First Book of Adam and Eve | Page 9

also deceive you.
17 So I made known to you by means of the tree, not to come near him. And I told you not to eat of the fruit thereof, nor to taste of it, nor yet to sit under it, nor to yield to it.
18 Had I not been and spoken to you, O Adam, concerning the tree, and had I left you without a commandment, and you had sinned -- it would have been an offence on My part, for not having given you any order; you would turn around and blame Me for it.
19 But I commanded you, and warned you, and you fell. So that My creatures cannot blame Me; but the blame rests on them alone.
20 And, O Adam, I have made the day so that you and your descendants can work and toil in it. And I have made the night for them to rest in it from their work; and for the beasts of the field to go forth by night and look for their food.
21 But little of darkness now remains, O Adam, and daylight will soon appear."


Chapter XIV
- The earliest prophesy of the coming of Christ.
1 Then Adam said to God: "O Lord, take You my soul, and let me not see this gloom any more; or remove me to some place where there is no darkness."
2 But God the Lord said to Adam, "Indeed I say to you, this darkness will pass from you, every day I have determined for you, until the fulfillment of My covenant; when I will save you and bring you back again into the garden, into the house of light you long for, in which there is no darkness*. I will bring you to it -- in the kingdom of heaven."
3 Again said God to Adam, "All this misery that you have been made to take on yourself because of your transgression, will not free you from the hand of Satan, and will not save you.
4 But I will. When I shall come down from heaven, and shall become flesh of your descendants, and take on Myself the infirmity from which you suffer, then the darkness that covered you in this cave shall cover Me in the grave, when I am in the flesh of your descendants.
5 And I, who am without years, shall be subject to the reckoning of years, of times, of months, and of days, and I shall be reckoned as one of the sons of men, in order to save you."
6 And God ceased to commune with Adam.
* Reference: John 12:46


Chapter XV
- Adam and Eve grieve over the suffering of God to save them from their sins.
1 Then Adam and Eve cried and sorrowed by reason of God's word to them, that they should not return to the garden until the fulfillment of the days decreed on them; but mostly because God had told them that He should suffer for their salvation.


Chapter XVI
- The first sunrise. Adam and Eve think it is a fire coming to burn them.
1 After this, Adam and Eve continued to stand in the cave, praying and crying, until the morning dawned on them.
2 And when they saw the light returned to them, they retrained from fear, and strengthened their hearts.
3 Then Adam began to come out of the cave. And when he came to the mouth of it, and stood and turned his face towards the east, and saw the sunrise in glowing rays, and felt the heat thereof on his body, he was afraid of it, and thought in his heart that this flame came forth to plague him.
4 He then cried and beat his chest, then he fell on the ground on his face and made his request, saying: --
5 "O Lord, plague me not, neither consume me, nor yet take away my life from the earth."
6 For he thought the sun was God.
7 Because while he was in the garden and heard the voice of God and the sound He made in the garden, and feared Him, Adam never saw the brilliant light of the sun, neither did its flaming heat touch his body.
8 Therefore he was afraid of the sun when flaming rays of it reached him. He thought God meant to plague him therewith all the days He had decreed for him.
9 For Adam also said in his thoughts, as God did not plague us with darkness, behold, He has caused this sun to rise and to plague us with burning heat.
10 But while he was thinking like this in his heart, the Word of God came to him and said: --
11 "O Adam, get up on your feet. This sun is not God; but it has been created to give light by day, of which I spoke to you in