Adam and Eve

“ Remember that while we were in the garden, we knew neither night nor day. Think of the Tree of Life, from below which flowed the water, and that shed lustre over us! Remember, O Eve, the garden land, and the brightness thereof!
10 Think, oh think of that garden in which was no darkness, while we lived in it.
11 Whereas no sooner did we come into this Cave of Treasures than darkness surrounded us all around; until we can no longer see each other; and all the pleasure of this life has come to an end."
Chapter XII - How darkness came between Adam and Eve. ”

“ The curtain rises, and we see first Eden, all beautiful; there is no sin, no death; how lovely is the world in its maiden freshness and innocence, the flowers are blooming, and the birds are singing, and Adam and Eve stand surrounded by the beasts, which fawn on them, and fear them not. ”

“ Adam and Eve, as they are first seen in Paradise, have the same shining quality, the same vagueness of beauty expressing itself in purely emotional terms. Satan standing on the top of Mount Niphates, looking down on Eden spread out at his feet, and then with fierce gesticulation addressing himself to the sun at the zenith, is one of the dim solitary figures that dwell in the mind's eye. ”

“ Every Eve is Adam at heart, and every Adam is Eve; and what in sauce for Adam will prove equally effective with Eve. Adam and Eve are both green, and growing. They are the two halves of a ripening peach, brought together by the Law of Attraction or Love because at this stage in their development they fit. ”

“ Chapter I - The crystal sea, God commands Adam, expelled from Eden, to live in the Cave of Treasures.
Chapter II - Adam and Eve faint when they leave the Garden. God sends His Word to encourage them. ”

“ Again Adam and Eve in successive solos, finally uniting, join with the choir in extolling the goodness of God; and as they close, all take up the beautiful and majestic pæan, "Hail, bounteous Lord! Almighty, hail!" As the angelic shout dies away, a tender, loving dialogue ensues between Adam and Eve, leading to the beautiful duet, "Graceful Consort," which is not only the most delightful number in the work, but in freshness, sweetness, and tenderness stands almost unsurpassed among compositions of its kind. ”

“ We cannot believe that Adam and Eve went through the many processes necessary for the production of the needles and thread, with which to sew their leaves together. Then the conversation between god, as he took his stroll in the garden in the cool of the evening, and Adam and Eve, is just what we should expect from the crude imaginations of our early ancestors; as also is the manner in which the man placed the blame on the woman, and she in her turn upon the serpent. ”

“ Adam and Eve are lost in rapture, unmingled with surprise. The passing wind, that stirred the harp-strings, has been hushed, before they can think of examining the splendid furniture, the gorgeous carpets, and the architecture of the rooms. These things amuse their unpractised eyes, but appeal to nothing within their hearts. Even the pictures upon the walls scarcely excite a deeper interest; for there is something radically artificial and deceptive in painting with which minds in the primal simplicity cannot sympathize. ”

“ Chapter XX - Adam wishes to protect Eve.
1 Then Adam cried and said, "O God, take us away to some other place, where the serpent can not come near us again, and rise against us. For fear that it might find Your handmaid Eve alone and kill her; for its eyes are hideous and evil." ”

“ Adam and Eve tried to fly these reproaches, but the branches of the tree Talh caught Adam, and Eve entangled herself in her long hair.
“From the wrath of God there is no escape,” cried a voice from the tree Talh; “obey the commandment of God.”
“Depart from Paradise,” then spake God, “thou Adam, thy wife, and the animals which led you into sin. The earth shall be your abode; in the sweat of thy brow shalt thou find food; the produce of earth shall cause envy and contention; Eve (Hava) shall be afflicted with a variety of strange affections, and shall bring forth offspring in pain. ”

“ Certainly God could not have clothed Adam and Eve with the skins of beasts unless He had shed blood. Here, then, we have the innocent suffering for the guilty—the doctrine of substitution in the garden of Eden. God dealt with Adam in grace before He dealt in judgment. Death came by sin. Adam had sinned, and the Lord came down to make the way of escape. God came to him as a loving friend, and not to hurl him from the earth. Adam could have said to Eve, “Though the Lord has driven us out of the garden of Eden, He loves us,” for this coat is a token of love. ”

“ When the patient's spirit was thrown out of the body, it caused Adam and Eve to be created—Eve was a great spirit in the third heaven—the father thought that if he could create two persons, and they were congenial to each other, that Adam's soul would be increased or developed by being in company with Eve. ”

“ Then, turning to Eve, he tries to comfort her.
"Perhaps thou shalt not die ... Nor can I think that God, Creator wise, Though threatening, will in earnest so destroy Us, His prime creatures, dignified so high, Set over all his works.... However, I with thee have fixed my lot, Certain to undergo like doom. If death Consort with thee, death is to me as life. Our state cannot be severed; we are one." So Adam; and thus Eve to him replied: "O glorious trial of exceeding love, Illustrious evidence, example high!" ”

“ They are pleased with the glow of gems; and Adam twines a string of beautiful pearls around the head of Eve, and fastens his own mantle with a magnificent diamond brooch. Eve thanks him, and views herself with delight, in the nearest looking-glass. Shortly afterward, observing a bouquet of roses and other brilliant flowers in a vase of water, she flings away the inestimable pearls, and adorns herself with these lovelier gems of nature. They charm her with sentiment as well as beauty.
"Surely they are living beings," she remarks to Adam. ”

