Book of Adam and Eve

Book of the Pseudepigrapha. The book is a representative of what was apparently a vast ancient literature, now lost, dealing with the subject of Adam and Eve. It was written in Hebrew, probably in Erets Israel shortly before the Christian era or in its early years, and was preserved in a Greek version. It begins with the expulsion from Eden and concludes with the death of Eve after she journeys to heaven with Seth to seek balm from the Tree of Life to ease the pain of the dying Adam. The later Latin version adds a section about the proposal of Adam and Eve to do penance in return for being nurtured after the expulsion and how Eve is again tempted by the serpent and fails to complete her penance (standing in the waters of the Tigris for 37 days). In the Slavonic version she successfully resists the serpent. Major themes of the work are resurrection and final judgment (v. 41) and the dualism of body and soul as well as Eve's weakness. See also Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha.

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