The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context

STONE Jewish Tradition and the Christian West 441
argument on the polymorphism of the Latin Vita Adae et Evae, a
work which occurs in a bewildering variety of forms. 35 However,
once we consider the character of the forms of the Life of Adam and
Eve itself that have been published in recent years, this hypothesis
becomes less compelling. Such apparent 'combinations' of material, it
should be remembered, are exactly what is to be found in the
Armenian Penitence of Adam and in the Georgian Book of Adam,
both of which go back to Greek originals. It would be of interest to
know the views of scholars of the Old Irish works, after they study
the Armenian and Georgian documents. Perhaps the Saltair na Rann
(and conceivably some other Old Irish Adam traditions) preserve evidence
for yet another 'primary' Adam writing. 36
In other words, the interrelationships between the Eastern traditions
themselves and between them and the West were far more complicated
than would appear on the surface of things. A deeper knowledge of
the ancient Jewish literature and traditions might enable the mediaevalists
to perceive possibilities that they would otherwise have
ignored. Let us take examine another intriguing instance of similar
complications which will illustrate graphically the complexity of the
'Eastern' area of Christian production of biblical tales.
The Cheirograph of Adam
It has been commonly asserted that there is extensive Bogomil
influence in the Slavonic Vita Adam et Evae. The basis for this has
been, above all, the legend of the cheirograph, found in chs. 33-34 of
the Slavonic Vita Adam et Evae. Indeed, of all the primary Adam
books, the Slavonic Vita Adam alone preserves this narrative of
Satan's second deception of Adam and Eve and the contract or cheirograph
he made with them. This legend, in Slavonic circles, relates that
Adam made the contract with Satan either in order to have light, for it
had become dark, or in order to gain the right to work the soil: the
35. See M.B. Halford, 'The Apocryphal Vita Adae et Evae: Some Comments on
the Manuscript Tradition', in Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 82 (1981), pp. 417-27.
36. An interesting further observation is that the Quest of Seth and the Holy Rood
material that is sometimes associated with it lacks completely from the Saltair na
Rann as well. Yet, Murdoch ('An Early Irish Adam and Eve', pp. 171-72) argues
that there are reminiscences of this material in the Saltair na Rann.