SCHÖPFUNG UND URGESCHICHTE IM “LEBEN ADAMS UND EVAS”
CREATION AND PRIMEVAL HISTORY IN THE “LIFE OF ADAM AND EVE”

Summary/Abstract: The „Life of Adam and Eve” is a well-known ancient text dealing with the fate of the protoplasts after their expulsion from paradise. The old consensus concerning the Jewish origin of this legendary text has been challenged. Present scholarship is divided about its character. Is this a Jewish or Christian writing? Is it a coherent text at all? Is it only a collection of pious legends or is it an exegetical work? Creation and primordial history are seen here as both etiology and admonition. The work seeks answers to a number of questions: Why is human life constrained by illness and premature death, why is the relation between humankind and animals disturbed, why is the relationship between man and woman disturbed by sexual desire (which Eve cannot escape), leading to the experience of man’s dominion? On the other hand, the primordial history is also an etiology of cult: God’s mercy grants this favour in order to sustain the relation with humankind. Creation and primordial history also express an admonition to the readers to guard themselves from sin in the present life in order to obtain mercy after death.

• Details
• Contents