Hebrew (Genesis 1) | Quiche Maya | The Sun Goddess (Japan) | Hebrew (Genesis 2) | Kabbalist | Bibliography
1. When God began to create the heaven and the earth--the earth being unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep and a wind from God sweeping over the water --God said, "Let there be light"; God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night.
And there was evening and there was morning, a first day.
God said, "Let there be an expanse in the midst of the water, that it may separate water from water." God made the expanse, and it separated the water which was below the expanse from the water which was above the expanse. And it was so. God called the expanse Sky.
And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.
God said, "Let the water below the sky be gathered into one area, that the dry land may appear." And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering of waters He called Seas. And God saw that this was good. And God said, "Let the earth sprout vegetation: seed bearing plants, fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it." And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation: seed-bearing plants of every kind, and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it. And God saw that this was good.
And there was evening and there was morning, a third day.
God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate day from night; they shall serve as signs for the set times --days and the years; and they shall serve as lights in the expanse of the sky to shine upon the earth." And it was so. God made the two great lights, the greater light to dominate the day and the lesser light to dominate the night, and the stars. And God set them in the openness of the sky to shine upon the earth, to dominate the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that this was good.
And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.
God said, "Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and birds that fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky." God created the great sea monsters, and all the living creatures of every kind that creep, which the waters brought forth in swarms; and all the winged birds of every kind. And God saw that this was good. God blessed them, saying, "Be fertile and increase, fill the waters in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth."
And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.
God said, "Let the earth bring forth every kind of living creature: cattle, creeping things, and wild beasts of every kind." And it was so. God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. They shall rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the cattle, the whole earth, and all the creeping things that creep on earth." And God created man in His image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them and God said to them, "Be fertile and increase, fill the earth and master it; and rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and all the living things that creep on earth."
God said, "See, I give you every seed-bearing plant that is upon all the earth, and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit; they shall be yours for food. And to all the animals on land, to all the birds of the sky, and to everything that creeps on earth, in which there is the breath of life, (I give) all the green plants for food." And it was so. And God saw all that He had made, and found it very good.
And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
2. The heaven and the earth were finished, and all their array. On the seventh day God finished the work which He had been doing, and He ceased on the seventh day from all the work which He had done.
And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because on it God ceased from all the work of creation which He had done. Such is the story of heaven and earth when they were created.
In the Beginning
Alone was Tepeu, alone was Gucumatz, alone and wrapped in the green and the azure. All was silence, all was motionlessness, all was breathlessness. There was only the boundlessness of the sky, the quietude of the waters. No thing was joined to another thing; no thing was poised; no thing held itself upright. Lo, all was silent and unruffled; all was quietude and immensity. Then, wrapped in the green and the azure, Tepeu and Gucumatz meditated, and spake together and consulted. Then they were aware of the presence of him who is Heart of the Sky, Who is Hurakan. "Let this and this be done," came the word to Tepeu and Gucumatz. "Let the waters retire so that the earth may exist. Let the earth harden its surface so that it be sown with seed. Let there be human beings endowed with intelligence so that from them we may receive glory and honour." "Earth," said the Gods, and immediately earth was formed. Like great lobsters the mountains of earth appeared above the waters. Forests appeared upon the mountains. Then was Gucumatz filled with joy. He hailed Hurakan, naming the signs of him who is Heart of the Sky--the Lightning in the Vault, the Flash of Lightning, the Thunderbolt. The earth was formed with its mountains, plains, and valleys; the rivers ran in their proper courses; seeds were implanted in the earth.
Then the Gods made the creatures and gave them their places on the land, in the waters, and in the air. "Thou, Deer, shalt sleep beside where water runs, thou shalt be in the brushwood; there multiply; thou shalt go upon four feet." And to the puma, the opossum, the coyote, the porcupine, the peccary, they likewise spoke, giving these creatures their different habitations. To the birds, to the fish, they spoke also, giving them their places in the air and in the water. But the creatures gave no answer to those who had created them: they screamed, or growled, or bleated, or twittered. Then the Gods said "Those whom we have created are not able to utter our name. This is not well." Then they spoke to all the creatures and said, "Ye do not glorify us, but there shall yet be those who will call upon our name and be able to do our will. As for you, your flesh shall be broken under the tooth."
