Book of the Cave of Treasures

Explanation and Analysis of the Document

This initial section of the Book of the Cave of Treasures, the first of six, details the history of earth from its creation to the death of Yared (Jared), understood as the first thousand years of the earth’s history. This section introduces several key concepts that appear throughout the text, including the Creation and Fall of humanity, the exile of Cain, and the nature and purpose of the Cave of Treasures.

Bracketing in the document text indicates items for which the translator could find no direct translation or terms that needed clarification for the reader. The translator’s rewording is placed in brackets to make the reader aware that the bracketed phrase is not a direct translation but a paraphrase to enhance reading.

The Title of the Work: The Scribe’s Prayer

Although this document is commonly referred to as the Book of the Cave of Treasures, the brief preface provides a much more descriptive title, the “Book of the Succession of the Generations.” This may indeed be a better title, as the contents of the book are focused much more on the description of the generations leading to the birth of Christ than they are on the actual contents of the treasure cave or the activities that may have taken place there. The preface also asserts the traditional authorship of Saint Mar Aphrem, or Ephraem the Syrian, an assertion now considered spurious by scholars.

The Creation. First Day.

This opening section of the text details the Christian version of the first day of Creation in more detail than the better-known account in Genesis. In particular, several examples of later Christian theology appear in this section. God is said to have created the foundations of existence and then the “hosts which are invisible”—the hierarchy of heavenly beings—as well as light, day, and night.

The Christian concept of the triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—appears next, with the “Spirit of holiness” hovering over the waters of the earth, providing the blessing that enabled the earth to warm and produce life. The author describes this activity as similar to the nurturing of baby birds by their mother. The text indicates that this life-giving essence was “united to the waters,” acknowledging the life-giving nature of water and imbuing it with a theological purpose. The author uses the term “Paraclete,” a Koine Greek word meaning “advocate,” in reference to the Spirit. This term does not appear in the Hebrew Old Testament; it does appear in the New Testament, but only in the writings of Saint John.

The Creation. Second Day.

This section details the creation of the “Lower Heaven,” or the sky, and explains the layers of Heaven, where the uppermost level is of fire and the second is of light. The lower sky is described as dense with water and dark clouds, which are motionless in the sky. In the Genesis account of Creation, much less detail about the nature of the heavens appears. The motionless cloud of water that hangs in the sky will burst forth with water, being one of the sources of the Great Flood, which the Book of the Cave of Treasures discusses in a later section. Thus, the extended discussion of the location and nature of the water stored in the sky may represent a foreshadowing of the Flood.

The Creation. Third Day.

On the third day, God separates the waters of the earth into one location, exposing the land below and giving the earth a dry surface. This surface is, however, fairly moist and soft. The author explains how the waters are pooled not only on the surface but also beneath it, reaching the surface of the earth through a system of tunnels. Like the waters held above in the sky, these collected subsurface waters will rise to cause the Great Flood later in the story of humanity. As with the account of the second day, this appears to be an instance of foreshadowing. The tunnels also provide passage for currents of air, allowing wind to reach the surface of the earth and produce hot and cold weather.

The Creation. Fourth Day

As with the previous days of Creation, the author here makes an effort to explain details omitted from earlier accounts. In this case, the author uses the creation of the sun, moon, and stars to explain the presence of hard, dry ground in view of the previous section’s description of moist, soft ground. In keeping with the previous days’ accounts, the author offers much more detail than is found in the more familiar Genesis story; contrary to the foreshadowing of the Great Flood, there is no apparent theological reason for the extended description here. The appearance of the sun draws the moisture out of the ground, hardening it. God gives the stars and moon water and air and then lights them. Picking up another lead from the third day, the heat of the sun causes the “conceived” plants and trees to sprout and grow.

The Creation. Fifth Day.

In this section, sea creatures appear, as God commands the oceans to produce fish, water serpents, and Leviathan—a sea monster that appears prominently in the book of Job in the Hebrew Bible. Sea monsters such as Leviathan and stories about them were popular in ancient Near Eastern mythology, with appearances dating back to ancient Sumeria. Additionally, on this day, God creates birds, serpents, cattle, and wild animals.

The Creation. Sixth and Seventh Days.

The author’s description of the sixth and seventh days is brief. On the sixth day God created Adam from the dust of the earth and Eve out of Adam’s rib. This brief mention of the creation of humanity followed by a more detailed description mirrors the account in Genesis. Thus, the author of the Book of the Cave of Treasures is not only recounting the story of the Hebrew Bible but is also carefully echoing the structure and style of the original. The use of the term Sabbath to refer to the seventh day of the week is a variation on the account in Genesis 2:3, which states “And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.”

