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The struggle between the ‘image of God’ and Satan in the Greek Life of Adam and Eve

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2008

Rivka Nir
Rivka Nir*
Affiliation:
Open University of Israel, 108 Ravutski Street, PO Box 808, Raanana 43107, Israelrivkani@openu.ac.il
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Abstract

According to a tradition in the Greek Life of Adam and Eve (GLAE), Seth and his mother Eve were confronted by a wild beast that attacked Seth. This article asserts that Seth's battle with the beast should be understood as a struggle between the ‘image of God’ and Satan, and viewed in a Christian context. The claim is based on three aspects of the story: how the beast is described, why it attacked Seth and only he could control it, and why the beast was confined to its dwelling place until the Day of Judgement. The struggle between Seth and the beast/Satan should be seen as a link in the chain of struggle between the image of God and Satan. It begins in Paradise between Adam, the image of God, and Satan, as recounted in the story of Satan's fall from heaven, continues on earth between Seth, Adam's descendant, and Satan, and will culminate with the final victory of Jesus, the ultimate image of God, over Satan at the end of times.

Type
Research Article
Information
Scottish Journal of Theology , Volume 61 , Issue 3 , August 2008 , pp. 327 - 339
Copyright
Copyright © Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 2008

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References

1 Johnson, M. D., ‘Life of Adam and Eve’, in Charlesworth, J. H. (ed.), The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, vol. 2 (New York: Doubleday, 1985), pp. 273–5Google Scholar. For a critical text, see Tromp, J., The Life of Adam and Eve in Greek (Leiden: Brill, 2005), pp. 132–4Google Scholar. See also Levison, J. R., Texts in Transition (Atlanta, GA: Society of Biblical Literature, 2000), pp. 58–61Google Scholar.

2 This rebellion of the animals is mentioned clearly in GLAE, 24:4; in the Slavonic version, the beast declares that its intention was not simply to harm Seth, but to destroy Eve and all her children (11–15). The rebellion is a clear symbol of the loss of Edenic life; see The Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch, 73:5, which describes the future Paradise where the animals will again be subjugated to humans. Anderson, G. A., ‘The Penitence Narrative in the Life of Adam and Eve’, Hebrew Union College Annual (HUCA) 63 (1992), p. 30Google Scholar; Bertrand, D.A., La Vie Grecque d'Adam et Eve (Paris: Librairie Adrien Maisonneuve, 1987), p. 24Google Scholar; Ginzberg, L., The Legends of the Jews (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1908–38), p. 201Google Scholar; Jonge, M. de and Tromp, J., The Life of Adam and Eve and Related Literature (Sheffield: Academic Press, 1997), p. 54Google Scholar.

3 Anderson, ‘Penitence Narrative’, pp. 34–5.

4 Ibid., p. 34; Johnson, ‘Life of Adam and Eve’, p. 274, n. 39.

5 See also J. P. Mahé, ‘Le Livre d'Adam Georgien’, in R. Van den Broek & M.J. Vermasern (eds), Studies in Gnosticism and Hellenistic Religions (Leiden: Brill, 1981), p. 242: ‘Cette bête ne peut être, evidement, qu'un serpent’.

6 Thus the Slavonic recension: 11:5.

7 On the basis of the identification of the in Dan. 11:31 with the Antichrist: Mark 13:14; Matt. 24:15; 2 Thess. 2:4–12. On the similarities of wording and content, see Charles, R.H., The Revelation of St. John (International Critical Commentary 1; Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1920), p. 345Google Scholar. Collins, A. Y., The Myth in the Book of Revelation (Missoula, MT: Scholars Press, 1976), p. 162Google Scholar; Aune, D. E., Revelation 6–16 (Word Biblical Commentary 52B; Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publication, 1998), pp. 743–6Google Scholar.

8 Irenaeus, Adv. Haer. (5.28.2) who compares 2 Thess. 2:10. with Apoc. 13:5. Swete, H. B., The Apocalypse of St John (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1968), pp. 161–5Google Scholar. See also Ephraem des Syrers, Hymnen de Pharadiso 13.5 (Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium, Scriptores Syri, 78; Louvain: Secrétariat du Corpus SCO, 1957), p. 55: Satan, who seduced Adam, is described as a beast: ‘David wept for Adam at how he fell from the royal abode to that abode of wild animals. Because he went astray through a beast he became like the beasts’ (אתויחל הימד אוה אעט אתויחבד) On this identification see: Lichtenberger, H., ‘The Down-Throw of the Dragon in Revelation 12 and the Down-Fall of God's Enemy’, in Auffarh, C. and Stuckenbruck, L. (eds), The Fall of the Angels (Leiden and Boston, MA: Brill, 2004), pp. 119–47Google Scholar.