So the creatures went from before the Gods, each pair to their own habitation, and the Gods meditated upon the making of those who would be their supporters and their nourishers. And they made those who stood upright upon two feet, they made men out of the moist clay. But these Men of Clay could not turn their heads; they could not move of their own accord, and their sight was dim. Speech the Men of Clay had, but there was no sense in the words they uttered. The Gods broke them into pieces, and the Men of Clay moved no more upon the earth.
Then the Gods carved men out of wood. These had speech and they could move of their own accord. Also, the Gods gave them the power of generation, and they could reproduce their kind; they had posterity, and their posterity was also of wood and carved. And the Men of Wood began to be numerous on the earth.
But they did not raise their heads to the Gods; they had no thought and no memory; they had no hearts and they had no blood. And when the Gods looked upon them they saw that their faces were stiff and unchanging. And the Gods resolved to destroy the race of the Men of Wood.
So they caused a heavy and a sticky rain; it fell night and day darkening the earth. Many of the Men of Wood were drowned by that rain. And great bats and owls attacked them, breaking their bodies with their great beaks. Seeing the bats and owls attack them, the animals, great and small, bit and tore at the Men of Wood. They ran into their houses for safety, and their houses fell down upon them. They tried to enter caves, but the caves closed themselves against them. Their own dogs bit them, their own fowls pecked at them; even their pots and cooking-utensils turned upon them. "You have burned us, you have pounded us," cried the pots and the cooking-utensils, "day and night it was holi, holi, huqui, huqui, grinding our sides because of you. Now we will pound you, now we will grind you." And pursued by their dogs and their fowls, by their pots and their cooking-utensils, the Men of Wood ran to the forest. Some were able to climb into the trees. Those who managed to do this saved themselves, they became the little monkeys who are in our forests in our day.
Once more the Gods thought upon the creation of man; once more they took counsel with each other. They sent the Crow and the Coyote for a substance that grew at the Place of the Division of the Waters. The Crow and the Coyote brought back this substance: it was the white and the yellow maize. The Gods ground the maize; they mixed Coyote also brought to them. And Xpiyacoc and Xmucane, the Father and the Mother of the Gods, made nine broths, and the and the broths, entering into the substance, made muscle and sinew. The Men of Maize stood upright; they saw and they understood; they moved. and they had sense and feeling. Four were made by the Gods, and the Gods gave names to them, to the First Men. They were Balam-Quitze, Balam-Agab, Mahucutah, and Iqi-Balam, and they were our fathers.
But the Gods saw that when the First Men lifted up their heads, their gaze took in all that was before them. Nothing was hidden from them; they knew all things. "This is not well," the Gods said to one another. "These are not simple creatures they will rival us who are their creators." The Men of Maize rendered thanks to the Gods who had created them, saying, "We speak, we understand, we think, we walk; we see what is far and what is near; we understand all things great and small, and our gaze takes in the heavens and the earth." But what they said was not welcome to Tepeu, and Gucumatz, and Hurakan. Then the Heart of the Sky breathed a cloud before the First Men so that their eyes were covered as with a mist. They saw, but they did not see clearly what was far nor what was near. Their vision and their wisdom became small --small as they are with us.
The First Men slumbered, and during their slumber wives were made and brought to their sides. When they wakened they knew their wives, and the hearts of the First Men were filled with gladness. Children were born to them and the race of men increased and multiplied. They said prayers to the Maker, the Former, the Heart of the Sky. They prayer to the Maker, the Former, the Heart of the Sky. They prayed that children might be given them. They prayed, too, that light might come into the world. In the time of the First Men there was no sun in the sky.
In Tulan-Zuiva, the Place of the Seven Caves and the Seven Ravines, goods were given them, a god for each clan of men. Tohil was the god given to Balam-Quitze. Tohil gave Balam-Quitze's clan the gift of fire, and when the first flame was extinguished by rain, he made fire for them again by striking the ground with his sandal. Men of other clans came to the clan that had Tohil for its god, and, with chattering teeth, begged fire from them. But fire could not he given them, and they went away, their hearts filled with misery. In those days there was no sun to give warmth to the men who were upon the earth.
Men grew disheartened waiting for the sun to appear. Anxiously they looked for the coming of the Morning Star, which should appear before the sun's first rising. The star did not appear. Then the First Men resolved that they would go to the place that was known to them as "The Place of Sunrise."