The Creation of Adam.

God made Adam on the sixth day of creation, during the first hour of the day. As in earlier sections of the Book of the Cave of Treasures, here the author incorporates into the Creation story aspects of first-millennium doctrine and thought that were not present in the Genesis account. God’s words “let Us make man in Our image, and according to Our likeness” echo the more familiar account of Genesis 1:26. The author of this book, however, explains the use of the plural pronoun as a means by which God makes known the presence of the Trinity. The angels hear God’s announcement about the creation of the human being and are awed with the magnitude of the miracle.

The author explains that God formed a living being from inert elements in order to demonstrate that all of creation is under his control. As Adam rises, he stands on the exact spot where the cross of Jesus’s Crucifixion is to be planted millennia later in Jerusalem. God makes Adam “king, and priest, and prophet,” giving him control over everything that is created.

The Revolt of Satan, and the Battle in Heaven.

On the sixth day, one of the lower-order angels is envious of the adoration shown to Adam and does not wish to participate in the veneration. The rebellious angel divorces himself from the presence of God and, along with followers, is stripped of his celestial glory. This fallen angel is given the name Satana, or Satan. The motif of Satan undergoing a “fall” from Heaven does not appear in the Genesis account but is referred to in the Hebrew books of Isaiah and Ezekiel as well as the New Testament book of Luke. As Satan is exiled from Heaven, Adam ascends on a chariot of fire. Entering Heaven, Adam is commanded by God not to eat of “a [certain] tree.” Unlike in the Genesis account, no explanation is given here as to the nature of the forbidden tree.

The Making of Eve.

While Adam is in the heavenly Paradise, God puts him to sleep. Using a rib removed from Adam’s right side, God creates Eve, introduced here as Khawa. The new couple spend three hours in Paradise, which, according to the author, is located on a high mountain encompassing the earth. The author refers to the Hebrew Bible, noting that, according to Moses, Adam is then moved to Eden.

The Symbolism of Eden.

At this point, the author of the Book of the Cave of Treasures pauses the narrative to explicate the meaning of Eden and its relevance to the reader. Eden, the author explains, is a metaphor for the church, which is an expression of God’s mercy and compassion. The author cites several examples from the Hebrew Bible that illustrate God’s compassion. Knowing that Satan has plans for the downfall of humanity, God also develops a plan to save humanity. Adam, the first man, as priest, king, and prophet will minister God’s redemption to humankind. Additionally, the author explains that the Tree of Life, which existed in Paradise, served to foreshadow the cross of Christ’s Crucifixion. In this way, the author is explicitly illustrating a connection between Eden and Calvary (the Christian name for the site of the Crucifixion).

Satan’s Attack on Adam and Eve.

Satan persuades Eve with “lying words” and, although the author does not relate Satan’s message to Eve, they persuade her to eat the fruit of the forbidden tree. Another variation on the more familiar Genesis account is the attribution of Eve’s eating of the fruit to her “soft” nature as a woman.

Adam’s Stay in Paradise.

In the ninth hour of the sixth day, God exiles Adam and Eve from Paradise. At the same time, God provides encouragement to Adam, explaining that the son of God will one day descend to earth in human form in order to redeem Adam and all humankind. God also explains that Adam and Eve’s descendants must embalm Adam’s body after his death “with myrrh, cassia, and stakte” and entomb it within a cave but later move it to a spot “in the centre of the earth.” These embalming materials are mentioned in various places in the Hebrew Bible, such as Psalm 45. In nonbiblical literature, the Greek historian Herodotus reports that many peoples of the Near East, including the Egyptians, used myrrh, a gum resin derived from a tree, and cassia, dried cinnamon bark, in their embalming methods. The author is thus familiar with the traditional burial techniques of the time and region. The spot at the earth’s center, to be shown to humanity at a future time, will be the location at which humanity’s redemption will occur. God also relates to Adam “everything which the Son would suffer on behalf of him.”

Adam’s Expulsion from Paradise.

The gold, frankincense, and myrrh used by Adam to consecrate his and Eve’s cave are the same as the gifts given by the three Magi to the infant Jesus in the New Testament. These materials, particularly the gold and frankincense, an aromatic resin, were materials strongly identified with royalty in the ancient Near East. Thus, where in the nativity story their presence is an indicator of the kingship of the infant Jesus, here they are used to illustrate the connections between Adam and Jesus, the former foreshadowing the latter. This is the Cave of Treasures, which will serve as a center of worship for Adam and his descendants.

