Legends of Old Testament characters, from the Talmud and other sourcesBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Religion
Legends of Old Testament characters, from the Talmud and other sources
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Bible. Old Testament -- Legends; Jewish legends
Before the Fall, wheat grew to a tree with leaves like emeralds. The
ears were red as rubies and the grains white as snow, sweet as honey,
and fragrant as musk. Eve ate one of the grains and found it more
delicious than anything she had hitherto tasted, so she gave a second
grain to Adam. Adam resisted at first, according to some authorities for
a whole hour, but an hour in Paradise was eighty years of our earthly
reckoning. But when he saw that Eve remained well and cheerful, he
yielded to her persuasions, and ate of the second grain which Eve had
offered him daily, three times a day, during the hour of eighty years.
Thereupon all Adam’s heaven-given raiment fell from him, his crown
slipped off his head, his rings dropped from his fingers, his silken
garment glided like water from his shoulders, and he and Eve were naked
and unadorned, and their fallen garments reproached them with the words,
“Great is your misfortune; long will be your sorrows; we were created to
adorn those who serve God; farewell till the resurrection!”
The throne recoiled from them and exclaimed, “Depart from me, ye
disobedient ones!” The horse Meimun, which Adam sought to mount, plunged
and refused to allow him to touch it, saying, “How hast thou kept God’s
covenant?” All the inhabitants of Paradise turned their backs on the
pair, and prayed God to remove the man and the woman from the midst of
them.
God himself addressed Adam with a voice of thunder, saying, “Did not I
forbid thee to touch of this fruit, and caution thee against the
subtlety of thy foe, Eblis?” Adam and Eve tried to fly these reproaches,
but the branches of the tree Talh caught Adam, and Eve entangled herself
in her long hair.
“From the wrath of God there is no escape,” cried a voice from the tree
Talh; “obey the commandment of God.”
“Depart from Paradise,” then spake God, “thou Adam, thy wife, and the
animals which led you into sin. The earth shall be your abode; in the
sweat of thy brow shalt thou find food; the produce of earth shall cause
envy and contention; Eve (Hava) shall be afflicted with a variety of
strange affections, and shall bring forth offspring in pain. The peacock
shall lose its melodious voice, and the serpent its feet; dark and
noisome shall be the den in which the serpent shall dwell, dust shall be
its meat, and its destruction shall be a meritorious work. Eblis shall
be cast into the torments of hell.”
Our parents were then driven out of Paradise, and one leaf alone was
given to each, wherewith to hide their nakedness. Adam was expelled
through the gate of Repentance, that he might know that through it alone
could Paradise be regained; Eve was banished through the gate of Grace;
the peacock and the serpent through that of Wrath, and Eblis through the
gate of Damnation. Adam fell into the island Serendib (Ceylon), Eve at
Jedda, the Serpent into the desert of Sahara, the Peacock into Persia,
and Eblis into the river Eila.[70]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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