As they started from Tulan-Zuiva for that place, a bird cried out to them, "Ye shall die, ye shall be lost. I am your portent, and I say that to you. Do you not believe me?" But the First Men went out without heeding the wailing of that bird that was called "The guard of the ravine." They went on and the owl prophesied to them, "Ye shall die, ye shall be lost." They went on without heeding the owl. The parrot cried out to them "Ye shall die, ye shall be lost." But the First Men answered the parrot back, saying, "Thou wailest when it is of no portent." They went to the sea-shore, but the water they could not cross. Then the staff that one had taken in his hands as they went out of the gate of Tulan-Zuiva they put into the sands. The waters then divided, and the First Men crossed from that place. He who is called Zakiqoxol they met upon their way. "Who are these children who come this way?" Zakiqoxol shouted out. "Who art thou? Why barrest thou our road?" the First Men cried. "Do not kill me; I, who am here, I am the burning heart of the forest." The First Men gave clothing to him; they gave him his blood-red cuirass, his blood-red shoes, the dying garment of Zakiqoxol.
And going past the place that Zakiqoxol guarded they came to the Place of Sunrise. They burned incense. And they saw the Morning Star. They watched it, its splendor growing as it rose in the sky. Then they saw the dawn coming. The sun appeared, and the animals, great and small, prostrated themselves as light came upon them. The sun was not great and bright as it is now with us; it was small, pale, and shadowy. Nevertheless, it dried up the dampness that was upon the earth, making it more fit for men to live on.
Also at the first appearance of the sun the great First Beasts were turned into stone --First Jaguar, the First Puma, the First Snake; also the gods of the clans were changed into stone: Tohil, Avilix, and Hacavitz felt their parts they became stone. Had the great First Beasts stayed upon the earth all creation would have been destroyed by them; and the gods who were turned into stone would have made life burdensome for men.
Now the First Men, the Four Brothers, had come to the mountain Hacavitz; they had seen the mountain lighted by the sun, and by the moon, and by the stars. Yet sorrow came upon them because of their memory of those whom they had left behind them. "Truly, indeed," they sang, "we have beheld the Sun, but where now are they, when at last the day of sunrise has come?" Then they sang, "Lo, we make our return; our work is done; our days are complete." And singing this the Four Brothers went into the mountain, leaving no track behind them.
The Sun Goddess and the Storm God and the Strife There was Between Them (3)
That lady, the resplendent Sun Goddess, was born out of the left eye of the august Father creator, and her brother, the powerful Storm God, was born out of his nostrils. To her was given the Plain of High Heaven for dwelling with the Earth for dominion, and to him the Sea was given for dwelling and dominion.
But between Ama-terasu, the Sun Goddess, and Susa-no-wo, the Storm God, there was strife. The resplendent Goddess was beneficently careful of things that grew upon the earth; she strove against the evil spirits that were abroad on the earth, and she was especially careful of the temples that men built for their celebrations of the harvest rites. Her powerful brother had no care for these things. He would leave his own realm and go clamorously upon the earth. He would strip off branches and level trees, and tear out of the ground the crops that his beneficent sister had cared for. He would break down all that guarded men from the evil spirits that were abroad upon the earth. He would make turmoil in the temples and prevent the harvest rites from being celebrated. All the work whose beginnings on earth were helped by Ama-terasu, that shining and beneficent lady, were destroyed by Susa-no-wo, the bearded and impetuous Storm God.
Once he ascended into High Heaven. He came before the Heavenly River, the Yasu. The Goddess cried out, "You who would destroy all I have given growth to upon earth, have you come to darken and lay waste the Plain of High Heaven?" The Storm God declared that he had come to establish peace and trust between himself and his resplendent sister.
Then on the bank of the Heavenly River, the Yasu, the powerful Storm God and the resplendent Sun Goddess exchanged tokens of their trust in one another. To the Storm God the Sun Goddess gave her jewels to the Sun Goddess the Storm God gave his sword. Then, from the spring whence rose the Heavenly River, the Yasu, Amaterasu, the Sun Goddess, and Susa-no-wo, the Storm God, drank. They put into their mouths the tokens they had received from each other: from the sword that the Goddess put into hers was born a beautiful and courageous boy: from the jewels that the Storm God put into his, were born shining Gods of growth and power.
Thereafter the cocks, the long-singing birds of the Eternal Land, crowed everywhere upon the earth, prophesying the flourishing of all growing things and the checking of all the evil spirits that went abroad upon the earth. Men gathered full crops in and celebrated the harvest rites in temples that were blown upon no more. The beneficent lady, Ama-terasu, had her way upon earth, and the powerful God, Susa-no-wo, stayed in his own realm, the sea.
