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The Forgotten Books of Eden · 78 of 293

First Adam and Eve: Chapter LXXV

The family revisits the Cave of Treasures. Birth of Abel and Aklemia.

1.THEN Adam prepared an offering, and he and Eve offered it up for their children, and brought it to the altar they had built at first.

2.And Adam offered up the offering, and besought God to accept his offering.

3.Then God accepted Adam’s offering, and sent a light from heaven that shone upon the offering. And Adam and the son drew near to the offering, but Eve and the daughter did not approach unto it.

4.Then Adam came down from upon the altar, and they were joyful; and Adam and Eve waited until the daughter was eighty days old; then Adam prepared an offering and took it to Eve and to the children; and they went to the altar, where Adam offered it up, as he was wont, asking the Lord to accept his offering.

5.And the Lord accepted the offering of Adam and Eve. Then Adam, Eve, and the children, drew near together, and came down from the mountain, rejoicing.

6.But they returned not to the cave in which they were born; but came to the Cave of Treasures, in order that the children should go round it, and be blessed with the tokens brought from the garden.

7.But after they had been blessed with these tokens, they went back to the cave in which they were born.

8.However, before Eve had offered up the offering, Adam had taken her, and had gone with her to the river of water, in which they threw themselves at first; and there they washed themselves. Adam washed his body and Eve hers also clean, after the suffering and distress that had come upon them.

9.But Adam and Eve, after washing themselves in the river of water, returned every night to the Cave of Treasures, where they prayed and were blessed; and then went back to their cave where the children were born

10.So did Adam and Eve until the children had done sucking. Then, when they were weaned, Adam made an offering for the souls of his children; other than the three times he made an offering for them, every week.

11.When the days of nursing the children were ended, Eve again conceived, and when her days were accomplished she brought forth another son and daughter; and they named the son Abel, and the daughter Aklia.

12.Then at the end of forty days, Adam made an offering for the son, and at the end of eighty days he made another offering for the daughter, and did by them, as he had done before by Cain and his sister Luluwa.

13.He brought them to the Cave of Treasures, where they received a blessing, and then returned to the cave where they were born. After the birth of these, Eve ceased from childbearing.

Asked of Guide

Why does Adam make offerings for each child at forty and eighty days?

Adam performs offerings at forty days for sons and eighty days for daughters as a ritual of dedication and acceptance before God; the chapter says God “accepted Adam’s offering” with a heavenly light shining on it, which frames these acts as sacramental acknowledgments of the child into the family’s covenant life. The repeated pattern—offering, blessing at the Cave of Treasures, then returning to the birth cave—marks those days as formal moments when parents present their children to divine favor.

This practice connects to wider Jewish and early Christian customs of purification and presentation; Luke’s Gospel records Mary presenting Jesus in the temple after the days prescribed by the Law, and Jubilees and other pseudepigrapha preserve similar postnatal rites. The chapter treats the offerings as communal and familial acts that secure blessing and identity for each child rather than mere private prayers.

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