Random Things of 'The Apocalypse Of Adam' (16 items)

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  (#6) Adam Received A Vision Of God Setting The Great Flood Into Motion

  After being cast out of the Garden of Eden, Adam was visited by three "great men" whose faces were indiscernible to him. However, he sensed that they were powerful and not associated with "the powers of the God who had created [him]."

  These men then showed Adam a vision of the future, in which God chooses to flood the world. Unlike the canonical Genesis account, God does not do this to punish the world for its wickedness; instead, he does so to wipe out "those from the seed of the men to whom passed the life of the knowledge which came from me and Eve, [Seth's] mother. For they were strangers to him."

  It is unclear who these mysterious figures were, but they were likely related to the three great men who showed Adam his vision.
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  (#1) There Was No Tree Of Knowledge In The Garden Of Eden

  The Garden of Eden is given little to no background in the Apocalypse of Adam. In fact, the garden is never even mentioned in the text. There is no mention of a garden, guardian angels, snakes, or trees. All that is shared about pre-fall Adam is that which he chooses to tell his son:

  When God had created me out of the earth, along with Eve, your mother, I went about with her in a glory which she had seen in the aeon from which we had come forth. She taught me a word of knowledge of the eternal God. And we resembled the great eternal angels, for we were higher than the god who had created us and the powers with him, whom we did not know.

  Eve seems to innately possess the secret knowledge that sullies both herself and Adam. The text later implies, however, that a powerful, apocalyptic figure called the Illuminator communicated this knowledge to Eve as part of his campaign against God.
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  (#8) God Accuses Noah Of Scorning Him By Having Children

  After the Great Flood subsides, Noah disembarks on land, only to find a group of men arriving before him. These men were "cast forth from the knowledge of the great aeons and the angels." God, seeing these men, assumes that Noah has had more children, contradicting Noah's promise not to do so. This prompts God to scold Noah:

  Why have you departed from what I told you? You have created another generation so that you might scorn my power." Then Noah will say, "I shall testify before your might that the generation of these men did not come from me nor from my sons. [...] knowledge.
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  (#13) A Mysterious Figure Called The Illuminator Arrives To Perform Miracles

  After a series of conflicts between God and various unidentified adversaries, Adam arrives at the most important part of his prophecy: the section concerning the Illuminator of Knowledge. The text heavily implies that this Illuminator is the one who originally granted Adam and Eve their knowledge of good and evil, and that he has some relationship with the mysterious men of knowledge who seemed to fight with God.

  This Illuminator has the power to redeem souls and, according to the prophecy, will "perform signs and wonders in order to scorn the powers and their ruler."
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  (#3) Adam And Eve Were Forced To Serve God In Fear And Subjugation

  Adam doesn't speak of God as a loving father in his account. Rather, he speaks of the darkness of his own fall and how terrible life became after he and Eve were cast out of the Garden of Eden:

  After those days, the eternal knowledge of the God of truth withdrew from me and your mother Eve. Since that time, we learned about... things, like men. Then we recognized the God who had created us. For we were not strangers to his powers. And we served him in fear and slavery. And after these things, we became darkened in our heart(s). Now I slept in the thought of my heart.

  Of course, Adam's post-Eden existence is hardly pleasant in the canonical Genesis, but nowhere in the accepted text does Adam speak of "fear and slavery." The darkness in the Apocalypse of Adam could potentially be attributed to the period in which it was written - many Gnostic writers were mercilessly persecuted by the Church, which was often reflected in their writing.
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  (#10) Noah's Sons Bring Forth 400,000 Men And Form 12 Tribes

  In combination, Ham, Japheth, and Shem's descendants number 400,000. These descendants of Noah then find the mysterious "men who came forth from the great eternal knowledge" who had gone to live with the angels.

  From this union are formed 12 kingdoms, the members of which are protected "from every evil thing and every unclean desire."

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