Apocrypha
First Book of Adam and Eve
The Life of Adam and Eve
6 chapters · read and listen
Reading note
An apocryphal or pseudepigraphal text — outside the canon of the Western churches, yet widely circulated among ancient Jews and Christians. Published here from a public-domain translation, edited for continuous reading.
Chapters
Dossier
What happened after the expulsion: Adam and Eve outside the garden, in a cave of treasures, tempted again and again by Satan while they learn to live in a world they do not know.
Where this text comes from
Known as the Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan. It reached us in Ge'ez and Arabic, with composition estimated between the 5th and 6th centuries AD, probably from older Syriac material.
Why it is not in the Bible
Outside every canon. It is late devotional literature, written long after the lists closed, and was always read as an edifying narrative.
What you will find
- The Cave of Treasures, where the two go down after the expulsion and which becomes their home outside the garden.
- Adam's lament before the cave is the first reaction to the new world: he measures what he lost against what he was given.
- The adversary returns again and again, always with an offer that sounds reasonable.
- Their first sunset, and the panic of believing the light would not return.
Frequently asked questions
- Is the Book of Adam and Eve in the Bible?
- No, in any tradition. It is a late text, from the 5th to 6th centuries, preserved in Ethiopic and Arabic.
- How many books of Adam and Eve are there?
- This collection has two, forming one continuous work, plus the Apocalypse of Moses, which is the Greek version of a separate Life of Adam and Eve.