A Prophecy of Esau and Jacob

The Book of Adam and Eve Book 3

Noah’s Ark

3.1.

NOAH noticed from his youth up, how sin had multiplied, how wickedness prevailed; how generations of men perished, how sorrow increased, how righteous men diminished. Therefore did he afflict his soul; he restrained his members, and retained his virginity; and grieved over the ruin wrought by the generations of men.

And this Noah habitually mourned and wept and was of a sad countenance; and so he held his soul in fasting, so that the enemy had no advantage over him, and did not come near him.

This Noah also, ever since he was a child with his parents, never made them angry, never transgressed against them; nor ever did a thing without their advice.

And when he was away from them, if he wished to pray or to do aught else; he would ask of God, to guide him aright therein; Wherefore God watched over him.

And while he was on the mountain, he did not transgress against God in any one evil thing, nor did he wilfully depart from what pleased God; neither did he ever anger God.

Many were the wonderful things which happened to him, more than to any of his fathers before him, about the time of the Flood.

And Noah continued in his virginity and in his obedience to God five hundred years; after that it pleased God to raise him a seed; He therefore spake unto him, saying, Arise, Noah, and take unto yourself a wife, that of her you may have children that may be a comfort to you; for you are left alone, and you shall go out of this country unto a strange land; for the earth shall be peopled with your posterity.

Then when Noah heard this from God, he did not transgress His commendment, took unto himself a wife, whose name was Haikal, the daughter of Abaraz, who was of the children of Bnoss children, that went into perdition. And she bare unto him three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japhet.

3:2.

After these things, God spake unto Noah about the Flood; that it should come upon the
earth, and destroy all creatures, so as not to let one of them be seen.

God said unto Noah: Guard your children; commend them and make them understand not to have intercourse with the children of Cain, lest they perish with them. And Noah hearkened to God’s words, and kept his children on the mountain, and would not let them go down to the children of Cain.

Then God spake again unto Noah, saying, Make unto yourself an ark of wood that will not rot; to be a deliverance to you and to the men of your house; begin to build it in the low land of Eden, in presence of the children of Cain, that they may see you working at it;

And if they will not repent they shall perish; and the blame shall rest on them; cut on this holy mountain, the trees whereof you shall make the ark; let the length of the ark be three hundred cubits, the breadth thereof fifty cubits, and the height thereof thirty cubits.

And when you have made and finished it, let there be in it one door above, and three compartments; and every compartment ten cubits high. The first story shall be for lions, and beasts, animals and ostriches all together.

The second story shall be for birds, and creeping things. And the third story shall be for you and your wife, and for your sons and their wives. And make in the ark wells for water, and openings to them, to draw water thereat, for drink to you and to those that are with you.

And you shall line those wells with lead, both in and out. And make in the ark store-houses for corn; for food to you and to those that are with you. Then make also unto yourself a trumpet of ebony wood, three cubits long, one and a half cubit wide, with a mouth piece of the same wood.

And you shall blow it three times; the first time in the morning, that the workmen (working) at the ark may hear it, and gather to their work. Then you shall blow it the second time, and when the workmen hear it, they will gather to their meal.

And you shall blow it a third time in the evening, for the workmen to go and rest from their labour. God said unto Noah: Go about among the people and tell them that a flood shall come and shall overwhelm them; and make the ark before their eyes.

And when they question you about the making of the ark, tell them: God has commended me to make it, that we may get into it, I and my children, and be saved from the waters of the Flood.

When Noah went about among them and told them, they laughed at him, and only committed adultery and revelled together all the more, and said: that twaddling old man!

Whence will ever the waters come, above the tops of high mountains? We never saw water rise above mountains; and this old man says, a flood is coming! Noah did all his works, as God had told him concerning them.

3:3.

And Noah begat his three sons, during the first hundred years he worked at the ark. During these hundred years he ate no food, whence blood flows; the shoes on his feet were neither changed, nor worn, nor grown old.

During these hundred years also, he did not change his garments from of him, neither did they wear out, in the least; he did not change the staff in his hand, nor did the cloth about his head grow old; and the hair of his head neither increased nor grew less.

