Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan
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The Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan is a Christian pseudepigraphical work found in Ge'ez, translated from an Arabic original and thought to date from the 5th or 6th century AD.
It is a late part of the broad family of Old Testament Pseudepigrapha literature which includes the Life of Adam and Eve, Apocalypse of Adam, Testament of Adam and Books of Adam.
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Editions and Translations
It was first translated from the Ge'ez Ethiopic version into German by August Dillmann. It was first translated into English by S. C. Malan from the German of Ernest Trumpp. The first half of Malan's translation is included as the "First Book of Adam and Eve" and the "Second Book of Adam and Eve" in The Lost Books of the Bible and the Forgotten Books of Eden.
Content
Books 1 and 2 begin immediately after the expulsion from the Garden of Eden, and end with the testament and translation of Enoch. Great emphasis is placed in Book 1 on Adam's sorrow and helplessness in the world outside the garden.
In Book 2, the "sons of God" who appear in Template:Bibleverse are identified as the children of Seth, and the "daughters of men" as women descended from Cain, who successfully tempt most of the Sethites to come down from their mountain and join the Cainites in the valley below, under the instigation of Genun son of Lamech. This Genun, as the inventor of musical instruments, seems to correspond the Biblical Jubal; however he also invents weapons of war. The Cainites, descended from Cain the first murderer, are described as exceedingly wicked, being prone to commit murder and incest. After seducing the Sethites, their offspring become the Nephilim, the "mighty men" of Gen. 6 who are all destroyed in the deluge, as also detailed in other works such as I Enoch and Jubilees.
Books 3 and 4 continue with the lives of Noah, Shem, Melchizedek, etc. through to the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus in AD 70. The genealogy from Adam to Jesus is given, as in the Gospels, but including also the names of the wives of each of Jesus' ancestors, which is extremely rare.
Textual origin
Large portions of the text are strikingly similar to the Kitab al-Magall (part of Clementine literature), as well as to a Syriac work entitled The Cave of TreasuresTemplate:Citation needed.
Reception
The book may have some circulation in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.((cn}}
See also
