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
The godless Sammael had made an alliance with all the chiefs of his
hosts against the Lord, because that the holy and ever blessed Lord
had said to Adam and Eve, “_Have dominion over the fish of the sea_,”
etc.; and he said, “How can I make man to sin and drive him out?” Then
he went down to earth with all his host, and he sought for a companion
like to himself; he chose the serpent, which was in size like a camel,
and he seated himself on its back and rode up to the woman, and said to
her, “_Hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?_”
And he thought, “I will ask more presently.” Then she answered, “He has
only forbidden me the fruit of the Tree of Knowlege which is in the
midst of the garden. And He said, ‘In the day thou touchest it thou
shalt die.’” She added two words; God did not say any thing to her
about touching it, and she spoke of the fruit, whereas God said the
Tree.
Then the godless one, Sammael, went up to the tree and touched it.
But the tree cried out, “_Let not the foot of pride come against me,
and let not the hand of the ungodly cast me down!_ Touch me not, thou
godless one!”
Then Sammael called to the woman, and said, “See, I have touched the
tree and am not dead. Do you also touch it and try.” But when Eve drew
near to the tree she saw the Angel of Death waiting sword in hand, and
she said in her heart, “Perhaps I am to die, and then God will create
another wife for Adam; that shall not be, he must die too.” So she gave
him of the fruit. And when he took it and bit, his teeth were blunted,
and thus it is that the back teeth of men are no longer sharp.[80]
V.
ADAM AND EVE AFTER THE FALL.
When Adam reached the earth, the Eagle said to the Whale, with whom
it had hitherto lived in the closest intimacy, “Now we must part, for
there is no safety for us animals since man has come amongst us. The
deepest abysses of ocean must be thy refuge, and thou must protect
thyself with cunning from the great foe who has entered the earth. I
must soar high above the clouds, and there find a place of escape from
him who is destined to be my pursuer till death.”[81]
According to certain cabbalistic Rabbis, Adam, when cast out of Eden,
was precipitated into Gehenna, but he escaped therefrom to earth, by
repeating and pronouncing properly the mystic word Laverererareri.[82]
In the Talmud it is related that when Adam heard the words of God,
“_Thou shalt eat the herb of the field_” (Gen. iii. 18), he trembled
in all his limbs, and exclaimed, “O Lord of all the world! I and my
beast, the Ass, shall have to eat out of the same manger!” But God said
to him, because he trembled, “Thou shalt eat bread in the sweat of thy
brow.”[83]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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