The Creation of the World and Humanity

1 “And then I created all the heavens, and it was the third day, Tuesday. On the third day I commanded the earth to grow great and fruitful trees, and hills, and seed to sow, and I planted Paradise, and enclosed it, and placed flaming angels as armed guardians, and thus I created renewal.

2 “Then evening came, and morning came, the fourth day, Wednesday. On the fourth day I commanded that there should be great lights on the heavenly circles. 3 On the first uppermost circle I placed the stars, Kronos, and on the second Aphrodite, on the third Ares, on the fifth Zeus, on the sixth Hermes, on the seventh the lesser moon, 4 and adorned it with the lesser stars. 5 And on the lower I placed the sun for the illumination of day, and the moon and stars for the illumination of night. 6 I appointed the sun to pass through each of the twelve animal signs, and I appointed the succession of the months and their names and lives, their thunderings, and their hour markings and the order in which they should follow one another.

7 “Then evening came and morning came the fifth day, Thursday. On the fifth day I commanded the sea, that it should produce fish, and feathered birds of many varieties, and all animals creeping over the earth, moving over the earth on four legs, and soaring in the air, male and female, and every soul breathing the spirit of life.

8 “And evening came, and morning came, the sixth day, Friday. On the sixth day I commanded my wisdom to create man from seven substances:⁠a one, his flesh from the earth; two, his blood from the dew; three, his eyes from the sun; four, his bones from stone; five, his intelligence from the swiftness of the angels and from cloud; six, his veins and his hair from the grass of the earth; seven, his soul from my breath and from the wind. 9 And I gave him seven natures: to the flesh, hearing, the eyes for sight, to the soul, smell, the veins for touch, the blood for taste, the bones for endurance, to the intelligence, sweetness.

10 “I devised a skillful saying to express this: I created man from invisible and from visible nature, from both come his death, life, and image, he knows speech like a created being, small in greatness and great again in smallness, 11 and I placed him on earth, a second angel, honorable, great and glorious, 12 and I appointed him as ruler to rule on earth and to have my wisdom, and there was no one like him on earth among all my existing creatures.

13 “And I appointed him a name, from the four component parts, from east, from west, from south, from north,⁠b 14 and I appointed for him four special stars, and I called his name Adam,⁠c 15 and showed him the two ways, the light and the darkness, and I told him:⁠d ‘This is good, and that is bad,’ so that I might learn whether he has love toward me, or hatred, so that it would be clear which of his descendants love me. 16 For I have seen his nature, but he has not seen his own nature, so through not seeing he will sin more seriously, and I said: ‘After sin what is there but death?’

17 “And I put sleep into him and he fell asleep. And I took from him a rib, and created him a wife, 18 so that death would come to him through his wife, and I took his last word and called her name mother, that is to say, Eve.