As to those three sons of Noah, the first of them is Shem; the next is Ham; and the third is Japhet. They married wives from among the daughters of Metuselah; as the wise 72 interpreters have told us; as it is written in the first (sacred) book of the Greeks.

The life also of Lamech, Noahs father, was five hundred and fifty-three years; and when he drew near unto death, he called unto him his father Metuselah and his son Noah, and he wept before his father Metuselah and said unto him: Dismiss me my father, and bless me.

Then Metuselah blessed his son Lamech and said: Not one of all our fathers died before his father, the father before his son, in order that there should be his son to bury him in the earth.

Now however, my son, you die before me, and I shall drink (the cup of) sorrow on your account, before I go out of the flesh.

Henceforth, my son, behold the world is changed, and the (order) of deaths of men is changed: for from to-day the son shall die before his father; and the father shall not rejoice in his son, nor be satisfied with him.

So also shall the son not be satisfied with his father, nor rejoice in him. Lamech died, they embalmed him and laid him in the Cave of Treasures. His death took place seven years before the Flood came; and his father Metuselah and his son Noah remained alone on the Holy Mountain.

Noah went down every day to work at the ark, and came up at eventide. He instructed his sons and their wives not to come down after him, and not to hold intercourse with the children of Cain.

Noah was anxious about his sons, and said in his mind: They are young and might be overcome by passion. So he went down by night; and gave old Metuselah directions about them.

3:4.

NOAH preached repeatedly to the children of Cain, saying, The flood will come and destroy you, if we do not repent. they would not hearken to him; they only laughed at him.

When the children of Seth went down from the Holy Mountain, and dwelt with the children of Cain, and defiled themselves with their abominations, there were born unto them children called Garsina, who were giants, mighty men of valour, such as no other giants were of equal might.

Certain wise men of old wrote concerning them, and say in their (sacred) books, that angels came down from heaven, and mingled with the daughters of Cain, who bare unto them these giants. those (wise men) err in what they say.

God forbid such a thing, that angels who are spirits, should be found committing sin with human beings. Never; that cannot be. And if such a thing were of the nature of angels, or satans, that fell, they would not leave one woman on earth, undefiled.

For satans are very wicked and infamous. Moreover, they are not male and female by nature; they are small, subtle spirits, that have been black ever since they transgressed. Many men say, that angels came down from heaven, and joined themselves to women, and had children by them.

This cannot be true: they were children of Seth, who were of the children of Adam, that dwelt on the mountain, high up, while they preserved their virginity, their innocence and their glory like angels; and were then called angels of God. when they transgressed and mingled with the children of Cain, and begat children, ill-informed men said that angels had come down from heaven, and mingled with daughters of men, who bare them giants.

3:5.

Then the ancient old man Metuselah who remained on the mountain with Noahs sons, lived nine hundred and eightyseven years and then sickened; and his sickness was such that, on account of it, he must depart (from this world).

When Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japhet, became aware of it, they came to him with their wives, and wept before him, and said: Ourr father and elder, bless us, and pray God to have mercy on us when you are gone from us.

Then Metuselah said to them with a sorrowful heart: Hear me my dear children, for none of our fathers are left, you, eight souls.

The Lord God created our father Adam and our mother Eve, and from them filled the earth of people in the neighbourhood of the garden, and multiplied their seed; they have not kept His commendment, and He will destroy them. Had they kept His commendment, He would then have filled heaven and earth with them.

Yet I will ask the Lord my God to bless you, to multiply you, and to spread your race in a strange land to which you shall go. And now my children, behold God will bring you inside an ark, unto a land to which you have never been.

The Lord God of all our pure fathers, be with you May God bestow the glorious gifts He bestowed on our father Adam, from the garden in this blessed Cave of Treasures, on you also! These are the three glorious gifts which God made to Adam.

The first is kingship, wherein God made Adam king over His works. The second glorious gift is priesthood, in that God breathed into his face a spirit of life. And the third glorious gift is prophecy; for Adam prophesied concerning what God thought. I will ask the Lord my God, to bestow those three glorious gifts on your posterity.

