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The Life of Adam and Eve, also known in its Greek version as the Apocalypse of Moses, is a Jewish apocryphal group of writings. It recounts the lives of Adam and Eve from after their expulsion from the Garden of Eden to their deaths. It provides more detail about the Fall of Man, including Eve’s version of the story. Satan explains that he rebelled when God commanded him to bow down to Adam. After Adam dies, he and all his descendants are promised a resurrection. The extant version comes from the first to fifth centuries AD, but there is widespread consensus the original work was composed in the 1st century or earlier.
This is the story of Adam and Eve after they had gone out of Paradise. And Adam knew his wife Eve and went upwards to the sun-rising and abode there eighteen years and two months. And Eve conceived and bore two sons: Adiaphotos, who is called Cain, and Amilabes, who is called Abel.
And after this, Adam and Eve were with one another and while they were sleeping, Eve said to Adam her lord, “My lord, Adam, behold, I have seen in a dream this night the blood of my son Amilabes, who is styled Abel, being poured into the mouth of his brother Cain, and he went on drinking it without pity. But he begged him to leave him a little of it. Yet he did not listen to him, but gulped down the whole; nor did it stay in his stomach, but came out of his mouth.” And Adam said, “Let us arise and go and see what has happened to them. [I fear] lest the adversary may be assailing them somewhere.”
And they both went and found Abel murdered by the hand of his brother Cain. And God says to the chief-messenger Michael, “Say to Adam: Do not reveal the secret that you know to Cain your son, for he is a son of wrath. But do not grieve, for I will give you another son in his stead; he will show [to you] all that you will do. Do not tell him anything.” Thus spoke the chief-messenger to Adam. But he kept the word in his heart, and with him also Eve, though they grieved concerning their son Abel.
And after this, Adam knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Seth. And Adam said to Eve, “See! we have begotten a son in place of Abel, whom Cain slew, let us give glory and sacrifice to God.”
And Adam begot thirty sons and thirty daughters and Adam lived nine hundred and thirty years; and he fell sick and cried with a loud voice and said, “Let all my sons come to me that I may see them before I die.” And all assembled, for the earth was divided into three parts. And his son Seth said to him, “Father Adam, what is your complaint?” And he says, “My children, I am crushed by the burden of trouble.” And they say to him, “What is trouble?”
And Seth answered and said to him, “Have you called to mind, father, the fruit of paradise of which you used to eat, and have been grieved in yearning for it? If this be so, tell me—I will go and bring you fruit from paradise. For I will set dung on my head and will weep and pray that the Lord will listen to me and send His messenger (and bring me a plant from paradise), and I will bring it to you that your trouble may cease from you.” Adam says to him, “No, my son Seth, but I have [much] sickness and trouble!” Seth says to him, “And how has this come on you?”
And Adam said to him, “When God made us, me and your mother, through whom also I die, He gave us power to eat of every tree which is in paradise, but, concerning that one only, He charged us not to eat of it, and through this one we are to die. And the hour drew near for the messengers who were guarding your mother to go up and worship the Lord, and I was far from her, and the enemy knew that she was alone and gave to her, and she ate of the tree of which she had been told not to eat. Then she also gave to me to eat.”
“And God was angry with us, and the Lord came into paradise and called me in a terrible voice and said, Adam, where are you and why do you hide from My face? Will the house be able to hide itself from its builder? And He says to me, Since you have abandoned My covenant, I have brought on your body seventy-two strokes; the trouble of the first stroke is a pain of the eyes, the second stroke an affection of the hearing, and likewise in turn all the strokes will befall you.”
As he said this to his sons, Adam groaned sore and said, “What will I do? I am in great distress.” And Eve wept and said, “My lord Adam, rise up and give me half of your trouble and I will endure it; for it is on my account that this has happened to you, on my account you are beset with toils and troubles.” But Adam said to Eve, “Arise and go with my son Seth near to paradise, and put earth on your heads and weep and pray [to] God to have mercy on me and [to] send His messenger to paradise, and give me of the tree out of which the oil flows, and bring it me, and I will anoint myself and will have rest from my complaint.”
