Cave of Treasures

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which its writer derived his information, it is necessary to give here a brief description of the object and contents of this work. The oldest manuscript of the "Book of Adam and Eve" known to us is in Arabic and is not older than the XIth century. But many of the legends and traditions found in it are identical in form and expression with those found in the "Annals" of Sa‘id bin al-Batrik, or Eutychius, Patriarch of Alexandria (A.D. 933-939), and in the "Eight Books of Mysteries" written by Clement about A.D. 750, and in the "Cave of Treasures," which is now generally thought to have been written, or perhaps re-edited, in the VIth century. The Arabic version of the "Book of Adam and Eve" contains two main sections. The first contains a History of the Creation, which claims to be a translation of the "Hexemeron" of Epiphanius, Bishop in Cyprus. In it are given an account of the work of the six days of Creation, the Vision of Gregory concerning the Fall of Satan, a description of the Four Heavens, the Creation of Man, the temptation of Eve, and the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise. The title, "Book of the Aksimaris," would lead one to suppose that the whole work was devoted to the Creation, but it is not, for the second Section contains "The History of the departure of Adam and Eve from Paradise, and their arrival in the Cave of Treasures by the command of God." The writer of the "Book of Adam and Eve" meant the two sections to form a complete work. The first shows how Adam fell, and the second tells us how God fulfilled the promise which He made to Adam more than once, that after five and a half weeks, i.e. 5,900 years, He would send a Redeemer into the world who would save both Adam and his descendants from the destruction which his sin in Paradise had incurred, The writer of the book gives the History of Adam and Eve in full, adding as he progresses in his work the various legends and traditions which he found in the works of his predecessors. This plan he follows until he comes to the Flood, and on to the time of Melchisedek; but, having settled this king in Salem, the rest of his work becomes a bald recital of genealogies, only rarely interspersed with explanations and generalizations. Whether he was a Jacobite or Nestorian there is nothing to show in his work, and it seems that he hated the Jews not because of their religion, but because they had crucified Christ, and had also, in his opinion, promulgated a false genealogy of Joseph and the Virgin Mary. Of the author of the "Book of Adam and Eve" nothing is known. Some have thought that he was a pious and orthodox Egyptian, who wrote in Coptic and derived the legends and traditions which he incorporated in his book from documents written in Greek or Syriac or from native works of the Coptic Church. Dr. W. Meyer discovered and published (in the Abhandlungen of the Bavarian Academy, Bd. XIV, III Abth.) two versions of the Life of Adam and Eve, one in Greek and the other in Latin. The Greek version is called the "AtokaAvwis ’Adau {Greek: “Apokalupsis Adam}. (Apocalypse of Adam), and the Latin "Vita Adae et Evae." Their contents differ materially, and neither version can be 8 of 130