“ Would it not have been a greater work of power for God to have created Adam from nothing, than to have made him of clay? Why did God make woman, when he knew that she would be the occasion of the fall? May not Eve be called Adam's daughter, seeing that she was made out of him? Which sinned the most, Adam or Eve? Would there have been any distinction of master and servant in the world if Adam had not fallen? How happened it that Adam did not wake when Eve was taken out of his side? ”

“ Nature finds nothing else to offer her. Adam, after staring up and down the street without detecting a single object that his comprehension can lay hold of, finally turns his forehead to the sky. There, indeed, is something which the soul within him recognizes.
"Look up yonder, mine own Eve," he cries; "surely we ought to dwell among those gold-tinged clouds or in the blue depths beyond them. ”

“ The Lord should labour over her in a silent passion of Creation, and Adam should be tense as if in a dream of immortality, and Eve should take form glimmeringly, shadowily, as if the Lord must wrestle with His own soul for her, yet she was a radiance. ”

“ Everything is possible: everything. Listen. I am old. I am the old serpent, older than Adam, older than Eve. I remember Lilith, who came before Adam and Eve. I was her darling as I am yours. She was alone: there was no man with her. She saw death as you saw it when the fawn fell; and she knew then that she must find out how to renew herself and cast the skin like me. She had a mighty will: she strove and strove and willed and willed for more moons than there are leaves on all the trees of the garden. Her pangs were terrible: her groans drove sleep from Eden. She said it must never be again: ”

“ After Adam and Eve had been instructed in all that appertained to agriculture, Gabriel brought them a lamb and showed Adam how to slay it in the name of God, how to shear off the wool, and skin the sheep. Eve was instructed in the art of spinning and weaving by the angel, and she made of the wool, first a veil for herself, and then a shirt for her husband. ”

“ The aptness, however, of these images is not the only reason for supposing that the formation of Eve, and her marriage with Adam in paradise, were emblems of the regeneration of believers by the death of Christ, and of their eternal union with him in heaven. The singular manner in which Eve was formed, and the declaration at her marriage with Adam, 'Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh,' strongly lead to that conclusion. ”

“ For Your power can make rocks to become trees, and trees to become rocks."
Chapter LXIV - Adam and Eve partake of the first earthly food.
1 Then God looked at Adam and at his strength of mind, at his endurance of hunger and thirst, and of the heat. And He changed the two fig trees into two figs, as they were at first, and then said to Adam and to Eve, "Each of you may take one fig." And they took them, as the Lord commanded them.
2 And He said to them, "You must now go into the cave and eat the figs, and satisfy your hunger, or else you will die." ”

“ And Adam said to him, "Yes."
10 Again Satan said to Adam, "Come back with us; we are angels of God. God sent us to you, to show you another field of corn, better than that; and beyond it is a fountain of good water, and many trees, where you shall live near it, and work the corn field to better purpose than that which Satan has consumed."
11 Adam thought that he was true, and that they were angels who talked with him; and he went back with them.
12 Then Satan began to lead astray Adam and Eve eight days, until they both fell down as if dead, from hunger, thirst, and faintness. ”

“ And they were afraid.
9 Then Adam said to Eve, "See this fire of which we have a portion in us: which formerly yielded to us, but no longer does so, now that we have transgressed the limit of creation, and changed our condition, and our nature is altered. ”

“ In matters of niceness it is Eve who sets the pace. Adam is built for strength; Eve for beauty and adornment. It is natural for Eve to set the pace and for Adam to follow, in all matters of detail and niceness. Whether Adam follows with good grace or ill depends upon Eve and the serpent. If Eve is wise as the serpent in her, and harmless as the dove in her, she can lead Adam a willing captive to heaven or hell. ”

“ For man was formed of virgin soil. From Adam alone was Eve created. In Paradise virginity held sway. Indeed, Divine Scripture tells that both Adam and Eve were naked and were not ashamed [3] . But after their transgression they knew that they were naked, and in their shame they sewed aprons for themselves [4] . And when, after the transgression, Adam heard, dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return [5] , when death entered into the world by reason of the transgression, then Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bare seed [6] . ”

“ Clad in celestial panoply, the angel announces he has been sent to inform Adam that although the penalty of death is indefinitely postponed, he is no longer to inhabit Paradise, but is to go forth into the world and till the ground from whence he sprang. Horror-stricken at these tidings, Adam remains mute, and Eve, hearing the decree from a distance, wails aloud at the thought of leaving home. To comfort her, the angel bids her dry her tears and follow her husband, making her home wherever he abides. ”

“ Paradise without her would not be Paradise, and no new wife could make him forget her.
After the first exhilaration of the food was past they began to reproach each other, mindful of their destiny, of which they had been warned by Raphael, and, engaged in this fruitless chiding, they were found by the Son, who, informed of their transgression by the angels, sought them out in their place of concealment. Adam and Eve he sentenced to a life of sorrow and labor, the serpent to go despised and ever at enmity with man. ”

“ In short, when Adam and Eve came forth from the hand of their potter, they were morally in a similar condition to a new-born babe; excepting that a babe is born under the constitution of sin, and involuntarily subjected to "vanity" (Rom 3:20) ; while they first beheld the light in a state of things where evil had as yet no place. They were created in the stature of a perfect man and woman; but with their sexual feelings undeveloped; in ignorance, and without experience.
The interval between their formation and the transgression was the period of their novitiate. The Spirit of God had made them ”