Then Seth and Eve went toward paradise, and Eve saw her son, and a wild beast assailing him, and Eve wept and said, “Woe is me! If I come to the day of the resurrection, all those who have sinned will curse me, saying, Eve has not kept the commandment of God.” And she spoke to the beast: “You wicked beast, do you not fear to fight with the image of God? How was your mouth opened? How were your teeth made strong? How did you not call to mind your subjection? For long ago you were made subject to the image of God.” Then the beast cried out and said:
“It is not our concern, Eve, your greed and your wailing, but your own; for [it is] from you that the rule of the beasts has arisen. How was your mouth opened to eat of the tree concerning which God enjoined you not to eat of it? On this account, our nature has also been transformed. Now therefore, you cannot endure it if I begin to reprove you.”
Then Seth speaks to the beast, “Close your mouth and be silent and stand off from the image of God until the Day of Judgment.” Then the beast says to Seth: “Behold, I stand off from the image of God.” And he went to his lair.
And Seth went with Eve near paradise, and they wept there, and prayed [to] God to send
His messenger and give them the oil of mercy. And God sent the chief-messenger Michael and he spoke to Seth: “Seth, man of God, do not weary yourself with prayers and entreaties concerning the tree which flows with oil to anoint your father Adam. For it will not be yours now, but in the end of the times. Then will all flesh be raised up from Adam until that great day—all that will be of the holy people. Then the delights of paradise will be given to them and God will be in their midst. And they will no longer sin before His face, for the evil heart will be taken from them and there will be given them a heart understanding the good and to serve God only. But you go back to your father. For the term of his life has been fulfilled and he will live three days from today and will die. But when his soul is departing, you will behold the awful [scene of] his passing.”
Thus spoke the messenger and departed from them. And Seth and Eve came to the hut where Adam was laid. And Adam says to Eve, “Eve, what have you worked in us? You have brought on us great wrath, which is death, [[lording it over all our race]].” And he says to her, “Call all our children and our children’s children and tell them the manner of our transgression.”
Then Eve says to them, “Hear, all my children and children’s children, and I will relate to you how the enemy deceived us. It befell that we were guarding paradise—each of us the portion allotted to us from God. Now I guarded in my lot, the west and the south. But the Devil went to Adam’s lot, where the male creatures were. [[For God divided the creatures; all the males he gave to your father and all the females he gave to me.]]”
“And the Devil spoke to the serpent, saying, Rise up, come to me, and I will tell you a word whereby you may have profit. And he arose and came to him. And the Devil says to him, I hear that you are wiser than all the beasts, and I have come to counsel you. Why do you eat of Adam’s tares and not of paradise? Rise up and we will cause him to be cast out of paradise, even as we were cast out through him. The serpent says to him, I fear lest the Lord be angry with me. The Devil says to him, Do not fear, only be my vessel and I will speak through your mouth words to deceive him.”
“And instantly he hung himself from the wall of paradise, and when the messengers ascended to worship God, then Satan appeared in the form of a messenger and sang hymns like the messengers. And I bent over the wall and saw him, like a messenger. But he says to me, Are you Eve? And I said to him, I am. [He said,] What are you doing in paradise? And I said to him, God set us to guard and to eat of it. The Devil answered through the mouth of the serpent: You do well, but you do not eat of every plant. And I said, Yes, we eat of all, save one only, which is in the midst of paradise, concerning which, God charged us not to eat of it; for, He said to us, On the day on which you eat of it, you will die the death.”
“Then the serpent says to me, May God live! But I am grieved on your account, for I would not have you ignorant. But arise, [come] here, listen to me and eat and mind the value of that tree. But I said to him, I fear lest God be angry with me as He told us. And he says to me, Do not fear, for as soon as you eat of it, you too will be as God, in that you will know good and evil. But God perceived this that you would be like Him, so he envied you and said, You will not eat of it. No, give heed to the plant and you will see its great glory. Yet I feared to take of the fruit. And he says to me, Come here, and I will give it you. Follow me.”
“And I opened to him and he walked a little way, then turned and said to me, I have changed my mind and I will not give you to eat until you swear to me to give also to your husband. [And] I said, What sort of oath will I swear to you? Yet what I know, I say to you: By the throne of the Master, and by the cherubim and the Tree of Life! I will also give to my husband to eat. And when he had received the oath from me, he went and poured on the fruit the poison of his wickedness, which is lust, the root and beginning of every sin, and he bent the branch on the earth, and I took of the fruit and I ate.”
“And in that very hour my eyes were opened, and immediately I knew that I was bare of the righteousness with which I had been clothed [on], and I wept and said to him, Why have you done this to me in that you have deprived me of the glory with which I was clothed? But I also wept about the oath, which I had sworn. But he descended from the tree and vanished. And I began to seek, in my nakedness, in my part for leaves to hide my shame, but I found none, for, as soon as I had eaten, the leaves showered down from all the trees in my part, except the fig tree only. But I took leaves from it and made for myself a girdle and it was from the very same plant of which I had eaten.”