Out of the sea he went once more. He went clamorously upon the earth destroying growing things, and breaking down the guards put up against the evil spirits that went abroad upon the earth. He threw down the temples and scattered the people who had come to celebrate the harvest rites. Then Ama-terasu would look no more upon the earth that her brother had wasted. She went within a cavern and would not come forth. Confusion came upon the whole of creation.
She came forth again. The Gods seized upon Susa-no-wo cut off his great beard, and took from him all his possessions. Then he went wandering upon the earth, but he was no longer able to work havoc upon it. He came to the mountains by the side of the ocean; he planted the mountains with the hairs of his beard, and the hairs became the Forest of Kii. The forest was his dominion; men gave homage to him as Lord of the Forest. It was he who slew the dragon of that land. Once, with it eight heads rearing up, the dragon's tail there was a sword a sword that would be ever victorious--and that sword Susa-no-wo sent to Ama-terasu as his tribute to her and to her descendants.
Many were the dragons that were in the land that Susa-no-wo had come to. Once when he was on his way from his forest to the sea he came upon an old man and woman who were weeping upon the bank of a river. They told him the reason of their grief. Every year a maiden was given to the dragon of the place, and this time their daughter was being given him. The fury of the Storm God was aroused when he heard this: he went to where the dragon waited by the river, and he destroyed him, cutting him to pieces. Susa-no-wo then took the maiden for his wife. They lived in that land of Izumo, and they and their children after them had the lordship of that place.
Another God came to woo his daughter. He came within his house when Susa-no-wo was lying in slumber on his mat. He tied the hairs of his head to tile beams of the roof, and he took in his hands the things that were Susano-wo's most cherished possessions--his sword, his bow and arrows, and his harp. He lifted the maiden up and carried her off with the treasures. But the harp cried out as it was taken in the hand of the younger God. Susa-no-wo awakened. He could not even move his head since his hair was tied to the beams of the rood, and he had to loosen each strand of hair before he could go in pursuit of the one who had carried off his daughter and his treasures. At last he freed himself; led by the sound of the harp that still played! of itself he followed that one. But when he came to where Oh-kuni-nushi was with the maiden whom he had carried off, Susa-no-wo said, "You have great craft, and because you have I will give you this maiden and all my possessions; I will take you for my son-in-law."
Together Susa-no-wo and Oh-kuni-nushi ruled the Izumo, and, through his daughter, the descendants of Susa-no-wo peopled that land. But Susa-no-wo knew, and Oh-kuni-nushi knew, that their children would have to give place to the children of the resplendent Sun Goddess Who were destined to be the rulers of the Eight Islands.
When Ama-terasu, on account of the destructiveness which her brother had wrought had hidden herself in the cavern, the Gods had come together and had consulted as to how Ama-terasu's beneficence might be brought into the world once more. They had brought the cocks, the long-singing birds of the eternal Land, and had placed them outside the cavern; they had lighted fires that made such a brightness before the cavern that the cocks crowed perpetually. They had the Goddess Uzume dance for all their company. On an upturned tub she had danced, and her dancing and her laughter had made all the Gods laugh loudly. Their laughter and merriment and the sound of the cocks crowing had filled the air and had made the earth shake. Ama-terasu, within the cavern, had heard the merry din. She had wondered what merriment could be in the world while she was within the cavern. She had put a finger out and had made a little hole in the rock that closed her in. She had looked out at the crowd of the Gods, and she had seen the dancing and laughing Goddess. Then Ama-terasu had laughed. One of the strong-armed Gods had put his hands within and had drawn the resplendent Goddess to the wide opening. Light immediately had filled the world. The cocks had crowed louder, and the evil spirits had drawn away. The Gods were made joyful, and the din of their merriment had filled all creation.
So the resplendent Sun Goddess had come back to the world. Then it was that the Storm God, banished, had gone forth and founded a new realm for himself. And the realm he had founded, he knew, was to pass to the descendants of the resplendent Goddess.
After the coming-forth of the Goddess from her cavern the growing plants flourished upon the earth, and the evil spirits were kept away. The cocks crew. The harvests were brought in, and the harvest rites celebrated. The temples stood unshaken and unbroken. The banished Storm God went back to his own realm, and his descendants to have her grandson take possession of the Islands. He came; he faced the rulers of the land armed with the sword that must always be victorious. They gave him the land and they gave him power over and all the powers of divination and sorcery. And since that time the children of the Sun Goddess bear rule in our land.
