The Forgotten Books of Eden Series

The two books contained in this volume are considered by many scholars to be part of the "Pseudepigrapha" and form part of “The Forgotten Books of Eden” edited by Rutherford H. Platt, Jr. These books are a written account of what happened to Adam and Eve in the days of after they were cast out of the Garden of Eden. The First Book of Adam and Eve details the life and times of Adam and Eve in the period immediately following their expulsion from the Garden of Eden to the time that Cain slays his brother Abel. It tells of Adam and Eve's first dwelling in the Cave of Treasures; their trials and temptations; and of Satan's many apparitions to them. It also tells of the birth of Cain, Abel, and their twin sisters; and of Cain's love for his beautiful twin sister, Luluwa, whom Adam and Eve wished to be joined to Abel The Second Book of Adam and Eve gives an account of the life and times of Cain and his twin Sister Luluwa after they went away until the time that Enoch was taken by God. The "Pseudepigrapha" is a collection of historical biblical works that are considered to be fiction. Because of this, this book was not included in the compilation of the Christian Bible. Although considered to be Pseudepigrapha by some, it carries significant meaning and insight into events of that time. In order to put these two books into perspective, one has to ask how, and why, these writings have survived through the centuries and if they are as unsubstantial as many righteous scholars claim them to be?

One of the Pseudepigrapha, the Psalms of Solomon is a group of eighteen “war” psalms that are not part of any scriptural canon. They are, however, found in copies of the Peshitta and the Septuagint. The Psalms of Solomon were referenced in Early Christian writings, but lost to modern scholars until a Greek manuscript was rediscovered in the 17th century. Written in response to the capture (but not destruction) of Jerusalem. They are filled with historical allusions, and implicitly call for revolution against Rome. Some of the psalms are messianic, in the Jewish sense (clearly referring to a mortal that happens to be divinely assisted, much like Moses), but the majority are concerned less with the world at large, and more with individual behaviour, expressing a belief that repentance for unintended sins will return us to God's favour. The Odes of Solomon, also part of the Pseudepigrapha, are found together with the similar Psalms of Solomon, and have been ascribed to the same author. The earliest extant manuscripts of the Odes of Solomon date from around the end of the 3rd and the beginning of the 4th century. Technically the 42 Odes are anonymous, but attributed to Solomon and the original language of the Odes is thought to have been either Greek or Syriac. Unlike the Psalms of Solomon, however, the Odes are much less clearly Jewish, and much more Christian in appearance. They explicitly refer not only to Jesus, but also to the ideas of virgin birth, harrowing of hell, and the Trinity. Adolf von Harnack [1851 – 1930] suggested the work of a Christian interpolator, adjusting an originally Jewish text.

The Book of Enoch, traditionally ascribed to Enoch, the great-grandfather of Noah, is probably the most notable apocalyptic work outside the canonical Scriptures even though a short section of 1 Enoch (1 En 1:9) is quoted in the New Testament (Letter of Jude 1:14-15). It may also be significant that the attribution "Enoch the Seventh from Adam" is apparently itself a section heading taken from 1 Enoch (1 En 60:8, Jude 1:14a) and not from Genesis. This book was omitted from the bible by the Bishop's Conference at Nicea (currently named Iznik, Bursa province, Turkey) in 325AD  for being too revelatory and evocative for the people of the time to comprehend. Even so, it has survived  down the ages. While the work is scriptural in nature, many modern day fantasy writers have used, and continue to use, the content of the Book of Enoch as inspiration for their works. The Apocalyptic Literature, as distinct from the Apocalyptic Movement, began to come into existence about the period 200-150 B.C. and the earliest portions of the Book of Enoch belongs to this period. The Book of Enoch is considered as Scripture in the Epistle of Barnabas (16:4) and by many of the early Church Fathers, who wrote that the Book of Enoch had been rejected by the Jews because it contained prophecies pertaining to Christ. However, later Fathers denied the canonicity of the book, and some even considered the letter of Jude uncanonical because it refers to an "apocryphal" work. By the 4th century, it was mostly excluded from Christian lists of the Biblical canon, and it was omitted from the canon by most of the Christian church (the Ethiopian Orthodox Church being an exception). Works of an Apocalyptic character, continued to be written for about three centuries; the Second (Fourth) Book of Esdras, one of the most remarkable Apocalypses, belongs to the end of the first Christian century, approximately. There are Apocalypses of later date; but the real period of the Apocalyptic Literature is from about 200 B.C. to about A.D. 100; its beginnings date, therefore, from a time prior to that great landmark in Jewish history, the Maccabæan Era.