Adam and Eve have sex for the first time—according to margin notes in the original manuscript, this may have been thirty years after their expulsion—and Eve subsequently bears twins: Cain, a boy, and Lebhudha, a girl. Later, the boy Abel and his twin sister, Kelimath, are born. Adam intends for his two sons to marry each other’s twin sisters, but Cain objects, wishing to marry his own twin. Adam forbids such a marriage and commands his sons to make a sacrifice in the Cave of Treasures and start their married lives. But Satan “entered into” Cain and persuades him to kill his brother and take Lebhudha for himself. Cain’s jealousy of Abel grows when Abel’s sacrifice to God is accepted, while Cain’s is not. Cain kills his brother with a piece of flint and is exiled to the “forest of Nodh” with his twin sister/wife. This account is significantly different from the Genesis account, but it is not unique. The romantic motivation for Cain’s murder of Abel is also described in Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan, an apocryphal work dating from the same time period as the Book of the Cave of Treasures. This story involving twin sisters of Cain and Abel also appears in the Jewish rabbinical literature as well as in some Islamic folklore. There is currently no way to know which works might have influenced the others. As for the reasons for the expanded story in the Book of the Cave of Treasures and these other works, scholars can only speculate. One aspect that this version illuminates is the source of the first marriages in human history. Although the Genesis myth implies that Cain would have to marry a sister to carry on his line, these apocryphal sources make it more explicit.

The Birth of Seth.—The Posterity of Seth.

After a century of grief, Adam and Eve have a third son, Seth. Seth becomes “the father of the mighty men who lived before the Flood.” Seth’s son, Anosh; grandson, Kainan; and great-grandson, Mahlalail, become the first great patriarchs.

The Death of Adam.

Adam dies at the age of 930. Genesis 4 mentions that Adam dies at this age but provides no details of his last days. The Book of the Cave of Treasures gives much more detail, providing a template for the subsequent sections. Before his death, he calls Seth, Anosh, Kainan, and Mahlalail to him and gives them the instructions for his burial, handed down by God when Adam was in Paradise.

The author points out that Adam dies on the exact date and at the exact time that “the Son of Man” would later die on the Cross. Like the presence of the gold, frankincense, and myrrh, this is another example of the author’s drawing obvious parallels between Adam and Jesus. It also demonstrates the common narrative thread stretching from the earliest days of humanity to the days of Christ and his disciples.

The Burial of Adam.

The account in Genesis 4 does not discuss Adam’s burial, but Jewish tradition states that both Adam and Eve were buried in the Cave of the Patriarchs. Here, Seth embalms Adam according to the instructions; after 140 days of mourning, his body is taken to the Cave of Treasures and buried. At this time, the followers of Seth separate themselves from Cain and his descendants, as ordered by Adam. Seth and his people live on the “glorious mountain,” while Cain and his people live on the plain.

The Rule of Seth.—The Rule of Anosh.— The Rule of Kainan.—The Rule of Mahlalail.

These four sections contain a high degree of repetition and can be discussed collectively. Like many aspects of the Book of the Cave of Treasures, the material is an expansion of the more well-known stories in the Genesis myth. The closing sections of “The First Thousand Years” provide a description of the world in which Adam and Eve’s descendants lived. One of the most significant differences from the Genesis account is the revelation that these “sons of God” took the place of those who rebelled and fell from Heaven, living in peace and leisure. In the Genesis account, toil and trouble emerged as soon as Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit. In this account, an idyllic existence, lived in harmony with God’s law, persisted long after the tasting of the fruit.

Another noticeable motif in these sections is the continuing separation of the descendants of Seth from those of Cain. This alienation of Cain’s descendants is one of the few rules imposed on the descendants of Adam from generation to generation. The author places emphasis on the moral chasm that exists between the two groups, with Seth and his children living in holiness and Cain’s progeny existing in “enmity” with them.

The Rule of Yared.

Yared, son of Mahlalail, serves well and is “complete in all the virtues.” However, it is during the rule of Yared that the children of Seth disobey and mingle with the children of Cain and move to the “encampment of iniquity.” This is the manner in which the “fall of the children of Seth” takes place. The followers of Satan, referred to by the author as “the handicraftsmen of sin,” then appear on earth. Thus, after generations of living in harmony with God’s law, the descendants of Seth very quickly fall into sinful ways, mingling with the descendants of Cain. Unlike the account in Genesis, this descent into iniquity occurs within a generation. The fifth chapter of Genesis, which contains the listing of Seth’s descendants, makes no mention of these events. However, the beginning of the Flood narrative of Genesis 6 opens with God’s displeasure at humanity’s sinfulness, providing a slight parallel with the Cave of Treasures account.