Legends of the Patriarchs and Prophets: And Other Old Testament Characters from Various Sources — John Shaqi
Legends of the Patriarchs and Prophets: And Other Old Testament Characters from Various SourcesBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Religion
Legends of the Patriarchs and Prophets: And Other Old Testament Characters from Various Sources
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Bible. Old Testament -- Legends
In the Midrash, the Rabbinical story is as follows: “When God wished to
make man, He consulted with the angels, and said to them, We will make
a man in our image. Then they said, What is man, that you regard him,
and what is his nature? He answered, His knowledge excels yours. Then
He placed all kinds of beasts before them, wild beasts and fowls of the
air, and asked them their names, but they knew them not. And after Adam
was made, He led them before him, and He asked Adam their names, and he
replied at once, This is an ox, that is an ass, this is a horse, that
is a camel, and so forth.”[20]
The story told by Tabari is somewhat different.
When God would make Adam, He ordered Gabriel to bring Him a handful of
every sort of clay, black, white, red, yellow, blue, and every other
kind.[21] Gabriel went to the middle of the earth to the place where
now is Kaaba. He wished to stoop and take the clay, but the earth
said to him, “O Gabriel, what doest thou?” And Gabriel answered, “I
am fetching a little clay, dust, and stone, that thereof God may make
a Lord for thee.” Then the earth swore by God, “Thou shalt take of me
neither clay nor dust nor stone; what if of the creatures made from me
some should arise who would do evil upon the earth, and shed innocent
blood?” Gabriel withdrew, respecting the oath, and took no earth; and
he said to God, “Thou knowest what the earth said to me.”
Then God sent Michael and bade him fetch a little mud. But when Michael
arrived, the earth swore the same oath.
And Michael respected the oath and withdrew.
Then God sent Azrael, the angel of death. He came, and the earth swore
the same oath; but he did not retire, but answered and said, “I must
obey the command of God in spite of thine oath.”
And the angel of death stooped, and took from forty ells below the
earth clay of every sort, as we have said, and therefrom God made Adam.
No one in the world had seen a form like that of Adam. Hâreth or Satan
went to look at him. Adam had lain stretched in the same place for the
space of about forty years. No one thought of him or knew what sort of
a thing he was. Hâreth coming up to him, saw him stretched from east to
west, of huge size and as dry as dry palm leaves. Then Hâreth pushed
Adam, and the dry earth rattled. Hâreth was astonished. He examined the
form more attentively, and he found that it was hollow. Then he went to
the mouth and crept in at it, and crept out again and let the angels
know the doubt that was in his breast, for he said, “This creature is
nothing, its inside is empty, and a hollow thing can easily be broken.
Now that God has made him, He has given him the empire of the world,
but I will fight against him and drive him from the earth as I drove
out the Jins. What is your advice?”
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