CHAPTER LXXIII

The marriage of Adam and Eve.

1 Then God considered the words of Adam that they were true, and that he could long await His order, respecting the counsel of Satan.

1. And God approved Adam in what he had thought concerning this, and in

   the prayer he had offered in His presence; and the Word of God came to Adam and said to him, "O Adam, if only you had had this caution at first, before you came out of the garden into this land!"

2. After that, God sent His angel who had brought gold, and the angel

   who had brought incense, and the angel who had brought myrrh to Adam, that they should inform him respecting his marriage to Eve.

3. Then those angels said to Adam, "Take the gold and give it to Eve as

   a wedding gift, and promise to marry her; then give her some incense and myrrh as a present; and be you, you and she, one flesh."

4. Adam obeyed the angels, and took the gold and put it into Eve's

   bosom in her garment; and promised to marry her with his hand.

5. Then the angels commanded Adam and Eve to get up and pray forty days

   and forty nights; when that was done, then Adam was to have sexual intercourse with his wife; for then this would be an act pure and undefiled; so that he would have children who would multiply, and replenish the face of the earth.

6. Then both Adam and Eve received the words of the angels; and the

   angels departed from them.

7. Then Adam and Eve began to fast and pray, until the end of the forty

   days; and then they had sexual intercourse, as the angels had told them. And from the time Adam left the garden until he wedded Eve, were two hundred and twenty-three days, that is seven months and thirteen days.

8. Thus was Satan's war with Adam defeated.