Book of the Cave of Treasures

Questions for Further Study

• 1.: What, in your opinion, is the significance of the title, specifically “Cave of Treasures”? Why “cave,” and what are the “treasures”?
• 2.: Why was the concept of “continuity” important in early Christian belief? What difference would it have made if there had been some sort of gap in the historical record that early Christian (and Jewish) thinkers and historians were unable to fill? Why was it considered necessary to establish the genealogy of Christ?
• 3.: The entry draws a distinction between Eastern Christianity and Western Christianity. How were the two versions of Christian thinking different? What factors—economic, historical, political, even geographical—might have accounted for the differing visions of Christianity?
• 4.: The Book of the Cave of Treasures invites comparison with the Nestorian Book of the Bee, written some six centuries later. How are the two works similar? How do they differ? What impact might the passage of time have had on interpretation of biblical history?
• 5.: How does the story of Cain and Abel in the Book of the Cave of Treasures differ from the account in the biblical book of Genesis? What factors do you think might have caused the author of the Book of the Cave of Treasures to interpret the story of Cain and Abel as he does?