(from Apocalypse of Moses)
xv. 1 Then saith Eve to them: 'Hear all my children and children's children and I will relate to you 2 how the enemy deceived us. It befell that we were guarding paradise, each of us the portion 3 allotted to us from God. Now I guarded in my lot, the west and the south. But the devil went to Adam's lot, where the male creatures were. [For God divided the creatures; all the males he gave to your father and all the females he gave to me.]
xvi. 1 And the devil spake to the serpent saying, "Rise up, come to me and I will tell thee a word 2 whereby thou mayst have profit." And he arose and came to him. And the devil saith to him: 3 "I hear that thou art wiser than all the beasts, and I have come to counsel thee. Why dost thou eat of Adam's tares and not of paradise? Rise up and we will cause him to be cast out of paradise, even 4 as we were cast out through him." The serpent saith to him, "I fear lest the Lord be wroth with 5 me." The devil saith to him: "Fear not, only be my vessel and I will speak through thy mouth words to deceive him."
xvii. 1 And instantly he hung himself from the wall of paradise, and when the angels ascended to 2 worship God, then Satan appeared in the form of an angel and sang hymns like the angels. And I bent over the wall and saw him, like an angel. But he saith to me: "Art thou Eve?" And I said 3 to him, "I am." "What art thou doing in paradise?" And I said to him, "God set us to guard and 4 to eat of it." The devil answered through the mouth of the serpent: "Ye do well but ye do not eat 5 of every plant." And I said: "Yea, we eat of all, save one only, which is in the midst of paradise, concerning which, God charged us not to eat of it: for, He said to us, on the day on which ye eat of it, ye shall die the death."
xviii. 1 Then the serpent saith to me, "May God live! but I am grieved on your account, for I would not have you ignorant. But arise, (come) hither, hearken to me and eat and mind the value of that tree." 2, 3 But I said to him, "I fear lest God be wroth with me as he told us." And he saith to me: "Fear not, for as soon as thou eatest of it, ye too shall be as God, in that ye shall know good and evil. 4 But God perceived this that ye would be like Him, so he envied you and said, Ye shall not eat of 5, 6 it. Nay, do thou give heed to the plant and thou wilt see its great glory." Yet I feared to take of the fruit. And he saith to me: "Come hither, and I will give it thee. Follow me."
xix. 1 And I opened to him and he walked a little way, then turned and said to me: "I have changed my 2 mind and I will not give thee to eat until thou swear to me to give also to thy husband." (And) I said, "What sort of oath shall I swear to thee? Yet what I know, I say to thee: By the throne of the 3 Master, and by the Cherubim and the Tree of Life, I will give also to my husband to eat." And when he had received the oath from me, he went and poured upon the fruit the poison of his wickedness, which is lust, the root and beginning of every sin, and he bent the branch on the earth and I took of the fruit and I ate.
xx. 1 And in that very hour my eyes were opened, and forthwith I knew that I was bare of the righteousness 2 with which I had been clothed (upon), and I wept and said to him: "Why hast thou 3 done this to me in that thou hast deprived me of the glory with which I was clothed? "But I wept also about the oath, which I had sworn. But he descended from the tree and vanished. 4 And I began to seek, in my nakedness, in my part for leaves to hide my shame, but I found none, for, as soon as I had eaten, the leaves showered down from all the trees in my part, except the fig 5 tree only. But I took leaves from it and made for myself a girdle and it was from the very same plant of which I had eaten.
xxi. 1 And I cried out in that very hour, "Adam, Adam, where art thou? Rise up, come to me and 2 I will show thee a great secret." But when your father came, I spake to him words of transgression 3 [which have brought us down from our great glory]. For, when he came, I opened my mouth and the devil was speaking, and I began to exhort him and said, "Come hither, my lord Adam, hearken to me and eat of the fruit of the tree of which God told us not to eat of it, and thou shalt be as 4 a God." And your father answered and said, "I fear lest God be wroth with me." And I said to 5 him, "Fear not, for as soon as thou hast eaten thou shalt know good and evil." And speedily I persuaded him, and he ate and straightway his eyes were opened and he too knew his nakedness. 6 And to me he saith, 'O wicked woman! what have I done to thee that thou hast deprived me of the glory of God?"