Then Metuselah said also to Noah: Noah, you are blessed of God. I warn you and tell you that I am going from you to all our fathers that have gone before me. You, who shall be left alone with your children on this holy mountain, keep the commendment I give you, and forsake not anything of what I have told you. Behold my God shall quickly bring a flood upon the earth; embalm my body, and lay it in the Cave of Treasures.

Then take your wife with your sons and their wives, and go down from this holy mountain, and take with you the body of our father Adam; go into the ark and lay it there, until the waters of the Flood are assuaged from of the face of the earth.

My son, when about to die, commend your first-born son Shem, to take Melchisedec, son of Cainan, and grandson of Arpach-shad; for that Melchisedec is priest of the Most High God; and to take with them the body of our father Adam from within the ark, and remove it and lay it in the earth.

And Melchisedec shall stand ministering on that mountain that is in the middle of the earth, before the body of our father Adam for ever.

For from that place, Noah my son, God shall work salvation for Adam and for all of his seed that believe in God. Metuselah said also to Noah and to his sons: The angel of God will go with you, until you come to that place, in the middle of the earth.

Again Metuselah said to Noah: My son, let him who ministers unto God, and before the body of our father Adam; have a clothing of skin, and be girt with leather about his loins. Let him wear no ornament, let his raiment be poor; let him be alone, and stand praying our Lord God, to watch over the body of our father Adam; for it is a body of great value before God.

And let him continue in his ministry, be the priest of the Most High God; for he is well pleasing unto God, and so is the ministry he fulfils before God. After this Metuselah commended Noah: Mind all these commendments and keep them.

Then Metuselah’s hands were loosened; he ceased speaking; gradually closed his eyes, and entered into rest like all his fathers; his tears streaming down his cheeks at the time, and his heart grieving at being separated from them; mostly because of that mountain of the garden, on which not one of them was left.

For God was purposed to destroy all creatures, and to blot them out from the face of the earth. The rest of Metuselah took place when he was nine hundred and sixty-seven years old, on the twelfth of Magabit on a Sunday.

Noah and his sons embalmed him, weeping and sorrowing over him, and laid him in the Cave of Treasures. And they wailed over him with a great wailing, they and their wives, forty days. And when mourning and grief over Metuselah were ended, Noah and his sons began to do as Metuselah had commended them.

3:6.

After his death, Noah, his sons, and their wives came to the bodies of our fathers, worshipped them, and blessed themselves in them, weeping and being in the deepest grief.

Noah had finished the ark, and not one workman was left in it. And he, with his sons, continued in prayer to God, asking Him to show them the way of safety.

When Noah and bis sons had ended their prayers, God said unto him: Go you into the Cave of Treasures, you and your sons, and take the body of our father Adam and lay it in the ark; likewise take the gold, the incense, and the myrrh, and lay them in the ark together with his body.

And Noah hearkened to God’s voice, and went into the Cave of Treasures, he and his sons; they worshipped the bodies of our fathers, and then Noah took the body of our father Adam, and carried it in the strength of God, not requiring the help of anyone.

Then Shem his son, took the gold with him, and Ham carried the myrrh, and Japhet carried the incense; and they brought them out of the Cave of Treasures, their tears the while streaming down their cheeks.

But as they were bringing them out, the bodies among which Adam had been laid, cried out: Are we then to be separated from you, our father Adam? Then Adams body answered, Oh, that I must part from you my sons, from this holy mountain!

Yet do I know O my sons, that God will gather all our bodies together another time. Wait patiently until our Saviourr have pity on us. And the other bodies went on talking together, by the power of God’s Word.

Then Adam asked God that the divine fire might remain in the lamp, before his sons, until the time when bodies shall rise again. And God left the divine fire by them, to shed light on them.

He then closed the cave upon them, and left not a trace to show (where it is) until the day of the Resurrection, when He will raise them up, like all other bodies. The discourse Adam held, and that too, he being dead, was by the commend of God, who would show His wonders among the dead and the living.

