Good day, dear Take in Mind readers! During the last year, together with our readers, we slowly but very thoroughly got acquainted with the heroic adventures of the legendary king Uruk Gilgamesh. The story is so ancient, with an endless variety of fabulous motifs, brightly interwoven into the plot, that even trying to separate the historical reality from fiction does not make any sense.
In these articles, we discussed events that took place only some four and a half to five thousand years ago! Very recent, almost nowadays… But today we are dealing with even more ancient, antediluvian times, and we will talk about our legendary ancestors, Adam and Eve.
So, according to the Bible, the Koran, and many other theological sources, Adam is the first man created by God. “Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground” (Genesis 2:7). Actually, Adam’s name meaning is related to the manufacturing material itself – the Hebrew word “adama” means “ground”. However, some experts associate the name Adam not with sand or soil, but with the Akkadian verb “adamu” (“to make”, “to create”).
The Book of Genesis contains two stories about the creation of man. According to the first, the man was created divided into two sexes, like other types of animals. Another story describes the creation of Adam from the dust, and the subsequent creation of a woman, Eve, from his rib, because “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” (Genesis 2:18).
Adam and Eve lived in the garden of Eden and were childlike innocent; there they were allowed to eat fruits from any tree, except the “tree of the knowing good and evil”. Eve, tempted by the serpent, tasted the forbidden fruit and seduced Adam to eat it too. Having committed this act of disobedience, they realized their nakedness and sinfulness and became like divine creatures who know the difference between good and evil. God expelled them from Eden, and since then they have to earn their living by hard work… But you already knew all this very well without us.
Let’s think a little about what we have read. If for a moment we put aside the religious or atheistic framework (to each his own!), and accept the above as a teaching allegory, we may assume that:
First, each person possesses hereditary knowledge in order to be able to distinguish the real good from real evil;
Second (in the author’s opinion, this is the most important thing), each person is initially free and has complete freedom of choice in which direction (good or evil) to direct his thoughts and actions;
Third, each person him/herself and only him/herself is responsible for his/herself own actions and has responsibility for them (the excuses such as “I was brought up this way” or “I was ordered” will not help – that’s a way to only deceive yourself).
Thus, this short, almost childish story contains the moral foundation of our civilization and the “basis” of modern philosophy, sociology, culture, and even jurisprudence. It contains all the wars of our history and all the righteous in the world, it contains the definitions of the human ego and the concept of real equality (without farcical kneeling and political correctness). In addition, these few sentences show the strength and weaknesses of the couple, as well as a familial interconnection and mutual assistance (can you imagine how humanity would evolve if Adam would “insure” Eve and dissuade her from “tasting” the fruit?!), and much-much more… But this is left for anyone to think “at your leisure”.
There is an incredible number of different folk legends about Adam and Eve, many of which, naturally, are based on the Bible’s and the Koran’s stories. Here we present the summary of the most interesting and unique legends wide-spreading among the Muslim, Jewish and Christian population of the Holy Land (from “Myths and Legends of the Holy Land” by the English writer James Hanauer (1907):
… Allah created Adam from the dust of the earth. Someone claims that it was sand found in the Sahara, others – that the ground is from the Holy rock in Beit-ul-Maqdis. But most likely, those who believe that the grains of sand were collected from all over the world and were not similar to one another. This explains why people with different skin colors live in the world …
… At first, Adam was a man and a woman at the same time: one side of the body is male, the other is female. At the appointed time, the female half separated from the male and turned into a woman, and Adam remained a man. They became a couple. However, the first people were not happy, because the wife did not want to obey her husband, saying that they were created from the same material and he had no right to command her. Then she was expelled from paradise and became the wife of Iblis and the mother of devils…
Arabs (both Christians and Moslem) call this woman as Al-Karineh” and Jews call her as “Lilith” or “El-Brusha”. She is the deadly enemy of all women, especially such as have recently become mothers. These must be carefully nursed and watched, and, together with their new-born babes, fenced round with charms and holy amulets, and heads of garlic, lumps of alum, blue beads, and so forth, lest the Karineh strangle them in her jealous fury, or frighten the mother into madness. European doctors, who pretend to know everything, do not know the dreadful dangers to which they expose women in childbed when they forbid other women to visit and amuse them.
When “El-Karineh” had been driven from Paradise, Allah created our mother Hawa, that is, Eve, out of one of Adam’s ribs, which He had extracted from the latter whilst he slept. Adam and Hawa were very happy together till Ublis (Satan) succeeded in getting back into Paradise concealed in the hollow of the serpent’s fangs… Satan succeeded in persuading Hawa to eat of the forbidden fruit, which, according to some of the learned, was wheat. Adam, having been persuaded by his wife to share his offence, was, as a punishment, cast out of Paradise, together with Hawa, Iblis, and the serpent. He had, however, the sense to snatch up, and bring down to earth with him, an anvil, a pair of tongs or pincers, two hammers, and a needle. He was cast out of Paradise at the gate named the Gate of Penitence; Hawa from the Gate of Mercy; Iblis at the Gate of Malediction; and the serpent at the Gate of Calamity. So all four of them fell to the earth, each coming down in a different place: Adam at Serendib or Ceylon; Hawa at Jiddah; Iblis at Akabah; and the serpent at Isfahan in Persia…
What happened at the end of two centuries, how Adam repented and was taken by Gabriel to find Hawa at ‘Arafat’, and how the forgiven couple went and Uved in Ceylon, we need not tell, nor the story of their sons Habil (Abel), Kabil (Cain), and Seth, seeing that this is known to all the People of the Book, whether Moslems, Christians, or Jews…
What, however, is not generally known, is that Allah showed Adam all his posterity, even all men that should ever live, between his own days and the day of the Resurrection. It came to pass in this manner: Allah stroked Adam’s back, and forthwith there issued from the latter’s loins multitudes of men, thousands upon thousands and tens of thousands, each man no bigger than an ant. When each individual had confessed his belief in the World to come and the Day of the Resurrection, they all returned into Adam’s loins…
Adam was a tall man, taller than any palm-tree. The hair of his head was also very long…
There are also different opinions as to the place where he is buried; some stating that his tomb is near Hebron, and others that he was buried with his head at Jerusalem and his feet stretching all the way to Hebron. Others say the case is just the reverse, and that Adam’s head rests at Hebron, but his feet at El-Kuds…
By the way, according to Jewish tradition, the bodies of Adam and Eve rest in the cave of the Patriarchs (Me’arat ha-Makhpela which can be translated as “Double Cave” or as “Cave of the Coupling”), in a crypt in the ancient part of Hebron, in which, according to the Bible, also buried the Patriarchs and Matriarchs of the Abrahamic religions: Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Leah. It’s not easy, but possible, to get to this place – so anyone who wants to find out, may go to Hebron!
And some final hint: A little help and, perhaps, a clue from the mysterious Druze. The Druze is a closed ethno-confessional community that was formed at the beginning of the XI century in Egypt. Most Druze live today in Syria, Lebanon, and Israel. The Druze keep their philosophy and religion secret, the available information is often contradictory, and the valuable information is mixed with speculations. All secrets and religious books are available only to very few persons (“ukkal” or “knower”). By the way, as far as we know, the majority of “ukkal” are women! According to the beliefs of the Druze, Adam was not the first person in general, but the first who knew God! Isn’t that an interesting interpretation?!
Featured image by Lucas Cranach the Elder, Public Domain
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