The Lost Books of the Bible: The Great Rejected Texts Page 7

  Chapter LIV

  1 Then Adam and Eve stood up in the cave and prayed the entire night until the morning dawned. And when the sun came up they both went out of the cave. Their minds were wandering from the heaviness of sorrow and they didn't know where they were going. 2 And they walked in that condition to the southern border of the garden. And they began to go up that border until they came to the eastern border, which was land’s end. 3 And the cherub who guarded the garden was standing at the western gate to guard it from Adam and Eve in case they should attempt to suddenly come into the garden. 4 When Adam and Eve thought the cherub was not watching they came to the eastern border of the garden. But as they were standing by the gate, as if they desired to go in, the cherub turned around as if to put them to death according to the order God had given him. And the cherub suddenly came with a flashing sword of fire in his hand. When he saw them, he went toward them to kill them. For he was afraid that God would destroy him if they went into the garden without God’s order. 5 And the sword of the cherub seemed to shoot flames a distance away from it. But when he raised it over Adam and Eve, the flame of the sword did not flash out at them. 6 Because of this the cherub thought that God was approving to them and was bringing them back into the garden. And the cherub stood wondering. 7 He could not go up to Heaven to ascertain God's order regarding Adam and Eve’s entering the garden so continued to stand by them, unable to leave them because he was afraid that if they should enter the garden without permission God would destroy him. 8 When Adam and Eve saw the cherub coming towards them with a flaming sword of fire in his hand they fell on their faces from fear, and were as dead. 9 Then, the heavens and the earth shook, and another cherubim came down from heaven to the cherub who guarded the garden, and saw him amazed and silent. 10 Then, again, other angels came down close to the place where Adam and Eve were. And the cherubs were split between joy and sorrow. 11 They were joyous because they thought that God was approving to Adam, and wished him to return to the garden and wished to return him to the gladness he once enjoyed. 12 But they were sorrowful over Adam because he was fallen like a dead man, he and Eve. And they said to themselves, "Adam has not died in this place, but God has put him to death for coming to this place and wishing to enter the garden without His permission."

  Chapter LV

  1 Then the Word of God came to Adam and Eve, and raised them up from their dead state, saying to them, "Why did you come up here? Do you intend to go into the garden from which I brought you out? You cannot return today but only when the covenant I have made with you is fulfilled." 2 Then Adam, when he heard the Word of God, and the fluttering of the angels, which he only heard and did not see, he and Eve cried and said to the angels: 3 "O Spirits, who wait on God, look at me and at my inability to see you! When I was in my former bright nature I could see you. I sang praises as you do and my heart was far above you. 4 But now that I have transgressed, that bright nature is gone from me and I have come to this miserable state in which I cannot see you. You do not serve me like you used to do. For my flesh has become like that of the animals. 5 O angels of God, ask God to restore me to the state I was in formerly and ask him to rescue me from this misery, and to remove the sentence of death He passed on me for having trespassed against Him. Ask Him, as I ask Him to do these things." 6 Then, when the angels heard these words they all grieved over him and cursed Satan who had misled Adam until he came from the garden to misery, and from life to death, and from peace to distress, and from gladness to a strange land. 7 Then the angels said to Adam, "You obeyed Satan and ignored the Word of God who created you. You believed that Satan would fulfill all he had promised you. 8 But now, Adam, we will make known to you what came over us though him, before his fall from heaven. 9 He gathered together his hosts and deceived them, promising to give them a great kingdom, a divine nature, and other promises he made them. 10 His hosts believed that his word was true, so they followed him, and renounced the glory of God. 11 He then ordered us, and some obeyed and under his command, and accepted his empty promises. But we would not obey and we did not take his orders. 12 Then, after he had fought with God and had dealt disrespectfully with Him, he gathered together his hosts and made war with us. And if it had not been for God's strength that was with us we could not have prevailed against him to hurl him from heaven. 13 But when he fell from among us there was great joy in heaven because of his descent from us. If he had remained in heaven, nothing, not even one angel would have remained in it. 14 But God in His mercy drove him from among us to this dark earth because he had become darkness itself and a performer of unrighteousness. 15 And Adam, he has continued to make war against you until he tricked you and made you come out of the garden to this strange land, where all these trials have come to you. And death, which God brought to him, he has also brought to you because you obeyed him and sinned against God." 16 Then all the angels rejoiced and praised God and asked Him not to destroy Adam for his having sought to enter the garden at this time, but to bear with him until the fulfillment of the promise, and to help him in this world until he was free from Satan's hand.