After this let none of you say, that Adams soul had already been under satans judgment. It was not so; God commanded the souls of the dead, to come from under His hand; and to speak of the wonders of God from within their bodies. Then they returned to their places until the day of the sure deliverance that shall be unto them all.

3:7.

When Noah and his sons heard these voices from those dead bodies, they wondered greatly, and their faith in God was strengthened. Then they went out of the cave and began to go down from the Holy Mountain, weeping and wailing with a fervent heart, for their being so parted from the holy mountain, the abode of their fathers.

And Noah and his sons went back and sought the cave, could not find it. Then they broke out into bitter
lamentation and deep sorrow; for they saw that from that day forth, they should have neither existence nor abode in it.

Then once more they raised their eyes and looked at the garden and at the trees (that were) in it, and they lifted up their voices in weeping, and in loud crying, said: We salute you in worship, garden of joy! abode of brilliant beings, a place for the righteous!

We salute you, place of joy that was the abode of our father Adam, the chief of creation; who, when he had transgressed, fell from you; and then saw his body in life, naked and disgraced. And we, behold, we depart from the Holy Mountain to the lower side of you; neither shall we dwell in it, nor yet behold you so long as we live.

We wish God would remove you with us to the country to which we shall go; God would not remove you into a cursed land. God will take us, and will bring us into that land with our children, until He has ended the punishment for our transgression of His commandment.

Noah and his sons said also: We salute you; cave, abode of the bodies of our holy fathers; we salute you; pure spot, hidden from our eyes, yet fit to have those bodies laid within you! The Lord God preserve you for the sake of the bodies of our fathers!

Again they said: We greet you our fathers, righteous judges, and we ask you to pray for us before God that He will have pity on us, and deliver us out of this passing world. We ask you to pray for us, for us, the only ones left of your seed; We give you a greeting of peace!

Seth, great master, among the fathers, we greet you with peace! Holy Mountain abode of our fathers, we give you a greeting of peace! Then Noah and his sons wept again and said: Alas, eight souls that are left for us!

Behold we are taken away from the sight of the garden. As they were coming down the mountain they greeted the stones, took them in their hands and put them upon their shoulders; they stroked down the trees, and did so weeping. And they continued coming down from the mountain, until they came to the door of the ark.

Then Noah and his sons turned their faces to the east, and requested the Lord to have mercy on them, to save them, and to command them where to lay the body of our father Adam. Then the Word of God came to Noah, saying, Lift up the body of Adam to the third story (of the ark) , and lay it there on the eastern side; and the gold, the incense and the myrrh together with him.

And you and your sons shall stand before him praying. Your wife, and the wives of your sons, shall be on the western side of the ark; and they and their wives shall not come together. Then when Noah heard these words from God, he and his sons went into the ark, and laid the body of our father Adam on the eastern side, and the three offerings together with him.

And Noah brought into the ark the body of Adam, on a Friday, at the second hour, on the twenty-seventh of the month of Gembot.

3:8.

Then God said unto Noah: Go upon the top of the ark and blow the trump three times that all beasts gather together unto the ark. Noah said: Shall the sound of the trump reach unto the ends of the earth to gather together the beasts and the birds?

Then God said unto him: It is not the sound of this trump alone that shall go forth, My power shall go with it, to make it come into the ears of the beasts and of the birds.

And when you blow your trump, I will command My angel to blow the horn from heaven; and all these animals shall be gathered unto you. Then Noah made haste and blew the trump, as God had told him. Then the angel blew the horn from heaven, until the earth quaked, and all creatures on it trembled.

Then all the beasts, birds and creeping things were gathered together at the third hour, on a Friday; when all the beasts, lions and ostriches went into the lower story at the third hour.

Then at midday, came the birds and creeping things into the middle story; and Noah and his sons went into the third story, at the ninth hourr of the day.

And when Noah, with his wife, his sons and their wives came into the upper story, he commanded the women to dwell on the western side; Noah and his sons, with the body of our father Adam, dwelt on the eastern side.

3:9.