9 is a designation for the Devil: Matt. 13:39; Piñero, A., ‘Angels and Demons in the Greek Life of Adam and Eve’, Journal for the Study of Judaism (JSJ) 24 (1993), p. 203Google Scholar; Johnson, ‘Life of Adam and Eve’, p. 274, n. 39: Eve's words to the beast, as well as its identification as a serpent, reveal that the Latin text views the beast as Satan; Anderson, ‘Penitence Narrative’, pp. 25–34.

10 See Anderson, G. A. and Stone, M. (eds), A Synopsis of the Books of Adam and Eve (Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press, 1999), 43EGoogle Scholar.

11 It is agreed that the GLAE, represented by manuscripts DSV (K) PGB, was the foundation of all subsequent development of the writing in its various recensions. The extant GLAE represents the oldest traceable stage of this process, accounting for all other versions. See de Jonge and Tromp, Adam and Eve, p. 30. The Armenian–Georgian versions are seen as the first stage in the development of this tradition and predate the Latin recension. See Jonge, M. de, ‘The Literary Development of the Life of Adam and Eve’, in Anderson, G. A., Stone, M. and Tromp, J. (eds), Literature on Adam and Eve (Leiden: Brill, 2000), p. 246Google Scholar; Anderson, ‘Penitence Narrative’, pp. 3, 34, n. 60. In contrast, Piñero (‘Angels and Demons’, p. 192) maintains that the Latin recension is the oldest of the other major recensions: Slavonic, Armenian, and Georgian.

12 Tromp, J., ‘The Story of our Lives: The qz-Text of the Greek Life of Adam and Eve, the Apostle Paul, and the Jewish-Christian Oral Tradition concerning Adam and Eve’, New Testament Studies 50 (2004), pp. 218–23CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Tromp, Life of Adam and Eve in Greek, pp. 67–70.

13 See below.

14 Jonge, M. de, ‘The Christian Origin of the Life of Adam and Eve’, in Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament as Part of Christian Literature (Leiden: Brill, 2003), p. 181Google Scholar; idem, ‘The Christian Origin of the Greek Life of Adam and Eve’, in Literature on Adam and Eve, p. 347.

15 Bertrand, La Vie Grecque, p. 59.

16 In the Armenian version, Adam is even referred to as God: ‘Come bow down to god whom I made’. Anderson and Stone, Synopsis of the Books of Adam and Eve, 16E.

17 This story, based on Isa. 14:12–15, appears in numerous Christian and apocalyptic texts: see e.g. 2 Enoch 11:73–5, 29:4, 31:3. On the tradition in 2 Enoch, see Stone, M.E., ‘The Fall of Satan and Adam's Penance: Three Notes on the Books of Adam and Eve’, Journal of Theological Studies 44 (1993), pp. 146–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Rev. 12:9; Gospel of Bartholomew 4:51–60 in James, M. R., Apocryphal New Testament (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963), pp. 178–9Google Scholar; Tertullian, De paenitentia 5.7; Irenaeus, Adv. Haer. 4.40.3: ‘Because the (bad) angel is an apostate and enemy of the Lord, since he was envious of man’ (plasma dei); ‘The Son of Zebede’, in Wright, W., Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles (Amsterdam: Philo Press, 1968), p. 13Google Scholar; Budge, E. A. Wallis, The Book of the Cave of Treasures (London: Religious Tract Society, 1927), pp. 55–6Google Scholar; Anderson, G. A., ‘Ezekiel 28, the Fall of Satan, and the Adam Books’, in Anderson, et al. , Literature on Adam and Eve, p. 141Google Scholar; idem, ‘The Exaltation of Adam and the Fall of Satan’, ibid., pp. 83–5; Aune, Revelation, pp. 6–16, 695–6. Altmann, A. (‘The Gnostic Background of the Rabbinic Adam Legends’, Jewish Quarterly Review 35 (1945), pp. 371–9)CrossRefGoogle Scholar argued for the Gnostic origin of this tradition. See indeed the Gnostic tone of Satan's words in the LLAE 15:3: ‘I will place my seat above the stars of heaven and I will be like the most High’. In the Armenian version Adam is referred to as God: ‘Come bow down to god whom I made’. An exegetical Gnostic and anti-Jewish line, recorded by Irenaeus, also ascribes to the Demiurge a strong feeling of envy towards the first man because he was made as a likeness of God and contained a spirit of which the Demiurge was deprived. See Irenaeus, Adv. Haer. 1.30.6–7.

18 See on this tradition Stone, ‘Fall of Satan and Adam's Penance’, pp. 153–6.

19 De Jonge, ‘Literary Development of Life of Adam and Eve’, p. 245; Tromp, ‘Story of our Lives’, p. 220; Aune, Revelation, p. 696.

20 Daniélou, J., The Bible and the Liturgy (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1956), pp. 23–4Google Scholar.

21 Cyril of Jerusalem, Procatechesis, 16 (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers 7; Peabody, MA: Hendrikson, 1995), p. 5.

22 The Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicitas 4, in The Acts of the Christian Martyrs, tr. H. Musurillo (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972), pp. 110–11.

