Chapter 56

1

NEVERTHELESS, because you have besought El Elyon to reveal to you the interpretation of the vision which you have seen, I have been sent to tell you.

2

And El Elohiym has assuredly made known to you the methods of the times that have passed, and of those that are destined to pass in his world from the beginning of its creation even unto its consummation, of those things which are deceit and of those which are in truth.

3

For as you did see a great cloud which ascended from the sea, and went and covered the earth; this is the duration of the world which El Elohiym made when he took counsel to make the world.

4

And it came to pass when the word had gone forth from his presence that the duration of the world had come into being in a small degree, and was established according to the multitude of the intelligence of him who sent it.

5

And as you did previously see on the summit of the cloud black waters which descended previously on the earth, this is the transgression wherewith A'dam the first man transgressed.

6

For since when he transgressed untimely death came into being, grief was named and anguish was prepared, and pain was created, and trouble consummated, and disease began to be established, and She'ol kept demanding that it should be renewed in blood, and the begetting of children was brought about, and the passion of parents produced, and the greatness of man was humiliated, and goodness languished.

7

What therefore can be blacker or darker than these things?

8

This is the beginning of the black waters which you have seen.

9

And from these black waters again were black derived, and the darkness of darkness was produced.

10

For he became a danger to his own soul: even to the angels became he a danger.

11

For, moreover, at that time when he was created, they enjoyed liberty.

12

And some of them descended, and mingled with the women.

13

And then those who did so were tormented in chains.

14

But the rest of the multitude of the angels, of which there is no number, restrained themselves.

15

And those who dwelt on the earth perished together with them through the waters of the deluge.

16

These are the black first waters.



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