have to understand is that nobody wrote the New Testament the New Testament is an assembled library small library of documents they had to make a major discussion of are we going to have the Hebrew Scriptures in their Greek rendition in our Bible will the Bible start with Matthew when the Bible start with Matthew or will the Bible start with Genesis many highly popular writings were excluded some of which were even more popular than the books that were accepted what is straight thinking and proper thinking and that discussion is not just theological that's social is political and the answer to those questions is determined by a vote what are the right books to read and what books should not pass before the eyes of the faith what books should be forbidden for their reading in biblical times hundreds of scrolls and manuscripts circulated throughout the Holy Land tales that appeared to shed more light on many well-known biblical figures most were not included in the Hebrew or Christian Bibles a little-known ancient text called the life of Adam and Eve is one such writing a forbidden book that tells a more detailed story of creation than the familiar tale found in the Old Testament Eve seta Adam my lord would that I might die perhaps then the Lord God will bring you back into paradise for it was because of me that the Lord God grew angry with you there are jealous angels and a far more devious and persistent serpent the life of Adam and Eve begins with sort of the back story of what you get in the Genesis 3 account and the Genesis 3 account you have the snake the wisest of all creatures who tempts the woman with a couple of sort of truths into taking a bite of the fruit she also gives the fruit to her husband and as soon as they consume the fruit they recognize that they are naked and they're ashamed they avoid God one important motivation for writing another version was to fill in the gaps in the Genesis story and I believe to provide a larger context for it to explain why it was that something so odd as a serpent would be tempting a woman to eat forbidden fruit but if the life of Adam and Eve gave an ancient audience more information about Eve's temptation and fall from grace why was it left out of the Bible the life of Adam and Eve was no doubt excluded because it would have had to have come in the first part of the Bible the Christian Bible tells a story not only the check the texts that are chosen to go in it but the order of the text it begins with Genesis or the beginning and it ends with Revelation a tale of the end therefore if you were going to include something like the life of Adam Eve in the Christian Bible you would need to include it in the beginning of the text near Genesis since it's clearly a retelling of Genesis there was no place for it in that Canon but not an exact retelling some scholars believe the life of Adam and Eve was written in the first century as much as a thousand years after the first known written manuscript of Genesis there is another theory that it was written at a later time in the third or fourth century at the time the Christian Bible was taking formed what the reasons for its not attaining that status might be we don't know it could be this is just guessing that people knew it was written at a later time the teachings of the book you would think would be compatible with Jewish and Christian teachings but we don't have any ancient discussion about why it may have been thought not on the same level with say Genesis while its exclusion may be a mystery we do know the book was popular in its day the anonymous writer gave his ancient audience a chance to see these temptations from Eve's point of view it is a surprising tale of deceit and betrayal far different from the version found in Genesis in the life of Adam and Eve Eve seems to be an innocent victim we find out that Eve was alone Adam was nowhere near her they both had separate halves of the garden we also find out that the guardian angels who are supposed to protect Adam and Eve are gone so Eve is sitting there alone when all of a sudden she sees not only the serpent but but the devil disguised as an angel and this devil as an angel convinces her to take from the tree that she is not supposed to eat from and at first she says no no I really shouldn't do that don't make God angry and he says after you're done you won't need to worry about God in effect when Satan's ruse is revealed Eve's innocent trust turns to terror she realizes that Adam will share her hellish punishment expulsion from paradise and a life of wandering in an unforgiving wasteland Adam and Eve of course want to get back into the garden and so Adam devises a means by which they are tested and they stand in in rivers they stand in separate rivers do you wish to kill me that I might die Adam responded don't say such things Eve lets the Lord God bring upon us some other curse how could it be that I should raise my hand against my own flesh Adam decides to stand in the River Jordan for forty days and suggests to Eve that since she's weaker she should only stand in the Tigris for 34 days however while she's in the Tigris the devil comes disguised as an angel after 18 days and convinces her to leave the river the Lord God has heard your lamenting and accepting of penitence now therefore come out of the water and I will lead you to the place where your food is prepared she walks over to Adam with this wonderful news we've been rescued from the rivers and Adam looks at her and sees not an angel standing beside her but the devil and he says Eve how could you have done this again when Adam was created in God's image the angels were ordered to bow to Adam or worship Adam and the Satan refused to do this he said he should not bow to someone who was created after he was was inferior to him in defiance Satan and his gang of rebel angels build a rival throne that literally places them above God