The Life of Adam and Eve

READING ACTS: The Life of Adam and Eve. The Latin version of this work is called "The Life of Adam and Eve." The Greek version is called "The Apocalypse of Moses." The title differs because the latter version frames the story as a divine revelation to Moses.

Recent work on this text calls into doubt that there was a Hebrew original behind the Greek and Latin. I agree that it was probably composed in Greek. A good case has also been made that it is a Christian composition. See M. de Jonge and M. Tromp, The Life of Adam and Even and Related Literature (Guides to Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha: Sheffield, 1997) and the relevant essays in M. de Jonge, Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament as Part of Christian Literature: The Case of the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchas and the Greek Life of Adam and Eve (SVTP 18; Leiden: Brill, 2003).

UPDATE: For previous posts in Phil's ongoing series on the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, start here and follow the links.

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