{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/004/0040028.htm","path":"chr/ecf/004/0040028.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/004/0040028.htm","text":"(Author Uncertain.)\nIn the beginning did the Lord create\nThe heaven and earth:1 for formless was the land,2\nAnd hidden by the wave, and God immense3\nO'er the vast watery plains was hovering,\n5 While chaos and black darkness shrouded all:\nWhich darkness, when God bade be from the pole4\nDisjoined, He speaks, \"Let there be light; \"and all\nIn the clear world5 was bright. Then, when the Lord\nThe first day's work had finished, He formed\n10 Heaven's axis white with nascent clouds: the deep\nImmense receives its wandering6 shores, and draws\nThe rivers manifold with mighty trains.\nThe third dun light unveiled earth's7 face, and soon\n(Its name assigned8 ) the dry land's story 'gins:\n15 Together on the windy champaigns rise\nThe flowery seeds, and simultaneously\nFruit-bearing boughs put forth procurvant arms.\nThe fourth day, with9 the sun's lamp generates\nThe moon, and moulds the stars with tremulous light\n20 Radiant: these elements it10 gave as signs\nTo th' underlying world,11 to teach the times\nWhich, through their rise and setting, were to change.\nThen, on the fifth, the liquid12 streams receive\nTheir fish, and birds poise in the lower air\n25 Their pinions many-hued. The sixth. again,\nSupples the ice-cold snakes into their coils,\nAnd over the whole fields diffuses herds\nOf quadrupeds; and mandate gave that all\nShould grow with multiplying seed, and roam\n30 And feed in earth's immensity. All these\nWhen power divine by mere command arranged,\nObserving that things mundane still would lack\nA ruler, thus It13 speaks: \"With utmost care,\nAssimilated to our own aspect,14\n35 Make We a man to reign in the whole orb.\"\nAnd him, although He with a single word15\nCould have compounded, yet Himself did deign\nTo shape him with His sacred own right hand,\nInspiring his dull breast from breast divine.\n40 Whom when He saw formed in a likeness such\nAs is His own, He measures how he broods\nAlone on gnawing cares. Straight way his eyes\nWith sleep irriguous He doth perfuse;\nThat from his left rib woman softlier\n45 May formed be, and that by mixture twin\nHis substance may add firmness to her limbs.\nTo her the name of \"Life\"-which is called \"Eve\"16 -\nIs given: wherefore sons, as custom is,\nTheir parents leave, and, with a settled home,\n50 Cleave to their wives.\nThe seventh came, when God\nAt His works' end did rest, decreeing it\nSacred unto the coming ages' joys.\nStraightway-the crowds of living things deployed\nBefore him-Adam's cunning skill (the gift\n55 Of the good Lord) gives severally to all\nThe name which still is permanent. Himself,\nAnd, joined with him, his Eve, God deigns address\n\"Grow, for the times to come, with manifold\nIncrease, that with your seed the pole and earth17\n60 Be filled; and, as Mine heirs, the varied fruits\nPluck ye, which groves and champaigns render you,\nFrom their rich turf.\" Thus after He discoursed,\nIn gladsome court18 a paradise is strewn,\nAnd looks towards the rays of th' early sun.19\n65 These joys among, a tree with deadly fruits,\nBreeding, conjoined, the taste of life and death,\nArises. In the midst of the demesne20\nFlows with pure tide a stream, which irrigates\nFair offsprings from its liquid waves, and cuts\n70 Quadrified paths from out its bubbling fount\nHere wealthy Phison, with auriferous waves,\nSwells, and with hoarse tide wears21 conspicuous gems,\nThis prasinus,22 that glowing carbuncle,23\nBy name; and raves, transparent in its shoals,\n75 The margin of the land of Havilath.\nNext Gihon, gliding by the Aethiops,\nEnriches them. The Tigris is the third,\nAdjoined to fair Euphrates, furrowing\nDisjunctively with rapid flood the land\n80 Of Asshur. Adam, with his faithful wife,\nPlaced here as guard and workman, is informed\nBy such the Thunderer's24 speech: \"Tremble ye not\nTo pluck together the permitted fruits\nWhich, with its leafy bough, the unshorn grove\n85 Hath furnished; anxious only lest perchance\nYe cull the hurtful apple,25 which is green\nWith a twin juice for functions several.\"\nAnd, no less blind meantime than Night herself,\nDeep night 'gan hold them, nor had e'en a robe\n90 Covered their new-formed limbs.\nAmid these haunts,\nAnd on mild berries reared, a foamy snake,\nSurpassing living things in sense astute,\nWas creeping silently with chilly coils.\nHe, brooding over envious lies instinct\n95 With gnawing sense, tempts the soft heart beneath\nThe woman's breast: \"Tell me, why shouldst thou dread\nThe apple's26 happy seeds? Why, hath not\nAll known fruits hallowed?27 Whence if thou be prompt\nTo cull the honeyed fruits, the golden world28\n100 Will on its starry pole return.\"29\nBut she Refuses, and the boughs forbidden fears\nTo touch. But yet her breast 'gins be o'er come\nWith sense infirm. Straightway, as she at length\nWith snowy tooth the dainty morsels bit,\n105 Stained with no cloud the sky serene up-lit!