In the beginning the Lord set the heaven and the earth in place; for the earth was formless and hidden by the flood, and the boundless God moved over the vast waters, while chaos and black darkness obscured all things. When he bade these be sundered from their pole, he says: 'Let there be light,' and all things gleamed in the bright world. When the Lord had completed the works of the first day, he founded the sky, whitening with nascent clouds; the boundless sea receives the wandering shores, snatching up the manifold rivers with its mighty currents. The third light uncovered the tawny face of the lands, and soon the dry part is called by the name given it, 'earth'; flowery shoots rise up in the windy fields, and the fruit-bearing boughs at once bend down their arms. On the fourth day he generates the moon along with the lamp of the sun, and fashions the stars, radiant with tremulous light:
He gave these elements as marks to the world set beneath them, marks that should teach the seasons to be changed through their varied risings. On the fifth day the flowing rivers receive the fish, and the varied birds suspend their wings in the air. On the sixth the Father makes the cold serpents glide into their coils and spreads whole herds of quadrupeds over the fields, and bade all things to grow everywhere with manifold seed and to wander and feed on the boundless lands. When the divine power had established these by its command, seeing that a ruler was lacking for the things of the world, he records these words: 'Let us make man like our own countenance to the very fingernail, who shall reign over the whole world.' And although he could have composed him with a single word, yet he himself, deigning to shape him with his holy right hand, breathes into the lifeless breast a spirit from his divine heart.
After he had seen him formed in an image like his own, he judges that the man, being alone, is turning over biting cares. At once he pours over his eyes a watering sleep, that a woman might be more softly formed from the plucked rib, and that his frame might strengthen its substance by a twofold mingling. And the name of life is given her, which is called Eve. Wherefore sons, by custom, leave their parents and cling to their wives with fixed abodes. On the seventh light God rested from the accomplishment of his works, establishing it as hallowed for the joys of the age to come. At once, the throngs of living creatures being brought forth in order, Adam, skillful by the prudence granted him, sets upon each one by one the name that abides. And God deigns to join Eve also to him in converse:
'Increase with manifold offspring for the times to come, that the pole and the earth may be full of your seed; and, my heirs, pluck the varied fruits which the groves and the fields yield from the rich turf.' When he had said these things, the joyful paradise is arrayed in its hall and looks upon the light of the first sun. Among these is born the tree with deadly fruits, generating a joined savor of life and death. In the midst of the dwelling a river flows in a pure stream, which waters the notable gardens with its clear waves and cuts fourfold channels from its surging spring. Pishon, exceedingly rich, flows with gold-bearing waves and rubs conspicuous gems from its hoarse gulf: to one the name is prase, to another the burning carbuncle; and, clear in its shallows, it laps the land of Havilah.
After this, Gihon, gliding down, enriches the Ethiopians. The third is Tigris, joined to the pleasant Euphrates, furrowing Assyria separately with its swift stream. Here Adam is set as guardian with his faithful wife, and the craftsman is instructed by such a voice of the Thunderer: 'Do not fear together to pluck beforehand the lawful fruits which the unshorn grove has created on its leafy branch, only be anxious lest perhaps you gather the harmful evil, which grows green with a twofold juice, set apart for distinct functions.' Nor meanwhile any the less did deep night hold them, still blind, and no garment had yet covered their newly-formed limbs. Among these seats and the gardens with their mellow berries, the foaming serpent, surpassing the animals in cunning sense, was creeping silently with cold coils, rolling livid lies with biting sense, and tries the soft heart beneath the woman's breast:
'Tell me, why do you fear the fruitful shoots of the tree of evil? Has not God made known and consecrated all the fruits? If from these you would strive to pluck the honeyed nourishment, the golden world will return upon its star-bearing pole.' She refuses and fears to touch the forbidden branches; but yet her heart is overcome by weak sense. At once, when she now bit the mellow fruit with her snow-white tooth, the sky, stained by no cloud, shone forth clear. Then the savor, planting an enticement in her honeyed throat, compelled her to bring the gift to her husband, unaccustomed to it. As soon as he took it, with night wiped away, their gleaming eyes flashed clear as the world shone bright. Therefore, when each beheld the naked body, and when they see their shameful parts, they shade them with fig leaves. By chance, now beneath the setting light of the Lord's sun, they recognize a sound and, trembling, make for the byways.
