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]