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?”