Then the Lord of heaven addresses the sorrowful Adam: 'Say, where do you now dwell?' As a suppliant he answers thus: 'O Lord, at your address I tremble beneath a fearful heart; O Great One, naked, I am wearied by chilling fear.' Then the Lord: 'Who gave you the harmful fruits?' The woman handed these over — while he says that his eyes, readily suffused with the glowing day, [beheld that] the clear sky and the sun and the stars of heaven had shone upon him. Straightway the wrath of God terrifies the troubled Eve, while the Most High seeks the author of the forbidden deed. She discloses in reply: 'Persuaded by the speaking serpent, I received it through deceiving guile and coaxing entreaty; for, weaving his words with viperous poisons, he told me that these were sweet above all fruits.' At once the Almighty condemns the deeds of the dragon, commanding all to look upon the hateful monster with loathing:
[The serpent is doomed] soon to creep with breast laid flat, and then to chew only earth with its bite; with a war destined to endure for all time between it and human feeling, it too gliding along, so that, with head cast down, it might creep prone behind the legs of men, and be trodden underfoot even while, in its slithering, it presses hard at close quarters. The woman, wretchedly deceived by fraud-bearing persuasions, is sentenced in harsh judgment to bring forth her offspring in pain, and to endure servitude in devotion to her husband. But you, to whom your wife's counsel seemed true — she who, conquered, yielded to the pitiless dragon — you shall bewail your wretched toil through long ages:
For instead of the seed of wheat there shall rise up for you the thistle and the buckthorn with many sharp spines, so that with weary flesh and a mournful breast your anxious sustenance may yield you many a sigh, until, at the westering hour of coming death, you be given back to the earth on which you lie, whence you bear your body. When these things are done, the Lord gives to the trembling pair weariness of life, and drives them far off, cast out from the hallowed gardens, and sets them with faces turned away, and thrusts them out amid the fire, in which the Cherub is whirled with swift-rushing blaze, while the hot point seethes and rolls its flames. And the Lord, lest their limbs grow stiff with sluggish cold, sewed together skins torn from the flesh of beasts, covering their naked limbs with warm garments.
So when faithful Adam now felt himself to be a husband in wedlock, he gave to his wife the name of the beloved mother [Eve, mother of the living]. Made straightway the father of two by his seed, he named them with differing origins. And this one bears the name Cain, and joined with him is Abel: the one with much care kept the harmless sheep, while the other turned the earth with the curved plough. When these two kept bringing their gifts to the Thunderer, they offered dissimilar fruits at the prompting of their disposition. For the first offered what had been sown in the fertile clods; but the other devoted himself with a gentle lamb, bearing the pure offering in his hand and the snow-white fat. And at once it pleases the Lord who watches over pious vows. On this account Cain glowed hot with icy wrath. And God, deigning to address him, begins with these words:
Tell me, if you were to live rightly and discern what is harmful, could you not live pure, free from the guilt you have contracted? Cease to destroy your brother with a biting mind — he who, subject to you as to a lord, will offer his neck. Yet not broken by these words, he leads his brother off to the fields; and when he saw him caught alone in the deserted grass, he crushes the innocent throat, cheating him with both his hands. This deed the Lord, watching from heaven on high, inquires: where on earth does Abel dwell? He denies that he was set to be his brother's keeper. To him God declares: does not the voice of his blood, sent up to me, cry out and ascend to the lofty vault? Know, then, what abides for you in return for so great a crime:
For now the earth, which has been drenched with your brother's blood, being cursed, shall refuse to you the seed entrusted to it, and, hateful, with the herbs consumed shall bring forth no fruit; so that you, numb, striking your limbs together with much trembling . . . [the text breaks off here]