4Q504

Words of the Luminaries
Dead Sea Scrolls

[Rememb]er, O Lo[r]d that... Thou hast fashioned A[dam], our [f]ather, in the likeness of [Thy] glory; Thou didst breathe [a breath of life] into his nostrils and, with understanding, knowledge [Thou didst give him] ... Thou didst make [him] to rule [over the Gar]den of Eden which Thou didst plant... and to walk in the land of glory... he guarded. And Thou didst enjoin him not to st[ray ...]... he is flesh and to dust [he will return (?)] ... And Thou, Thou knowest... for everlasting generations ... a living God and Thy hand ... man in the ways of... [to fill the] earth with [vi]olence and to shed [innocent blood] ...

Genesis Rabbah 20:5

Aggadah
Rabbinic

AND THE LORD GOD MADE FOR ADAM AND HIS WIFE GARMENTS OF SKIN ('OR), AND CLOTHED THEM. In R. Meir's Torah it was found written, 'Garments of light (or)': this refers to Adam's garments, which were like a torch [shedding radiance], broad at the bottom and narrow at the top. Isaac the Elder said: They were as smooth as a finger-nail and as beautiful as a jewel. R. Johanan said: They were like the fine linen garments which come from Bethshean, GARMENTS OF SKIN meaning those that are nearest to the skin. R. Eleazar said: They were of goats' skin. R. Joshua said: Of hares' skin. R. Jose b. R. Hanina said: It was a garment made of skin with its wool. Resh Lakish said: It was of Circassian wool, and these were used [later] by first-born children. R. Samuel b. Nahman said: [They were made from] the wool of camels and the wool of hares, GARMENTS OF SKIN meaning those which are produced from the skin. R. Levi said: The Torah teaches you here a rule of worldly wisdom: spend according to your means on food; less than you can afford on clothing, but more than you can afford on a dwelling. Spend according to your means on food, as it is written, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat. Less than you can afford on clothing: AND THE LORD GOD MADE . . . GARMENTS OF SKIN, AND CLOTHED THEM. More than you can afford on a dwelling: for lo! They were but two, yet they dwelt in the whole world.

 Notes and References

"... In the group of the Dead Sea Scrolls fragments known under the title Words of the Luminaries (4Q504), the following passage about the glory of Adam in the Garden can be found ... Later in 4Q504, this tradition about Adam's former glory follow with a reference to the luminosity bestowed upon another human body - the glorious face of Moses at his encounter with the Lord at Sinai ... it is also remarkable that alter Rabbinic materials often speak of the luminosity of Adam's face, the feature that might point to the influence of the Adam-Moses connection. Thus, as an example, In Leviticus Rabbah 20.2, the following passage can be found ..."

Orlov, Andrei Vested with Adam's Glory: Moses as the Luminous Counterpart of Adam in the Dead Sea Scrolls and in the Macarian Homilies (pp. 498-513) Marquette University, 2002

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