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Life of Adam and Eve

About this book

Eve Gives Her Last Instructions and Dies

Six days after, Adam died; and Eve perceived that she would die, (so) she assembled all her sons and daughters, Seth with thirty brothers and thirty sisters, and Eve said to all, 'Hear me, my children, and I will tell you what the archangel Michael said to us when your father and I transgressed the command of God: On account of your transgression, Our Lord will bring his judgment upon your descendants in anger, first by water, the second time by fire; the Lord will use these two to judge the whole human race.⁠

Texts in conversation

Predicting Judgment by Water and Fire in the 'Life of Adam and Eve' and 2 Peter

Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions · New Testament

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Summary

In the Life of Adam and Eve, Eve predicts two future judgments on humanity, by water and by fire, telling her children to record this warning on tablets. 2 Peter describes a similar tradition, a judgment by fire after judgment by water.

Passages

Life of Adam and Eve 49:3

Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions
1 Six days after, Adam died; and Eve perceived that she would die, (so) she assembled all her sons and daughters, Seth with thirty brothers and thirty sisters, 2 and Eve said to all, 'Hear me, my children, and I will tell you what the archangel Michael said to us when your father and I transgressed the command of God: 3 On account of your transgression, Our Lord will bring his judgment upon your descendants in anger, first by water, the second time by fire; the Lord will use these two to judge the whole human race.
20–50 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Life of Adam and Eve

2 Peter 3:7

New Testament
3 Above all, understand this: In the last days blatant scoffers will come, being propelled by their own evil urges 4 and saying, “Where is his promised return? For ever since our ancestors died, all things have continued as they were from the beginning of creation.” 5 For they deliberately suppress this fact, that by the word of God heavens existed long ago and an earth was formed out of water and by means of water. 6 Through these things the world existing at that time was destroyed when it was deluged with water. 7 But by the same word the present heavens and earth have been reserved for fire, by being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
120–130 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 2 Peter

References

"... While the flood in Genesis was a punishment for that time, literarily, it also served as an eschatological foreshadowing of future punishment in 1 Enoch 10–11; 83–84; 93.4; L.A.B. 3.9; Ant. 1.70 and CD 4.10–18.11 ... On its own, fire appears as an instrument of divine punishment and destruction of the wicked. Later, a belief in a second universal judgment by fire developed. The 1st century CE document Life of Adam and Eve (49.1–50.2) narrates the creation of a table of stone and a table of clay to serve as a warning of the two universal judgments to come. The second universal judgment is intended to be a time when the wicked will be vanquished and a new heaven and a new earth will emerge. When the idea of the second universal judgment by fire emerged, it became a way for God to achieve the purpose of ridding the world of evil ..."
Jenny Devivo, “2 Peter 2:4–16: The Redaction of the Biblical and Intertestamental References Dependent on Jude 5–11 and Their Overall Significance for the Document” (diss., Loyola University Chicago, 2014), 65.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Comments

  • How old were Adam and Eve when they died?

    Antonio, November 30, 2024

  • Did Adam and Eve children have sex with each other, and us that's how we multiplied, is that not in appropriate?

    Carl F Jordan, December 23, 2024

  • What are the names of all of adam and eve's children? I read they had about 60 children

    Anonymous, December 30, 2024

  • Who died Adam or Eve?

    OGEDEGBE angle, January 10, 2025

  • Jak można wierzyć w te brednie o bogu, adamie i ewie jako pierwszych ludziach?

    Tom, February 25, 2026

Life of Adam and Eve 49:3 and 2 Peter 3:7

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