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The Resurrection Promised to Adam

The Resurrection Promised to Adam

In The Life of Adam and Eve the Lord tells Adam he shall not now take of the tree assigned to the cherubim and the flaming sword that guards it on account of him, lest he taste of it and be free from death forever. He must instead have the war which the enemy has set in him. Yet after he goes out of paradise, if he keeps himself from all evil as one destined to die, God will raise him up when the resurrection comes. Then there shall be given him of the tree of life, and he shall be free from death forever.

Eve fears that on the day of the resurrection all who have sinned will curse her for failing to keep God's commandment. Seth tells a wild beast to stand off from the image of God until the day of judgment.

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Details

Category
Eschatological
Status
unfulfilled

The Prophecy

God promises Adam that if he keeps from all evil after leaving paradise he will be raised at the resurrection and receive the tree of life.

Source

The Life of Adam and Eve 14:1-10

And then He said to the archangel Michael: Go into paradise, into the third heaven, and bring me three cloths of fine li...

A1nd then He said to the archangel Michael: Go into paradise, into the third heaven, and bring me three cloths of fine linen and silk. And God said to Michael, Gabriel, Uriel, and Raphael: Cover Adam's body with the cloths, and bring olive oil of sweet odour, and pour upon him.

2 And having thus done, they prepared his body for burial. And the Lord said: Let also the body of Abel be brought. And having brought other cloths, they prepared it also for burial, since it had not been prepared for burial since the day on which his brother Cain slew him. 3 For the wicked Cain, having taken great pains to hide it, had not been able; for the earth did not receive it, saying: I will not receive a body into companionship until that dust which was taken up and fashioned upon me come to me. 4 And then the angels took it up, and laid it on the rock until his father died. And both were buried, according to the commandment of God, in the regions of paradise, in the place in which God found the dust. 5 And God sent seven angels into paradise, and they brought many sweet-smelling herbs, and laid them in the earth; and thus they took the two bodies, and buried them in the place which they had dug and built. 6 And God called Adam, and said: Adam, Adam. And the body answered out of the ground, and said: Here am I, Lord. And the Lord says to him: I said to thee, Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return. 7 Again I promise thee the resurrection. I will raise thee up in the last day in the resurrection, with every man who is of thy seed. And after these words God made a three-cornered seal, and sealed the tomb, that no one should do anything to him in the six days, until his rib should return to him. 8 And the beneficent God and the holy angels having laid him in his place, after the six days Eve also died. And while she lived she wept about her falling asleep, because she knew not where her body was to be laid. 9 For when the Lord was present in paradise when they buried Adam, both she and her children fell asleep, except Seth, as I said. And Eve, in the hour of her death, besought that she might be buried where Adam her husband was, saying thus: My Lord, Lord and God of all virtue, do not separate me, Thy servant, from the body of Adam, for of his members Thou madest me; but grant to me, even me, the unworthy and the sinner, to be buried by his body. 10 And as I was along with him in paradise, and not separated from him after the transgression, so also let no one separate us. After having prayed, therefore, she looked up into heaven, and stood up, and said, beating her breast: God of all, receive my spirit. And straightway she gave up her spirit to God.

Key Chapters

Did You Know?

1

God refused Adam the tree of life at the expulsion but promised to raise him and give it to him at the resurrection.

2

The promise carried a condition, that Adam keep himself from all evil after leaving paradise.

3

Michael told Seth that all flesh from Adam onward that is a holy people will rise and be given the delight of paradise.

4

Over Adam's body God promised to seat him on the throne of the one who deceived him.

5

At the tomb God called Adam, the body answered from the ground, and God promised to raise him on the last day with his seed.