“And I cried out in that very hour, Adam, Adam! Where are you? Rise up, come to me and I will show you a great secret. But when your father came, I spoke to him words of transgression [[which have brought us down from our great glory]]. For, when he came, I opened my mouth and the Devil was speaking, and I began to exhort him and said, Come here, my lord Adam, listen to me and eat of the fruit of the tree of which God told us not to eat of it, and you will be as a God. And your father answered and said, I fear lest God be angry with me. And I said to him, Do not fear, for as soon as you have eaten you will know good and evil. And speedily I persuaded him, and he ate and immediately his eyes were opened, and he too knew his nakedness. And to me he says, O wicked woman! what have I done to you that you have deprived me of the glory of God?”
“And in that same hour, we heard the chief-messenger Michael blowing with his trumpet and calling to the messengers, and saying, Thus says the Lord: Come with me to Paradise and hear the judgment with which I will judge Adam. And when God appeared in paradise, mounted on the chariot of His cherubim with the messengers proceeding before Him and singing hymns of praises, all the plants of paradise, both of your father’s lot and mine, broke out into flowers. And the throne of God was fixed where the Tree of Life was.”
“And God called Adam, saying, Adam, where are you? Can the house be hidden from the presence of its builder? Then your father answered, It is not because we do not think to be found by you, Lord, that we hide, but I was afraid, because I am naked, and I was ashamed before Your might, [my] Master. God says to him, Who showed you that you are naked, unless you have forsaken My commandment, which I delivered you to keep? Then Adam called to mind the word which I spoke to him, [saying,] I will make you secure before God. And he turned and said to me, Why have you done this? And I said, The serpent deceived me.”
“God says to Adam, Since you have disregarded My commandment and have listened to your wife, cursed is the earth in your labors. You will work it and it will not give its strength: thorns and thistles will spring up for you, and in the sweat of your face you will eat your bread. [[You will be in manifold toils; you will be crushed by bitterness, but you will not taste of sweetness.]] You will be weary and will not rest; you will be tired by heat; you will be straightened by cold: you will busy yourself abundantly, but you will not be rich; and you will grow fat, but come to no end. The beasts, over whom you ruled, will rise up in rebellion against you, for you have not kept My commandment.”
“And the Lord turned to me and said, Since you have listened to the serpent, and turned a deaf ear to My commandment, you will be in throes of travail and intolerable agonies; you will bear children in much trembling and in one hour you will come to the birth, and lose your life, from your sore trouble and anguish. But you will confess and say: Lord, Lord, save me, and I will no longer turn to the sin of the flesh. And on this account, from your own words I will judge you, by reason of the enmity which the enemy has planted in you.”
“But He turned to the serpent and said, Since you have done this, and become a thankless vessel until you have deceived the innocent hearts, cursed are you among all beasts. You will be deprived of the victual of which you ate and will feed on dust all the days of your life: on your breast and your belly you will walk and be robbed of hands and feet. There will not be left [to] you ear nor wing, nor one limb of all that with which you ensnared them in your malice and caused them to be cast out of paradise; and I will put enmity between you and his Seed: He will bruise your head and you will bruise His heel until the Day of Judgment.”
“Thus He spoke and commanded the messengers have us cast out of paradise: and as we were being driven out amid our loud lamentations, your father Adam implored the messengers and said, Leave me a little [space] that I may entreat the Lord that He have compassion on me and pity me, for I only have sinned. And they left off driving him and Adam cried aloud and wept, saying, Pardon me, O Lord, my deed. Then the Lord says to the messengers, Why have you ceased from driving Adam from paradise? Why do you not cast him out? Is it I who have done wrong? Or is My judgment badly judged? Then the messengers fell down on the ground and worshiped the Lord, saying, You are just, O Lord, and You judge righteous judgment.”
“But the Lord turned to Adam and said, I will not permit you henceforward to be in paradise. And Adam answered and said, Grant me, O Lord, of the Tree of Life that I may eat of it, before I be cast out. Then the Lord spoke to Adam, You will not take of it now, for I have commanded the cherubim with the flaming sword that turns [every way] to guard it from you that you do not taste of it; but you have the war which the adversary has put into you, yet when you are gone out of paradise, if you should keep yourself from all evil, as one about to die, when again the resurrection has come to pass, I will raise you up and then there will be given to you the Tree of Life.”
