Ben-Nahaman held that the first man was created
double, with a woman at his back, and that God cut them apart.[43]
“Adam,” said other Rabbis, “had two faces and one tail, and from the
beginning he was both male and female, male on one side, female on the
other; but afterwards the parts were separated.”[44]
The Talmudists assert that God cut off Adam’s tail and thereof formed
Eve.[45]
With this latter fable agrees the ludicrous myth of the Kikapoo
Indians, related in my “Curiosities of Olden Times.”
In Aristophanes’ speech in the Symposium of Plato, a myth is given,
that in the beginning there was a race of men of which every member was
double, having two heads, four legs and four arms, and each of both
sexes. This race, says he, was filled with pride, and it attempted
to scale heaven. The Gods desired at once to reduce their might and
punish their temerity, but did not wish to destroy the human race;
consequently at the advice of Zeus, each androgyne was hewn assunder,
so as to leave to each half two arms and a pair of legs, one head and a
single sex.
An Indian tradition is to this effect. Whilst Brahma the creator was
engaged in the production of beings, he saw Kaya (body) divide itself
into two parts, of which each part was of a different sex, and thence
sprang the whole human race.[46]
According to another much more explicit version, Viradi, the first man,
finding his solitude intolerable, fell into the deepest sorrow; and,
yearning for a companion, his nature developed into two sexes united
in one. Then he separated into two individuals, but found in that
separation unhappiness, for he was conscious of his imperfection; then
he reunited the existence of the two portions and was happy, and from
that reunion the world was peopled.[47]
In Persia, Meschia and Meschiane, the first man and the first woman,
were said to have formed originally but one body; but they were cut
apart, and from this voluntary reunion all men are sprung.[48]
The idea so prevalent that man without woman, or woman without man, is
an imperfect being, was the cause of the great repugnance with which
the Jews and other nations of the East regarded celibacy. The Rabbi
Eliezer, commenting on the text “He called their name Adam” (Gen. v.
2), laid down that he who has not a wife is not a man, for man is the
recomposition of male and female into one.[49]
Bramah, says an Indian legend, being charged with the production of
the human race, felt himself a prey to violent pains, till his sides
opened, and from one flank emerged a boy and from the other a girl. In
China, the story is told that the Goddess Amida sweated male children
out of her right arm-pit, and female children from her left arm-pit,
and these children peopled the earth.[50]
Vishnu, according to an Indian fable, gave birth to Dharma by his
right side, and to Adharma by his left side, and through Adharma death
entered the world.[51] Another story is to the effect, that the right
arm of Vena gave birth to Pritu, the master of the earth, and the left
arm to the Virgin Archis, who became the bride of Pritu.[52]
Pygmalion, says the classic story, which is really a Phœnician myth of
creation, made woman of marble or ivory, and Aphrodite, in answer to
his prayers, endowed the statue with life. “Often does Pygmalion apply
his hands to the work. One while he addresses it in soft terms, at
another he brings it presents that are agreeable to maidens, as shells
and smooth pebbles, and little birds, and flowers of a thousand hues,
and lilies, and painted balls, and tears of the Heliades, that have
distilled from the trees. He decks her limbs, too, with clothing, and
puts a long necklace on her neck. Smooth pendants hang from her ears,
and bows from her breast. All things are becoming to her.”[53]
But Hesiod gives a widely different account of the creation of woman.
According to him, she was sent in mockery by Zeus to be a scourge to
man:--
“The Sire who rules the earth and sways the pole
Had spoken; laughter filled his secret soul:
He bade the crippled god his hest obey,
And mould with tempering water plastic clay;
With human nerve and human voice invest
The limbs elastic, and the breathing breast;
Fair as the blooming goddesses above,
A virgin likeness with the looks of love.
He bade Minerva teach the skill that sheds
A thousand colors in the glittering threads;
He called the magic of love’s golden queen
To breathe around a witchery of mien,
And eager passion’s never-sated flame,
And cares of dress that prey upon the frame;
Bade Hermes last endue, with craft refined
Of treacherous manners, and a shameless mind.”[54]
That Eve was Adam’s second wife was a common Rabbinic speculation;
certain of the commentators on Genesis having adopted this view to
account for the double account of the creation of woman in the sacred
text,--first in Genesis i. 27, and secondly in Genesis ii. 18; and they
say that Adam’s first wife was named Lilith, but she was expelled from
Eden, and after her expulsion Eve was created.
Abraham Ecchellensis gives the following account of Lilith, and her
doings:--“There are some who do not regard spectres as simple devils,
but suppose them to be of a mixed nature, part demoniacal, part human,
and to have had their origin from Lilith, Adam’s first wife, by Eblis,
the prince of the devils. This fable has been transmitted to the
Arabs from Jewish sources, by some converts of Mahomet from Cabbalism
and Rabbinism, who have transferred all the Jewish fooleries to the
Arabs. They gave to Adam a wife, formed of clay, along with Adam, and
called her Lilith; resting on the Scripture, ‘_male and female created
He them_:’[55] but when this woman, on account of her simultaneous
creation with him, became proud and a vexation to her husband, God
expelled her from Paradise, and then said, ‘_It is not good that
the man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him_.’[56]
And this they confirm by the words of Adam when he saw the woman
fashioned from his rib, ‘_This is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my
flesh_,’[57] which is as much as to say, Now God has given me a wife
and companion, suitable to me, taken from my bone and flesh, but the
other wife he gave me was not of my bone and flesh, and therefore was
not a suitable companion and wife for me.
“But Lilith, after she was expelled from Paradise, is said to have
married the Devil, by whom she had children, who are called Jins. These
were endued with six qualities, of which they share three with men, and
three with devils. Like men, they generate in their own likeness, eat
food, and die. Like devils, they are winged, and they fly where they
list with great velocity; they are invisible, and they can pass through
solid substances without injuring them. This race of Jins is supposed
to be less noxious to men, and indeed to live in some familiarity and
friendship with them, as in part sharers of their nature. The author of
the history and acts of Alexander of Macedon relates, that in a certain
region of India, on certain hours of the day, the young Jins assume a
human form, and appear openly and play games with the native children
of human parents quite familiarly.”[58]
It must not be supposed that women, as they are now, are at all
comparable to Eve in her pristine beauty; on this point the Talmud
says: “All women in respect of Sarah are like monkeys in respect of
men. But Sarah can no more be compared to Eve than can a monkey be
compared with a man. In like manner it may be said, if any comparison
could be drawn between Eve and Adam, she stood to him in the same
relation of beauty as does a monkey to a man; but if you were to
compare Adam with God, Adam would be the monkey, and God the man.”[59]
Literary ladies may point to the primal mother as the first authoress;
for a Gospel of Eve existed in the times of S. Epiphanius, who mentions
it as being in repute among the Gnostics.[60] And the Mussulmans
attribute to her a volume of Prophecies which were written at her
dictation by the Angel Raphael.[61]
All ladies will be glad to learn that there is a tradition, Manichean,
it is true, and anathematized by S. Clement, which nevertheless
contains a large element of truth; it is to this effect, that Adam,
when made, was like a beast, coarse, rude, and inanimate, but that
from Eve he received his upright position, his polish, and his
spirituality.[62]
IV.
THE FALL OF MAN.
What was the tree of which our first parents were forbidden to eat?
In Midrash, f. 7, the Rabbi Mayer says it was a wheat-tree; the
Rabbi Jehuda, that it was a grape-vine; the Rabbi Aba, that it was a
Paradise-apple; the Rabbi Josse, that it was a fig-tree: therefore
it was that, when driven out of Paradise, they used its leaves for a
covering.
The Persian story, adopted by the Arabs, is that the forbidden fruit
was wheat, and that it grew on a tree whose trunk resembled gold and
its branches silver. Each branch bore five shining ears, and each ear
contained five grains as big as the eggs of an ostrich, as fragrant
as musk, and as sweet as honey. The people of Southern America
suppose it was the banana, whose fibres form the cross, and they say
that thus, in it, Adam discovered the mystery of the Redemption. The
inhabitants of the island of St. Vincent think it was the tobacco
plant. But, according to an Iroquois legend, the great mother of the
human race lost heaven for a pot of bears’ grease.[63] The story is as
follows:--The first men living alone were,
“By the viewless winds,
Blown with resistless violence round about
The pendant world.”
Fearing the extinction of their race, and having learnt that a woman
dwelt somewhere in the heavens, they deputed one of their number to
seek her out. This messenger of mankind was borne to the skies on the
wings of assembled birds; and then watched at the foot of a tree till
the woman came forth to draw water from a neighboring well. On her
approach he addressed her, offered her bears’ fat, and then seduced
her. The Deity perceiving her shame, in his anger thrust her out of
heaven. The tortoise received her on his back; and from the depths of
the sea the fish brought clay, and thus gradually built up an island on
which the universal mother brought forth her first twins.
According to the traditions of the Lamaic faith, the first men lived
to the age of sixty thousand years.[64] They were invisibly nourished,
and were able to raise themselves at will to the heavens. In this
age of the world the transmigration of souls was universal,--all
men were twice born; and in this age it was that the thousand gods
settled themselves in heaven. In an unlucky hour the earth produced a
honey-sweet substance: one of the men lusted after it, tasted and gave
to his companions; the consequence was, that the men lost the power
of rising from off the earth, their size, and their wisdom, and were
obliged to satisfy themselves with food produced by the soil.
The Nepaul account of the beginning of sin is as follows: “Originally,”
says one of the Tantras, “the earth was uninhabited. In those times
the inhabitants of Abhaswara, one of the heavenly mansions, used
frequently to visit the earth, and thence speedily return. It happened
at length that when a few of these beings, who though half male, half
female, through the innocence of their minds had never noticed their
distinction of sex, came as usual to the earth, Adi Buddha suddenly
created in them so violent a longing to eat, that they ate some of the
earth, which had the taste of almonds; and by eating it they lost their
power of flying back to heaven, and so they remained on the earth. They
were now constrained to eat the fruits of the earth for sustenance.”[65]
According to the Cinghalese, the Brahmas inhabited the higher regions
of the air, where they enjoyed perfect happiness. “But it came to pass
that one of them beholding the earth said to himself, What thing is
this? and with one of his fingers having touched the earth, he put it
to the tip of his tongue, and perceived the same to be deliciously
sweet; from that time all the Brahmas ate of the sweet earth for the
space of sixty thousand years. In the mean time, having coveted in
their hearts the enjoyment of this earth, they began to say to one
another, This part is mine and that is thine; and so fixing boundaries
to their respective shares, divided the earth between them. On account
of the Brahmas having been guilty of covetousness, the earth lost
its sweetness, and then brought forth a kind of mushroom,” which the
Brahmas also coveted and divided, and of which they were also deprived;
and thus they proceeded from food to food, till their nature was
changed, and from spirits they became men, imbibed wicked ideas, and
lost their ancient glory.[66]
According to the Chinese, man is part spirit, part animal. The spirit
follows the laws of Heaven, as a disciple his master; the animal,
on the other hand, is the slave of sense. At his origin, man obeyed
the heavens; his first state was one of innocence and happiness; he
knew neither disease nor death; he was by instinct wholly good and
spiritual. But the immoderate desire to be wise, or, according to
Lao-tsee, to eat, was the ruin of mankind.[67]
According to the Persian faith, the father of man had heaven for his
destiny, but he must be humble of heart, pure of thought, of word and
of deed, not invoking the Divs: and such in the beginning were the
thoughts and acts of our first parents.
First they said, “it is Ormuzd (God) who has given the water, the
earth, the trees, and the beasts of the field, and the stars, the moon,
the sun, and all things pure.” But Ahriman (Satan) arose, and rushed
upon their thoughts and said to them, “It is Ahriman who has given
these things to you.” Thus Ahriman deceived them, and to the end will
deceive. To this lie they gave credence and became Darvands, and their
souls were condemned till the great resurrection of the body. During
thirty days they feasted and covered themselves with black garments.
After thirty days they went to the chase; and they found a white goat,
and with their lips they drew off her milk, and drank her milk and
were glad. “We have tasted nothing like to this milk,” said our first
parents, Meschia and Meschiane; “the milk we have drunk was pleasant to
the taste,” but it was an evil thing to their bodies.
“Then the Div, the liar, grown more bold, presented himself a second
time, and brought with him fruit of which they ate; and of a hundred
excellences they before possessed, they now retained not one. And after
thirty days and nights they found a white and fat sheep, and they cut
off its left ear; and they fired a tree, and with their breath raised
the fire to a flame; and they burned part of the branches of that tree,
then of the tree khorma, and afterwards of the myrtle; and they roasted
the sheep, and divided it into three portions: and of the two which
they did not eat, one was carried to heaven by the bird Kehrkas.
“Afterwards they feasted on the flesh of a dog, and they clothed
themselves in its skin. They gave themselves up to the chase, and with
the furs of wild beasts they covered their bodies.
“And Meschia and Meschiane digged a hole in the earth, and they found
iron, and the iron they beat with a stone; and they made for themselves
an axe, and they struck at the roots of a tree, and they felled the
tree and arranged its branches into a hut; and to God they gave no
thanks; and the Divs took heart.
“And Meschia and Meschiane became enemies, and struck and wounded each
other and separated; then from out of the place of darkness the chief
of the Divs was heard to cry aloud: O man, worship the Divs! And the
Div of Hate sat upon his throne. And Meschia approached and drew milk
from the bull, and sprinkled it towards the north, and the Divs became
strong. But during fifty winters, Meschia and Meschiane lived apart;
and after that time they met, and Meschiane bare twins.”[68]
The story told by the Mussulmans is as follows:--
Adam and Eve lived for five hundred years in Paradise before they ate
of the tree and fell; for Eblis was outside, and could not enter the
gates to deceive them.
For five hundred years Eblis sought admission, but the angel Ridhwan
warned him off with his flaming sword.
One day the peacock came through the gates of Paradise. This bird, with
the feathers of emeralds and pearls, was not only the most beautiful
creature God had made, but it had also been endowed with a sweet and
clear voice, wherewith it daily sang the praises of God in the highways
of Eden.
This beautiful bird, thought Eblis, when he saw it, is surely vain, and
will listen to the voice of flattery.
Thereupon he addressed it as a stranger, beyond the hearing of Ridhwan.
“Most beautiful of all birds, do you belong to the denizens of
Paradise?”
“Certainly,” answered the peacock. “And who are you who look from side
to side in fear and trembling?”
“I belong to the Cherubim who praise God night and day, and I have
slipped out of their ranks without being observed, that I might take a
glimpse of the Paradise, God has prepared for the saints. Will you hide
me under your feathers, and show me the garden?”
“How shall I do that which may draw down on me God’s disfavor?” asked
the peacock.
“Magnificent creature! take me with you. I will teach you three words
which will save you from sickness, old age, and death.”
“Must then the dwellers in Paradise die?”
“All, without exception, who know not these three words.”
“Is this the truth?”
“By God the Almighty it is so.”
The peacock believed the oath, for it could not suppose that a creature
would swear a false oath by its Creator. But, as it feared that Ridhwan
would search it on its return through the gates, it hesitated to take
Eblis with it, but promised to send the cunning serpent out, who would
certainly devise a means of introducing Eblis into the garden.
The serpent was formerly queen of all creatures. She had a head like
rubies, and eyes like emeralds. Her height was that of a camel, and
the most beautiful colors adorned her skin, and her hair and face were
those of a beautiful maiden. She was fragrant as musk and amber; her
food was saffron; sweet hymns of praise were uttered by her melodious
tongues; she slept by the waters of the heavenly river Kaulhar; she
had been created a thousand years before man, and was Eve’s favorite
companion.
This beautiful and wise creature, thought the peacock, will desire
more even than myself to possess perpetual youth and health, and will
gladly admit the cherub for the sake of hearing the three words. The
bird was not mistaken; as soon as it had told the story, the serpent
exclaimed: “What! shall I grow old and die? Shall my beautiful face
become wrinkled, my eyes close, and my body dissolve into dust? Never!
rather will I brave Ridhwan’s anger and introduce the cherub.”
The serpent accordingly glided out of the gates of Paradise, and bade
Eblis tell her what he had told the peacock.
“How shall I bring you unobserved into Paradise?” asked the serpent.
“I will make myself so small that I can sit in the nick between your
front teeth,” answered the fallen angel.[69]
“But how then can I answer when Ridhwan addresses me?”
