Book of the Cave of Treasures

About the Author

The author of the Book of the Cave of Treasures is ultimately unknown. Traditionally, the Syriac Church and other Eastern churches attributed it to Ephraem the Syrian, as he is the author named in the preface to the work. Ephraem was a fourth-century theologian and hymnist who wrote in the Syriac language. Born in 306 CE, Ephraem died in 373; thus, if he was the author of the Book of the Cave of Treasures, it is a fourth-century work. However, when the text was studied in the nineteenth century, scholars such as E. A. Wallis Budge concluded that it owed too much to similar texts (such as the Book of Adam and Eve) to have appeared before the sixth century. Although it is unlikely that Ephraem himself is the author of the Book of the Cave of Treasures, it was originally written in his language of Syriac, and experts such as Budge have asserted that in invoking the name of this well-known Syriac thinker and writer, the true author may have wished to express a continuity and solidarity with his earlier, illustrious coreligionist.