Miscellany

Ealing Cathedral

Archangel Windows, Ealing Cathedral

The Apocalypse of Eve

Huntley‐​Green, Alfred, Syriac Apocrypha. London City Publications, 1926.

1. And afterwards, Eve rose up and went into the wilderness beyond the cave.
2. With her was Azura, the holy one who Seth had taken to wife.
3. Eve put her feet in the waters of the Tigris, and cleansed herself of the dust.
4. They were watched over by the angels of Heaven and Earth at this time.
5. For forty days and forty nights, Eve prayed on the side of the river, and Azura with her.

1. On the forty‐​first day, Eve rose up and spoke to Azura.
2. “The angel of the LORD has spoken to me, and bid me go into the land of Nod where my son dwells.
3. Not Abel who was slain, or Seth who you came down to take as bridegroom, but Cain.
4. And I will go beyond Nod, into the wild lands, and do penance.”
5. And Azura said “It is dangerous to go alone. I will come with you, mother.”
6. But Eve said “It is said that I must go alone. Stay and pray with your holy tongue.”
7. So Azura stayed while Eve passed out of that country, and passed through Nod, and into the lands beyond Nod.

1. On the first day of her journey, a jackal beset Eve, but she drove it forth with a strong stick.
2. On the second day of her journey, a crow beset Eve, but she drove it forth with a rock.
3. On the third day of her journey, a river serpent beset Eve, but she drove it forth with a spear.
4. On the fourth day of her journey, a spirit beset Eve, but she drove it forth with the charm Adam had given her, on which was written a holy word.
5. On the fifth day of her journey, a serpent beset Eve, but she drove it forth with a kick and crushed its skull beneath her heel.
6. On the sixth day of her journey, Eve reached the mountain the angel had spoken of.
7. On the seventh day of her journey, Eve rested in a cave in the mountain the angel had spoken of.

1. In the morning after the seventh day of her journey, Eve rose up and washed herself in a spring.
2. She prayed to the LORD and gave him an offering of the roses that grew on the mountain.
3. But the LORD was silent, so Eve prayed until sunset, and then lit a fire and cooked a goat upon it, and gave one part of the meat to the watcher of the mountain.
4. And he said to her “On the other side of this mountain, she who would have been Adam’s wife lives in a cave.”
5. And Eve said to him “May the LORD curse her forever! What has she to do with me?”
6. “It is the will of the LORD that you go and confront her.”
7. And Eve bowed to him and said “Then I will go, for my hate burns my blood.”

1. Eve took a strong stick, a rock, and the charm Adam had given her, and went to the other side of the mountain.
2. As she climbed through a pass in the mountain, jackals came and would have done harm to her.
3. Eve fought the jackals, and broke the skull of their king, and the rest ran away.
4. Next, a spirit that had taken the body of a wolf, came and attacked Eve.
5. Eve fought the spirit in the body of a wolf, and drove it away with the charm Adam had given her.
6. And she continued on, and reached the cave on the other side of the mountain.

1. In this cave dwelt Lilith, the angel of Hades who had desired Adam.
2. Eve struck her stick on the door of the cave and three times called out “Lilith, come out!”
3. After the third shout, Lilith came out.
4. She was wearing a shroud to protect herself from the sun.
5. “The LORD has told me to come and speak to you,” Eve said to Lilith.
6. “I have nothing to say to you, woman of lies, wife of the fallen and mother of the damned.”
7. Eve struck Lilith in the face with her stick.
8. “I may be a woman of lies, but you are a woman of hell.
9. And the LORD has bidden me to come and speak to you, and so I shall, for I will never again defy the LORD.”
10. Lilith spat at Eve’s feet, and she called up other spirits of the underworld.
11. And one of the spirits she called up was the spirit of Cain.

1. Now Cain had gone into the land of Nod and taken a wife and bore a son and made himself a city, but on the day Adam died, Cain died, too, when the roof of his house broke and fell upon him.
2. And now Cain’s spirit was called up out of the underworld and it made a house of his body.
3. And Cain’s body rose up out of the grave, and there was great fear in the city of Cain.
4. And all the people of the city of Cain fled before it, except Awan his wife.
5. Cain broke Awan and devoured her blood and then ran like the wind to the mountain where his mother and Lilith were.
6. While this was happening, Eve did battle with the other spirits.
7. They bit at her and clawed at her and swirled about like a wind in the night.
8. She struck at them with her stick and drove them away with the charm Adam had given her.
9. And at last, they were driven away, back into the underworld.
10. Eve raised the stick to strike Lilith, and the charm to drive her away, but then Cain came up.

1. “My son, what have you done and what have you become?” Eve cried out when she saw that Cain’s spirit had come out of the underworld and taken hold of his body.
2. “The Lord of Hades given me the strength to do this. Now I will live forever,” Cain said, and then let out a cry like a wild beast.
3. And Eve struck him in the face with the stick, and the LORD gave her strength.
4. And with the strength the LORD had given her, Eve stabbed Cain with the stick and pierced his heart.
5. And she struck him with the charm that Adam had given her.
6. Cain wailed and his skin fell off and his bones turned to dust.
7. “So it was said—you are dust and to dust you will return,” Eve said.
8. She turned to Lilith. “And you are a devil and to hell you will return. Now go and trouble me no more!”
9. Lilith screamed and sank into the earth and fell into the underworld.

1. Eve said more prayers then, and when morning came, she returned to the river where she had left Azura.
2. “Mother! What have you seen and what have you done?” Azura asked in amazement.
3. “I have seen strange and terrible things, and I have done mighty things onto them,” Eve answered.
4. “And I know a charge has been laid onto me, and my daughter, and her daughter, until the world changes.
5. Lilith will return, and she will bring with her more spirits in stolen flesh, and just as my children will fight the children of the serpent, my daughters will fight the children of Lilith.
6. Now I am tired, though, and would lay myself down at the side of Adam.”