In the apocryphal Revelation of Moses, which appears to be of Rabbinical
extraction, Adam, when near his end, informs his sons; that, because of
his transgression, God had laid upon his body seventy strokes, or
plagues. The trouble of the first stroke was injury to the eyes; the
trouble of the second stroke, of the hearing; and so on, in succession,
all the strokes should overtake him. And Adam, thus speaking to his
sons, groaned out loud, and said, "What shall I do? I am in great
grief." And Eve also wept, saying: "My lord Adam, arise; give me the
half of thy disease, and let me bear it, because through me this has
happened to thee; through me thou art in distresses and troubles." And
Adam said to Eve: "Arise, and go with our son Seth near Paradise, and
put earth upon your heads, and weep, beseeching the Lord that he may
have compassion upon me, and send his angel to Paradise, and give me of
the tree out of which flows the oil, that thou mayest bring it unto me;
and I shall anoint myself and have rest, and show thee the manner in
which we were deceived at first."... And Seth went with his mother Eve
near Paradise, and they wept there, beseeching God to send his angel to
give them the Oil of Compassion. And God sent to them the archangel
Michael, who said to them these words: "Seth, man of God, do not weary
thyself praying in this supplication about the tree from which flows the
oil to anoint thy father Adam; for it will not happen to thee now, but
at the last times.... Do thou again go to thy father, since the measure
of his life is fulfilled, saving three days."
The Revelation, or Apocalypse, of Moses, remarks Mr. Alex. Walker (from
whose translation the foregoing is extracted: _Apocryphal Gospels, Acts,
and Revelations_, 1870), "belongs rather to the Old Testament than to
the New. We have been unable to find in it any reference to any
Christian writing. In its form, too, it appears to be a portion of some
larger work. Parts of it at least are of an ancient date, as it is very
likely from this source that the celebrated legend of the Tree of Life
and the Oil of Mercy was derived"--an account of which, from the German
of Dr. Piper, is given in the _Journal of Sacred Literature_, October,
1864, vol. vi (N.S.), p. 30 ff.