“Fear not. I will whisper holy names, at which Ridhwan will keep
silence.”
The serpent thereupon opened her mouth, Eblis flew in and seated
himself between her teeth, and by so doing poisoned them for all
eternity.
When she had passed Ridhwan in security, the serpent opened her mouth
and asked Eblis to take her with him to the highest heaven, where she
might behold the majesty of God.
Eblis answered that he was not ready to leave yet, but that he desired
to speak to Adam out of her mouth, and to this she consented, fearing
Ridhwan, and greatly desiring to hear and learn the three salutary
words. Having reached Eve’s tent, Eblis uttered a deep sigh--it was the
first that had been heard in Eden, and it was caused by envy.
“Why are you so disquieted, gentle serpent?” asked Eve.
“I am troubled for Adam’s future,” answered the evil spirit, affecting
the voice of the serpent.
“What! have we not all that can be desired in this garden of God?”
“That is true; but the noblest fruit of the garden, the only one
securing to you perfect happiness, is denied to your lips.”
“Have we not abundance of fruit of every color and flavor--only one is
forbidden?”
“And if you knew why that one is forbidden, you would find little
pleasure in tasting the others.”
“Do you know?”
“I do, and for that reason am I so cast down. This fruit alone gives
eternal youth and health, whereas all the others give weakness,
disease, old age and death, which is the cessation of life with all its
joys.”
“Why, dearest serpent, did you never tell me this before? Whence know
you these things?”
“An angel told me this as I lay under the forbidden tree.”
“I must also see him,” said Eve, leaving her tent and going towards the
tree.
At this moment Eblis flew out of the serpent’s mouth, and stood in
human form beneath the tree.
“Who art thou, wondrous being, the like of whom I have not seen
before?” asked Eve.
“I am a man who have become an angel.”
“And how didst thou become an angel?”
“By eating of this fruit,” answered the tempter,--“this fruit which is
denied us through the envy of God. I dared to break His command as I
grew old and feeble, and my eyes waxed dim, my ears dull, and my teeth
fell out, so that I could neither speak plainly nor enjoy my food; my
hands shook, my feet tottered, my head was bent upon my breast, my back
was bowed, and I became so hideous that all the beasts of the garden
fled from me in fear. Then I sighed for death, and hoping to find it
in the fruit of this tree, I ate, and lo! instantly I was young again;
though a thousand years had elapsed since I was made, they had fled
with all their traces, and I enjoy perpetual health and youth and
beauty.”
“Do you speak the truth?” asked Eve.
“I swear by God who made me.”
Eve believed this oath, and broke a branch from the wheat-tree.
Before the Fall, wheat grew to a tree with leaves like emeralds. The
ears were red as rubies and the grains white as snow, sweet as honey,
and fragrant as musk. Eve ate one of the grains and found it more
delicious than any thing she had hitherto tasted, so she gave a second
grain to Adam. Adam resisted at first, according to some authorities
for a whole hour, but an hour in Paradise was eighty years of our
earthly reckoning. But when he saw that Eve remained well and cheerful,
he yielded to her persuasions, and ate of the second grain which Eve
had offered him daily, three times a day, during the hour of eighty
years. Thereupon all Adam’s heaven-given raiment fell from him, his
crown slipped off his head, his rings dropped from his fingers, his
silken garments glided like water from his shoulders, and he and Eve
were naked and unadorned, and their fallen garments reproached them
with the words, “Great is your misfortune; long will be your sorrows;
we were created to adorn those who serve God; farewell till the
resurrection!”
The throne recoiled from them and exclaimed, “Depart from me, ye
disobedient ones!” The horse Meimun, which Adam sought to mount,
plunged and refused to allow him to touch it, saying, “How hast thou
kept God’s covenant?” All the inhabitants of Paradise turned their
backs on the pair, and prayed God to remove the man and the woman from
the midst of them.
God himself addressed Adam with a voice of thunder, saying, “Did
not I forbid thee to touch of this fruit, and caution thee against
the subtlety of thy foe, Eblis?” Adam and Eve tried to fly these
reproaches, but the branches of the tree Talh caught Adam, and Eve
entangled herself in her long hair.
“From the wrath of God there is no escape,” cried a voice from the tree
Talh; “obey the commandment of God.”
“Depart from Paradise,” then spake God, “thou Adam, thy wife, and the
animals which led you into sin. The earth shall be your abode; in the
sweat of thy brow shalt thou find food; the produce of earth shall
cause envy and contention; Eve (Hava) shall be afflicted with a variety
of strange affections, and shall bring forth offspring in pain. The
peacock shall lose its melodious voice, and the serpent its feet; dark
and noisome shall be the den in which the serpent shall dwell, dust
shall be its meat, and its destruction shall be a meritorious work.
Eblis shall be cast into the torments of hell.”
Our parents were then driven out of Paradise, and one leaf alone was
given to each, wherewith to hide their nakedness. Adam was expelled
through the gate of Repentance, that he might know that through it
alone could Paradise be regained; Eve was banished through the gate of
grace; the peacock and the serpent through that of Wrath, and Eblis
through the gate of Damnation. Adam fell into the island Serendib
(Ceylon), Eve at Jedda, the Serpent into the desert of Sahara, the
Peacock into Persia, and Eblis into the river Eila.[70]
Tabari says that when the forbidden wheat had entered the belly of
Adam and Eve, all the skin came off, except from the ends of the
fingers. Now this skin had been pink and horny, so that they had been
invulnerable in Paradise, and they were left naked and with a tender
skin which could easily be lacerated; but as often as Adam and Eve
looked on their fingernails, they remembered what skin they had worn in
Eden.[71]
Tabari also says that four trees pitying the shame of Adam and Eve, the
Peacock, and the Serpent, in being driven naked out of Paradise, bowed
their branches and gave each a leaf.
Certain Rabbis say that Adam ate only on compulsion, that he refused,
but Eve “took of the tree,”--that is, broke a branch and “gave it him,”
with the stick.
According to the Talmudic book, Emek Hammelech (f. 23, col. 3), Eve,
on eating the fruit, felt in herself the poison of Jezer hara, or
Original sin, and resolved that Adam should not be without it also; she
made him eat and then forced the fruit on the animals, that they might
all, without exception, fall under the same condemnation, and become
subject to death. But the bird Chol--that is, the Phœnix--would not be
deceived, but flew away and would not eat. And now the Phœnix, says
the Rabbi Joden after the Rabbi Simeon, lives a thousand years, then
shrivels up till it is the size of an egg, and then from himself he
emerges young and beautiful again.
We have seen what are the Asiatic myths relating to Adam and Eve; let
us now turn to Africa. In Egypt it was related that Osiris lived with
Isis his sister and wife in Nysa, or Paradise, which was situated
in Arabia. This Paradise was an island, surrounded by the stream
Triton, but it was also a steep mountain that could only be reached
on one side. It was adorned with beautiful flowers and trees laden
with pleasant fruits, watered by sweet streams, and in it dwelt the
deathless ones.
There Osiris found the vine, and Isis the wheat, to become the food and
drink of men. There they built a golden temple, and lived in supreme
happiness till the desire came on Osiris to discover the water of
Immortality, in seeking which he left Nysa, and was in the end slain by
Typhon.[72]
The following is a very curious negro tradition, taken down by Dr.
Tutschek from a native in Tumale, near the centre of Africa.
Til (God) made men and bade them live together in peace and happiness,
labor five days, and keep the sixth as a festival. They were forbidden
to hurt the beasts or reptiles. They themselves were deathless, but
the animals suffered death. The frog was accursed by God, because when
He was making the animals it hopped over his foot. Then God ordered
the men to build mountains: they did so, but they soon forgot God’s
commands, killed the beasts and quarrelled with one another. Wherefore
Til (God) sent fire and destroyed them, but saved one of the race,
named Musikdegen, alive. Then Til began to re-create beings. He stood
before a wood and called, Ombo Abnatum Dgu! and there came out a
gazelle and licked His feet. So He said, stand up, Gazelle! and when it
stood up, its beast-form disappeared, and it was a beautiful maiden,
and He called her Mariam. He blessed her, and she bore four children, a
white pair and a black pair. When they were grown up, God ordered them
to marry, the white together and the black together. In Dai, the story
goes that Til cut out both Mariam’s knee-caps, and of each He made a
pair of children. Those which were white He sent north; those which
were black He gave possession of the land where they were born.
God then made the animals subject to death, but the men He made were
immortal. But the new created men became disobedient, as had the first
creatures; and the frog complained to Him of His injustice in having
made the harmless animals subject to death, but guilty man deathless.
“Thou art right,” answered Til, and He cast on the men He had made, old
age, sickness, and death.[73]
The Fantis relate that they are not in the same condition as that in
which they were made, for their first parents had been placed in a
lofty and more suitable country, but God drave them into an inferior
habitation, that they might learn humility. On the Gold Coast the
reason of the Fall is said to have been that the first men were offered
the choice of gold or of wisdom, and they chose the former.[74]
In Ashantee the story is thus told. In the beginning, God created three
white and three black men and women, and gave them the choice between
good and evil. A great calabash was placed on the earth, as also a
sealed paper, and God gave the black men the first choice. They took
the calabash, thinking it contained every thing, and in it were only a
lump of gold, a bar of iron, and some other metals. The white men took
the sealed paper, in which they learned every thing. So God left the
black men in the bush and took the white men to the sea, and He taught
them how to build ships and go into another land. This fall from God
caused the black men to worship the subsidiary Fetishes instead of
Him.[75]
In Greenland “the first man is said to have been Kallak. He came out
of the earth, but his wife issued from his thumb, and from them all
generations of men have sprung. To him many attribute the origin of all
things. The woman brought death into the world, in that she said, Let
us die to make room for our successors.”[76]
The tradition of the Dog-rib Indians near the Polar Sea, as related by
Sir J. Franklin in his account of his expedition of 1825-27, is that
the first man was called Tschäpiwih. He found the earth filled with
abundance of all good things. He begat children and he gave to them two
sorts of fruit, one white and the other black, and he bade them eat
the white, but eschew the black. And having given them this command,
he left them and went a long journey to fetch the sun to enlighten the
world. During his absence they ate only of the white fruit, and then
the father made a second journey to fetch the moon, leaving them well
provided with fruit. But after a while they forgot his command, and
consumed the black fruit. On his return he was angry, and cursed the
ground that it should thenceforth produce only the black fruit, and
that with it should come in sickness and death.
Dr. Hunter, in his “Memoirs of Captivity amongst the Indians,” says
that the Delawares believe that in the beginning the Red men had short
tails, but they blasphemed the Great Spirit, and in punishment for
their sin their tails were cut off and transformed into women, to be
their perpetual worry. The same story is told by Mr. Atherne Jones, as
heard by him among the Kikapoos.
The ancient Mexicans had a myth of Xolotl, making out of a man’s bone
the primeval mother in the heavenly Paradise; and he called the woman
he had made Cihuacouhatl, which means “The woman with the serpent,” or
Quilatzli, which means “The woman of our flesh.” She was the mother of
twins, and is represented in a Mexican hieroglyph as speaking with the
serpent, whilst behind her stand the twins, whose different characters
are represented by different colors, one of whom is represented
slaying the other.[77] Xolotl, who made her out of a bone, was cast
out of heaven and became the first man. That the Mexicans had other
traditions, now lost, touching this matter is probable, for they had a
form of baptism for children in which they prayed that those baptized
might be washed from “the original sin committed before the founding of
the world.” And this had to do, in all probability, with a legend akin
to that of the Iroquois, who told of the primeval mother falling, and
then of the earth being built up to receive her, when precipitated out
of heaven.
The Caribs of South America relate that Luoguo, the first man and
god, created the earth and the sea, and made the earth as fair as the
beautiful garden in the heaven where dwell the gods. Luoguo dwelt
among the men he had made for some while. He drew the men out of his
navel and out of his thigh which he cut open. One of the first men was
Racumon, who was transformed into a great serpent with a human head,
and he lived twined round a great Cabatas tree and ate of its fruit,
and gave to those who passed by. Then the Caribs lived to a great age,
and never waxed old or died. Afterwards they found a garden planted
with manioc, and on that they fed. But they became wicked, and a flood
came and swept them away.[78]
In the South Sea Islands we find other traditions of the Fall. In Alea,
one of the Caroline Islands, the tale runs thus:--
“The sister of Eliulap the first man, who was also a god, felt herself
in labor, so she descended to earth and there brought forth three
children. To her astonishment she found the earth barren; therefore by
her mighty word, she clothed it with herbage and peopled it with beasts
and birds. And the world became very beautiful, and her sons were happy
and did not feel sickness or death, but at the close of every month
fell into a slumber from which they awoke renewed in strength and
beauty. But Erigeres, the bad spirit, envied this happiness, so he came
to the world and introduced into it pain, age, and death.”[79]
With the Jewish additions to the story given in Genesis, we shall
conclude.
The godless Sammael had made an alliance with all the chiefs of his
hosts against the Lord, because that the holy and ever blessed Lord
had said to Adam and Eve, “_Have dominion over the fish of the sea_,”
etc.; and he said, “How can I make man to sin and drive him out?” Then
he went down to earth with all his host, and he sought for a companion
like to himself; he chose the serpent, which was in size like a camel,
and he seated himself on its back and rode up to the woman, and said to
her, “_Hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?_”
And he thought, “I will ask more presently.” Then she answered, “He has
only forbidden me the fruit of the Tree of Knowlege which is in the
midst of the garden. And He said, ‘In the day thou touchest it thou
shalt die.’” She added two words; God did not say any thing to her
about touching it, and she spoke of the fruit, whereas God said the
Tree.
Then the godless one, Sammael, went up to the tree and touched it.
But the tree cried out, “_Let not the foot of pride come against me,
and let not the hand of the ungodly cast me down!_ Touch me not, thou
godless one!”
Then Sammael called to the woman, and said, “See, I have touched the
tree and am not dead. Do you also touch it and try.” But when Eve drew
near to the tree she saw the Angel of Death waiting sword in hand, and
she said in her heart, “Perhaps I am to die, and then God will create
another wife for Adam; that shall not be, he must die too.” So she gave
him of the fruit. And when he took it and bit, his teeth were blunted,
and thus it is that the back teeth of men are no longer sharp.[80]
V.
ADAM AND EVE AFTER THE FALL.
When Adam reached the earth, the Eagle said to the Whale, with whom
it had hitherto lived in the closest intimacy, “Now we must part, for
there is no safety for us animals since man has come amongst us. The
deepest abysses of ocean must be thy refuge, and thou must protect
thyself with cunning from the great foe who has entered the earth. I
must soar high above the clouds, and there find a place of escape from
him who is destined to be my pursuer till death.”[81]
According to certain cabbalistic Rabbis, Adam, when cast out of Eden,
was precipitated into Gehenna, but he escaped therefrom to earth, by
repeating and pronouncing properly the mystic word Laverererareri.[82]
In the Talmud it is related that when Adam heard the words of God,
“_Thou shalt eat the herb of the field_” (Gen. iii. 18), he trembled
in all his limbs, and exclaimed, “O Lord of all the world! I and my
beast, the Ass, shall have to eat out of the same manger!” But God said
to him, because he trembled, “Thou shalt eat bread in the sweat of thy
brow.”[83]
Learned Rabbis assert that the angel Raphael had instructed Adam in
all kinds of knowledge out of a book, and this book contained mighty
mysteries which the highest angels could not fathom, and knew not; and
before the Fall the angels used to assemble in crowds, and listen to
Adam instructing them in hidden wisdom. In that book were seventy-two
parts and six hundred and seventy writings, and all this was known;
but from the middle of the book to the end were the one thousand five
hundred hidden secrets of Wisdom, and these Adam began to reveal to the
angels till he was arrested by the angel Haddarniel. This book Adam
preserved and read in daily; but when he had sinned, it fled out of his
hands and flew away, and he went into the river Gihon up to his neck,
and the water washed the glory wherewith he had shone in Paradise from
off his body. But God was merciful, and He restored to him the book by
the hands of Raphael, and he left it to his son Seth, and Enoch and
Abraham read in this book.[84]
Along with the book Adam retained the rod which God had created at the
close of the Sabbath, between sun and sun; _i. e._ between nightfall
and daybreak, so says the Rabbi Levi. Adam left it to Enoch, and
Enoch gave it to Noah, and Noah gave it to Shem, and Shem to Abraham,
and Abraham delivered it to Isaac, and Isaac gave it to Jacob; Jacob
brought the staff with him to Egypt, and gave it to his son Joseph. Now
when Joseph died, his house was plundered by the Egyptians, and all his
effects were taken into Pharaoh’s house. Jethro was a mighty magician,
and when he saw the staff of Adam and read the writing thereon, he
went forth into Edom and planted it in his garden. And Jethro would
allow none to touch it; but when he saw Moses he said, “This is he who
will deliver Israel out of Egypt.” Wherefore he gave him his daughter
Zipporah and the staff. But the book Midrash Vajoscha relates this
rather differently, in the words of Moses himself: “After I had become
great I went out, and seeing an Egyptian ill-treat a Hebrew man of my
brethren, I slew him and buried him in the sand. But when Pharoah heard
this he sought to slay me, and brought a sharp sword the like of which
was not in the world; and therewith I was ten times smitten on my neck.
