CHAPTER XI

And when she heard this, Eve understood that it was the devil who had persuaded her to go out of the river; and she fell on her face on the earth, and her sorrow and groaning and wailing were redoubled. And she cried out and said: "Woe unto thee, thou devil. Why dost thou attack us for no cause? What hast thou to do with us? What have we done to thee? for thou pursuest us with craft. Or why doth thy malice assail us? Have we taken away thy glory and caused thee to be without honor? Why dost thou harry us, thou enemy, and persecute us to the death in wickedness and envy?"

The Fall of the Devil.

CHAPTER XII

And with a heavy sigh, the devil spake: "O Adam! all my hostility, envy, and sorrow is for thee, since it is for thee that I have been expelled from my glory, which I possessed in the heavens in the midst of the angels, and for thee was I cast out in the earth." Adam answered, "What dost thou tell me? What have I done to thee or what is my fault against thee? Seeing that thou hast received no harm or injury from us, why dost thou pursue us?"

CHAPTER XIII

The devil replied, " Adam, what dost thou tell me? It is for thy sake that I have been hurled from that place. When thou wast formed, I was hurled out of the presence of God and banished from the company of the angels. When God blew into thee the breath of life and thy face and likeness was made in the image of God, Michael also brought thee and made us worship thee in the sight of God; and God the Lord spake: Here is Adam. I have made thee in our image and likeness."

CHAPTER XIV

And Michael went out and called all the angels saying: "Worship the image of God as the Lord God hath commanded."

And Michael himself worshiped first; then he called me and said: "Worship the image of God the Lord." And I answered, “I have no need to worship Adam." And since Michael kept urging me to worship, I said to him, "Why dost thou urge me? I will not worship an inferior and younger being than I. I am his senior in the Creation, before he was made was I already made. It is his duty to worship me."

CHAPTER XV

When the angels, who were under me, heard this, they refused to worship him. And Michael saith, "Worship the image of God, but if thou wilt not worship him the Lord God will be wroth with thee." And I said, "If He be wroth with me, I will set my seat above the stars of heaven and will be like the Highest."

CHAPTER XVI

"And God the Lord was wroth with me and banished me and my angels from our glory; and on thy account were we expelled from our abodes into this world and hurled on the earth. And straightway we were overcome with grief, since we had been spoiled of so great glory. And we were grieved when we saw thee in such joy and luxury. And with guile I cheated thy wife and caused thee to be expelled through her doing from thy joy and luxury, as I have been driven out of my glory."

CHAPTER XVII

When Adam heard the devil say this, he cried out and wept, and spake: "O Lord my God, my life is in thy hands. Banish this Adversary far from me, who seeketh to destroy my soul, and give me his glory which he himself hath lost." And at that moment the devil vanished before him. But

Adam endured in his penance, standing for forty days on end in the water of Jordan.

Cain and Abel

CHAPTER XVIII

And Eve said to Adam: "Live thou, my lord, to thee life is granted, since thou hast committed neither the first nor the second error. But I have erred and been led astray, for I have not kept the commandment of God; and now banish me from the light of thy life and I will go to the sunsetting, and there will I be, until I die." And she began to walk toward the western parts and to mourn and to weep bitterly and groan aloud. And she made there a booth, while she had in her womb offspring of three months old.

CHAPTER XIX

And when the time of her bearing approached, she began to be distressed with pains, and she cried aloud to the Lord and said: "Pity me, O Lord; assist me." And she was not heard, and the mercy of God did not encircle her. And she said to herself: "Who shall tell my lord Adam? I implore you, ye luminaries of heaven, what time ye return to the east, bear a message to my lord Adam."

CHAPTER XX

But in that hour Adam said: "The complaint of Eve hath come to me. Perchance, once more hath the serpent fought with her."

And he went and found her in great distress. And Eve said: "From the moment I saw thee, my lord, my griefladen soul was refreshed. And now entreat the Lord God on my behalf to harken unto thee and look upon me and free me from my awful pains." And Adam entreated the Lord for Eve.

CHAPTER XXI

And behold, there came twelve angels and two "virtues," standing on the right and on the left of Eve; and Michael

was standing on the right; and he stroked her on the face as far as to the breast, and said to Eve: "Blessed art thou, Eve, for Adam's sake. Since his prayers and intercessions. are great, I have been sent that thou mayst receive our help. Rise up now, and prepare thee to bear." thee to bear." And she bore a son and he was shining; and at once the babe rose up and ran and bore a blade of grass in his hands, and gave it to his mother, and his name was called Cain.

CHAPTER XXII

And Adam carried Eve and the boy and led them to the East. And the Lord God sent divers seeds by Michael the archangel and gave to Adam and showed him how to work and till the ground, that they might have fruit by which they and all their generations might live.

For thereafter Eve conceived and bare a son, whose name was Abel; and Cain and Abel used to stay together.

And Eve said to Adam: "My lord, while I slept, I saw a vision, as it were the blood of our son Abel in the hand of Cain, who was gulping it down in his mouth. Therefore I have sorrow."

And Adam said, "Alas if Cain slew Abel. Yet let us separate them from each other mutually, and let us make for each of them separate dwellings."

CHAPTER XXIII

And they made Cain an husbandman, but Abel they made a shepherd; in order that in this wise they might be mutually separated. And thereafter, Cain slew Abel, but Adam was then one hundred and thirty years old, but Abel was slain when he was one hundred and twenty-two years.

And thereafter Adam knew his wife and he begat a son and called his name Seth.

CHAPTER XXIV

And Adam said to Eve, "Behold, I have begotten a son, in place of Abel, whom Cain slew." And after Adam had begotten Seth, he lived eight hundred years and begat thirty

VOL. XIV.-2

sons and thirty daughters; in all sixty-three children. And they were increased over the face of the earth in their nations.

The Vision of Adam

CHAPTER XXV

And Adam said to Seth, "Hear, my son, Seth, that I may relate to thee what I heard and saw after your mother and I had been driven out of paradise. When we were at prayer, there came to me Michael the archangel, a messenger of God. And I saw a chariot like the wind, and its wheels were fiery, and I was caught up into the paradise of righteousness, and I saw the Lord sitting and his face was flaming fire that could not be endured. And many thousands of angels were on the right and left of that chariot.

CHAPTER XXVI

When I saw this I was confounded, and terror seized me, and I bowed myself down before God with my face to the earth. And God said to me, "Behold thou diest, since thou hast transgressed the commandment of God, for thou didst harken rather to the voice of thy wife, whom I gave into thy power, that thou mightest hold her to thy will. Yet thou didst listen to her and didst pass by My words."

CHAPTER XXVII

And when I heard these words of God, I fell prone on the earth and worshiped the Lord and said, "My Lord, All powerful and merciful God, Holy and Righteous One, let not the name that is mindful of Thy majesty be blotted out, but convert my soul, for I die and my breath will go out of my mouth. Cast me not out from Thy presence, me whom Thou didst form of the clay of the earth. Do not banish from Thy favor him whom Thou didst nourish."

And lo! a word concerning thee came upon me, and the Lord said to me, "Since thy days were fashioned, thou hast been created with a love of knowledge; therefore there shall not be taken from thy seed forever the right to serve Me."