\nThen taste, instilling lure in honeyed jaws,\nTo her yet uninitiated lord\nConstrained her to present the gift; which he\nNo sooner took, then-night effaced!:-their eyes\n110 Shone out serene in the resplendent world.30\nWhen, then, they each their body bare espied,\nAnd when their shameful parts they see, with leaves\nOf fig they shadow them. By chance, beneath\nThe sun's now setting light, they recognise\n115 The sound of the Lord's voice, and, trembling, haste\nTo bypaths. Then the Lord of heaven accosts\nThe mournful Adam: \"Say, where now thou art.\"\nWho suppliant thus answers: \"Thine address,\nO Lord, O Mighty One, I tremble at,\n120 Beneath my fearful heart; and, being bare,\nI faint with chilly dread.\" Then said the\nLord:\n\"Who hath the hurtful fruits, then, given you? \"\n\"This woman, while she tells me how her eyes\nWith brilliant day promptly perfused were,\n125 And on her dawned the liquid sky serene,\nAnd heaven's sun and stars, o'ergave them me!\"\nForthwith God's anger frights perturbed Eve,\nWhile the Most High inquires the authorship\nOf the forbidden act. Hereon she opes\n130 Her tale: \"The speaking serpent's suasive words\nI harboured, while the guile and bland request\nMisled me: for, with venoms viperous\nHis words inweaving, stories told he me\nOf those delights which should all fruits excel.\"\n135 Straightway the Omnipotent the dragon's deeds\nCondemns, and bids him be to all a sight\nUnsightly, monstrous; bids him presently\nWith grovelling beast to crawl; and then to bite\nAnd chew the soil; while war should to all time\n140 'Twixt human senses and his tottering self\nBe waged, that he might creep, crestfallen, prone,\nBehind the legs of men,31 -that while he glides\nClose on their heels they may down-trample him.\nThe woman, sadly caught by guileful words,\n145 Is bidden yield her fruit with struggle hard,\nAnd bear her husband's yoke with patient zeal.32\n\"But thou, to whom the sentence33 of the wife\n(Who, vanquished, to the dragon pitiless\nYielded) seemed true, shalt through long times deplore\n150 Thy labour sad; for thou shalt see, instead\nOf wheaten harvest's seed, the thistle rise,\nAnd the thorn plenteously with pointed spines:\nSo that, with weary heart and mournful breast,\nFull many sighs shall furnish anxious food;34\n155 Till, in the setting hour of coming death,\nTo level earth, whence thou thy body draw'st,\nThou be restored.\" This done, the Lord bestows\nUpon the trembling pair a tedious life;\nAnd from the sacred gardens far removes\n160 Them downcast, and locates them opposite,\nAnd from the threshold bars them by mid fire,\nWherein from out the swift heat is evolved\nA cherubim,35 while fierce the hot point glows,\nAnd rolls enfolding flames. And lest their limbs\n165 With sluggish cold should be benumbed, the Lord\nHides flayed from cattle's flesh together sews,\nWith vestures warm their bare limbs covering.\nWhen, therefore, Adam-now believing-felt\n(By wedlock taught) his manhood, he confers\n170 On his loved wife the mother's name; and, made\nSuccessively by scions twain a sire,\nGives names to stocks36 diverse: Cam the first\nHath for his name, to whom is Abel joined.\nThe latter's care tended the harmless sheep;\n175 The other turned the earth with curved plough.\nThese, when in course of time37 they brought their gifts\nTo Him who thunders, offered-as their sense\nPrompted them-fruits unlike. The elder one\nOffered the first-fruits38 of the fertile glebes:\n180 The other pays his vows with gentle lamb,\nBearing in hand the entrails pure, and fat\nSnow-white; and to the Lord, who pious vows\nBeholds, is instantly acceptable.\nWherefore with anger cold did Cain glow;39\n185 With whom God deigns to talk, and thus begins:\n\"Tell Me, if thou live rightly, and discern\nThings hurtful, couldst thou not then pass shine age\nPure from contracted guilt? Cease to essay\nWith gnawing sense thy brother's ruin, who,\n190 Subject to thee as lord, his neck shall yield.\"\nNot e'en thus softened, he unto the fields\nConducts his brother; whom when overta'en\nIn lonely mead he saw, with his twin palms\nBruising his pious throat, he crushed life out.\n195 Which deed the Lord espying from high heaven,\nStraitly demands \"where Abel is on earth? \"\nHe says \"he will not as his brother's guard\nBe set.\" Then God outspeaks to him again:\n\"Doth not the sound of his blood's voice, sent up\n200 To Me, ascend unto heaven's lofty pole?\nLearn, therefore, for so great a crime what doom\nShall wait thee. Earth, which with thy kinsman's blood\nHath reeked but now, shall to thy hateful hand\nRefuse to render back the cursed seeds\n205 Entrusted her; nor shall, if set with herbs,\nProduce her fruit: that, torpid, thou shalt dash\nThy limbs against each other with much fear.\"....","title":"Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol IV: 3. Genesis.","type":"page"}