Adam and Hewan

Adam and Hewan, the ancestor of all.

At the beginning of time, Egziabher formed the first man out of the dust, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. The man became a living soul.

Egziabher formed a paradise, the Garden of Eden, and put Adam there to take care of it.

Egziabher had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.

There was no companion for the man. So, Egziabher made the first woman from Adam’s rib.

Adam said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.” That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.

Egziabher said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

The first man and woman lived pure lives and were free within paradise. Egziabher commanded just one rule: They may eat from any tree, except the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

The Serpent was more clever than any beast Egziabher had made. He tricked the woman, and both Adam and Hewan ate the forbidden fruit.

Their eyes were opened. For the first time, they felt shame, and knew that they were naked, and hid themselves to the eyes of their Creator.

The angel Kirubel was placed at the gate with a flaming sword, to guard the way back to the Tree of Life.

For their sin, Egziabher cursed the serpent, and the man, and the woman. He multiplied their suffering, and reduced their immortality to a human lifetime. Adam and Hewan were banished from the Garden of Eden to work the dust from which Adam had been formed.

Egziabher made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. And Egziabher said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”