A Prophecy of Esau and Jacob

The Book of Adam and Eve Book 3

3:21.

Then Melchisedec praised God; and he and Shem made an offering.

And Shem stayed with him that day, to rest from the toil of the journey. When the day dawned, it seemed good to Shem to depart.

Then Melchisedec wished him God speed, and blessed him, and said unto him: The Lord God who led us to this place, be with you; and guide you until you come to your own place.

Melchisedec said also to him: When they inquire of you about me, direct them not in the way; that they come not to me. And when my father and my mother ask you about me, say to them: He has departed and I do not know the place of his pilgrimage.

So that when you say so to them, their hope of me will be cut short, and they will feel it is of no use thinking of me; they will not press you and make you come to me.

Then Shem departed and returned to his kindred, while Melchisedec remained standing before the body of our father Adam, ministering unto God and worshipping Him evermore.

An angel abode with him, who protected him and brought him food, until the time of Abraham the patriarch. The raiment of this Melchisedec was of skins, with a leathern girdle around his loins. And he ministered unto God, with much praying and fasting.

3:22.

Shem and his brothers multiplied abundantly upon the earth and begat sons and daughters; it went on this way until Shem was five hundred and fifty years old when he died.

Then they embalmed him, and continued mourning for him forty days.

After this, Arpachshad son of Shem, lived fourr hundred and eighty-five years and died; they embalmed him and mourned for him forty days.

After him was Cainan, son of Arpach shad, father of Melchisedec, who lived five hundred and eighty-nine years, then died.

After him, Selah son of Cainan, brother of Melchisedec, lived fourr hundred and eight years, then died.

After him, Eber his son, lived fourr hundred and thirty-fourr years, then died.

Peleg was born when his father was two hundred and seven years old. In the days of Peleg, the earth was divided a second time among the three sons of Noah; Shem, Ham, and Japhet.

Wherefore were they much aggrieved through this division among themselves; because during their fathers life-time, they were gathered together.

Now they were divided asunder, and on that account much affliction befell them.

Peleg died and they buried him in his own city, Peleg; for they had built a city, and had called it after his name.

After his death, which happened when he was fourr hundred and thirty years old, there were great disturbances, and men gathered together within fenced cities.

After this, tongues were divided; for God divided them when men built the tower in Sennaar, it was destroyed over them.

And God divided their languages; and what remained of them He dispersed over the earth; because they built without a fixed plan.

Therefore God dispersed them and scattered them, and brought upon them the division of their languages; until if one of them spake, no other understood what he said.

And the number of languages is seventy-two. And when they were so divided, they had over them seventy two rulers, one to every tongue, and to every country, by way of a king.

And of the seed of Japhet were six peoples.

3:23.

Then Rehu, Peleg’s son, lived two hundred and thirty-two years and died.

When Rehu, Peleg’s first-born son, was one hundred and thirty years old, there reigned one of the first kings that ever reigned on the earth, whose was a giant named Nimrod (grandson of Ham).

That Nimrod saw a cloud of light under heaven; a mere apparition of satan. And he inclined his heart to it, and coveted its beauty; and then called to one whose name was Santal, a carver, and said to him: Carve me a crown of gold, after the pattern of that cloud.

Then Santal made him a crown which Nimrod took and placed upon his own head.

Wherefore was it said that a cloud had come from heaven, and overshadowed him. And he became so wicked, as to think within himself that he was God.

And in those days Rehu was one hundred and eighty years old, and in his one hundred and fortieth year.

Then Yanuf reigned over the land of Egypt; he is the first king that reigned over it. He built the city of Memphis and named it after his own name; that is Misr; whose name is rendered Masrin.

This Yanuf died and in his stead, in the days of Rehu, one from the land of Indi reigned, whose name was Sasen, who built the city of Saba.

And all the kings who reigned over that country were called Sabaeans after the name of the city.

And it was so until the days of Solomon son of David.

Then again Pharan reigned over the children of Saphir, and built the city of Saphir with stones of gold; and that is the land of Sarania. and because of these stones of gold, they say that the mountains of that country and the stones thereof are all of gold.

Then the children of Lebensa of the country of Indi, made king over them one named Bahlul, who built the city of Bahlu. Then Rehu died in his two hundred and eighty-ninth year.

3:24.

After came Seroug his son, in whose days idol-gods of stone, were openly worshipped in the world.

The children of men began to make idols of stone, the first of which were Kalithon and Helodon.