  Chapter LVI

  1 Then the Word of God came to Adam, and said to him: 2 "Adam, look at that garden of joy and at this earth of toil, and see, the garden is full of angels, but look at yourself alone on this earth with Satan whom you obeyed. 3 If you had submitted and been obedient to Me and had kept My Word, you would be with My angels in My garden. 4 But when you sinned and obeyed Satan, you became his guests among his angels, that are full of wickedness, and you came to this earth that produces thorns and thistles for you. 5 O Adam, ask the one who deceived you to give you the divine nature he promised you, or to make you a garden as I had made for you, or to fill you with that same bright nature with which I had filled you. 6 Ask him to make you a body like the one I made you, or to give you a day of rest as I gave you, or to create within you a wise (intelligent, sound, reasonable) soul, as I created for you; or to take you from here to some other earth than this one which I gave you. But, Adam, he will not fulfill even one of the things he told you. 7 Acknowledge My favor toward you, and My mercy on you, My creature. Acknowledge that I have not shown vengeance on you for your transgression against Me, but in My pity for you I have promised you that at the end of the great five and a half days I will come and save you." 8 Then God said again to Adam and Eve, "Get up, go down from here before the cherub with a sword of fire in his hand destroys you." 9 But Adam's heart was comforted by God's words to him, and he worshipped before Him. 10 And God commanded His angels to escort Adam and Eve to the cave with joy instead of the fear that had come over them. 11 Then the angels took up Adam and Eve and brought them down the mountain by the garden, with songs and praises and hymns until they arrived at the cave. There the angels began to comfort and to strengthen them, and then departed from them towards heaven to their Creator, who had sent them. 12 But after the angels had departed from Adam and Eve, Satan came with shamefacedness and stood at the entrance of the cave in which were Adam and Eve. He then called to Adam, and said, "O Adam, come, let me speak to you." 13 Then Adam came out of the cave, thinking he was one of God's angels that had come to give him some good counsel.

  Chapter LVII

  1 But when Adam came out and saw his hideous figure he was afraid of him, and said to him, "Who are you?" 2 Then Satan answered and said to him, "It is I, who hid myself within the serpent, and who spoke to Eve, and who enticed her until she obeyed my command. I am he who, using my deceitful speech, sent her to deceive you until you both ate of the fruit of the tree and rejected the command of God." 3 But when Adam heard these words from him, he said to him, "Can you make me a garden as God made for me? Or can you clothe me in the same bright nature in which God had clothed me? 4 Where is the divine nature you promised to give me? Where is that clever speech of yours that you had with us at first, when we were in the garden?" 5 Then Satan said to Adam, "Do you think that when I have promised someone something that I would actually deliver it to him or fulfill
my word? Of course not. I myself have no hope of (never even thought of) obtaining what I promised. 6 Therefore I fell, and I made you fall for the same reason that I myself fell. Whoever accepts my counsel, falls. 7 But now, O Adam, because you fell you are under my rule and I am king over you because you have obeyed me and have sinned against your God. There will be no deliverance from my hands until the day promised you by your God." 8 Again he said, "Because we do not know the day agreed on with you by your God, nor the hour in which you shall be delivered, we will multiply wars and murders on you and your descendants after you. 9 This is our will and our good pleasure that we may not leave one of the sons of men to inherit our place in heaven. 10 Our home, Adam, is in burning fire and we will not stop our evil doing even a single day nor even a single hour. And I, O Adam, shall set you on fire when you come into the cave to live there." 11 When Adam heard these words he cried and mourned and said to Eve, "Did you hear what he said? He said that he would not fulfill any of what he promised you in the garden. Did he really, at that time, become king over us? 12 We will ask God, who created us, to deliver us out of his hands."

  Chapter LVIII

  1 Then Adam and Eve spread their hands before God, praying and begging Him to drive Satan away from them so that he could not harm them or force them to deny God. 2 Then, suddenly, God sent to them His angel who drove Satan away from them. This happened about sunset on the fifty-third day after they had come out of the garden. 3 Then Adam and Eve went into the cave, and stood up and lowered their faces to the ground to pray to God. 4 But before they prayed Adam said to Eve, "Look, you have seen what temptations have befallen us in this land. Come, let us get up and ask God to forgive us the sins we have committed and we will not come out until the end of the day before the fortieth day. And if we die in here He will save us." 5 Then Adam and Eve got up and joined together in entreating God. 6 They continued praying like this in the cave and did not come out of it in the night or day, until their prayers went up out of their mouths like a flame of fire.

  Author’s note: This little chapter has several details showing connections to customs of punishment and also to number symbolism. The day is the 53rd day. 5+3=8. Eight is the number of judgment. Adam and Eve elected to stay in the cave praying for 40 days minus 1. Forty is the number of testing and trails. The rains were to fall for 40 days. Jesus was in the desert for 40 days. The Israelites wondered in the desert for 40 years… However, when it came to punishment inflicted by the state, as was in the case of the flogging of Jesus, the punishment was 40 lashes minus 1.

