Part 11 (1/2)

11 O Eve, if we are further alienated from the garden and from G.o.d, where shall we find Him again, and ask Him to give us gold, incense, myrrh, and some fruit of the fig-tree?

12 Where shall we find Him, to comfort us a second time? Where shall we find Him, that He may think of us, as regards the covenant He has made on our behalf?”

13 Then Adam said no more. And they kept looking, He and Eve, towards the cave, and at the fire that flared up around it.

14 But that fire was from Satan. For he had gathered trees and dry gra.s.ses, and had carried and brought them to the cave, and had set fire to them, in order to consume the cave and what was in it.

15 So that Adam and Eve should be left in sorrow, and he should cut off their trust in G.o.d, and make them deny Him.

16 But by the mercy of G.o.d he could not burn the cave, for G.o.d sent His angel around the cave to guard it from such a fire, until it went out.

17 And this fire lasted from noon-day until the break of day. That was the forty-fifth day.

Chapter XLIV - The power of fire over man.

1 Yet Adam and Eve were standing and looking at the fire, and unable to come near the cave from their dread of the fire.

2 And Satan kept on bringing trees and throwing them into the fire, until the flames of the fire rose up on high, and covered the whole cave, thinking, as he did in his own mind, to consume the cave with much fire. But the angel of the Lord was guarding it.

3 And yet he could not curse Satan, nor injure him by word, because he had no authority over him, neither did he take to doing so with words from his mouth.

4 Therefore the angel tolerated him, without saying one bad word, until the Word of G.o.d came who said to Satan, ”Go away from here; once before you deceived My servants, and this time you seek to destroy them.

5 Were it not for My mercy I would have destroyed you and your hosts from off the earth. But I have had patience with you, until the end of the world.”

6 Then Satan fled from before the Lord. But the fire went on burning around the cave like a coal-fire the whole day; which was the forty-sixth day Adam and Eve had spent since they came out of the garden.

7 And when Adam and Eve saw that the heat of the fire had somewhat cooled down, they began to walk towards the cave to get into it as they usually did; but they could not, by reason of the heat of the fire.

8 Then they both began crying because of the fire that separated them from the cave, and that came towards them, burning. 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. But the fire is not changed in its nature, nor altered from its creation. Therefore it now has power over us; and when we come near it, it scorches our flesh.”

Chapter XLV - Why Satan didn't fulfil his promises. Description of h.e.l.l.

1 Then Adam rose and prayed to G.o.d, saying, ”See, this fire has separated us from the cave in which You have commanded us to live; but now, behold, we cannot go into it.”

2 Then G.o.d heard Adam, and sent him His Word, that said:--

3 ”O Adam, see this fire! How different the flame and heat thereof are from the garden of delights and the good things in it!

4 When you were under My control, all creatures yielded to you; but after you have transgressed My commandment, they all rise over you.”