And the children of men multiplied upon the earth, and their wickedness increased also; for they had neither law nor order; and no teachers to guide them in the way of righteousness; nor any one to be judge among them.

Wherefore they grew worse and worse, and wandered farther from the way of God; every one of them did what he himself listed; and they made for themselves idol-gods, which they worshipped.

They had no hope in the resurrection of the dead. Whenever one of them died, they buried him, and set up an idol over his grave and said that was his god that would show him mercy in his grave.

As regards the dead, they said also that when his god was set up over his grave, the remembrance of him would not be cut of from the face of the earth.

This was a common saying brought out by satan; and so the earth was filled with idols; and those idols were of divers kinds, men and women.

After this Seroug died two hundred and thirty years old; and they embalmed him in Sarania his city, that was built in his name.

After that, Nahor, then twenty -nine years old, begat Terah.

And when Nahor was eighty-six years of age, God looked down upon the children of men, (and saw) that they were ruined and worshipped idols.

Then God sent forth winds, and the whirlwind, and earth quakes on the earth, until the idols were broken one against another.

Yet the children of men did not repent of their sins, neither did they turn to God from their iniquities that He might save them; rather increased in wickedness.

And in the twentieth year of Terah’s life, the worship of idols spread over the earth in the city of Aarat, which Barwin (i.e. Jokthan) the son of Eber had built.

At that time there was a rich man living in it, who died; and his son made an idol of gold in the likeness of his father, and set it up on his grave.

He then ordered one of his servants, to stand by the idol, and to minister unto it; to sweep the ground around it, to pour water to it and to burn incense.

When satan saw this he entered into the idol of gold, and talked to the servant, like his master’s father that was dead; and said to him: You do so.

After this a thief took by surprise the house of the youth, son of the man who was dead; who then came to his fathers grave, weeping.

He said: O my father, they have carried away all my goods.

Then satan answered him from within the idol and said: Do not stay here, go and bring your son, and offer him up in oblation to me, and then I will return to you all your goods.

Then that youth went, and did with his son, as satan had commanded him.

And at that time satan entered into him and taught him to practise enchantments, magic, mixture of drugs, and divination.

That was the first evil example set to men, to take their children and to offer them up in sacrifice to idols and to devils.

3:25.

Then in the hundredth year of Nahor, God looked down upon the children of men (and saw) that they sacrificed their children to idols.

Then God commanded the stores of winds to open, and to send forth the whirlwind, storms, and darkness, upon the whole face of the earth, until all the idols, images, and figures, were brought together, mountains upon mountains.

The idols remained buried under them until this day.

Many wise men have written about this wind, that it was the wind of the Flood; and many of them say it was the water of the Flood that so brought together these mountains (of idols).

They erred to say that is false concerning it. For before the water of the Flood came upon the earth, there were no idols in it.

The Flood came upon the men at that time because of their adulteries and the sins which they committed among themselves; both the children of Cain and those who followed them.

Moreover at that time, the whole earth was not filled with people; only the land of the garden in which dwelt the children of Seth, and the place inhabited by the children of Cain.

Besides that, the whole earth was uninhabited.

When the Flood came, it bare the ark and brought it to this land of trouble. That land was laid waste.

When in those days, king Nimrod saw a flaming fire in the east which arose from the earth, Nimrod said: What is that fire?

He went towards it and when he saw it, he bowed to it in worship and appointed a priest to minister before it, to burn incense to it and to sacrifice victims to it.

From that day the men of Fars began to fill the earth.

Then satan the worker of idols saw a fountain of water near the fire-pit, and he came to it, and looked at it, and made a horse of gold, and set it up on the edge of the fountain of water;

And it so happened that all those who came to wash in that fountain of water, bowed in worship to that golden horse; and from that time, the people of Fars began to worship horses.

The priest whom Nimrod appointed to minister to the fire and to burn incense to it, wished to be a teacher, and wise of the same wisdom as Nimrod, whom Barwin, Noah’s fourth son had taught.

That priest, therefore, kept on asking satan, while standing before the fire, to teach him this evil ministry and abominable wisdom.

So, when satan saw him doing his best in the service (of the fire), he talked to him and said: No man can become a teacher, wise or great before me unless he hearkens to me, and goes and weds his mother, his sister, and his daughter.

That priest hearkened to satan, in all that he said: he taught him all manner of wickednesses.

And from that time, the people of Fars have committed alike sins unto this day.

And Nimrod built great cities in the east and wrought all manner of iniquities in them.

~~~~ The End ~~~

~ by Joel on February 20, 2025.

Posted in Books of Ancients