✶Gnosis
← Contents
Theme
076 / 293

Listen

Dhammapada · narration sample

A one-minute narration sample. Every book in the library is narrated end to end — hear the rest in the app.

The Forgotten Books of Eden · 76 of 293

First Adam and Eve: Chapter LXXIII

The betrothal of Adam and Eve.

1.THEN God looked upon the words of Adam that they were true, and that he could long await His order, respecting the counsel of Satan.

2.And God approved Adam in what he had thought concerning this, and in the prayer he had offered in His presence; and the Word of God came unto Adam and said to him, “O Adam, if only thou hadst had this caution at first, ere thou earnest out of the garden into this land!”

3.After that, God sent His angel who had brought gold, and the angel who had brought incense, and the angel who had brought myrrh to Adam, that they should inform him respecting his wedding Eve.

4.Then those angels said to Adam, “Take the gold and give it to Eve as a wedding gift, and betroth her; then give her some incense and myrrh as a present; and be ye, thou and she, one flesh.”

5.Adam hearkened to the angels, and took the gold and put it into Eve’s bosom in her garment; and bethrothed her with his hand.

6.Then the angels commanded Adam and Eve, to arise and pray forty days and forty nights; and after that, that Adam should come in to his wife; for then this would be an act pure and undefiled; and he should have children who would multiply, and replenish the face of the earth.

7.Then both Adam and Eve received the words of the angels; and the angels departed from them.

8.Then Adam and Eve began to fast and to pray, until the end of the forty days; and then they came together, as the angels had told them. And from the time Adam left the garden until he wedded Eve, were two hundred and twenty-three days, that is seven months and thirteen days.

9.Thus was Satan’s war with Adam defeated.

Asked of Guide

Why did Adam and Eve fast forty days before coming together as husband and wife?

The chapter says the angels commanded Adam and Eve “to arise and pray forty days and forty nights” so that when Adam came to his wife it would be “an act pure and undefiled.” The forty-day fast is presented as a ritual of purification and readiness so their union would be sanctified and fruitful.

This episode ties the couple’s chastity to divine instruction: God and His angels approve the betrothal, give symbolic gifts of gold, incense, and myrrh, and set the forty days as a consecration. The pattern echoes other biblical fasts of forty days, like Moses and Elijah, which mark preparation for a covenantal moment.

Guide is the guide inside the Gnosis app, where every book on these shelves is free to read. Guide is the part you pay for — your guide has read all of them, and answers about the passage you’re actually on. Ask your guide your own question.