But the Holy God wrought a miracle, for my neck became as hard as a
marble pillar, so that the sword had no power over me. And I was forty
years old when I fled out of Egypt; and I came to Jethro’s house and
stood by the well and found Zipporah his daughter; and when I saw her,
I was pleased with her, and asked her to marry me. Then she related to
me her father’s custom, and it was this. ‘My father proves every suitor
for my hand by a tree which is in his garden; and when he comes to the
tree, the tree clasps him in its branches.’ Then I asked her where such
a tree was, and she answered me, ‘This is the staff which God created
on the eve of the Sabbath, which was handed down from Adam to Joseph;
but Jethro saw the staff at the plundering of Joseph’s house, and he
took it away with him from Pharaoh’s palace and brought it here. This
is the staff on which is cut the Schem hammphorasch and the ten plagues
that are in store for Egypt, and these are indicated by ten letters
on the staff, and they stand thus: _dam_, blood; _zephardeim_, frogs;
_kinnim_, lice; _arof_, various insects; _defer_, murrain; _schechim_,
blain; _barad_, hail; _arbeh_, locusts; _choschech_, darkness; and
_bechor_, first born:--these will be the plagues of Egypt. This staff
was for many days and years in my father’s house, till he one day took
it in his hand and stuck it into the earth in the garden; and then it
sprouted and bloomed and brought forth almonds, and when he saw that,
he proved every one who sought one of his daughters by that tree.’”
These are the words of the Book Midrash Vajoscha, and thereby may be
seen that the staff of Adam was of almond wood; but Yalkut Chadasch,
under the title “Adam,” says that the staff was of the wood of the Tree
of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.[85]
When Adam and Eve were driven out of the garden, says the Talmud, they
wandered disconsolate over the face of the earth. And the sun began to
decline, and they looked with fear at the diminution of the light, and
felt a horror like death steal over their hearts.
And the light of heaven grew paler, and the wretched ones clasped one
another in an agony of despair.
Then all grew dark.
And the luckless ones fell on the earth, silent, and thought that God
had withdrawn from them the light for ever; and they spent the night in
tears.
But a beam of light began to rise over the eastern hills, after many
hours of darkness, and the clouds blushed crimson, and the golden sun
came back, and dried the tears of Adam and Eve; and then they greeted
it with cries of gladness, and said, “_Heaviness may endure for a
night, but joy cometh in the morning_; this is a law that God has laid
upon nature.”[86]
Among the Manichean myths prevalent among the Albigenses, was one
preserved to us by the troubadour Pierre de-Saint-Cloud. When Adam was
driven out of Paradise, God in mercy gave him a miraculous rod, which
possessed creative powers, so that he had only to strike the sea with
it and it would forthwith produce the beast he might require.
Adam struck the sea, and there rose from it the sheep; then Eve took
the staff and smote the water, and from it sprang the wolf, which fell
on the sheep and carried it off into the wood. Then Adam took back the
staff, and with it called forth the dog to hunt the wolf and recover
the sheep.
According to the Mussulman tradition, Adam’s beard grew after he had
fallen, and it was the result of his excessive grief and penitence:
how this affected his chin is not explained, the fact only is thus
boldly stated. He was sorely abashed at his beard, but a voice from
heaven called to him, saying, “The beard is man’s ornament on earth; it
distinguishes him from the feeble woman.” Adam shed so many tears that
all birds and beasts drank of them, and flowing into the earth they
produced the fragrant plants and gum-bearing trees, for they were still
endued with the strength and virtue of the food of Paradise.
But the tears of Eve were transformed into pearls where they dribbled
into the sea, and into beautiful flowers where they sank into the soil.
Both wailed so loud that Eve’s cry reached Adam on the West wind, and
Adam’s cry was borne to Eve on the wings of the East wind. And when
Eve heard the well-known voice she clasped her hands above her head,
and women to this day thus testify their sorrow; and Adam, when the
voice of the weeping of Eve sounded in his ears, put his right hand
beneath his beard,--thus do men to this day give evidence of their
mourning. And the tears pouring out of Adam’s eyes formed the two
rivers Tigris and Euphrates. All nature wept with him; every bird and
beast hastened to him to mingle their tears with his, but the locust
was the first to arrive, for it was made of the superfluous earth which
had been gathered for the creation of Adam. There are seven thousand
kinds of locusts or grasshoppers, of all colors and sizes, up to the
dimensions of an eagle; and they have a king to whom God addresses
His commands when He would punish a rebellious nation such as that of
Egypt. The black character imprinted on the locust’s wing is Hebrew,
and it signifies, “God is One; He overcometh the mighty; the locusts
are a portion of His army which He sends against the wicked.” As all
nature thus wailed and lamented, from the invisible insect to the angel
who upholds the world, God sent Gabriel with the words which were in
after-time to save Jonah in the whale’s belly, “There is no God but
Thou; pardon me for Mohammed’s sake, that great and last prophet, whose
name is engraved on Thy throne.”
When Adam had uttered these words with penitent heart, the gates of
heaven opened, and Gabriel cried out, “God has accepted thy penitence,
Adam! pray to him alone, He will give thee what thou desirest, even the
return to Paradise, after a certain time.”
Adam prayed, “Lord, protect me from the further malice of my enemy
Eblis.”
“Speak the word, There is no God but God; that wounds him like a
poisoned arrow.”
“Lord, will not the meat and drink provided by this earth lead me into
sin?”
“Drink water, and eat only clean beasts which have been slain in the
name of Allah, and build mosques where you dwell, so will Eblis have no
power over you.”
“But if he torment me at night with evil thoughts and dreams?”
“Then rise from thy couch and pray.”
“Lord, how shall I be able to distinguish between good and evil?”
“My guidance will be with thee; and two angels will dwell in thy heart,
who shall warn thee against evil and encourage thee to good.”
“Lord, assure me Thy grace against sin.”
“That can only be obtained by good works. But this I promise thee, evil
shall be punished one-fold, good shall be rewarded tenfold.”
In the meanwhile the angel Michael had been sent to Eve to announce to
her God’s mercy. When Eve saw him, she exclaimed, “O great and almighty
Archangel of God, with what weapon shall I, poor frail creature, fight
against sin?”
“God,” answered the Angel, “has given me for thee, the most potent
weapon of modesty; that, as man is armed with faith, so mayest thou be
armed with shamefacedness, therewith to conquer thy passions.”
“And what will protect me against the strength of man, so much more
robust and vigorous than I, in mind and in body?”
“Love and compassion,” answered Michael. “I have placed these in the
deepest recesses of his heart, as mighty advocates within him to plead
for thee.”
“And will God give me no further gift?”
“For the pangs of maternity thou shalt feel, this shall be thine,
death in child-bearing shall be reckoned in heaven as a death of
martyrdom.”[87]
Eblis, seeing the mercy shown to Adam and Eve, ventured to entreat
God’s grace for himself, and obtained that he should not be enchained
in the place of torment till the day of the general Resurrection, and
that he should exercise sovereignty over the wicked and all those who
should reject God’s word in this life.
“And where shall I dwell till the consummation of all things?” he asked
of Allah.
“In ruined buildings, and in tombs, and in dens and caves of the
mountains.”
“And what shall be my nourishment?”
“All beasts slain in the name of false gods and idols.”
“And how shall I slake my thirst?”
“In wine and other spirituous liquors.”
“And how shall I occupy myself in hours of idleness?”
“In music, dancing, and song.”
“What is the word of my sentence?”
“The curse of God till the Judgment-day.”
“And how shall I fight against those men who have received Thy
revelation, and are protected by the two angels?”
“Thy offspring shall be more numerous than theirs: to every man born
into this world, there will be born seven evil spirits, who, however,
will be powerless to injure true Believers.”
God then made a covenant with Adam’s successors; He rubbed Adam’s
back, and lo! from out of his back crawled all generations of men that
were to be born, about the size of ants, and they ranged themselves
on the left and on the right. At the head of those on the right stood
Mohammed, then the other prophets and the faithful, distinguished from
those on the left by their white and dazzling splendor. Those on the
left were headed by Kabil (Cain).
God then acquainted Adam with the names and fate of all his posterity;
and when the recital arrived at David, to whom God had allotted only
thirty years, Adam asked God, “How many years are accorded to me?”
Allah replied, “One thousand.”
Then said Adam, “I make a present to David of seventy years out of my
life.” God consented; and knowing the shortness of Adam’s memory, at
all events in matters concerning himself inconveniently, He made the
angels bring a formal document of resignation engrossed on parchment,
and required Adam to subscribe thereto his name, and Michael and
Gabriel to countersign it as witnesses.
A very similar tradition was held by the Jews, for in Midrash Jalkut
(fol. 12) it is said: God showed Adam all future generations of men,
with their captains, learned and literary men. Then he saw that
David was provided with only three hours of life, and he said, “Lord
and Creator of the world, is this unalterable?” “Such was my first
intention,” was the reply.
“How many years have I to live?”
“A thousand.”
“And is there such a thing known in heaven as making presents?”
“Most certainly.”
“Then I present seventy years of my life to David.”
And what did Adam next perform? He drew up a legal document of
transfer, and sealed it with his own seal, and God and Metatron did
likewise.
To return to the Mussulman legend.
When all the posterity of Adam were assembled, God exclaimed to them,
“Acknowledge that I am the only God, and that Mohammed is my prophet.”
The company on the right eagerly made this acknowledgment; those,
however, on the left long hesitated,--some said only the former portion
of the sentence, and others did not open their mouths.
“The disobedient,” said Allah to Adam, “shall, if they remain
obstinate, be cast into hell, but the true believers shall be received
into Paradise.”
“So be it,” replied Adam. And thus shall it be at the end of the world.
After the covenant, Allah rubbed Adam’s back once more, and all his
little posterity retreated into it again.
When now God withdrew His presence from Adam’s sight for the remainder
of our first parents’ life, Adam uttered such a loud and bitter cry
that the whole earth quaked.
The All-merciful was filled with compassion, and bade him follow a
cloud which would conduct him to a spot where he would be directly
opposite His throne, and there he was to build a temple.
“Go about this temple,” said Allah, “and I am as near to you as the
angels who surround my throne.” Adam, who was still the size that God
had created him, easily strode from Ceylon to Mecca after the cloud,
which stood over the place where he was to build. On Mount Arafa,
near Mecca, to his great delight, he found Eve again, and from this
circumstance the mountain takes its name (from Arafa, to recognize,
to know again). They both began to build, and erected a temple having
four doors--one was called Adam’s door, another Abraham’s door, the
third Ishmael’s door, and the fourth Mohammed’s door. The plan of the
temple was furnished by Gabriel, who also contributed a precious stone,
but this stone afterwards, through the sin of men, turned black. This
black stone is the most sacred Kaaba, and it was originally an angel,
whose duty it had been to guard the Wheat-Tree of the knowledge of
good and evil, and to warn off Adam should he approach it. But though
his inattention the design of God was frustrated, and in punishment
he was transformed into a stone, and he will not be released from his
transformation till the Last Day.
Gabriel taught Adam also all the ceremonies of the great pilgrimage.
Adam now returned with his wife to India, and lived there till he
died, but every year he made a pilgrimage to Mecca, till he lost his
primitive size, and retained only the height of sixty eels.
The cause of his diminution in height was his horror and dismay at
the murder of Abel, which made him shrink into himself, and he was
never afterwards able to stretch himself out again to his pristine
dimensions.[88]
The Book of the Penitence of Adam is a curious apocryphal work of
Syriac origin; I give an outline of its contents.
God planted, on the third day, the Terrestrial Paradise; it is bounded
on the east by the ocean in which, at the Last Day, the elect will
wash away all those sins which have not as yet been purged away by
repentance.
On leaving this garden of delights, Adam turned to take of it one last
look. He saw that the Tree which had caused his fall was cursed and had
withered away.
He was much surprised when night overtook him, for in Paradise he
had not known darkness. As he went along his way, shedding tears, he
overtook the serpent gliding over the ground, and licking the dust.
That serpent he had last seen on four feet, very beautiful, with the
hair of a young maiden, enamelled with brilliant colors. Now it was
vile, hideous, and grovelling. The beasts which, before the Fall, had
coveted its society, fled from it now with loathing.
Filled with rage at the sight of Adam and Eve, to whom it attributed
its present degradation, the serpent flew at them and prostrated them.
Thereupon God removed from it its sole remaining possession--the gift
of speech, and it was left only its hiss of rage and shame.
Adam soon felt exhaustion, heat, fear and pain;--afflictions he had
not known in Eden. As the shadows of night fell, an intense horror
overwhelmed the guilty pair; they trembled in every limb and cried to
God. The Almighty, in compassion, consoled them by announcing to them
that day would return after twelve hours of night. They were relieved
by this promise, and they spent the first night in prayer.
But Satan, who never lost sight of them, fearing lest their prayers
should wholly appease the divine justice, assembled his host of evil
angels, surrounded himself with a brilliant light, and stood at the
entrance of the cave where the banished ones prayed. He hoped that Adam
would mistake him for God, and prostrate himself before him.
But Adam said to Eve: “Observe this great light and this multitude of
spirits. If it were God who sent them, they would enter and tell us
their message.” Adam did not know then that Satan cannot approach those
who pray. Then Adam addressed himself to God and said, “O my God! is
there another God but Thou, who can create angels and send them to us?
Lord, deign to instruct us!”
Then a heavenly angel entered the cavern and said, “Adam, fear not
those whom you see; it is Satan and his host. He sought to seduce you
again to your fall.”
Having thus spoken, the angel fell upon Satan and tore from off him his
disguise, and exposed him in his hideous nakedness to Adam and Eve.
And to console them for this trial, God sent Adam gold rings, incense
and myrrh, and said to him, “Preserve these things, and they will give
you at night Light and fragrance; and when I shall come down on earth
to save you, clothed in human flesh, kings shall bring me these three
tokens.”
It is because of this present that the cavern into which Adam and Eve
retreated has been called the Treasure-cave.
Adam and Eve, greatly cheered, blessed the Lord, and thanked him for
his goodness, and resolved to continue their repentance.
A short time after they committed a fault. Satan presented himself to
them under the form of an angel of light, and announced that he was
commissioned by the Most High to lead them to the brink of the River of
the Water of Life, into which they were to plunge and wash away their
sin.
They believed, and followed him by a strange road, and he led them
to the edge of a precipice, down which he endeavored to fling them;
for, he thought, were he to destroy the man and the woman, he would be
supreme in the world God had made. But the Almighty rescued Adam and
Eve, and drave Satan from them.
To punish themselves for their involuntary fault, Adam and Eve
separated, so as not to see one another, and resolve to spend forty
days up to their necks in the sea.
Before parting, Adam said to his wife, “Remain in the water here, and
do not quit it till I return, and spend your time in praying the Lord
to pardon us.”
Now, whilst they were undergoing this penance, Satan cast about how
he might bring to naught our first parents, and he sought them but
could not find them, till on the thirty-fifth day of their penance he
perceived the two heads above the water; then he knew at once what was
their intention, and he resolved to frustrate it. So he took upon him
the form of an angel of Heaven, and flew over the sea singing praises
to God; and when he came to the place where Eve was, he cried, “Joy,
joy to thee! God is with thee, and he has sent me to bring thee to Adam
to announce to him that he has found favor with the Most High.”
Eve instantly scrambled out of the water, and followed Satan to Adam,
and the Evil One placed her before her husband, and vanished. When Adam
saw his wife, he was filled with dismay, and beat his breast and wept.