THE FIRST PEOPLE
There were clouds and mist; there were divine generations who came and who passed away, leaving only him who was Lord-in-the-centre-of-the-Heavens and the august God and Goddess who stood each side of him. And then were produced Izana-gi and Izana-mi, the man and the woman. They went across the rainbow bridge. The man held his spear downwards and drops flowed from it; the drops hardened and held themselves together and they formed a placed on which the Primeval Couple, Izana-gi, the man, and Izana-mi, the woman, could stay. But the mists were still all around them.
They had children there: Wind-child and Forest-child, Waterfall-child and Mountain-child, Stream-child and Field-child, Sea-child and Islands-children. They had children who became the ancestors of men and women. When Wind-child grew up he swept away the mists; the spaces became clear. Then Izana-mi bore the Fire-children. After their birth she sickened; then she was seen no more above the ground.
Izana-gi went down into Meido, Place of Gloom, to find her. He went down through a cave; he went into depths following her voice. She told him not to come farther; she told him not to look where she was. But Izana-gi disobeyed her command. He lighted a torch and looked towards where he heard her voice. For a little while there was a light in the pale-grey land of Meido. Izana-gi saw Izana-mi. Her eyes were hollow, and her lips were flesh less, and her forehead was a bone. The torch went out, and Izana-mi cursed her husband for having looked on her in the Place of Gloom. She said she would not let him go back to the world of their children, and that she would make him remain a dweller in Meido.
Izana-gi ran took the shoots of bamboo and the wild grapes that grew upon the comb that was in his hair and flung them to the dwellers in the Place of Gloom. They stopped to eat the shoots and the grapes. Then he ran on. He came to the cave through which he had entered the Place of Gloom. And here Izana-mi, angry still, nearly caught him. He ran through the cave, and he laid hold of a rock that was outside and closed the cave up. Still Izana-mi was angry; she said that on account of his looking upon her in the Place of Gloom she would draw down into Meido a thousand people every day. "Then I shall bring to birth athousand and a half a thousand people every day," Izana-gi said.
He went out of the cave and he bathed in a stream that flowed by it. He washed off the pollution that came from what he had touched in the Place of Gloom. What he washed off became stains on the water. And these stains became beings who brought a thousand people every day down to Meido. Therefore was Izana-gi, through his folk, under the necessity of bringing into birth a thousand and a half a thousand people every day. And because, through the willfulness of Izana-gi and the anger of Izana-mi, the Primeval Pair became separated, there has been every since death and separation in the world.
These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth in the day that Jehovah was making earth and heavens and every shrub of the field was not yet on the earth and no grasses of the field had yet sprouted, because Jehovah God had not sent rain upon the earth and there was no man to till the soil, but a flow would well up from the ground and water the whole surface of the earth. And Jehovah God formed man from the dust of the ground. He blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being.
And Jehovah God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and placed there the man whom He had formed. And from the ground Jehovah God caused to grow every tree that was pleasing to the sight and good for food, with the tree of life in the middle of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and bad.
A river issues from Eden to water the garden, and it then divides and becomes four branches. The name of the first is Pishon, the one that winds through the whole land of Havilah, where the gold is. The name of the second is Gihon the one that winds through the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is Tigris, the one that flows east of Asshur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
And Jehovah God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden, to till it and tend it. And Jehovah God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you are free to eat; but as for the tree of knowledge of good and bad, you must not eat of it; for as soon as you eat of it, you shall die."
And Jehovah God said, "It is not good for man to be alone; I will make a fitting helper for him." And Jehovah God formed out of the earth all the wild beasts and all the birds of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and all the man might call it, each living soul, that was its name.
And the man gave names to all the cattle and to the birds of the sky and to all the wild beasts; but no helper suited to him was found for a man. So Jehovah God cast a deep sleep upon the man; and, while he slept, He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that spot. And Jehovah God fashioned the rib that He had taken from the man into a woman; and He brought her to the man. Then the man said, "This one at last Is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. This one shall be called Woman, For from man was she taken." Hence a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, so that they become one flesh.
Jewish Kaballist
The Angels and the Creation and Fall of Man>(5)
When the Holy One, the Almighty (blessed be His name!) would create the world, the twenty-two that are the letters of the alphabet came from His crown; and held themselves before His eyes. Each supplicated to have itself made the beginning letter of the creative word. Many were the beginning letters of the various sacred names. But out of the twenty-two, the Most High chose to create the world through BETH: it is the beginning letter in the word BARACH, which signifies to bless.
