appeared in the form of an angel and sang hymns like the angels. And I bent over the wall and saw him, like an angel. But he saith to me: 'Art thou Eve?' And I said to him, 'I am.' 'What art thou doing in paradise?" And I said to him, 'God set us to guard and to eat of it.' The devil answered through the mouth of the serpent: 'Ye do well but ye do not eat of every plant.' And I said: "Yea, we eat of all, save one only, which is in the midst of paradise, concerning which, God charged us not to eat of it: for, He said to us, on the day on which ye eat of it, ye shall die the death.' CHAPTER XVIII "Then the serpent saith to me, 'May God live! but I am grieved on your account, for I would not have you ignorant. But arise, come hither, harken to me and eat and mind the value of that tree.' But I said to him, 'I fear lest God be wroth with me as he told us.' And he saith to me: ' Fear not, for as soon as thou eatest of it ye too shall be as God, in that ye shall know good and evil. But God perceived this that ye would be like Him, so he envied you and said, Ye shall not eat of it. Nay, do thou give heed to the plant and thou wilt see its great glory.' Yet I feared to take of the fruit. And he saith to me: 'Come hither, and I will give it thee. Follow me.' CHAPTER XIX "And I opened to him and he walked a little way, then turned and said to me: 'I have changed my mind, and I will not give thee to eat until thou swear to me to give also to thy husband.' And I said, 'What sort of oath shall I swear to thee? Yet what I know, I say to thee: By the throne of the Master, and by the Cherubim and the Tree of Life, I will give also to my husband to eat.' And when he had received the oath from me, he went and poured upon the fruit the poison of his wickedness, which is lust, the root and beginning of every sin, and he bent the branch on the earth and I took of the fruit and I ate. THE GARDEN OF EDEN. The banks of the Tigris River near its mouth, the location which recent research indicates as the site of the Biblical Garden of Eden. |