The Letter of Aristeas is an apocryphal text, or a book not included in the Bible. Also known as the Letter of Philocrates, was written in the second century BC in the Hellenistic states of Greece. Josephus, the one who paraphrases two fifths of the text, attributes the text to Aristeas, who allegedly wrote it for Philocrates. The letters are the earliest texts known to man to contain a reference to the Great Library at Alexandria. The Letter tells that Demetrios of Phaleron, a librarian in the Great Library, urged Pharaoh Ptolemy II Philadelphus to obtain a Greek translation of Hebrew laws. The king agreed and allegedly sent lavish gifts to Jerusalem and granted freedom to numerous Jewish slaves and in return requests that six members of each of the twelve tribes of Israel travel to Alexandria to translate the Torah. The validity of the text is questioned by many scholars, however, there was indeed a translation of the Pentateuch during the early Ptolemaic Period. The King weeps for joy when the translators arrive in Alexandria and asks several important philosophical questions during the next seven days of the translation. The whole translation of the ancient Hebrew laws into Greek took the seventy two translators exactly seventy two days to complete. The Jewish people living within Alexandria at the time, after hearing that their sacred laws had been translated into Greek, requests copies of the translation and put a curse on anyone who would dare change the translation. After the translation was complete, Ptolemy II Philadelphus rewards the translators with lavish gifts and sends them on their way.

Herein are twelve biographies of the Patriarchs written between 107 B.C. and 137 B.C. They are a forceful exposition, showing how a Pharisee with a rare gift of writing secured the biographies of the greatest men of ancient times. "There were intellectual giants in those days" and the Twelve Patriarchs were the Intellectual Giants! Each tells his life story and when he is on his deathbed he calls all his children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren about him, and proceeds without reservation to lay bare his experiences for the moral guidance of his hearers. If he fell into sin he tells all about it and then counsels them not to err as he did. If he was virtuous, he shows what rewards were his. When you look beyond the unvarnished--almost brutally frank--passages of the text, you will discern a remarkable attestation of the expectations of the Messiah which existed a hundred years before Christ. And there is another element of rare value in this strange series. As Dr. R. H. Charles says in his scholarly work on the Pseudepigrapha: its ethical teaching "has achieved a real immortality by influencing the thought and diction of the writers of the New Testament, and even those of our Lord. This ethical teaching, which is very much higher and purer than that of the Old Testament, is yet its true spiritual child and helps to bridge the chasm that divides the ethics of the Old and New Testaments." The instances of the influence of these writings on the New Testament are notable in the Sermon on the Mount which reflects the spirit and even uses phrases from these Testaments. St. Paul appears to have borrowed so freely that it seems as though he must have carried a copy of the Testaments with him on his travels. Thus, the reader has before him in these pages what is at once striking for its blunt primitive style and valuable as some of the actual source books of the Bible. 10% of the profit from the sale of this book will be donated to charities. =========== KEYWORDS/TAGS: Testaments, twelve, patriarchs, Pseudepigrapha, Rutherford H Platt, R H Charles, , Abraham, angel, angels, anger, Asher, Beliar, Benjamin, Bilhah, bless, brethren, brother, Canaan, captivity, children, city, command, commandments, Dan, darkness, daughter, day, death, deceit, deliver, desire, destroy, die, Egypt, Egyptian, envy, eternal life, evil, father, fear, fornication, Gad, Gentiles, God, good, hatred, Hebron, High, Holy Spirit, husband, Isaac, Ishmaelites, Israel, Issachar, Jacob, Joseph, Judah, Judah, judgement, king, kingdom, knowledge, Leah, Levi, life, Lord, love, lying, man, mercy, mighty, money, Naphtali, neighbour, peace, pleasure, power, pray, priesthood, Rachel, Reuben, righteous, righteousness, salvation, Simeon, sin, singleness, slave, slew, sons, soul, strength, sword, therefore, understanding, walk, water, wicked, wickedness, wine, woman, words, wrath, wrought, Zebulun, TESTAMENTS OF THE TWELVE PATRIARCHS