When she told him why she was there, he knew that the great Enemy had
been again at his work of deception, and he fell into despair. But a
voice from Heaven bade him return with Eve to the Treasure-cave.
Hunger, thirst, cold, and prayer had completely exhausted the pair, and
Adam cried to the Lord, “O God, my Creator! Thou hast given me reason
and an enlightened heart. When Thou didst forbid me to eat of the fruit
of the Tree, Eve was not yet made, and she did not hear Thy command;
in Eden we hungered not, nor felt thirst or pain or fatigue. All this
have we lost. And now we dare not touch the fruit of the trees or drink
of water without Thy command. Our bodies are exhausted, our strength
is gone; grant us wherewith to satisfy our hunger, and to quench our
thirst.”
God ordered the Cherubim who kept the gate of Eden, to carry to Adam
two figs from the tree under which our first parents had concealed
themselves after the Fall.
“Take,” said the Cherubim, presenting the figs to them, “take the fruit
of the tree whose leaves covered your shame.”
“Oh!” cried Adam, “may God grant us some of the fruit of the Tree of
Life.”
But God answered, “I will give unto you this fruit and living water,
to you and to your descendants, on that day that I shall descend into
the abode of death and shall break the gates of iron in sunder, to
bring you forth into my garden of pleasures. That which you ask of Me
shall take place at the expiration of five long days and a half (_i.
e._ 5,500 years), after that my blood has flowed upon thy head, O Adam,
upon Golgotha.”
Adam and Eve took the figs, which were very heavy, for the fruits of
the earthly paradise were much larger than the fruit of this outer
world in which we live. And when they were about to enter into the Cave
of Treasures, they saw there a great fire; this mightily astonished
them, for as yet they had not seen fire except in the flaming sword of
the Cherub. Now this fire which surprised them was the work of Satan;
he had collected branches and had fired them in the hope of burning
down the cavern and driving Adam to despair.
The fire lasted till the morrow; Satan, without showing himself,
keeping it supplied with fresh fuel. Adam and Eve did not venture to
approach, but recommended themselves to God; and the Evil One, finding
that his plan had failed, let the fire die out and departed.
Adam and Eve slept the following night at the foot of a mountain near
their lost Eden. Satan beholding them, said, “God has made a compact
with Adam, whom he desires to save, but I will slay him, and the earth
shall be mine.”
He therefore summoned his attendant angels, and they dislodged a huge
rock from the mountain and hurled it upon the sleepers. But as this
mass was bounding down the flank of the mountain, and was in mid-air in
one of its leaps, God arrested it above the heads of the sleepers, and
it sheltered them from the dews of night.
Adam and Eve awoke greatly troubled by their dreams, and they asked of
God garments to cover their naked bodies, for they suffered from the
scorching sun by day, and the frost by night. God replied, “Go to the
shore of the sea; you will there find the skins of sheep which have
been devoured by lions: of them make to yourselves raiment.”
Satan heard the words of God, and he outran our first parents, that he
might secure the skins and destroyed them, in the hopes that Adam and
Eve, finding no hides, would doubt God and think that he had failed in
His word. But God fastened Satan in his naked hideousness beside the
skins, immovable, till Adam and Eve arrived, when he addressed them
in these terms: “Behold him who has seduced you; see what has become
of his beauty. After having made you such promises, he was about to
rob you of these hides.” Adam and Eve took the skins and made of them
garments. A few days after, God said to them, “Go to the west till you
arrive at a black land; there you will find food.” They obeyed, and
they saw corn full ripe, and God inspired Adam with knowledge how to
make bread. But not having sickles they tore the corn up by the roots,
and having made a rick of it, they slept, expecting to thrash it out
and grind it on the morrow. But Satan fired this rick and reduced their
harvest to ashes.
Whilst they wept and lamented, Satan came to them as an angel, and
said, “This is the work of your Enemy the Fiend, but God has sent me to
bring you into a field where you will find better corn.”
They followed him, nothing doubting, and he led them for eight days,
and they fainted with exhaustion and were foot-sore. Then he left them
in an unknown land; but God was their protector, He brought them back
to their harvest and restored their rick of corn, and they made bread
and offered to God the first sacrifice.[89]
But enough of this apocryphal work, which contains a string of absurd
tricks played by Satan on our first parents, which are invariably
defeated by God; of these the specimens given above are sufficient.
A curious legend exists among the Sclavonic nations by which the
existence of elves is accounted for. It is said that Adam had by his
wife Eve, thirty sons and thirty daughters. God asked him, one day, the
number of his children. Adam was ashamed of having so many girls, so he
answered, “Thirty sons and twenty-seven daughters.” But from the eye of
God nothing can be concealed, and He took from among Adam’s daughters
the three fairest, and He made them Willis, or elves; they were good
and holy, and therefore did not perish in the Deluge, but entered with
Noah into the ark and were saved.
The story of Adam’s penitence, as told by Tabari, is as follows:--
The moment that Adam fell out of Paradise and touched the ground on the
mountains in the centre of Ceylon, he understood in all its magnitude
the greatness of his loss and his sin. He remained stupefied with his
face on the earth, and did not raise it, but allowed his tears to flow
upon and soak into the soil. For a hundred years he remained in this
position, and his tears formed a stream which rolled down the mountain,
which still flows from Adam’s Peak in the island of Ceylon, and gives
their virtue to the healing plants and fragrant trees which there
flourish, and are exported for medicinal purposes.
When a hundred years had elapsed, God had compassion on Adam, and sent
Gabriel to him, who said, “God salutes thee, O Adam! and He bids me say
to thee, Did I not create thee out of the earth by My will? Did I not
give thee Paradise to be thine abode? Why these tears and sighs?”
Adam replied, “How shall I not weep, and how shall I abstain from
sighing? Have I not lost the protection of God, and have I not
disobeyed His will?”
Gabriel said, “Do not afflict thyself. Recite the words I shall teach
thee, and God will grant thee repentance which He will accept,” as it
is written in the Koran, “Adam learnt of His Lord words; and the Lord
returned to Him, for He is merciful, and He returns.” Adam recited
these words, and in the joy he felt at the prospect of finding mercy,
he wept, and his joyous tears watered the earth, and from them sprang
up the narcissus and the ox-eye.
Then said Adam to Gabriel, “What shall I now do?”
And Gabriel gave to Adam wheat-grains from out of Paradise, the fruit
of the Forbidden Tree, and he bade him sow it, and he said, “This shall
be thy food in future.”
Afterwards, Gabriel taught Adam to draw iron out of the rock and to
make instruments of husbandry. And all that Adam sowed sprang up in the
self-same hour that it was sown, for the blessing of God was upon it.
And Adam reaped and thrashed and winnowed. Then Gabriel bade him take
two stones from the mountain, and he taught him with them to grind the
corn; and when he had made flour, he said to the angel, “Shall I eat
now?” But Gabriel answered, “Not so;” and he showed him how to build
an oven of iron. It was from this oven that the water of the deluge at
Koufa flowed. He taught him also to make dough and to bake.
But Adam was hungry, and he said, “Let me eat now,” and the angel
stayed him, and answered, “Tarry till the bread be cold and stale,” but
he would not, but ate. Therefore he suffered from pain in his belly.
Next, Gabriel by the command of Allah brought out of Eden the ox and
fruit; of these latter there were ten kinds whose exterior was edible,
but whose insides were useless to eat, such as the apricot, the peach
and the date. And there were three that could not be eaten anyhow. Then
he brought ten more whose insides and outsides might be eaten, such as
the grape, the fig, and the apple. Said Gabriel to Adam, “Sow these,”
and he sowed them. These are the trees that the angel brought out of
Paradise.
Now Adam was all alone on the peak in the midst of Ceylon, and his head
was in the first heaven. The sun burnt him, so that all his hair fell
off; and God, in compassion, bade Gabriel pass his wing over Adam’s
head, and Adam thereupon shrank to the height of sixty cubits. And then
he could no longer hear the voices of the angels in heaven, and he was
sore distressed.
Then God said to him, “I have made this world thy prison, but I send to
thee out of heaven a house of rubies, in order that thou mayest enter
in and walk round it, and therein find repose for thy heart.”
Thereupon out of heaven descended “the visited house,” and it was
placed where now stands the temple of Mecca. The black stone which
is there was originally white and shining. It was placed in the ruby
house. Whosoever looked in that direction from ten parasangs off, could
see the light of that house shining like a fire up to the heaven, and
in the midst of that red light shone the white stone like a star.
Afterwards, Gabriel conducted Adam to that house that he might go in
procession round it. All the places where his foot was planted became
verdant oases, with rivers of water and many flowers and trees, but all
the tract between was barren.
Gabriel taught Adam how to make the pilgrimage; and if any one now goes
there without knowing the ceremonies, he needs a guide.
Then Adam met with Eve again, and they rejoiced together; and she went
back with him to Ceylon. Now at that time there was in the world no
other pair than Adam and Eve, and no other house than the mansion of
rubies.
Now Eblis had made his prayer to Allah that he might be allowed to
live till Israfiel should sound the last trumpet. And he asked this,
because those who are alive when that trumpet sounds, shall not die any
more, for Death will be brought in, in the shape of a sheep, and will
be slaughtered; and when Death is slaughtered, no one will be able to
die.
And God said, “I give thee the time till all creatures must die.”
Then Eblis said, “Just as Thou didst turn me out of the right way, so
shall I pervert those whom Thou hast made.” Satan went to man and said
to him, “God has driven me out of Paradise, never to return there, and
He has taken from me the sovereignty of this world to give it to thee.
Why should we not be friends and associate together, and I can advise
thee on thy concerns?”
And Adam thought to himself, “I must be the companion of this one, but
I will make use of him.” So he suffered him to be his comrade.
The first act of treachery he did was this.
Every child Adam had by Eve died when born. Eve became pregnant for
the fourth time, and Eblis said to Adam, “I believe this child will be
good-looking and will live.”
“I am of the same opinion,” answered Adam.
“If my prophecy turns out right,” said the Evil One, “give the child to
me.”
“I will give it,” said Adam.
Now the child, when born, was very fair to look upon, and Adam, though
he repented of his rash promise, did not venture to break his word; so
he gave the child to Eblis, that is to say, he named it Abd-el-Hareth,
or Servant of Hareth, instead of Abd-Allah, Servant of God. And after
living two years it died.[90]
Thus Satan became an associate in the affairs of man.
But others tell the conclusion of the story somewhat differently. They
say that the child Abd-el-Hareth became the progenitor of the whole
race of Satyrs, nightmares, and hobgoblins.
Maimonides says that the Sabians attribute to Adam the introduction of
the worship of the moon, on which account they call him the prophet or
apostle of the moon.[91]
A large number of books are attributed to Adam. The passage in
Genesis, _This is the Book of the generations of Adam_,[92] led many to
suppose that Moses quoted from a book written by our first parent. That
such an apocryphal book did exist in after-times, appears from the fact
of Pope Gelasius in his decrees rejecting it as spurious. He speaks of
it as “the book which is called the Book of the generations of Adam
or Geneseos.” And the Rabbis say that this book was written by Adam,
after he had seen all his posterity brought out before him, as already
related. And this book, they say, Adam gave to Enoch.[93]
Beside this, there existed an Apocalypse of Adam, which is mentioned by
S. Epiphanius, who quotes a passage from it, in which Adam describes
the Tree of Life, which produced twelve kinds of fruit every year.[94]
And George Syncellus, in his Chronicle, extracts a portion of an
apocryphal Life of Adam.
Amongst the Revelations of S. Amadeus are found two psalms, which, in
vision, he heard had been composed by Adam. One was on the production
of Eve, the other is a hymn of repentance, a joint composition of the
two outcasts. It runs as follows:--
_Adam._--“Adonai, my Lord God, have mercy upon me for Thy great
goodness, and according to the multitude of Thy mercies do away my
transgressions. I am bowed down with trouble, Thy waves and storms
have gone over me. Deliver me, O God, and save me from the flood of
many waters. Hear my words, O Heavens, and all ye that dwell in them.
May the angels bear up all my thoughts and words to Thee, and may the
celestial virtues declare them. May the Lord bend His compassionate
ear to my lowly petition. May He hear my prayer, and let the cry of my
heart reach Him. Thou, O God, art the true and most brilliant light;
all other lights are mingled with darkness. Thou art the sun that
knowest no down-setting, that dwellest in inaccessible light. Thou art
the end to which all flesh come. Thou art the only satisfaction of all
the blessed.”
_Eve._--“Adonai, Lord God, have mercy upon me for Thy great goodness,
and for the multitude of Thy mercies do away my transgressions. Thou
before all things didst create the immovable heaven as a holy and
exalted home, and Thou didst adorn it with angel spirits, to whom
Thou didst in goodness declare thy purposes. They were the bright
morning stars who sang to Thee through ages of ages. Thou didst form
the movable heaven and Thou didst set in it the watery clouds. Those
waters are under the immovable heaven, and are above all that live and
move. Thou didst create the light; the beauteous sun, the moon with the
five planets didst Thou place in the midst, and didst fix the signs and
constellations. Thou didst produce four elements, and didst kindle all
with Thy wisdom.”
_Adam._--“Adonai, Lord God, have mercy upon me for Thy great goodness,
and for the multitude of Thy mercies do away my transgressions. Thou
hast cast out the proud and rebel dragon with Thy mighty arm. Thou hast
put down the mighty from their seat and hast exalted the humble and
meek. Thou hast filled the hungry with good things, and the rich Thou
hast sent empty away. Thou didst fashion me in Thine own image of the
dust of earth, and destine me, mortal, to be immortal; and me, frail,
to endure. Thou didst lead me into the place of life and joy, and didst
surround me with all good things; Thou didst put all things under my
feet, and didst reveal to me Thy great name, Adonai. Thou didst give me
Eve, to be a help meet for me, whom Thou didst draw from my side.”
_Adam._--“Adonai, Lord and God, have mercy upon me for Thy
great goodness, and for the multitude of Thy mercies do away my
transgressions; for Thou hast made me the head of all men. Thou hast
inspired me and my consort with Thy wisdom, and hast given us a free
will and placed our lot in our own hands. But thou hast given us
precepts and laws, and hast placed life and death before us that we
might keep Thy commandments, and in keeping them find life; but if we
keep them not, we shall die. Lucifer, the envious one, saw and envied.
He fought against us and prevailed. Conquered by angels, he conquered
man, and subjugated all his race. I have sinned. I am he who have
committed iniquity. If I had refused in my free will, neither Eve nor
the Enemy could have obtained my destruction. But being in honor I had
no understanding and I lost my dignity. I am like to the cattle, the
horse, and the mule, which have no understanding.”
_Eve._--“Adonai, Lord and God, have mercy upon me for Thy great
goodness, and for the multitude of Thy mercies do away mine offences.
Great is our God, and great is His mercy; His goodness is unmeasured.
He will supply the remedy to our sin, that if we will to rise, we may
be able to arise; He has appointed His Son, the glorifier of all, and
our Redeemer; and He has appointed the Holy Mother to be our mediatrix,
in whose image He has built me, Eve, the mother of all flesh. He has
fashioned the Mother after the likeness of her daughter. He has made
the father after the image and likeness of His Son; and He will blot
out our transgressions for His merits, if we yield our wills thereto,
and receive His sacraments. He will receive a free-will offering, and
He will not despise a contrite heart. To those going towards Him, He
will fly with welcome, He will pardon their offences and will crown
them with glory.”
_Adam._--“Adonai, Lord and God, have mercy upon me for Thy great
goodness, and for the multitude of Thy mercies do away mine offences.
