Genesis 2:4b – 3:24

The Creation of the Paradise

2:4b	When it became, in the Day in which God made the heavens and the earth,
5	and every green field before it existed upon the earth, and all the grass of the field before it sprang up, for God had not rained upon the earth, there was no human to work it.
6	But a source went up from out of the earth, and it watered all the face of the earth.
7	And God formed the human, dust from the earth. And He breathed into his face the breath of life. And the human became a living soul.
8	And God planted Paradise in Edem according to the rising, and placed there the human whom He had formed.
9	And God caused yet to rise out of the earth every tree, beautiful in appearance, and good for food, and the Tree of Life, in the middle of the Paradise, and the Tree of Conscience, knowing Good and Evil.
10	And a river proceeds from Edem to water the Paradise; from there, it separates into four beginnings.
11	The name of the one: Phison. This is the one encircling all the land of Evilat, where there is gold.
12	And the gold of that land is good. And there also is the charcoal, and the green stone.
13	And the name of the second river: Geon. This is the one encircling all the land of Ethiopia.
14	And the third river: Tigris. This is the one going forth over against the Assyrians. And the fourth river: Euphrates.
15	And the Lord God took the man whom He had formed, and placed him in the Paradise, to work and to guard it.
16	And the Lord God instructed Adam, saying: “From every tree in the Paradise you shall eat food,
17	but from the Tree of Acquiring Knowledge of Good and Evil, from it you shall not eat; but in whatever day you should eat from it, you shall die to death.”
18	And the Lord God said: “It is not good that the human should be alone; let us make for him a helper according to him.”
19	And God formed yet from out of the earth all the wild beasts of the field, and all the birds of the heaven. And He led them to Adam, to see what he would call them. And whatever the living soul Adam called it, that was the name of it.
20	And Adam gave names to all the cattle, and to all the birds of the heaven, and to all the wild beasts of the field; but for Adam there was not found a helper likened to him.
21	And God put a change of state over Adam, and he slept. And He took one side of his body, and filled it up with flesh against it.
22	And the Lord God built the side which He took from Adam into a wife. And He led her to Adam.
23	And Adam said: “This now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman, because she was taken from the man.
24	Because of this shall a man leave behind his father and his mother, and shall glue onto his wife; and the two shall be for one flesh.”
25	And the two were naked, both Adam and his wife. And they were not ashamed.
3:1	But the serpent was the most skilled of all the wild beasts, of the ones whom the Lord God made upon the earth. And the serpent said to the wife: “Wherefore said God: No way should you eat from all the trees of the Paradise?”
2	And the wife said: “From fruit of the wood of the Paradise we shall eat,
3	but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the Paradise, God said: Eat not from it, nor touch it, that you should not die.”
4	And the serpent said to the wife: “Not to death will you die,
5	for God knows that in whatever day you should eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be as gods, knowing good and evil.”
6	And the wife saw that the tree was good for food, and pleasing to the eyes to look upon, and beautiful for contemplating. And having taken of its fruit, she ate, and she also gave to her husband with her, and they ate.
7	And the eyes of the two were opened, and they realized that they were naked. And they sewed leaves of a fig-tree, and made themselves loincloths.
8	And when walking in the Paradise at dusk, they heard the voice of the Lord God. And both Adam and his wife hid in the midst of the wood of the Paradise from the face of the Lord God.
9	And God called Adam, and said to him: “Adam, where are you?”
10	And he said to Him: “I heard Your voice while walking in the Paradise, and I feared, for I am naked, and I hid.”
11	And God said to him: “Who made known to you that you are naked, unless you ate from the Tree of which I have instructed you ‘This alone not to eat from it’?”
12	And Adam said: “The wife whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the Tree, and I ate.”
13	And the Lord God said to the wife: “Why did you do this?” And the wife said: “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
14	And the Lord God said to the serpent: “Because you did this, you are accursed from all the cattle, and from all the wild beasts of the ones upon the earth. Upon your breast and belly you shall go, and you shall eat earth all the days of your life.
15	And I will put enmity between you and the wife, and between your seed and her seed. She shall observe your head, and you shall observe her heel.”
16	And to the woman, He said: “I will greatly multiply your grief and your groanings. In pain you will bear children, and your submission to your husband, and he will rule over you.”
17	And to Adam, He said: “Because you hearkened to the voice of your wife, and you ate from the Tree of which I have instructed to you, saying ‘Not to eat from it’, accursed is the soil in your works; in sorrow you will eat it all the days of your life.
18	Thorns and thistles will rise to you, and you will eat the grass of the field.
19	In the sweat of your face, you will eat your bread, until you return into the earth from out of which you were taken. For earth you are, and unto earth you will return.”
20	And Adam called the name of his woman ‘Life’, for she was the mother of all living.
21	And the Lord God made for Adam and his wife garments of skin, and clothed them.
22	And God said: “Behold, Adam has become as one of us, to know good and evil. And now, lest at any time he might stretch out the hand, and should take from the Tree of Life, and should eat, and will live into the Aeon.”
23	And the Lord God ejected him from the Paradise of indulgence, to work the earth from which he was taken.
24	And He cast out Adam, and settled him opposite to the Paradise of indulgence, and ordered the Cherub and the flaming sword that turns around to guard the way to the Tree of Life.

This second story from the Book of Genesis, translated by Johan Oldenkamp, is also available in Greek, Spanish, German, and Dutch.