Aggada -- Translations into English; Bible. Old Testament -- Legends; Jewish legends; Midrash -- Translations into English
Thereupon, at the bidding of God, the three great archangels[135]
covered the body of Adam with linen, and poured sweet-smelling oil upon
it. With it they interred also the body of Abel, which had lain
unburied since Cain had slain him, for all the murderer's efforts to
hide it had been in vain. The corpse again and again sprang forth from
the earth, and a voice issued thence, proclaiming, "No creature shall
rest in the earth until the first one of all has returned the dust to
me of which it was formed."[136] The angels carried the two bodies to
Paradise, Adam's and Abel's—the latter had all this time been lying on
a stone on which angels had placed it—and they buried them both on the
spot whence God had taken the dust wherewith to make Adam.[137]
God called unto the body of Adam, "Adam! Adam!" and it answered, "Lord,
here am I!" Then God said: "I told thee once, Dust thou art, and unto
dust shalt thou return. Now I promise thee resurrection. I will awaken
thee on the day of judgment, when all the generations of men that
spring from thy loins, shall arise from the grave." God then sealed up
the grave, that none might do him harm during the six days to elapse
until his rib should be restored to him through the death of Eve.[138]
THE DEATH OF EVE
The interval between Adam's death and her own Eve spent in weeping. She
was distressed in particular that she knew not what had become of
Adam's body, for none except Seth had been awake while the angel
interred it. When the hour of her death drew nigh, Eve supplicated to
be buried in the selfsame spot in which the remains of her husband
rested. She prayed to God: "Lord of all powers! Remove not Thy
maid-servant from the body of Adam, from which Thou didst take me, from
whose limbs Thou didst form me. Permit me, who am an unworthy and
sinning woman, to enter into his habitation. As we were together in
Paradise, neither separated from the other; as together we were tempted
to transgress Thy law, neither separated from the other, so, O Lord,
separate us not now." To the end of her prayer she added the petition,
raising her eyes heavenward, "Lord of the world! Receive my spirit!"
and she gave up her soul to God.
The archangel Michael came and taught Seth how to prepare Eve for
burial, and three angels descended and interred her body in the grave
with Adam and Abel. Then Michael spoke to Seth, "Thus shalt thou bury
all men that die until the resurrection day." And again, having given
him this command, he spoke: "Longer than six days ye shall not
mourn.[139] The repose of the seventh day is the token of the
resurrection in the latter day, for on the seventh day the Lord rested
from all the work which He had created and made."[140]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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