Philosophumena; or, The refutation of all heresies, Volume I
David Hume · en
But he says also when Paradise was produced from the mutual pleasure of
Elohim and Edem, the angels of Elohim taking (dust) from the fairest
earth, that is, not from the beast-like parts of Edem, but from the
man-like and cultivated regions of the earth above the groin, create
man. But from the beast-like parts, he says, the wild beasts and
[Sidenote: p. 230.] other animals are produced. Now they made man
as a symbol of their[305] unity and good-will and placed in him the
powers of each, Edem (supplying) the soul and Elohim the spirit.[306]
And there thus came into being a certain seal, as it were and actual
memorial of love and an everlasting sign of the marriage of Elohim and
Edem, (to wit) a man who is Adam. And in like manner also, Eve came
into being as Moses has written, an image and a sign and a seal to be
for ever preserved of Edem. And there was likewise placed in Eve the
image, a soul from Edem but a spirit from Elohim. And commands were
given to them, “Increase and multiply and replenish the earth,”[307]
that is Edem, for so he would have it written. For the whole of her own
power Edem brought to Elohim as it were some dowry in marriage. Whence,
he says, in imitation of that first marriage, women unto this day bring
freely to their husbands in obedience to a certain divine and ancestral
law (a dowry) which is that of Edem to Elohim.
But when heaven and earth and the things which were therein had been
created as it is written by Moses, the twelve angels of the Mother were
divided into four authorities and each quarter, he says, is called
a river, (to wit) Phison and Gihon, Tigris and Euphrates, as Moses
says: [Sidenote: p. 231.] These twelve angels visiting the four parts
encompass and arrange the world, having a certain satrapial[308] power
over the world by the authority of Edem. But they abide not always in
their own places, but as it were in a circular dance, they go about
exchanging place for place, and at certain times and intervals giving
up the places assigned to them. When Phison has rule over the places,
famine, distress and affliction come to pass in that part of the world,
for miserly is the array of these angels. And in like manner in each of
the quarters according to the nature and power of each, come evil times
and troops of diseases. And evermore the flow of evil according to the
rule of the quarters, as if they were rivers, by the will of Edem goes
unceasingly about the world.