O God, great is the abundance of Thy sweetness. Blessed are all they
that hope in Thee. After the darkness Thou bringest in the light; and
pain is converted into joy. Thou repayest a thousand for a hundred, and
for a thousand thou givest ten thousand. For the least things, Thou
rewardest with the greatest things; and for temporal joys, Thou givest
those that are eternal. Blessed are they that keep Thy statutes, and
bend their necks to Thy yoke. They shall dwell in Thy Tabernacle and
rest upon Thy holy hill. They shall be denizens of Thy courts with
Thee, whose roots shine above gold and precious stones. Blessed are
they who believe in the triune God, and will to know His ways. We all
sing, Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, and
we magnify our God. As in the beginning the angels sang, so shall we
now and ever, and in ages of ages. Amen.”[95]
Manasseh Ben-Israel has preserved a prophecy of Adam, that the world is
to last seven thousand years. He says this secret was handed down from
Adam to Enoch, and from Enoch to Noah, and from Noah to Shem.[96]
At Hebron is a cave, “which,” says an old traveller, “Christians and
Turks point out as having been the place where Adam and Eve bewailed
their sins for a hundred years. This spot is towards the west, in a
valley, about a hundred paces from the Damascene field; it is a dark
grotto, not very long or broad, very low, in a hard rock, and not
apparently artificial, but natural. This valley is called _La valle de’
Lagrime_, the Vale of Tears, as they shed such copious tears over their
transgressions.”[97]
Abu Mohammed Mustapha Ben-Alschit Hasen, in his Universal History, says
that Adam’s garment of fig-leaves, in which he went out of Eden, was
left by him, when he fell, on Adam’s Peak in Ceylon. There it dried to
dust, and the dust was scattered by the wind over the island, and from
this sprang the odoriferous plants which grow there.[98]
Adam is said to have not gone altogether empty-handed out of Paradise.
Hottinger, in his Oriental History, quoting Jewish authorities, says:
“Adam having gone into the land of Babel, took with him many wonderful
things, amongst others a tree with flowers, leaves and branches of
gold, also a stone tree, also the leaves of a tree so strong that they
were inconsumable in fire, and so large as to be able to shelter under
them ten thousand men of the stature of Adam; and he carried about
with him two of these leaves, of which one would shelter two men or
clothe them.”[99] Of these trees we read in the Gemara that the Rabbi
Canaan asked of the Rabbi Simon, son of Assa, who had gone to see them,
whether this was true. He was told in reply that it was so, and that at
the time of the Captivity the Jews had seated themselves under these
trees, and in their shadow had found consolation.
But Palestine seems also to have possessed some of the trees of Adam’s
planting, for Jacob Vitriacus in his Jewish History says: “There are in
that land wonderful trees, which for their pre-excellence are called
Apples of Paradise, bearing oblong fruit, very sweet and unctuous,
having a most delicious savor, bearing in one cluster more than a
hundred compressed berries. The leaves of this tree are a cubit long
and half a cubit wide. There are three other trees producing beautiful
apples or citrons, in which the bite of a man’s teeth is naturally
manifest, wherefore they are called Adam’s Apples.”[100] Hottinger says
that at Tripoli grows a tree called Almaus, or Adam’s apple, with a
green head, and leaves like outspread fingers, no branches, but only
leaves, and with a fruit like a bean-pod, of delicious flavor, and an
odor of roses. Buntingius, in his Itinerary, describes an Adam’s apple
which he tasted at Alexandria, and he said the taste was like pears,
and the clusters of prodigious size, with twenty in each cluster, like
magnificent bunches of grapes. But the most remarkable fact about
them was that, if one of the fruit were cut with a knife, the figure
of a crucifix was found to be contained in it.[101] And this tree
was supposed to have been the forbidden tree, and the fruit to have
thus brought hope as it also brought death to the eater. Nider, “In
Formicario,” also relates that this fruit, thus marked with the form of
the Crucified, grows in Granada.[102]
“At Beyrut, of which S. Nicodemus was the first bishop,” writes the
Friar, Ignatius von Rheinfelden, “I saw a wonderful fruit which is
called by the Arabs, Mauza, and by the Christians Adam’s fig. This
fruit grows upon a trunk in clusters of fifty or more, and hangs down
towards the ground on account of its weight. The fruit is in shape
something like a cucumber, and is a span long, yellow, and tasting
something like figs. The Christians of those parts say it is the fruit
of which Adam and Eve ate in Paradise, and they argue thus: first,
there are no apples in those parts; secondly, S. Jerome translated
the word in the Bible, Mauza; thirdly, if the fruit be cut, within it
is seen the figure of a crucifix, and they conclude thereby that the
first parents were showed by this figure how their sin would be atoned;
fourthly, the leaves being three ells long and half an ell wide, were
admirably adapted to make skirts of, when Adam and Eve were conscious
of their nakedness. And Holy Scripture says nothing of apples, but says
merely--fruit. But whether this was the fruit or not, I leave others to
decide.”[103]
Adam is said by the Easterns to have received from Raphael a magic
ring, which became his symbol, and which he handed down to his
descendants selected to know and read mysteries. This was no other than
the “crux ansata,” or handled cross, so common on Egyptian monuments as
the hieroglyph of Life out of death. The circle symbolized the apple,
and thus the Carthusian emblem, which bears the motto “Stat crux dum
volvitur orbis,” is in reality the mystic symbol of Adam. “Which,”
says the Arabic philosopher, Ibn-ephi, “Mizraim received from Ham,
and Ham from Noah, and Noah from Enoch, and Enoch from Seth, and Seth
from Adam, and Adam from the angel Raphael. Ham wrought with it great
marvels, and Hermes received it from him and placed it amongst the
hieroglyphics. But this character signifies the progress and motion of
the Spirit of the world, and it was a magic seal, kept secret among
their mysteries, and a ring constraining demons.”[104]
VI.
CAIN AND ABEL.
After that the child given to Satan died, says Tabari, Adam had another
son, and he called him Seth, and Seth was prophet in the room of his
father, after the death of Adam.
Adam had many more children; every time that Eve bore, she bare twins,
whereof one was male, the other female, and the twins were given to one
another as husband and wife.
Now Adam sought to give to Abel the twin sister of Cain, when she
was old enough to be married, but Cain (Kabil, in Arabic) was
dissatisfied.[105] Adam said to the brothers, Cain and Abel, “Go, my
sons, and sacrifice to the Lord; and he whose sacrifice is accepted,
shall have the young girl. Take each of you offerings in your hand and
go, sacrifice to the Lord, and he shall decide.”
Abel was a shepherd, and he took the fattest of the sheep, and bore it
to the place of sacrifice; but Cain, who was a tiller of the soil, took
a sheaf of corn, the poorest he could find, and placed it on the altar.
Then fire descended from heaven and consumed the offering of Abel, so
that not even the cinders remained; but the sheaf of Cain was left
untouched.
Adam gave the maiden to Abel, and Cain was sore vexed.
One day, Abel was asleep on a mountain. Cain took a stone and crushed
his head. Then he threw the corpse on his back, and carried it about,
not knowing what to do with it; but he saw two crows fighting, and one
killed the other; then the crow that survived dug a hole in the earth
with his beak, and buried the dead bird. Cain said, “I have not the
sense of this bird. I too will lay my brother in the ground.” And he
did so.
When Adam learned the death of his son, he set out in search of Cain,
but could not find him; then he recited the following lines:--
“Every city is alike, each mortal man is vile,
The face of earth has desert grown, the sky has ceased to smile,
Every flower has lost its hue, and every gem is dim.
Alas! my son, my son is dead; the brown earth swallows him!
We one have had in midst of us whom death has not yet found,
No peace for him, no rest for him, treading the blood-drenched
ground.”[106]
This is how the story is told in the Midrash:[107] Cain and Abel could
not agree, for, what one had, the other wanted; then Abel devised a
scheme that they should make a division of property, and thus remove
the possibility of contention. The proposition pleased Cain. So Cain
took the earth, and all that is stationary, and Abel took all that is
movable.
But the envy which lay in the heart of Cain gave him no rest. One day
he said to his brother, “Remove thy foot, thou standest on my property:
the plain is mine.”
Then Abel ran upon the hills, but Cain cried, “Away, the hills are
mine!” Then he climbed the mountains, but still Cain followed him,
calling, “Away, the stony mountains are mine!”
In the Book of Jasher the cause of quarrel is differently stated. One
day the flock of Abel ran over the ground Cain had been ploughing; Cain
rushed furiously upon him and bade him leave the spot. “Not,” said
Abel, “till you have paid me for the skins of my sheep and wool of
their fleeces used for your clothing.” Then Cain took the coulter from
his plough, and with it slew his brother.[108]
The Targum of Jerusalem says, the subject of contention was that
Cain denied a Judgment to come and Eternal Life; and Abel argued for
both.[109] The Rabbi Menachem, however, asserts that the point on which
they strove was whether a word was written _zizit_ or _zizis_ in the
Parascha.[110]
“And when they were in the field together, the brothers quarrelled,
saying. ‘Let us divide the world.’ One said, ‘The earth you stand on
is my soil.’ The other said, ‘You are standing on my earth.’ One said,
‘The Holy Temple shall stand on my lot;’ the other said, ‘It shall
stand on my lot.’ So they quarrelled. Now there were born with Abel two
daughters, his sisters. Then said Cain, ‘I will take the one I choose,
I am the eldest;’ Abel said, ‘They were born with me, and I will have
them both to wife.’ And when they fought, Abel flung Cain down and was
above him; and he lay on Cain. Then Cain said to Abel, ‘Are we not both
sons of one father; why wilt thou kill me?’ And Abel had compassion,
and let Cain get up. And so Cain fell on him and killed him. From this
we learn not to render good to the evil, for, because Abel showed mercy
to Cain, Cain took advantage of it to slay Abel.”[111]
S. Methodius the Younger refers to this tradition. He says: “Be it
known that Adam and Eve when they left Paradise were virgins. But
the third year after the expulsion from Eden, they had Cain, their
first-born, and his sister Calmana; and after this, next year, they had
Abel and his sister Deborah. But in the three hundredth year of Adam’s
life, Cain slew his brother, and Adam and Eve wailed over him a hundred
years.”[112]
Eutychius, Patriarch of Alexandria, says, “When Adam and Eve rebelled
against God, He expelled them from Paradise at the ninth hour on Friday
to a certain mountain in India, and He bade them produce children to
increase and multiply upon the earth. Adam and Eve therefore became
parents, first of a boy named Cain, and of a girl named Azrun, who
were twins; then of another boy named Abel, and of a twin sister named
Owain, or in Greek Laphura.
“Now, when the children were grown up, Adam said to Eve, ‘Let Cain
marry Owain, who was born with Abel, and let Abel have Azrun, who was
born with Cain.’ But Cain said to his mother, ‘I will marry my own twin
sister, and Abel shall marry his.’ For Azrun was prettier than Owain.
But when Adam heard this, he said, ‘It is contrary to the precept that
thou shouldst marry thy twin sister.’
“Now Cain was a tiller of the ground, but Abel was a pastor of sheep.
Adam said to them, ‘Take of the fruits of the earth, and of the young
of the sheep, and ascend the top of this holy mountain, and offer there
the best and choicest to God.’ Abel offered of the best and fattest of
the first-born of the flock. Now as they were ascending the summit of
the mountain, Satan put it into the head of Cain to kill his brother,
so as to get Azrun. For that reason his oblation was not accepted by
God. Therefore he was the more inflamed with rage against Abel, and as
they were going down the mount, he rushed upon him and beat him about
the head with a stone and killed him. Adam and Eve bewailed Abel a
hundred years with the greatest grief.... And God cast out Cain whilst
he was still unmarried into the land of Nod. But Cain carried off with
him his sister Azrun.”[113]
The Rabbi Zadok said, “This was the reason why Cain slew Abel. His twin
sister and wife was not at all good-looking. Then he said, ‘I will kill
my brother Abel, and carry off his wife.’”[114]
Gregory Abulfaraj gives this account of the strife: “According to the
opinion of Mar Theodosius, thirty years after he was expelled from
Paradise, Adam knew his wife Eve, and she bore twins, Cain and his
sister Climia; and after thirty more years she bore Abel and his twin
sister Lebuda. Then, seventy years after when Adam wanted to marry one
of the brothers with the twin sister of the other, Cain refused, asking
to have his own twin sister.”[115]
The Pseudo-Athanasius says, “Up to this time no man had died so that
Cain should know how to kill. The devil instructed him in this in a
dream.”[116]
Leonhard Marius on Genesis iv. says, “As to what instrument Cain used,
Scripture is silent. Chrysostom calls it a sword; Prudentius, a spade;
Irenæus, an axe; Isidore says simply, steel; but artists generally
paint a club, and Abulensis thinks he was killed with stones.” Reuchlin
thinks, as iron was not discovered till the times of Tubal-cain, the
weapon must have been made of wood, and he points out how much more
this completes the type of Christ.[117]
Cain and Abel had been born and had lived with Adam in the land of
Adamah; but after Cain slew his brother, he was cast out into the
land Erez, and wherever he went, swords sounded and flashed as though
thirsting to smite him. And he fled that land and came to Acra, where
he had children, and his descendants who live there to this day have
two heads.[118]
Before Cain slew his brother, says the Targum of Jerusalem, the earth
brought forth fruits as the fruits of Eden; but from the day that blood
was spilt upon it, thistles and thorns sprang up; for the face of earth
grew sad, its joy was gone, the stain was on its brow.
Abel’s offering had been of the fattest of his sheep, the Targum adds,
but Cain offered flax.[119]
Abel’s offering, say certain Rabbis, was not perfect; for he offered
the chief part to God, but the remainder he dedicated to the Devil;
and Cain offered the chief part to Satan, and only the remainder to
God.[120]
The Rabbi Johanan said, Cain exclaimed when accused by God of the
murder, “My iniquity is greater than I can bear,” and this is supposed
to mean, “My iniquity is too great to be atoned for, except by my
brother rising from the earth and slaying me.” What did the Holy One
then? He took one letter of the twenty-two which are in the Law, and
He wrote it on the arm of Cain, as it is written, “He put a mark upon
him.”[121]
After Abel was slain, the dog which had kept his sheep guarded his
body, says the Midrash. Adam and Eve sat beside it and wept, and knew
not what to do. Then said a raven whose friend was dead, “I will teach
Adam a lesson,” and he dug a hole in the soil and laid his friend there
and covered him up. And when Adam saw this, he said to Eve, “We will
do the same with Abel.” God rewarded the raven for this by promising
that none should ever injure his young, that he should always have
meat in abundance, and that his prayer for rain should be immediately
answered.[122]
But the Rabbi Johanan taught that Cain buried his brother to hide what
he had done from the eye of God, not knowing that God can see even the
most secret things.[123]
According to some Rabbis, all good souls are derived from Abel and all
bad souls from Cain. Cain’s soul was derived from Satan, his body alone
was from Eve; for the Evil Spirit Sammael, according to some, Satan,
according to others, deceived Eve, and thus Cain was the son of the
Evil One.[124] All the children of Cain also became demons of darkness
and nightmares, and therefore it is, say the Cabbalists, that there is
no mention in Genesis of the death of any of Cain’s offspring.[125]
When Cain had slain his brother, we are told in Scripture that he fled.
Certain Rabbis give the reason:--He feared lest Satan should kill him:
now Satan has no power over any one whose face he does not see, thus he
had none over Lot’s wife till she turned her face towards Sodom, and he
could see it; and Cain fled, to keep his face from being seen by the
Evil One, and thus give him an opportunity of taking his life.[126]
With regard to the mark put upon Cain, there is great diverging of
opinion. Some say that his tongue turned white; others, that he was
given a peculiar dress; others, that his face became black; but the
most prevalent opinion is that he became covered with hair, and a horn
grew in the midst of his forehead.
The Little Genesis says, Cain was born when Adam was aged seventy, and
Abel when he was seventy-seven.
The book of the penitence of Adam gives us some curious details. When
Cain had killed his brother, he was filled with terror, for he saw the
earth quivering. He cast the body into a hole and covered it with dust,
but the earth threw the body out. Then he dug another hole and heaped
earth on his brother’s corpse, but again the earth rejected it.
When God appeared before him, Cain trembled in all his limbs, and God
said to him, “Thou tremblest and art in fear; this shall be thy sign.”
And from that moment he quaked with a perpetual ague.
The Rabbis give another mark as having been placed on Cain. They say
that a horn grew out of the midst of his forehead. He was killed by a
son of Lamech, who, being shortsighted, mistook him for a wild beast;
but in the Little Genesis it is said that he was killed by the fall of
his house, in the year 930, the same day that Adam died. According to
the same authority, Adam and Eve bewailed Abel twenty-eight years.
The Talmud relates the following beautiful incident.
God had cursed Cain, and he was doomed to a bitter punishment; but
moved, at last, by Cain’s contrition, he placed on his brow the symbol
of pardon.
Adam met Cain, and looked with wonder on the seal or token, and asked,--
“How hast thou turned away the wrath of the Almighty?”
“By confession of sin and repentance,” answered the fratricide.