And Noah stood asking God to save him from the waters of the Flood. Then God talked to Noah and said to him: of every kind of birds, take one pair, male and female of the clean; and of the unclean also one pair, male and female; also of the clean take six pairs, male and female.

And Noah did all this. Then when they all had got into the ark, God shut to the door of the ark upon them by His power.

He then commanded the windows of heaven to open wide, and to pour down from them cataracts of water. And so it was; by God’s order. And He commanded all fountains to burst open, and the depths to pourr forth water, upon the face of the earth. So that the sea all round rose above the whole world, and surged, and the deep waters arose.

When the windows of heaven opened wide, all stores (of water) and depths were opened, and all the stores of the winds, and the whirlwind, thick mist, gloom and darkness spread abroad. The sun and moon and stars, withheld their light. It was a day of terror, such as had never been.

Then the sea all round, began to raise its waves on high like mountains; and it covered the whole face of the earth. When the sons of Seth, who were fallen into wickedness and adultery with the children of Cain, saw this, they then knew that God was angry with them; and that Noah had told them the truth.

Then they all ran round the ark, to Noah, begging and entreating him to open for them the door of the ark; inasmuch as they could not climb the Holy Mountain, by reason of the stones thereof, that were like fire. As to the ark, it was closed and sealed by the power of God.

An angel of God sat upon the ark, and was like a captain to Noah, to his sons, and to all inside the ark. And the waters of the flood increased on the children of Cain and overwhelmed them; and they began to sink, and the words of Noah were fulfilled, which he preached to them (saying), the waters of the Flood should come and drown them.

And the waters continued above and below over Noah and his sons, until they were suspended in the ark; and by the strength of the water, the ark rose from the earth; and the flesh of every moving thing perished.

And the water rose until it covered the earth, and until it covered all high mountains; and the waters rose above them, and above the tops of high mountains fifteen cubits, by the cubit of the Holy Ghost, which is equal to three cubits (of man). So that the number of these were forty-five cubits (above the highest mountains).

And the water increased and bare the ark, and brought it to the lower side of the garden, which the waters, the rain, the whirlwind and all that went about on the earth, did worship. As did also Noah and his sons and all that was in the ark, they bowed in worship to the holy garden.

And the water returned to its former state, and destroyed every thing that was upon the earth and under heaven; the ark was floating on the waters and rose up before the winds; while the angel of God steered and led it from east to west.

And the ark so moved about on the face of the waters a hundred and fifty days. After that, the ark stood upon the mountains of Ararat, on the twenty-seventh day of the month of Tkarnt.

3:10.

Then God sent again His order to Noah, saying, Be quiet and wait until the waters are assuaged.

Then the waters parted asunder and returned every water to its own place, where it was at first; the fountains ceased to pour forth over the earth; the depths that are on the face of the earth, ceased to rise; and the windows of heaven were closed.

For floods of rain fell from heaven at the beginning of the Flood forty days and forty nights.

On the first day of the eleventh month the tops of high mountains were seen; and Noah waited yet forty days, and then opened the window he had made on the western side of the ark, and let go a raven, to see if the waters were assuaged from the face of the earth or not.

Then the raven went forth, returned no more to Noah; for the harmless dove is the sign of the mystery of the Christian Church. Noah waited yet a little while after the waters were assuaged, and then sent out a dove, to see if the water had retired or not.

When the dove went out; she found not a place whereon to rest her foot, and no abode; and she returned to Noah. Then Noah waited seven days more, and sent out the dove to see if the water had retired or not. And the dove came back to Noah, about eventide; and in her mouth was an oliveleaf.

The meaning of the dove is, that she is taken as a figure of the old and of the new (covenants). The first time when she went out, and found nowhere to rest her feet, that is, a place of rest (is a figure of) the stiff-necked Jews, in whom no grace remained, nor any mercy whatever.

Wherefore Christ, the meek one, who is figured in the dove, did not find among them rest for the sole of His feet. The second time when the dove found a place of rest (is a figure of) the nations that have received the glad tidings of the holy Gospel, and among whom Christ has found a resting place.

~ by Joel on February 15, 2025.

Posted in Books of Ancients