  Chapter LIX

  1 But Satan, the hater of all that is good, did not allow them to finish their prayers. He called to his hosts and they all came. Then he said to them, "Since Adam and Eve, whom we deceived, have agreed together to pray to God night and day, and to beg Him to deliver them, and since they will not come out of the cave until the end of the fortieth day. 2 And since they will continue their prayers as they have both agreed to do, that He will deliver them out of our hands and restore them to their former state, let us see what we shall do to them." And his hosts said to him, "Power is yours, our lord, to do what you command." 3 Then Satan, great in wickedness, took his hosts and came into the cave on the thirtieth night of the forty day period, and he beat Adam and Eve until he thought they were dead and he left them as dead. 4 Then the Word of God came to Adam and Eve and raised them from their suffering, and God said to Adam, "Be strong, and do not be afraid of him who has just come to you." 5 But Adam cried and said, "Where were you, my God, that they should punish me with such blows and that this suffering should come over me and over Eve, your handmaiden?" 6 Then God said to him, "Adam, see, he is lord and master of all you have, he who said, he would give you divinity. Where is this love for you? And where is the gift he promised? 7 Did it please him just once, Adam, to come to you, comfort you, strengthen you, rejoice with you, or send his hosts to protect you, because you have obeyed him and have obeyed his counsel and have followed his commandment and transgressed Mine?" 8 Then Adam cried before the Lord, and said, "Lord because I transgressed a little, You have severely punished me in return. I ask You to deliver me out of his hands, or at least have pity on me and take my soul out of my body now in this strange land." 9 Then God said to Adam, "If only there had been this moaning and praying before you transgressed you would have rest from the trouble in which you are now." 10 But God had patience with Adam, and let him and Eve remain in the cave until they had fulfilled the forty days. 11 But the strength and flesh withered on Adam and Eve from fasting and praying, from hunger and thirst, because they had not tasted either food or drink since they left the garden, and their bodies functioned erratically because they had no strength left to continue in prayer from hunger until the end of the next day to the fortieth. They were fallen down in the cave, yet what speech escaped from their mouths, was only in praises.

  Chapter LX

  1 Then on the eighty-ninth day, Satan came to the cave, clad in a garment of light, and belted with a bright girdle. 2 In his hands was a staff of light, and he looked most frightening, but his face was pleasant and his speech was sweet. 3 He had transformed himself like this in order to deceive Adam and Eve and to make them come out of the cave before they had fulfilled the forty days. 4 He said to himself, "When they had fulfilled the forty days' fasting and praying, God would restore them to their former state but if He did not do this He would still be favorable to them, and even if He had no mercy on them would He still give them something from the garden to comfort them as He had already twice before." 5 Then Satan came near the cave in beautiful appearance and said: 6 "Adam, you and Eve arise and stand up and come along with me to a good land and don't be afraid. I am flesh and bones like you and at first I was a creature that God created. 7 It was like this when He had created me, He placed me in a garden in the north on the border of the world. 8 And He said to me, 'Stay here!' And I remained there according to His word and I did not violate His commandment. 9 Then He made a sleep to come over me and then He brought you, Adam, out of my side, but He did not make you stay with me. 10 But God took you in His holy hand and placed you in a garden to the east. 11 Then I worried about you, because even though God had taken you out of my side, He had not allowed you to stay with me. 12 But God said to me: 'Do not worry about Adam, whom I brought out of your side, no harm will come to him. 13 For now I have brought out of his side a help-meet for him and I have given him joy by so doing.' " 14 Then Satan spoke again, saying, "I did not know how it is you came to be in this cave, nor anything about this trial that has come over you until God said to me, 'Behold, Adam has transgressed. He whom I had taken out of your side, and Eve also, whom I took out of his side have sinned and I have driven them out of the garden. I have made them live in a land of sorrow and misery because they transgressed against Me, and have obeyed Satan. And look, they are suffering to this day, the eightieth.' 15 Then God said to me, 'Get up, go to them, and make them come to your place, and do not permit Satan to come near them and afflict them. For they are now in great misery and lie helpless from hunger.' 16 He further said to me, 'When you have taken them to yourself, give them to eat of the fruit of the Tree of Life and give them to drink of the water of peace, and clothe them in a garment of light, and restore them to their former state of grace, and leave them not in misery, for they came from you. But grieve not over them, nor be sorry of that which has come over them. 17 But when I heard this, I was sorry and my heart could not bear it for your sake and I could not wait, my child. 18 But, Adam, when I heard the name of Satan I was afraid, and I said to myself, I will not come out because he might trap me as he did my children, Adam and Eve. 19 And I said, 'God, when I go to my children, Satan will meet me on the way and fight against me as he did against them.' 20 Then God said to me, 'Fear not; when you find him, hit him with the staff that is in your hand and don't be afraid of him, because you are old and established, and he shall not prevail against you.' 21 Then I said, 'O my Lord, I am old, and cannot go. Send Yo
ur angels to bring them.' 22 But God said to me, 'Angels are not like Adam and Eve; and they will not consent to come with them. But I have chosen you, because they are your offspring and are like you and they will listen to what you say.' 23 God said further to me, 'If you don't have enough strength to walk, I will send a cloud to carry you and set you down at the entrance of their cave, then the cloud will return and leave you there. 24 And if they will come with you, I will send a cloud to carry you and them.' 25 Then He commanded a cloud to carry me up and it brought me to you, and then it went back. 26 And now, my children, Adam and Eve, look at my old gray hair and at my feeble state, and at my coming from that distant place. Come with me to a place of rest." 27 Then he began to cry and to sob before Adam and Eve, and his tears poured on the ground like water. 28 And when Adam and Eve raised their eyes and saw his beard and heard his sweet talk, their hearts softened towards him and they obeyed him, because they believed he was true. 29 And it seemed to them that they were really his offspring when they saw that his face was like their own; and they trusted him.