“Woe is me!” cried Adam, smiting his brow; “is the virtue of repentance
so great, and I knew it not! And by repentance I might have altered my
lot!”[127]
Tabari says that Cain was the first worshipper of fire. Eblis (Satan)
appeared to him and told him that the reason of the acceptance of
Abel’s sacrifice was, that he had invoked the fire that fell on it and
consumed it; Cain had not done this, and therefore fire had not come
down on his oblation. Cain believed this, and adored fire, and taught
his children to do the same.[128]
Cain, says Josephus, having wandered over the earth with his wife,
settled in the land of Nod. But his punishment, so far from proving of
advantage to him, proved only a stimulus to his violence and passion;
and he increased his wealth by rapine, and he encouraged his children
and friends to live by robbery and in luxury. He also corrupted the
primitive simplicity in which men lived, by the introduction amongst
them of weights and measures, by placing boundaries, and walling
cities.[129]
John Malala says the same: “Cain was a tiller of the ground till he
committed the crime of slaying his brother; after that, he lived by
violence, his hand being against every man, and he invented and taught
men the use of weights, measures, and boundaries.”[130]
The passage in Genesis “_Whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be
taken on him sevenfold_,”[131] has been variously interpreted. Cosmas
Indopleustes renders it thus, “Whosoever slayeth Cain will discharge
seven vengeances;” that is, he will deliver him from those calamities
to which he is subject when living.[132]
But Malala renders it otherwise; he says it is to be thus understood:
“Every murderer shall die for his sin, but thou who didst commit the
first homicide, and art therefore the originator of this crime, shalt
be punished sevenfold; that is, thou shalt undergo seven punishments.”
For Cain had committed seven crimes. First, he was guilty of envy;
then, of treachery; thirdly, of murder; fourthly, of killing his
brother; fifthly, this was the first murder ever committed; sixthly, he
grieved his parents; and seventhly, Cain lied to God. Thus the sin of
Cain was sevenfold; therefore sevenfold was his punishment. First, the
earth was accursed on his account; secondly, he was sentenced to labor;
thirdly, the earth was forbidden from yielding to him her strength;
fourthly, he was to become timid and conscience-stricken; fifthly, he
was to be a vagabond on the earth; sixthly, he was to be cast out from
God’s presence; seventhly, a mark was to be placed upon him.
The Mussulmans say that the penitence of Cain, whom they call Kabil,
was not sincere. He was filled with remorse, but it was mingled with
envy and hatred, because he was regarded with disfavor by the rest of
the sons of Adam.
Near Damascus is shown a place at the foot of a mountain where Cain
slew Abel.[133]
The legends of the death of Cain will be found under the title of
Lamech.
“Half a mile from the gates of Hebron,” says the Capuchin Friar,
Ignatius von Rheinfelden, in his Pilgrimage to Jerusalem, “begins the
valley of Mamre, in which Abraham saw the three angels; the _Campus
Damascenus_ lies toward the west; there, Adam was created; and the spot
is pointed out where Cain killed his brother Abel. The earth there is
red, and may be moulded like wax.”[134] Salmeron says the same, “Adam
was made of the earth or dust of the _Campus Damascenus_.” And St.
Jerome on Ezekiel, chap. xvii., says: “Damascus is the place where
Abel was slain by his brother Cain; for which cause the spot is called
Damascus, that is, Blood-drinking.” This Damascus near Hebron is not to
be confused with the city Damascus.
VII.
THE DEATH OF ADAM.
According to a Mussulman tradition, Adam was consoled for the loss
of Abel by the discovery of how to make wheat-bread. The story is as
follows:--
The angel Gabriel was sent out of Paradise to give him the rest of the
wheat-grains Eve had plucked from the forbidden tree, together with
two oxen, and various instruments of husbandry. Hitherto he had fed on
roots and berries, and had known nothing of sowing grain; acting under
Gabriel’s directions, he ploughed the land, but the plough stuck, and
Adam impatiently smote one of the oxen, and it spoke to him and said,
“Wherefore hast thou smitten me?”
Adam replied, “Because thou dost not draw the plough.”
“Adam!” said the ox, “when thou wast rebellious, did God smite thee
thus?”
“O God!” cried Adam to the Almighty, “is every beast to reproach me,
and recall to me my sin?”
Then God heard his cry, and withdrew from beasts the power of speech,
lest they should cast their sin in the teeth of men.
But as the blow was still arrested, Adam dug into the soil, and found
that the iron had been caught by the body of his son Abel.
When the wheat was sprung up, Gabriel gave Adam fire from hell, which
however he had previously washed seventy times in the sea, or it would
have consumed the earth and all things thereon. In the beginning,
wheat-grains were the size of ostrich eggs, but under Edris (Enoch)
they were no bigger than goose eggs; under Elias they were the size of
hen’s eggs; under Christ, when the Jews sought to slay him, they were
no larger than grapes; it was in the time of Uzeir (Esdras) that they
diminished to their present proportions.
After Adam and Eve had been instructed in all that appertained to
agriculture, Gabriel brought them a lamb and showed Adam how to slay it
in the name of God, how to shear off the wool, and skin the sheep. Eve
was instructed in the art of spinning and weaving by the angel, and she
made of the wool, first a veil for herself, and then a shirt for her
husband.
The first pair brought up their grandsons and great grandsons, to the
number of 40,000 according to some, and 70,000 according to others, and
taught them all that they had learned of the angel.
After the death of Abel, and after Cain had been slain by the avenging
angel, Eve bore a third son, named Seth, who became the father of the
race of the prophets.
Finally, when Adam had reached his nine hundred and thirtieth year, the
Angel of Death appeared under the form of a goat, and ran between his
legs.
Adam recoiled with horror, and exclaimed, “God has given me one
thousand years; wherefore comest thou now?”
“What!” exclaimed the Angel of Death, “hast thou not given seventy
years of thy life to the prophet David?”
Adam stoutly denied that he had done so. Then the Angel of Death drew
the document of transfer from out of his beard, and presented it to
Adam, who could no longer refuse to go.
His son Seth washed and buried him, after that the angel Gabriel, or,
according to some accounts, Allah himself, had blessed him: Eve died a
year later.
Learned men are not agreed as to the place of their burial; some
traditions name India, others the Mount Kubais, and others again,
Jerusalem--God alone knows![135]
Tabari says that Adam made Seth his testamentary executor.
“When Adam was dead, Gabriel instructed Seth how to bury him, and
brought him the winding sheet out of heaven. And Gabriel said to Seth,
‘Thou art sole executor of thy father, therefore it is thy office to
perform the religious functions.’ Then Seth recited over Adam thirty
_Tebírs_. Four of these _Tebírs_ were the legal prayers, the others
were supererogatory, and were designed to exalt the virtues of Adam.
Some say that Adam was buried near Mecca, on Mount Abui-Kubais.”[136]
According to the apocryphal “Life of Adam and Eve,” Adam before his
death called to his bedside all his sons and daughters, and they
numbered fifteen thousand males, and females unnumbered. Adam is said
to have been the author of several psalms; amongst others Psalm civ.,
_Benedic anima mea_, and Psalm cxxxix., _Domine probasti_; as may be
gathered from the 14th, 15th, and 16th verses: “_My bones are not hid
from thee: though I was made secretly, and fashioned beneath in the
earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being imperfect; and in Thy
book were all my members written; which day by day were fashioned, when
as yet there was none of them._”
The Arabs say that when Adam dictated his last will and testament,
the angel Gabriel descended from heaven to receive it, accompanied by
sixty-two millions of angels, each provided with clean white sheets of
parchment and pens, and that the will was sealed by Gabriel.[137]
Tradition is not agreed as to the place of Adam’s burial. Khaithemah
says that Adam was buried near Mecca on Mount Abu-Kubais. But
the ancient Persians assert that he was buried in Ceylon, where
his sepulchre was guarded by lions at the time of the war of the
giants.[138]
But the most generally received tradition is this:--
The body of Adam was taken by Noah into the ark, and when the ark
rested on Ararat, Noah and his sons removed the body from it, and they
followed an angel who led them to the place where the first father
was to lie. Shem or Melchizedek--for they are one, as we shall see
presently--being consecrated by God to the priesthood, performed the
religious rites; and buried Adam at the centre of the earth, which is
Jerusalem; but, say some, he was buried by Shem along with Eve, in the
cave of Machpelah, in Hebron. But others relate that Noah on leaving
the ark distributed the bones of Adam among his sons, and that he
gave the head to Shem, who buried it in Jerusalem. Some, taking this
mystically, suppose that by this is meant the sin and punishment of
Adam, which was transmitted to all the sons of Noah, but that to Shem
was given the head, the Messiah who was to regenerate the world.[139]
S. Basil of Seleucia says: “According to Jewish traditions, the skull
of Adam was found there (_i. e._, on Golgotha), and this, they say,
Solomon knew by his great wisdom. And because it was the place of
Adam’s skull, therefore the hill was called Golgotha, or Calvary.”[140]
With this a great concourse of Fathers agree; whose testimony has been
laboriously collected by Gretser in his famous and curious book “De
Cruce.” And this tradition has become a favorite subject for artists,
who, in their paintings or sculptures, represent the skull of Adam at
the foot of the Cross of Christ.
The apocryphal “Testament of Adam” still exists.
The tomb of Eve is shown at Jedda. “On entering the great gate of the
cemetery, one observes on the left a little wall three feet high,
forming a square of ten to twelve feet. There lies the head of our
first mother. In the middle of the cemetery is a sort of cupola, where
reposes the navel of her body; and at the other extremity, near the
door of egress, is another little wall also three feet high, forming
a lozenge-shaped enclosure: there are her feet. In this place is a
large piece of cloth, whereon the faithful deposit their offerings,
which serve for the maintenance of a constant burning of perfumes over
the midst of her body. The distance between her head and feet is four
hundred feet. How we have shrunk since the creation!”[141]
The bones of Adam and Eve, says Tabari, were taken by Noah into the ark
with him, and were reburied by him.
This article may be fitly concluded with the epitaph of Adam, composed
by Gabriel Alvarez, and published by him in his “Historia Ecclesiæ
Antediluvianæ,” Madrid, 1713.
“Here lies, reduced to a pinch of dust, he who, from a pinch of
dust; was formed to govern the earth,
ADAM,
The son of None, the father of All, the stepfather of All
and of himself.
Having never wailed as a child, he spent his life in weeping
the result of penitence.
Powerful, Wise, Immortal, Just,
he sold for the price of disobedience, power, wisdom, justice,
immortality.
Having abused the privilege of Free-will, which weapon
he had received for the preservation of Knowledge and Grace,
by one stroke he struck with death himself and all the human race.
The Omnipotent Judge
who in His Justice took from him Righteousness, by His Mercy
restored it to him whole again:
by whose goodness it has fallen out, that we may
call that crime happy, which obtained such and so great
A Redeemer.
Thenceforth Free-will, which he in happiness used to
bring forth Misery, is used in Misery to bring forth
Happiness.
For if we, partakers of his pernicious inheritance, partake
also of his penitential example, and lend our ears
to salutary counsels,
Then we (who by our Free-will could lose ourselves) can be saved
by the grace of the Redeemer, and the co-operation of our
Free-will.
The First Adam Lived to Die;
The Second Adam Died to Live.
Go, and imitate the penitence of the First Adam;
Go, and celebrate the Goodness of the Second Adam.”
VIII.
SETH.
When Seth had ascended the throne of his father, says Tabari, he was
the greatest of the sons of Adam. Every year he made the pilgrimage
to the Kaaba, and he ruled the world with equity, and every thing
flourished during his reign. At the age of fifty he had a son; he
called his name Enoch, and named him his executor. He died at the age
of nine hundred.[142]
Seth and the other sons of Adam waged perpetual war against the Dives,
or giants, the sons of Kabil, or Cain.
Rocail was another son of Adam, born next after Seth.
He possessed, says the Tahmurath Nâmeh, the most wonderful knowledge in
all mysteries. He had a genius so quick and piercing, that he seemed to
be rather an angel than a man.
Surkrag, a great giant, son of Cain, commanded in the mountains of Kaf,
which encompass the centre of the earth. This giant asked Seth to send
him Rocail, his brother, to assist him in governing his subjects. Seth
consented, and Rocail became the vizier or prime minister of Surkrag,
in the mountains of Kaf.
After having governed many centuries, and knowing, by divine
revelation, that the time of his death drew nigh, he thus addressed
Surkrag: “I am about to depart hence and enter on another existence,
but before I leave, I wish to bequeath to you some famous work, which
shall perpetuate my name into remote ages.”
Thereupon Rocail erected an enormous sepulchre, adorned with statues
of various metals, made by talismanic art, which moved, and spake, and
acted like living men.[143]
According to the Rabbinic traditions, Seth was one of the thirteen who
came circumcised into the world. The rest were Adam, Enoch, Noah, Shem,
Terah, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Samuel, David, Isaiah, and Jeremiah.[144]
The book Schene Luchôth says that the soul of righteous Abel passed
into the body of Seth, and afterwards this same soul passed into Moses;
thus the law, which was known to Adam and in which Abel had been
instructed, was not new to Moses.[145]
The Little Genesis says, that Seth was instructed by the angels in what
was to take place in the world; how its iniquity was to grow, and a
flood was to overwhelm it; and how the Messiah would come and restore
all things. Seth was remarkable for the majesty and beauty of his
appearance, as he had inherited much of the loveliness of unfallen man.
He married his sister Azur, or, according to others, Noræa or Horæa.
Suidas under the heading ‘Σήδ,’ says: “Seth was the son of Adam: of
this it is said, the sons of God went in unto the daughters of men;
that is to say, the sons of Seth went in unto the daughters of Cain.
For in that age Seth was called God, because he had discovered Hebrew
letters, and the names of the stars; but especially on account of his
great piety, so that he was the first to bear the name of God.”
Theodoret thus refers to the verse,--“_And to Seth, to him also there
was born a son; and he called his name Enos; then began men to call
upon the name of the Lord_,” or as our marginal reading is, “_then
began men to call themselves by the name of the Lord_:” “Aquila
interpreted it thus, ‘then Seth began to be called by the name of the
Lord.’ These words intimate his piety, which deserved that he should
receive the sacred name; and he was called God by his acquaintance,
and his children were termed the sons of God, just as we are called
Christians after Christ.”[146]
The origin of this tradition seems to be the fact that Seth was the
name of an ancient Egyptian deity, at first regarded as the giver of
light and civilization, but afterwards identified with Typhon by
the Egyptians, who considered Seth to be the chief god of the Hyksos
or shepherd kings; and in their hatred of these oppressors, the name
of Seth was every where obliterated on their monuments, and he was
regarded as one with the great adversary, Typhon; and was represented
as an ass, or with an ass’s head.[147]
Abulfaraj, in his history, says that Seth discovered letters, and that,
desirous to recover the Blessed Life, he and his sons went to Mount
Hermon, where they served God in piety and continence, and associated
not with the people of the land, nor took to themselves wives;
wherefore they were called the sons of God.[148]
Flavius Josephus relates that after the things that were to take
place had been revealed to Seth,--how the earth was to be destroyed,
first with water and then with fire,--lest those things which he had
discovered should perish from the memory of his posterity, he set up
two pillars, one of brick, the other of stone, and he wrote thereon all
the science he had acquired, hoping that, in the event of the brick
pillar perishing by the rain, the stone would endure.[149]
Freculphus adds that Jubal assisted the sons of Seth in engraving on
the columns all that was known of the conduct and order of the heavens,
and all the arts then known.[150]
The stone pillar was to be seen, in the time of Josephus, in Syria.
Anastasius of Sinai says that, when God created Adam after His image
and likeness, He breathed into him grace, and illumination, and a
ray of the Holy Spirit. But when he sinned, this glory left him, and
his face became clouded. Then he became the father of Cain and Abel.
But afterwards it is said in Scripture, “_He begat a son in his own
likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth_;” which is not
said of Cain and Abel; and this means that Seth was begotten in the
likeness of unfallen man and after the image of Adam in Paradise; and
he called his name Seth, that is, by interpretation, Resurrection,
because in him he saw the resurrection of his departed beauty, and
wisdom and glory, and radiance of the Holy Spirit. And all those then
living, when they saw how the face of Seth shone with divine light, and
heard him speak with divine wisdom, said he is God; therefore his sons
were commonly called the sons of God.[151]
As Seth was an ancient Egyptian Sun-god, the origin of the myth of his
shining face can be ascertained without difficulty.
