Apocalypse of Abraham

Apocalypse of Abraham 23

XXIII. " Now look again in the picture, who it is who seduced Eve and what is the fruit of the tree, [and] thou wilt know what there shall be, and how it shall be to thy seed among the people at the end of the days of the age, and so far as thou canst not understand I will make known to thee, for thou art well-pleasing in my sight, and I will tell thee what is kept in my heart." And I looked into the picture, and mine eyes ran to the side of the Garden of Eden. And I saw there a man very great in height and fearful in breadth, incomparable in aspect, embracing a woman, who likewise approximated to the aspect and shape of the man. And they were standing under a tree of (the Garden of) Eden, and the fruit of this tree was like the appearance of a bunch of grapes of the vine, and behind the tree was standing as it were a serpent in form, having hands and feet like a man's, and wings on its shoulders, six on the right side and six on the left, and they were holding the grapes of the tree in their hands, and both were eating it whom I had seen embracing. And I said: " Who are these mutually embracing, or who is this who is between them, or what is the fruit which they are eating, O Mighty Eternal One? " And He said: "This is the human world, this is Adam, and this is their desire upon the earth, this is Eve; but he who is between them representeth ungodliness, their beginning (on the way) to perdition, even Azazel." And I said: " O Eternal, Mighty One! Why hast Thou given to such power to destroy the generation of men in their works upon the earth? " And He said to me: " They who will (to do) evil — and how much I hated (it) in those who do it! — over them I gave him power, and to be beloved of them." And I answered and said: " O Eternal, Mighty One! Wherefore hast Thou willed to effect that evil should be desired in the hearts of men, since Thou indeed art angered over that which was willed by Thee, at him who is doing what is unprofitable in thy counsel? "