23 Athanase d'Alexandrie, Vie d'Antoine, 66, tr. G. J. M. Bartelink (Source Chrétiennes 400; Paris: Les Éditions du Cerf, 1994), pp. 308–9.

24 Manns, F., ‘Le symbolism du jardin dans le récit de la Passion selon St. Jean’, Liber Annus 37 (1987), pp. 74–5Google Scholar.

25 For Judas as a symbol of Satan, see ‘The Act of Judas Thomas’, in Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles, p. 172.

26 Kee, H. C., ‘Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs’, in Charlesworth, J. H (ed.), The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, vol. 1, p. 795Google Scholar; Manns, ‘Le symbolism du jardin’, p. 75: Jésus comme le prêtre-sauveur du Testament de Lévi 18 ouvre les portes du jardin et enchaine Béliar qui est entré en Judas.

27 Stanley, D. M. and Robinson, B. P., in Brown, R.E., The Gospel According to John (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1970), p. 806Google Scholar.

28 According to the Georgian version, it was not Seth who was attacked, but one of Eve's descendants. But this does not correspond with the beast's words to Seth at the end of this tradition: ‘Alors aussi la bête dit à Seth: Voici donc que je m'écarte de toi, l'image de Dieu, l'éclat éblouissant de Dieu’ (Mahé, p. 243). In my opinion, this change from the overall tradition and its meaning points to the Georgian version's effort to retain Seth as a real image of God who cannot be wounded by a beast.

29 Rom. 8:29; 1 Cor. 11:7, 15:49; 2 Cor. 3:18, 4:4; Col. 3:10.

30 The Armenian Commentary on Genesis, attributed to Ephrem the Syrian, tr. E. G. Mathews (Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium 573, Scriptores Armeniaci 24; Louvain: Aedibus Peeters, 1998), p. 58; idem, Hymns on the Nativity 1.41, 48 (Éphrem de Nisibe, Hymnes sur la Nativité (Sources Chréiennes 459; Paris: Les Éditions du Cerf, 2001), pp. 37, 38; ‘History of the Fathers, 28’, in Stone, M. E., Armenian Apocrypha Related to Adam and Eve (Leiden: Brill, 1996), p. 194Google Scholar.

31 Levison, J. R., Portraits of Adam in Early Judaism (Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1988), p. 167Google Scholar.

32 Bertrand, La Vie Grecque, p. 55.

33 This is the serpent that deceived Eve: Swete, Apocalypse of St John, p. 149; Harvey, A. E., A Companion to the New Testament (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), p. 813CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

34 The ‘man child’ is Christ: Swete, Apocalypse of St John, p. 151.

35 See Lichtenberger, ‘Down-Throw of the Dragon’, pp. 119–21

36 Anderson, ‘Penitence Narrative’, pp. 34–5.

37 The apocalyptic literature includes ample descriptions of the Day of Judgement, such as in LLAE 47:2–3, 49; 2 Baruch 24:1, 25:1, 30; 1 Enoch 18:15–16, 19.

38 1 Enoch 10:6, 41:1–2, 55:3–56:4; 2 Enoch 7:1–3, 18:7. See Russell, D. S., The Method and Message of Jewish Apocalyptic (London: SCM Press, 1964), pp. 379–85Google Scholar.

39 See Tromp, J., ‘Literary and Exegetical Issues in the Story of Adam's Death and Burial (GLAE 31–42)’, in Frishman, J. and Rompay, L. Van (eds), The Book of Genesis in Jewish and Oriental Christian Interpretation (Louvain: A. Peeters, 1997), p. 33Google Scholar, in reference to the Day of Judgement in GLAE 37:5 and the day of resurrection in 10:2.

40 Mahé, ‘Livre d'Adam Georgien’, p. 243. On the priority of the Georgian version over the Latin, see Anderson, ‘Penitence Narrative’, pp. 1–3; De Jonge, ‘Christian Origin of Life of Adam and Eve’, pp. 182–3.

41 The Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch, 29:3–4; see also 4 Ezra 6:49–52; 1 Enoch 60:7–9, 24–5, 62:7–16. On the entire topic, see Nir, R., The Destruction of Jerusalem and the Idea of Redemption in the Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch (Atlanta, GA: Society of Biblical Literature, 2003), pp. 133–7Google Scholar.

42 Piñero, ‘Angels and Demons’, p. 210. See also Ignatius of Antioch, ad Phil. 11:3; Gospel of Bartholomew 4:37–44; James, Apocryphal New Testament, pp. 176–7.

43 Tromp, ‘Story of our Lives’, p. 218; idem, Life of Adam and Eve in Greek, p. 67.

44 The Epistle of Barnabas, 6:12: ‘For it is concerning us that the scripture says that he says to the Son “Let us make man after our image and likeness, and let them rule the beasts of the earth”’.

45 Tromp, ‘Story of our Lives’, p. 216.