To Seth were attributed several apocryphal writings.
IX.
CAINAN SON OF ENOS.
“_And Seth lived an hundred and five years, and begat Enos: and Seth
lived after he begat Enos eight hundred and seven years, and begat
sons and daughters: and all the days of Seth were nine hundred and
twelve years: and he died. And Enos lived ninety years, and begat
Cainan._”[152]
Alexander wrote many epistles to Aristotle, his preceptor, in which he
narrated what had befallen him in India. Amongst other things he wrote:
“After I had entered the Persian region, which is a province of India,
I arrived at some islands of the sea, and there I found men, like
women, who feed on raw fish, and spake a language very like Greek; they
said to me that there was in the island the sepulchre of a most ancient
king, who was called Cainan, son of Enos, and who ruled the whole
world, and taught men all kinds of knowledge, and had demons and all
kinds of evil spirits under his control. He, by his wisdom, understood
that the ever-blessed God would bring in a flood in the times of Noah;
wherefore he engraved all that was to take place on stone tables, which
exist there to this day, and are written in Hebrew characters. He wrote
therein that the ocean would, in that age, overflow a third part of the
world, which took place in the lifetime of Enos, the son of Seth, who
was the son of Adam, our first parent.
“In the same island, Cainan built a most extensive city, surrounded
with walls; and a great marble citadel, in which he treasured jewels
and pearls, and gold and silver in great abundance.
“Moreover, he erected a tower, very lofty, over a sepulchre for
himself, to serve as his monument. This tower can be approached by no
man; for it was built by astronomical art under the seven planets, and
with magical skill, so that every one who draws near the wall is struck
down with sudden death.”[153]
X.
ENOCH.
1. THE TRANSLATION OF ENOCH.
Enoch, or Edris,[154] as he is called by the Arabs, was born in
Hindostan, but he lived in Yemen. He was a prophet. In his days men
worshipped fire, being deceived by Eblis. When God sent Enoch to his
brethren to turn them from their false worship, they would not believe
him.
Idolatry began in the times of Jared, son of Mahalaleel, and it spread
to such an extent that, when Noah was born, there were not eighty
persons who worshipped the true, and living, and only God. Jared fought
Satan, the prince of demons, and captured him, and led him about in
chains wherever he went.
Enoch knew how to sew, and was an accomplished tailor. He was the first
to put pen to paper; he wrote many books. He had in his possession the
books of Adam, and for ten years, instead of sleeping, he spent the
night in reading them.
He instructed men in the art of making garments; Enoch showed them how
to cut out the skins to the proper shape, and to sew them together; and
how to make shoes to protect their feet.
And then, when the people had derived this great blessing from him,
they were ready to listen to his books; and he read to them the books
of Adam, and endeavored thereby to bring them back to the knowledge of
the true God.
When he had spent many years in prayer, the Angel of Death desired to
make a compact of friendship with him. He took on him a human form
and approached him, saying, “I am the Angel of Death, and I desire
thy friendship. On account of thy great piety, thou mayest make me a
request which I shall accomplish.”
Enoch answered, “I desire that thou shouldst take my soul.”
The angel replied, “I have not come to thee for this purpose; thy time
is not yet arrived at its appointed close.”
Then Enoch said, “It is well; but take my soul away for a little space,
and then return it to my body, if God so wills.”
The angel said, “I cannot do this without God’s consent.” But he
presented the supplication of Enoch before Allah, and God, knowing what
was the design of Enoch, granted the prayer.
Then Azrael bore away the soul of Enoch, and at the same instant the
Eternal One restored it to him. After this, Enoch continued to praise
and pray to God; and the Angel of Death became his friend, and often
came to visit him.
Years passed, and Enoch said one day to the angel, “Oh, my friend! I
have yet a request to make.”
Azrael answered, “If I can grant it, I will do so readily.”
Enoch said, “I would see Hell, for I have undergone death, and I know
its sensations. I would know now the torments of the lost.”
But the angel answered, “This I cannot grant without permission from
the Almighty.”
God heard the prayer of Enoch, and He suffered Azrael to accomplish
what the prophet had desired. Then the Angel of Death bore away Enoch,
and showed him the seven stages of Hell, and all the torments inflicted
there on sinners: after that he replaced him where he was before.
After some while had elapsed, Enoch again addressed Azrael, and said,
“I have another request to make.”
The angel answered, “Say on.”
Then said Enoch, “I desire to see the Paradise of God, as I have seen
Hell.”
Azrael replied, “I cannot grant thy petition without the consent of
God.”
But the All-Merciful, when he heard the request of his servant
consented that it should be even as he desired. So the angel bore
Enoch into Paradise. And when they had reached the gates, the keeper,
Ridhwan, refused to open, saying to Enoch, “Thou art a man, and no man
can enter Paradise who has not tasted death.”
Then Enoch replied, “I also have tasted death; the soul that I have
will dwell eternally with me; God has resuscitated me from death.”
Ridhwan, however, said, “I cannot do this thing and admit thee without
the order of God.”
Then the order arrived from Allah, and the angel of the gate refused no
more; so Enoch entered; but before Enoch and Azrael passed the gates,
Ridhwan said to the prophet, “Go in, and behold Paradise, but be speedy
and leave it again, for thou mayest not dwell there till after the
Resurrection.”
Enoch replied, “Be it so;” and he went in and viewed Paradise, and came
out, as he had promised; and as he passed the threshold of the door he
turned and said to the angel, “Oh, Ridhwan! I have left something in
there; suffer me to run and fetch it.”
But Ridhwan refused; and a dispute arose between them.
Enoch said, “I am a prophet; and God has sent me thirty books, and I
have written them all, and I have never revolted against God. In those
books that God sent me, I was promised Paradise. If it be necessary
that I should have undergone death I have undergone it. If it be
necessary that I should have seen Hell, I have seen it. Now I am come
to Paradise, and that is my home; God has promised it to me, and now
that I have entered I will leave it no more.”
The dispute waxed hot, but it was terminated by the order of God, who
bade Ridhwan open the gate and re-admit Enoch into Paradise, where he
still dwells.[155]
2. THE BOOK OF ENOCH.
The Book of Enoch, quoted by S. Jude in his Epistle, and alluded to
by Origen, S. Augustine, S. Clement of Alexandria, and others of the
Fathers, must not be passed over.
The original book appears from internal evidence to have been written
about the year 110 B. C.[156] But we have not the work as then written;
it has suffered from numerous interpolations, and it is difficult
always to distinguish the original text from the additions.
The book is frequently quoted in the apocryphal “Testament of the
Twelve Patriarchs,” which is regarded as canonical by the Armenian
Church, but the references are for the most part not to be found in
the text. It was largely used by some of the early Christian writers,
either with acknowledgment or without. The monk George Syncellus, in
the eighth century, extracted portions to compose his Chronography.
This fragment in Syncellus was all that was known of the book in the
West till the last century. The Jews, though remembering the work, had
lost it in Hebrew; but it was alluded to by the Rabbis down to the
thirteenth century, and it is referred to in the Book Sohar, though
the writer may not have read the book of Enoch. Bruce, the African
traveller, was the first to bring it to Europe from Abyssinia in two
MSS., in the year 1773. Much attention was not, however, paid to it
till 1800, when De Sacy in his “Magasin Encyclopédique,” under the
title “Notice sur le Livre d’Enoch,” gave some account of the work. In
1801, Professor Laurence gave to the public an English translation,
accompanied by some critical remarks. Since then, the book has been
carefully and exegetically examined. The version we now have is
Ethiopic.
The Book of Enoch consists of five divisions, or books, together with a
Prolegomena and an Epilegomena.
After the introduction (caps. 1-5), which describes the work as the
revelation of the seer Enoch concerning the future judgment and its
consequences, with warnings to the elect as to the signs; the _First_
part (caps. 6-16) opens with an account of the fall of the Angels,
their union with the daughters of men, and the generation of the
giants. Connected with this, and divided from it by no superscription
or sign of change of subject, is an account of a journey made by Enoch,
in the company of the angels, over the earth and through the lower
circles of heaven, during which he is instructed in various mysteries
hidden from the knowledge of men, and a great deal of this wondrous
information is communicated to the reader.
This description of a journey, which is itself divided into two parts,
unquestionably belongs to the original book, and the historical
portion, narrating the procreation of the Giants, is an interpolation.
The _Second_ portion of the book (caps. 37-71), with its own special
superscription and introduction, is called “The Second History of
Wisdom.” It continues the history of the voyage. The first portion
contained the description of the mysterious places and things in the
earth and in the lower heaven; the second portion contains an account
of the mysteries of the highest heaven, the angel-world, the founding
of the kingdom of the Messias, and the signs of His coming.
The close of this portion contains prophecies of Noah’s Flood,
and accounts of the fall of the Angels, their evil life and their
punishment. The whole account of the Flood, which comes in without
rhyme or reason, is also a manifest interpolation.
The _Third_ portion (caps. 72-82) also under its own heading, is on
“The Revolution of the Lights of Heaven,” and describes the motions of
the planets, the duration of the seasons, and the number of the days of
the months, and the great winds of heaven. With this part the voyage of
Enoch closes.
The _Fourth_ part (caps. 83-91), which has no superscription, but which
is generally designated as “The Book of the Dream History,” contains
the visions shown Enoch in his youth, which, in a series of pictures,
gives the history of the world till the end of time. This part closes
with some words of advice from Enoch to his sons.
The _Fifth_ and last part (caps. 92-105) is “The Book of Exhortation,”
addressed by Enoch to his family against sin in all its forms, under
all its disguises, and concludes with an account of certain presages
which should announce the birth of Noah.
The Talmudic writers taught that Enoch at his translation became a
chief angel, and that his name became Metatron. In the Chaldee version
of Jonathan on the words of Genesis v. 24, it is said, “And Enoch
served before the Lord in truth, and was not among the inhabitants of
the earth, for he was translated above into the firmament, through
the word of the Lord; and He called him by the name of Metatron (the
great writer).” And in Rabbi Menachem’s Commentary on the Five Books
of Moses, it is written, “The Rabbi Ishmael relates that he spoke to
the Metatron, and he asked him why he was named with the name of his
Creator and with seventy names, and why he was greater than any prince,
and higher than any angel, and dearer than any servant, and more
honored than all the host and more excellent in greatness, in power,
and dominion than all the mighty ones. Then he answered and said,
‘Because I was Enoch, son of Jared. This is what the holy, ever-blessed
God wrought,--when the races of the Flood (_i. e._, the sinners who
lived at the time when the Flood came) sinned, and did unrighteously
in their works, and had said to God, “Depart from us,”--He took me
from that untoward generation into the highest heaven, that I might be
a witness against that generation. And after the ever-blessed God had
removed me that I should stand before the throne of his Majesty, and
before the wheels of His chariot, and accomplish the requirements of
the Most High, then my flesh became flame, and my arteries fire, and my
bones juniper ashes, and the light of my eyelids became the flashing of
lightning, and my eyeballs torches of fire, and the hair of my head was
a flame, and all my limbs were fiery, burning wings, and my body became
burning fire; and by my right hand flames were cleft asunder; and
from my left hand burnt fiery torches; but around me blew a wind, and
storm, and tempest; and before and behind me was the voice of a mighty
earthquake.’”
The Rabbi Ishmael gives further particulars which are enshrined in the
great Jalkut Rubeni.[157]
The Rabbi Ishmael, according to this book, received in addition
these particulars from the lips of Enoch. He was carried to heaven
in a chariot of fire by horses of fire; and when he entered into the
presence of God, the Sacred Beasts, the Seraphim, the Osannim, the
Cherubim, the wheels of the chariot, and all the fiery ministers
recoiled five thousand three hundred and eighty miles at the smell of
him, and cried aloud, “What a stink is come among us from one born of a
woman! Why is one who has eaten of white wheat admitted into heaven?”
Then the Almighty answered and said, “My servants, Cherubim and
Seraphim, do not be grieved, for all my sons have rejected my
sovereignty and adore idols, this man alone excepted; and in reward I
exalt him to principality over the angels in heaven.” When Enoch heard
this he was glad, for he had been a simple shoemaker on earth; but
this had he done, at every stitch he had said, “The name of God and His
Majesty be praised.”
The height of Enoch when a chief angel was very great. It would take
a man five hundred years to walk from his heel to the crown of his
head. And the ladder which Jacob saw in vision was the ladder of
Metatron.[158] The same authority, above quoted, the Rabbi Ishmael,
is reported to have had the exact measure of Enoch from his own lips;
it was seven hundred thousand times thousand miles in length and in
breadth.[159]
The account in the Targum of Palestine is simply this. “Enoch served in
the truth before the Lord; and behold, he was not with the sojourners
of the earth; for he was withdrawn, and he ascended to the firmament by
the Word before the Lord, and his name was called Metatron, the Great
Saphra.”[160]
Whether the Annakos, or Nannakos of whom Suidas wrote, is to be
identified with Enoch, I do not venture to decide. Suidas says that
Nannak was an aged king before Deucalion (Noah), and that, foreseeing
the Deluge, he called all his subjects together into the temple to pray
the gods with many tears to remit the evil.[161] And Stephanos, the
Byzantine lexicographer, says that Annakos lived at Iconium in Phrygia,
and that to weep for Annak, became a proverb.
XI.
THE GIANTS.
The Giants, say the Cabbalists, arose thus.
Aza and Azael, two angels of God, complained to the Most High at the
creation of man, and said, “Why hast Thou made man who will anger Thee?”
But God answered, “And you, O angels, if you were in the lower world,
you too, would sin.” And He sent them on earth, and then they fell,
as says the Book of Genesis, “_And it came to pass that the sons of
God saw the daughters of men that they were fair, and they took them
wives of all which they chose._” After they had sinned, they were given
bodies of flesh; for an angel who spends seven days on earth becomes
opaque and substantial. And when they had been clothed with flesh and
with a corrupt nature, then they spake the word “Shem hamphorasch,”
and sought to regain their former place, but could not; and were cast
out into mountains, there to dwell. From these angels descend the sons
of the giants and the Anakim, and from their seed also spring the
devils.[162] The Rabbi Eliezer says that the giants sprang from the
union of the angels with the daughters of Cain, who walked about in
immodest clothing and cast their eyes around with bold glances. And the
book Zeenaureena, in the Parascha Chykkath, says that Og sprang from
this connection, and that Sammael, the angel, was the parent of Og, but
that Sihon was the son of the same angel who deceived the wife of Ham
when she was about to enter the ark.[163]
The account in the Book of Enoch is as follows:--
“Hear and fear not, Enoch, thou righteous man, and writer of
righteousness, come hither and hear my words: Go speak unto the
Watchers of Heaven, and say unto them, Ye shall pray for men and not
men for you. Why have ye forsaken the high and holy and eternal heaven,
and have joined yourselves to women, and polluted yourselves with the
daughters of men, and have taken to you wives, and have become the
fathers of a giant race? Ye who were spiritual, holy, and enjoying
eternal life, have corrupted yourselves with women, and have become
parents of children with flesh and blood; lusting after the blood of
men, ye have brought forth flesh and blood, like those who are mortal
and perishable. Because men die, therefore did I give unto them wives,
that they might have sons, and perpetuate their generation. But ye are
spiritual and in the enjoyment of eternal life. Therefore give I not to
you wives, for heaven is the abode of the spirits. And now the giants,
who are born of flesh and blood, shall become evil spirits, and their
dwelling shall be on the earth. Bad beings shall proceed from them.
Because they have been generated from above, from the holy Watchers
have they received their origin, therefore shall they be evil spirits
on the earth, and evil spirits shall they be called. And the spirits of
the giants, which mount upon the clouds, will fail and be cast down,
and do violence, and cause ruin on the earth and injury; they shall not
eat, they shall not thirst, and they shall be invisible.”[164]
Among the Oriental Christians it is said, that Adam having related to
the children of Seth the delights of Paradise, several of them desired
to recover the lost possession. They retired to Mount Hermon and dwelt
there in the fear of the Lord; living in great austerity, in hope that
their penitence would recover Eden. But the Canaanites dwelt round them
on all sides, and the sons of Seth becoming tired of celibacy, took
the daughters of the Canaanites to wife, and to them were born the
giants.[165]
Others say that the posterity of the patriarch Seth were those called
the “Sons of God,” because they lived on Mount Hermon in familiar
discourse with the angels. On this mountain they fed only on the fruit
of the earth, and their sole oath was “By the blood of Abel.”[166]
Among the giants was Surkrag, of whom we have already related a few
particulars. He was not of the race of men, nor of the posterity of
Adam. According to the Mussulman account he was commander of the armies
of Soliman Tchaghi, who reigned over the earth before the time of Gian
ben Gian, who succeeded him and reigned seven thousand years. The whole
earth was then in the power of the Jins. Gian ben Gian erected the
pyramids of Egypt.
