Testament of Adam

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The Testament of Adam is a Christian pseudepigraphical text in three sections. No major denominations of Christianity accept any part of the text as canon.

I read this book to become more familiar with the Christian pseudepigrapha. To me, it appears to be the work of an early Christian altering an existing ancient manuscript to try and convince Jews to become Christians.

Authorship and Dating

The manuscript implies that it was written by Adam, which, if he existed, would make the work several thousand years old, but there is no historical evidence to suggest this.

Because the first two sections of the text appear to be in harmony with Jewish theology, but the third is overtly Christian, historians have suggested the text might have been written by three different authors, the first two possibly Jewish, the third a Christian committing pious fraud.

The oldest portions may have been written anywhere from 100-300 CE, but the Christian portion probably wasn't written until after 300 CE because it mentions Christian ideals that weren't established until Christianity was a couple centuries old. The version we read today is assumed to have been written around 550 CE, but the oldest surviving manuscript is dated to around 850 CE. The original language is still unknown, but historians suggest that the 550 CE version was Syrian.

Content

In the first two sections, Adam describes how everything worships Yahweh. In the third section, the author shamelessly injects Christianity into Judaism. Yahweh tells Adam that he will one day be born through Adam as a human child through the virgin Mary, get baptized, perform assorted miracles, get crucified, and finally forgive Adam. He even mentions the Holy Ghost and several other non-canonical topics. It ends with Yahweh warning Seth about the impending flood.

Review

Good

  • Nothing.

Bad

  • Most of the text describes how all manner of living things, celestial beings, and even some non-living things like fire and water, worship Yahweh in turn.
  • The text includes the same magical understanding of medicine as other ancient books. Disease are thought to be cured, not by a god revealing a recipe for medicine, but by holy ointments and magic water.
  • The author claims that the use of a 24-hour day, and dividing it into two 12-hour halves, is not the result of a human culture, but of Yahweh himself!
  • In the text, Yahweh warns Seth that he's going to destroy the earth in a flood, but this is pointless because Seth dies before the flood, and Yahweh tells Noah anyway.
  • Several new aspects of the Adam and Eve tale are added in this story including a daughter of Adam and Eve named Lûd (different than the Book of Jubilees), some unmentioned crime between Cain and Lûd, and personal seals of Adam, Eve, and Seth which they had in the Garden of Eden. Amazingly, they had personal seals even though nobody else existed, and letter writing hadn't been invented yet!

Ugly

  • The text not only fraudulently claims to be the work of Adam, but specifically foretells the messiah being born of a virgin named Mary and performing various miracles. Of course, the miracle birth itself is probably the result of a mistranslation.
  • In the text, Yahweh explains that, in five and a half days, he will be born like a child through Adam, and he will happily be baptized and executed on a cross, and only then will Yahweh show Adam mercy and compassion. Of course, none of this was mentioned anywhere in the Book of Genesis or any other book prior to the first century CE.

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