“Thus spoke the Lord and ordered us to be cast out of paradise. But your father Adam wept before the messengers opposite paradise and the messengers say to him, What would you have us to do, Adam? And your father says to them, Behold, you cast me out. Please, allow me to take away fragrant herbs from paradise, so that I may offer an offering to God after I have gone out of paradise that he [may] hear me.” And the messengers approached God and said, Yah’El, Perpetual King, command, my Lord, that there be given to Adam incense of sweet fragrance from paradise and seeds for his food. And God commanded Adam go in and take sweet spices and fragrant herbs from paradise and seeds for his food. And the messengers let him go and he took four kinds: crocus, and nard, and calamus, and cinnamon, and the other seeds for his food; and, after taking these, he went out of paradise. And we were on the earth.”
“Now then, my children, I have shown you the way in which we were deceived; and you [must] guard yourselves from transgressing against the good.”
And when Eve had said this in the midst of her sons, while Adam was lying sick and bound to die after a single day from the sickness which had fastened on him, she says to him, “How is it that you die and I live or how long have I to live after you are dead? Tell me.” And Adam says to her, “Do not pay heed to this, for you do not tarry after me, but even both of us are to die together. And she will lie in my place. But when I die, anoint me and let no man touch me until the messenger of the Lord will speak somewhat concerning me. For God will not forget me, but will seek His own creature; and now arise rather, and pray to God until I give up my spirit into His hands who gave it me. For we do not know how we are to meet our Maker, whether He is angry with us, or is merciful and intends to pity and receive us.”
And Eve rose up and went outside and fell on the ground and began to say: “I have sinned, O God, I have sinned, O God of All, I have sinned against You. I have sinned against the chosen messengers. I have sinned against the cherubim. I have sinned against Your fearful and unshakable Throne. I have sinned before You and all sin has begun through my doing in the creation.” Even thus prayed Eve on her knees; [and] behold, the messenger of humanity came to her, and raised her up and said, “Rise up, Eve, for behold, your husband Adam has gone out of his body. Rise up and behold his spirit borne aloft to his Maker.”
And Eve rose up and wiped off her tears with her hand, and the messenger says to her, “Lift yourself up from the earth.” And she gazed steadfastly into Heaven, and beheld a chariot of light, borne by four bright eagles, [and] it was impossible for any man born of woman to tell the glory of them or behold their face— and messengers going before the chariot—and when they came to the place where your father Adam was, the chariot halted and the seraphim. And I beheld golden censers, between your father and the chariot, and all the messengers with censers and frankincense came in haste to the incense-offering and blew on it and the smoke of the incense veiled the expanses. And the messengers fell down and worshiped God, crying aloud, and saying, “Yah’El, Holy One, have pardon, for he is Your image, and the work of Your holy hands.”
And I, Eve, beheld two great and fearful wonders standing in the presence of God and I wept for fear, and I cried aloud to my son Seth and said, “Rise up, Seth, from the body of your father Adam and come to me, and you will see a spectacle which no man’s eye has yet beheld.”
Then Seth arose and came to his mother and to her he says, “What is your trouble? Why do you weep?” [And] she says to him, “Look up and see with your eyes the seven heavens opened, and see how the soul of your father lies on its face and all the holy messengers are praying on his behalf, and saying, Pardon him, Father of All, for he is Your image. Pray, my child Seth, what will this mean? And will he one day be delivered into the hands of the Invisible Father, even our God? But who are the two dark ones who stand by at the prayers for your father Adam?”
And Seth tells his mother that, “They are the sun and moon, and they fall down and pray on behalf of my father Adam.” Eve says to him, “And where is their light and why have they taken on such a black appearance?” And Seth answers her, “The light has not left them, but they cannot shine before the Light of the Universe, the Father of Light; and on this account their light has been hidden from them.”
Now while Seth was saying this to his mother, behold, a messenger blew the trumpet, and there stood up all the messengers, [and they were] lying on their faces, and they cried aloud in an awful voice and said, “Blessed [is] the glory of the Lord from the works of His making, for He has pitied Adam, the creature of His hands.” But when the messengers had said these words, behold, there came one of the seraphim with six wings and snatched up Adam and carried him off to the Acherusian lake, and washed him three times, in the presence of God.