Surkrag obeyed God, and followed the true religion, and would not
suffer his subject Jins to insult or maltreat the descendants of Adam.
He reigned on Mount Kaf, and allied himself, according to Persian
authorities, with Kaïumarth, the first king of the world, whom some
Persian writers identify with Adam, but others suppose to be the son
of Mahalaleel, and cotemporary with Enoch. Ferdusi, the author of the
Schah-Nâmeh, speaks of him as the first who wore a crown and sat on
a throne, and imposed a tribute on his subjects. He says that this
monarch lived a thousand years, and reigned five hundred and fifty
years. He was the first to teach men to build houses.
But if Kaïumarth was the first man to reign, he was the first also to
weary of it; for he abdicated his sovereignty and retired into his
former abode, a cave, after having surrendered his authority to his son
Siamek. Siamek having been killed, Kaïumarth re-ascended his throne
to revenge his death. After having recovered the body of his son, he
buried him with great honors, and kindled over his grave a great fire,
which was kept perpetually burning, and this originated the worship of
fire among the people of Iran.
Kaïumarth overcame the giant Semendoun, who had a hundred arms; his
son, Huschenk, also overcame a giant who had three heads, mounted on
an animal with twelve legs. This animal, namad Rakhsche, was found by
him in the Dog Isle, or the New Continent, and was born of the union of
a crocodile and an hippopotamus, and it fed on the flesh of serpents.
Having mastered this beast, Huschenk overcame the Mahisers, which have
heads of fish and are of great ferocity. After having extended his
conquests to the extremities of the earth, Huschenk was crushed to
death by a mass of rock which the giants, his mortal enemies, hurled
against him.[167]
According to Tabari, Huschenk was the son of Kaïumarth, who was the
son of Mahalaleel. He was the first man to cut down trees and to make
boards, and fashion them into doors to close the entrance to houses. He
also discovered many precious stones, such as the topaz and jacinth. He
reigned four hundred years.[168]
He was succeeded by Tahmourath, who taught men to saddle and bridle
horses; he was also the first man to write in Persian characters;
he figures as a great hero in Iranian fable. According to the story
in Persia, he was carried by the Simorg to the mountain of Kaf. Now
the Simorg is a wondrous bird, speaking all languages, and eminently
religious.
According to the Kaherman Nâmeh, the bird Simorg, being asked its age,
replied, “This world has been seven times peopled, and seven times made
void of living beings. The generation of Adam, in which we now are,
will last seven thousand years, which form a cycle, and I have seen
twelve of these revolutions. How many more I shall see is unknown to
me.”
The same book informs us that the Simorg was a great friend of the
race of Adam, and a great enemy to the demons and Jins. He knew Adam
personally, and had done obeisance to him, and enjoyed the same
religion as our first fathers. He foretold to Tahmourath all that was
to take place in the world, and plucking from his bosom some feathers,
he presented them to him, and from that time all great captains and men
of war wear feather crests.
Tahmourath having been transported by the bird to the mountains of
Kaf, he assisted the Peris, who were at war with the Jins. Argenk,
the giant, finding that the Peris were gaining the mastery, with the
assistance of Tahmourath, sent an embassy desiring peace; but the
ambassador, Imlain, abandoned the party of the Jins and assisted
Tahmourath to obtain complete mastery in the mountains of Kaf, and
to overcome not only the giant Argenk, but also Demrusch, a far more
terrible monster. Demrusch lived in a cavern guarding a vast treasure,
which he had amassed in Persia and India. He had also carried off the
Peri Mergian. Tahmourath slew Demrusch and released Mergian.
According to the Persian story, Tahmourath was the first to cultivate
rice, and to nourish silk-worms in the province of Tabristan.[169]
To return to Tabari.
Djemschid was the brother of Tahmourath; he was the first man to
forge arms, and he is probably to be identified with Tubal-cain.
He introduced also the use of pigments, and he discovered pearls,
and also to dig for lime, vermilion, and quicksilver; he likewise
compounded scents, and cultivated flowers. He divided all men into four
classes,--soldiers, scribes, agriculturists, and artisans. At the head
of all he placed the learned, that they might guide the affairs of men,
and set them their tasks and instruct them in what they were to do.
Then Djemschid asked the wise men, “What must a king do to secure his
throne?”
They answered, “He must reign in equity.”
Consequently, Djemschid instituted justice; and he sat the first day of
every month with his wise men, and ministered righteous judgments. For
seven hundred years he continued this practice; and in all that time no
rebellion broke out, no afflictions troubled him, nor was his reign in
any way menaced.
One day, whilst Djemschid was taking his siesta alone in his chamber,
Eblis entered by the window, and Djemschid asked, “Who art thou?” Now
he thought he was one of those who waited without till he should come
forth to administer justice. Eblis entered into conversation with
Djemschid, and said, “I am an angel, and I have descended from heaven
to give thee counsel.”
“What counsel dost thou offer?” asked the king.
Eblis replied, “Tell me, who thou art?”
He answered, “I am one of the sons of Adam.”
“Thou mistakest,” said the Evil One: “thou art not a man. Consider,
since thou hast reigned, has any thing failed thee? Hast thou suffered
any affliction, any loss, any revolt? If thou wert a son of Adam,
sorrow would be thy lot. Nay, verily, thou art a god!”
“And what sign canst thou show me of my divinity?”
“I am an angel. Mortal man cannot behold an angel, and live.”
Then he vanished. Djemschid fell into the snare of pride.
Next day he caused a great fire to be lighted, and he called together
all men and said to them, “I am a god, worship me; I created heaven
above and earth beneath; and those that refuse to adore me shall be
consumed in the fire.”
Then from fear of him many obeyed; and the same hour revolt broke out.
There was a man named Beyourasp who stirred up the people, and led a
great army against Djemschid, and overcame him, and took from him his
kingdom, and sawed the king asunder from the head to the feet.[170]
XII.
LAMECH.
“_Methusael begat Lamech. And Lamech took unto him two wives: the
name of one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah. And Adah bare
Jabal: he was the father of such as dwell in tents, and of such as have
cattle. And his brother’s name was Jubal: he was the father of all such
as handle the harp and organ. And Zillah, she also bare Tubal-cain,
an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron: and the sister of
Tubal-cain was Naamah. And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah,
Hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: for I have
slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt. If Cain shall
be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy-fold._”[171]
The speech of Lamech points to a tradition unrecorded in the Sacred
Text, with which the Israelites were probably well acquainted, and
which therefore did not need repetition; or else, there has been a
paragraph dropped out of the original text. The speech is sufficiently
mysterious to raise our curiosity. Whom had Lamech slain? and why
should Lamech be avenged?
The Targums throw no light on the passage, merely paraphrasing it,
without supplying the key to the speech of Lamech.[172] But Rabbinic
tradition is unanimous on its signification. The book Jasher says that
in those days men did not love to have children, therefore they gave
their wives drink to make them sterile. Zillah had taken this drink,
and she was barren till in her old age she bare Tubal-cain and Naamah.
Now Lamech became blind in his old age, and he was led about by the boy
Tubal-cain. Tubal-cain saw Cain in the distance, and supposing from the
horn on his forehead that he was a beast, he said to his father, “Span
thy brow and shoot!” Then the old man discharged his arrow, and Cain
fell dead.
But when he ascertained that he had slain his great ancestor, he
smote his hands together, and in so doing, by accident struck his
son and killed him. Therefore his wives were wroth and would have no
communication with him. But he appeased them with the words recorded in
Genesis.[173] The same story is told in the book of the “Combat with
Adam.”
Some Jewish writers adopt a tradition that Tubal-cain was not slain,
but was severely injured by his father; according to some, he was
lamed. Connecting this tradition with his name, a striking analogy
springs up between him and the Vulcan of classic antiquity, and the
Völundr of Norse mythology. Both were lame, both were forgers of iron,
and the names Vulcan and Völundr bear some affinity to Tubal-cain;
for cutting off Tu, we have Balcain or Vulcan. A very learned and
exhaustive monograph on Völundr has been written by MM. Depping and
Michel.[174]
Tubal is said by Tabari to have discovered the art of fermenting the
juice of the grape, as well as that of music. Eblis deceived the young
man, who was full of gayety, and taught him many things, amongst others
how to make wine. Tubal took grapes and crushed them, and made must,
and let it grow bitter. Then he took it and put it in a glass jug. He
made flutes, lutes, cymbals, and drums. When he began to drink the
wine he had made, he jumped and danced. All the sons of Cain looked
on, and, pleased with his merriment, they also drank and played on the
instruments Tubal had made.[175]
Naamah, the sister of Tubal-cain, became the wife of the devil
Schomron, by whom she became the mother of Asmodeus.[176]
XIII.
METHUSELAH.
It is related that an angel appeared to Methuselah, who was then aged
five hundred years, and lived in the open air, and advised him to build
a house. The Patriarch asked how long he had to live. “About five
hundred years more,” answered the angel. “Then,” said Methuselah, “it
is not worth taking the trouble for so short a time.”[177]
“Methuselah,” says the Midrash, “was a thoroughly righteous man. Every
word that fell from his lips was superlatively perfect, exhausting
the praises of the Lord. He had learnt nine hundred chapters of the
Mischna. At his death a frightful thunder was heard, and all beasts
burst into tears. He was mourned seven days by men, and therefore the
outbreak of the Flood was postponed till the morning was over.”[178]
Eusebius says, “He lived longer than all who had preceded him. He,
according to all editions (of the LXX.), lived fifteen years after the
Deluge, but where he was preserved through it is uncertain.”[179]
But the general opinion of the Jews follows the Midrash. The Rabbi
Solomon says, he died seven days before the Flood; and the Pirke of
Rabbi Eliezer and the Jalkut confirm this opinion. He is said to have
pronounced three hundred and thirty parables to the honor of the Most
High. But the origin of this is to be traced to the Cabbalists, who say
that, by transposition of the letters of his name, the anagram “He who
prophesied in parables” can be read.[180]
He had a sword inscribed with the Schem hammphorasch (the
Incommunicable Name), and with it he succeeded in slaying a thousand
devils.[181]
XIV.
NOAH.
The earth being filled with violence, God resolved on its destruction,
but Noah, the just, He purposed to save alive.
On the words of Genesis, “_All flesh had corrupted his way upon the
earth_,” the Rabbi Johanan taught that not only was the race of men
utterly demoralized, but also all the races of animals.[182]
Noah and his family, and one pair of all the beasts of earth, were to
be saved in the ark, but of every clean beast seven were to enter in.
Falsehood hastened to the ark and asked to be admitted; Noah refused.
“I admit the animals only in pairs,” said he.
Then Falsehood went away in wrath, and met Injustice, who said--
“Why art thou so sad?”
“I have been refused admittance into the ark, for I am single,” said
Falsehood; “be thou my companion.”
“See, now,” answered Injustice, “I take no companionship without
prospect of gain.”
“Fear not,” said Falsehood, “I will spread the toils and thou shalt
have the booty.”
So they went together to the ark, and Noah was unable to refuse them
admission. And when the Flood was passed and the beasts went forth
out of the ark, Falsehood said angrily, “I have done my work and have
caused evil, but thou hast all the plunder; share with me.”
“Thou fool!” answered Injustice, “dost thou forget the agreement? Thine
it is to spread the net, mine alone to take the spoil.”[183]
At the time of the Deluge the giants were not all drowned, for Og
planted his foot upon the fountains of the great deep, and with his
hands stopped the windows of heaven, or the water would have risen
over his head. The Rabbi Eliezer[184] said that the giants exclaimed,
when the Flood broke out, “If all the waters of the earth be gathered
together, they will only reach our waists; but if the fountains of the
great deep be broken up, we must stamp them down again.” And this they
did, but God made the waters boiling hot, and it scalded them so that
their flesh was boiled and fell off their bones.[185] But what became
of Og in the Deluge we learn from the Talmud.[186] He went into the
water along with a rhinoceros[187] beside the ark, and clung to it; now
the water round the ark was cold, but all the rest was boiling hot.
Thus he was saved alive, whereas the other giants perished.
According to another authority, Og climbed on the roof of the ark;
and on Noah attempting to dislodge him, he swore that, if allowed to
remain there, he and his posterity would be the slaves of the sons of
Noah. Thereupon the patriarch yielded. He bored a hole in the side of
the vessel, and passed through it every day the food necessary for the
giant’s consumption.[188]
It is asserted by some Rabbinic writers that the Deluge did not
overflow the land of Israel, but was partial; some say the Holy Land
was alone left dry, and a rhinoceros had taken refuge on it and so
escaped being drowned. But others say that the land of Israel was
submerged, though all agree that the rhinoceros survived without having
entered the ark. And they explain the escape of the rhinoceros in this
manner. Its head was taken into the ark, and it swam behind the vessel.
Now the rhinoceros is a very large animal, and could not be admitted
into the ark lest it should swamp it. The Rabbi Jannai says, he saw a
young rhinoceros of a day old, and it was as big as Mount Tabor; and
Tabor’s dimensions are forty miles. Its neck was three miles long,
and its head half a mile. It dropped dung, and the dung choked up
Jordan. Other commentators object that the head was too large to be
admitted into the ark, and suppose that only the tip of its nose was
received. But as the ark swayed on the waters, Noah tied the horn of
the rhinoceros to the side of the vessel, lest the beast’s nose should
slip off in a lurch of the ark, and so the creature perish.
All this is from the Talmud.
Let us now turn to some of the Mussulman legends of Noah. His history
is briefly related in the Koran, in the chapter entitled “Hud.”
“Noah built the ark with our assistance and that of the angels,
following the knowledge we revealed to him, and we said to him: Speak
no more in behalf of the sinners; they shall all be drowned.
“Whilst Noah was building his ark, all those who passed by mocked him;
but he said to them: Though you rail at me now, the time will come when
I shall rail at you; for you will learn to your cost, Who it is that
punishes the wicked in this world, and reserves for them a further
punishment in the world to come.”
In the annals of Eutychius of Alexandria, who wrote in Egypt in the
tenth century, and who probably quoted from apocryphal documents now
perished, we read that, before the Flood broke out, Noah made a bell of
plane wood, about five feet high, which he sounded every day, morning,
noon, and evening. When any one asked him why he did so, he replied,
“To warn you that God will send a deluge to destroy you all.”
Eutychius adds some further particulars.
“Before they entered the ark,” says he, “Noah and his sons went to
the cave of Elcanuz, where lay the bodies of Adam, Seth, Cainan,
Mahalaleel, Jared, Methuselah, and Lamech. He kissed his dead
ancestors, and bore off the body of Adam together with precious
oblations. Shem bore gold; Ham took myrrh; and Japheth incense. Having
gone forth, as they descended the Holy Mount they lifted their eyes
to Paradise, which crowned it, and said, with tears, ‘Farewell! Holy
Paradise, farewell!’ and they kissed the stones and embraced the trees
of the Holy Mount.”[189]
Ibn Abbas, one of the commentators on the Koran, adds, that Noah being
in doubt as to the shape he was to give to the ark, God revealed to
him that it was to be modelled on the plan of a bird’s belly, and that
it was to be constructed of teak wood. Noah planted the tree, and in
twenty years it grew to such a size that out of it he was able to build
the entire ark.[190]
To return to the Koran.
“When the time prescribed for the punishment of men was arrived, and
the oven began to boil and vomit, we said to Noah: Take and bring into
the ark two couples of every kind of animal, male and female, with
all your family, except him who has been condemned by your mouth, and
receive the faithful, and even the unbelievers; but few only will
enter.”
The interpreters of the Koran say that the ark was built in two years.
They give it the dimensions mentioned in Genesis:--three stages,
that on the top for the birds, the middle one for the men and the
provisions, whilst the beasts occupied the hold. The sign of the
outburst of the Flood was that water flowed out of the burning oven of
Noah’s wife. Then all the veins and arteries of the earth broke and
spirted out water. He who was excluded was Canaan, the son of Ham, whom
he had cursed. But Abulfed
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