Life of Adam and Eve

The Life of Adam and Eve, also known in its Greek version as the Apocalypse of Moses (Ancient Greek: Ἀποκάλυψις Μωϋσέως, romanized: Apokalypsis Mōuseōs; Biblical Hebrew: ספר אדם וחוה), is a Jewish apocryphal group of writings. It recounts the lives of Adam and Eve from after their expulsion from the Garden of Eden to their deaths. It provides more detail about the Fall of Man, including Eve's version of the story. Satan explains that he rebelled when God commanded him to bow down to Adam. After Adam dies, he and all his descendants are promised a resurrection.

The ancient versions of the Life of Adam and Eve are: the Greek Apocalypse of Moses, the Latin Life of Adam and Eve, the Slavonic Life of Adam and Eve, the Armenian Penitence of Adam, the Georgian Book of Adam,[1] and one or two fragmentary Coptic versions. These texts are usually named as Primary Adam Literature to distinguish them from subsequent related texts, such as the Cave of Treasures, that include what appears to be extracts, the Testament of Adam, and the Apocalypse of Adam.[2]

They differ greatly in length and wording, but for the most part appear to be derived from a single source that has not survived.[3]: 251 [4] Each version contains some unique material as well as variations and omissions.

While the surviving versions were composed from the early 3rd to the 5th century AD,[3]: 252  the literary units in the work are considered to be older and predominantly of Jewish origin.[4] There is wide agreement among scholars that the original was composed in a Semitic language[3]: 251  in the 1st century AD.[3]: 252 

  1. ^ French Translation: J.P. Mahé Le Livre d'Adam géorgienne de la Vita Adae in Studies in Gnosticism and Hellenistic Religions, ed. R. van den Broek and M. J. Vermaseren. Leiden 1981
  2. ^ James H. Charlesworth (1985), The Old Testament Pseudoepigrapha, Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company Inc., Volume 2, ISBN 0-385-09630-5 (Vol. 1), ISBN 0-385-18813-7 (Vol. 2), pp. 250. Quote: "The Armenian version of the Greek text and the Slavonic (with more Christian interpolations were prior to the other Adam literature, sometimes of Christian production, such as the Caves of Treasures, extant in Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic; The Combat of Adam and Eve, a Christian work of the eleventh century translated from Arabic into Ethiopic; the Testament of Adam, extant primarily in Greek and Syriac, and an Apocalypse of Adam among the agnostic works discovered at Nag Hammadi".
  3. ^ a b c d Johnson, M.D. (1985). "Life of Adam and Eve, a new translation and introduction". In Charlesworth, J.H. (ed.). the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. Vol. 2. ISBN 0-385-18813-7.
  4. ^ a b Sparks, H.F.D. (1984). The Apocryphal Old Testament. Clarendon Press. p. 143. ISBN 0-19-826177-2.