And God says to him, “Adam, what have you done? If you had kept My commandment, there would now be no rejoicing among those who are bringing you down to this place. Yet, I tell you that I will turn their joy to grief, and I will turn your grief to joy, and I will transform you to your former glory and set you on the throne of your deceiver. But he will be cast into this place to see you sitting above him, then he will be condemned and they that heard him, and he will be sorely grieved when he sees you sitting on his honorable throne.”
And he stayed there three hours, lying down, and thereafter the Father of all, sitting on His holy throne, stretched out His hand, and took Adam and handed him over to the chief-messenger Michael, saying, “Lift him up into Paradise to the third heaven, and leave him there until that fearful day of My reckoning, which I will make in the world.” Then Michael took Adam and left him where God told him.
But after all this, the chief-messenger asked concerning the laying out of the remains. And God commanded that all the messengers should assemble in His presence, each in his order, and all the messengers assembled, some having censers in their hands, and others trumpets. And behold, the Lord of Hosts came on and four winds drew Him, and cherubim mounted on the winds and the messengers from Heaven [were] escorting Him, and they came on the earth where the body of Adam was. And they came to paradise and all the leaves of paradise were stirred so that all men begotten of Adam slept from the fragrance save Seth alone, because he was born according to the appointment of God. Then Adam’s body lay there in paradise on the earth and Seth grieved exceedingly over him.
Then God spoke to the chief-messenger[[s]] Michael, [[Gabriel, Uriel, and Raphael]]: “Go away to Paradise in the third heaven, and spread linen clothes and cover the body of Adam, and bring oil of the oil of fragrance and pour it over him.” And they acted thus—the three great messengers—and they prepared him for burial. And God said, “Let the body of Abel also be brought.” And they brought other linen clothes and prepared his [body] also. For he was unburied since the day when his brother Cain slew him; for wicked Cain took great pains to conceal [him] but could not, for the earth would not receive him for the body sprang up from the earth and a voice went out of the earth, saying, “I will not receive a companion body, until the earth which was taken and fashioned in me comes to me.” At that time, the messengers took it and placed it on a rock, until his father Adam was buried. And both were buried, according to the commandment of God, in the spot where God found the dust, and He caused the place to be dug for two. And God sent seven messengers to paradise and they brought many fragrant spices and placed them in the earth, and they took the two bodies and placed them in the spot which they had dug and built.
And God called and said, “Adam, Adam.” And the body answered from the earth and said, “Here I am, Lord.” And God says to him, “I told you [that] you are earth and to earth you will return. Again I promise to you the resurrection; I will raise you up in the resurrection with every man who is of your seed.”
After these words, God made a seal and sealed the tomb, that no one might do anything to him for six days until his rib should return to him. Then the Lord and His messengers went to their place. And Eve also, when the six days were fulfilled, fell asleep. But while she was living, she wept bitterly about Adam’s falling on sleep, for she did not know where he was laid. For when the Lord came to paradise to bury Adam, she was asleep, and her sons too, except Seth, until He commanded Adam be prepared for burial; and no man knew on earth, except her son Seth. And Eve prayed in the hour of her death that she might be buried in the place where her husband Adam was. And after she had finished her prayer, she says, “Lord, Master, God of all rule, do not estrange me, Your handmaid, from the body of Adam, for from his members You made me. But deem me worthy, even me, unworthy that I am, and a sinner, to enter into his dwelling place, even as I was with him in paradise, both without separation from each other; just as in our transgression, we were led astray, and transgressed Your command, but were not separated. Even so, Lord, do not separate us now.” But after she had prayed, she gazed heavenwards and groaned aloud and struck her breast and said, “God of all, receive my spirit,” and immediately she delivered up her spirit to God.
1 And Michael came and taught Seth how to prepare Eve for burial. And there came three messengers and they buried her [body] where Adam’s body was and Abel’s. 2 And thereafter Michael spoke to Seth and says, “Lay out in this way every man that dies until the day of the resurrection.” 3 And after giving him this rule he says to him, “Do not mourn beyond six days, but on the seventh day, rest and rejoice on it, because on that very day, God rejoices, and we messengers, with the righteous soul, who has passed away from the earth.” 4 Even thus spoke the messenger, and ascended into Heaven, glorifying [God], and saying, “Hallelujah! 5 [[Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord, in the glory of God the Father, for to Him it is appropriate to give glory, honor and worship, with the continuous life-giving Spirit now, and always, and forever. Amen. Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts. To whom be glory and power forever and forever. Amen.” 6 Then the chief-messenger Joel glorified God, saying, “Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, the heavens and earth are full of Your glory.”]]