Ranks 11th on The Fictional
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"The
woman whom thou gavest to be with me,
she
gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate."
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The following books will introduce you to Adam, who said these
words in Genesis 3:12 (Revised Standard Version). Because the
earliest man, however we designate him, must necessarily predate
records that would pinpoint him historically, I treat him as
legendary.
To order a book, or for more information, visit Amazon.com,
or return home to browse other
characters. For related books, see Eve.
- New
Oxford Annotated Bible. Oxford University Press,
1991.
- A beautifully produced personal study bible at a
reasonable price. Includes informative overviews
of each book, and excellent footnotes keyed to
verses.
- Milton, John. Paradise
Lost and Other Poems. New American Library, 1996.
- Milton's expansion of the Adam and Eve story
(told with such economy in Genesis) personalizes
the first couple's relationship and still fuels
heated debate over the multifaceted gender issues
it signals.
- Pagels, Elaine. Adam,
Eve, and the Serpent. New York: Random House, 1988.
- This is the best single commentary on Adam and Eve. Pagels' lucid and impassioned prose leads
the reader through the theological labyrinth that
has grown up around them. Her history is
illuminating, showing that the view of
"original sin" that we take for granted
in western culture was a later development in
Christian doctrine and not the only way that the
story has been interpreted.
- Barnstone, Willis (Ed.). The
Other Bible: Jewish Pseudepigrapha, Christian Apocrypha,
Gnostic Scriptures. San Francisco: Harper & Row,
1984.
- Variations on the creation story in such works as
the Book of Jubilees, the Secret Book of John, On
the Origin of the World (where Adam is formed
from the mud by Eve), and The Apocalypse of Adam.
Other Jewish and Christian post-biblical legends.
- Lipscomb, W. L. (Ed.). The
Armenian Apocryphal Adam Literature. Scholar's Press,
1990.
- Fascinating apocryphal creation and post-Edenic
stories from medieval Armenia. Adam cycle
includes, for example, "History of the
Expulsion of Adam from the Garden," in which
Adam and Eve fall again for trading their
children to Satan in exchange for Light.
- Twain, Mark. The
Diaries of Adam and Eve. Fair Oaks Press, 2002.
- Twain's "translation" of the
first-person accounts of the Fall is full of more
tender wit than acerbity. Read how Adam learns
about the "new creature with the long
hair" and how he discovers that there can be
no Eden without Eve.
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