f them, said, "Rejoice, O Adam, and be glad.
Look, God has sent us to you to tell you something."

6 And Adam said, "What is it?" Then Satan answered, "It is a simple
thing, yet it is the Word of God, will you accept it from us and do it?
But if you will not accept it, we will return to God, and tell Him that
you would not receive His Word."

7 And Satan said again to Adam, "Don't be afraid and don't tremble;
don't you know us?"

8 But Adam said, "I do not know you."

9 Then Satan said to him, "I am the angel that brought you gold, and
took it to the cave; this other angel is the one that brought you
incense; and that third angel, is the one who brought you myrrh when
you were on top of the mountain, and who carried you to the cave.

10 But as to the other angels our fellows, who bare you to the cave,
God has not sent them with us this time; for He said to us, 'You will
be enough'."

11 So when Adam heard these words he believed them, and said to these
angels, "Speak the Word of God, that I may receive it."

12 And Satan said to him, "Swear, and promise me that you will receive
it."

13 Then Adam said, "I do not know how to swear and promise."

14 And Satan said to him, "Hold out your hand, and put it inside my
hand."

15 Then Adam held out his hand, and put it into Satan's hand; when
Satan said to him, "Say, now--So true as God is living, rational, and
speaking, who raised the stars in heaven, and established the dry
ground on the waters, and has created me out of the four elements*, and
out of the dust of the earth--I will not break my promise, nor renounce
my word."

16 And Adam swore thus.

17 Then Satan said to him, "Look, it is now some time since you came
out of the garden, and you know neither wickedness nor evil. But now
God says to you, to take Eve who came out of your side, and to marry
her so that she will bear you children, to comfort you, and to drive
from you trouble and sorrow; now this thing is not difficult, neither
is there any scandal in it to you.

* See the previous footnote in chapter XXXIV regarding the 'four
elements'.

Chapter LXXI - Adam is troubled by the thought of marrying Eve.

1 But when Adam heard these words from Satan, he sorrowed much, because
of his oath and of his promise, and said, "Shall I commit adultery with
my flesh and my bones, and shall I sin against myself, for God to
destroy me, and to blot me out from off the face of the earth?

2 Since, wh