On the first day the Most High created the heavens and the earth, the light and the darkness, the duration of the day and the duration of the night. From underneath His throne He took a stone and flung it upon chaos: that stone made the centre of the earth, and all that was made was made around it.
On the second day God created the angels.
On the third day He created the plants, including the plants that are the chief of them all, the cedars of Lebanon. But lest these cedars, tallest of trees, should exalt themselves unduly, He created on the same day the iron that would fell the trees; also He created Paradise where the first man was to have his abode, and where the souls of the just were to dwell throughout eternity.
On the fourth day He created the sun, moon, and stars.
On the fifth day He created the fishes including the fish that is the chief of all of them; namely Leviathan, and the birds, including the bird that is chief of all of them; namely, Ziz.
On the sixth day He created the animals, including the animal that is chief of all of them; namely, Behemoth. On the sixth day He created man. But the Most Holy One took counsel with His angels before He created him. And some of the angels said, "What is man that thou art mindful of him?" e stretched forth His finger, and all the angels who said this were consumed with fire- -all except their leaders, Michael and Gabriel. Then the Most Holy One commanded Gabriel to fetch dust from the four corners of the earth that man might be made from it. Gabriel went to do as he was commanded. But the earth refused to let the servant of the Lord gather dust from her surface. " I am destined to be cursed by man," the earth said, "and to have my first fair state made unfair through him. If the Almighty One does not take from me the dust for the making of man, no one shall ever be let do it." When God heard the earth say this He stretched forth His hand and He took dust from the four corners of the earth, and He fashioned man out of the dust.
When He would join the body He had formed out of the dust with the soul He had made on the first day, the angelic host who knew the power that man was about to receive from God murmured against his making. And the chief of those who murmured was that angel who was amongst the highest in the angelic host, whose wings were twelve where the others wings were six, the angel whose name was Samael. Samael said, "Thou didst create us from the splendor of the Shekinah, and now thou dost plan to set above us the creature whom thou hast fashioned out of the dust of the ground." Man would have perished through the fire which Samael would have put upon him if it had not been for the protecting hand that God held over him. The Almighty cast Samael and his host out of heaven and from that time that angelic prince is known as Satan, and he is the adversary of man.
God named the man whom he had created Adam, and He placed him in the Paradise which He had created on the third day. Another had been created with Adam out of the dust of the earth. This was the woman Lillith. Lillith lived with Adam in Paradise. But she exalted herself over him, knowing that he and she had been made out of the same dust of the earth. And Lillith was able to pronounce the Ineffable Name, and pronouncing it she caused herself to vanish from the sight of Adam thereafter she made herself a demoness.
Then Adam was cast into a deep sleep; a rib was taken from his side, and out of this rib God formed a woman to be Adam's wife, and this woman was Eve. Adam was given the east and the north of Paradise with the guardianship of the male animals, and Eve was given the west and south with the guardianship of the female animals. A tree grew in the centre of Paradise: the man and the woman were forbidden to eat of the fruit of this tree.
Samael, who was now Satan, the fallen angel, came riding upon the back of a serpent. The animals saw Samael and the serpent, and they were affrighted by the sight. And Samael, in Eve's hearing, chanted seraphic songs, and she, thinking they were songs in praise of God, listened to him. The serpent ascended the tree and injected the Poison of evil inclination into the fruit. He bent the branch on which it grew down to the ground. And Eve, after Samael had spoken to her, took the fruit and ate of it. She summoned Adam and persuaded him to eat of the fruit also. Whereupon the cuirass which was bound across each of them, and which was made of the letters of the Ineffable Name, fell from them, and they had to cover their lower limbs with leaves which the trees had cast off when Eve ate of the forbidden fruit.
Then the Most Holy one put Adam and Eve from Paradise and appointed the Cherubim who are called the Ever-turning Swords of Flame to guard against their return to it. The earth felt the curse of the fall of man. Thenceforward she had to be watered by rain from above; her fruits were subject to failure; she had to bring forth creatures that were noxious to her; also she had to have herself formed into mountains and valleys, and to know that one day she will wax old like a garment. The angels in heaven grieved over the fall of man; the sun grieved also. Only the moon laughed on account of it, and for that God was wroth, and He obscured her radiance.
Social and Behavioral Sciences E-Campus Comments to: joanaa@umd5.umd.edu Content copyright © 1986 - 1999 Joan A. Andersen; Revised: 29 January 1999 URL: http://www.erols.com/bcccsbs/c1supreme.htm