SJT 61(3): 327–339 (2008) Printed in the United Kingdom 

C 2008 Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd

doi:10.1017/S0036930608004067

The struggle between the ‘image of God’ and

Satan in the Greek Life of Adam and Eve
Rivka Nir
Open University of Israel, 108 Ravutski Street, PO Box 808, Raanana 43107, Israel
rivkani@openu.ac.il

Abstract
According to a tradition in the Greek Life of Adam and Eve (GLAE), Seth and his
mother Eve were confronted by a wild beast that attacked Seth. This article
asserts that Seth’s battle with the beast should be understood as a struggle
between the ‘image of God’ and Satan, and viewed in a Christian context.
The claim is based on three aspects of the story: how the beast is described, why
it attacked Seth and only he could control it, and why the beast was confined
to its dwelling place until the Day of Judgement. The struggle between Seth and
the beast/Satan should be seen as a link in the chain of struggle between the
image of God and Satan. It begins in Paradise between Adam, the image of
God, and Satan, as recounted in the story of Satan’s fall from heaven, continues
on earth between Seth, Adam’s descendant, and Satan, and will culminate with
the final victory of Jesus, the ultimate image of God, over Satan at the end of
times.

In the Greek Life of Adam and Eve (GLAE), on their way to Paradise to fetch
the ‘oil which flows from the tree’ for Adam, lying on his deathbed, Seth
and his mother Eve are confronted by a wild beast which attacks Seth. Eve,
realising her culpability, weeps and says,
8 ‘Woe is me! For when I come to the
–
day of resurrection (τὴν ημέραν της αναστ’ άσεως), all who have sinned
will curse me, saying that Eve did not keep the commandment of God’.
And she rebukes the beast and says, ‘O you8 evil beast,
8 do you not fear to
»
attack the image of God (τὴν εικÓνα τOυ θεOυ)? How was your mouth
opened? How did your teeth grow strong? How did you not remember your
subjection, for you were once subjected to the image of God?’ But the beast
blames Eve for the loss of human authority over the animals; because she
ate from the forbidden tree, the animals’ nature changed, thus enabling the
beast to rebuke her. Then Seth says to the beast, ‘Shut your mouth and be
silent, and keep away
8 from the image of God until the day of judgment
– –
(εως ημέρας της κρίσεως)’. And the beast says to Seth, ‘See, I stand off,

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 scottish journal of theology

Seth, from the image of God’, and it flees to its dwelling place, [leaving Seth
wounded] (GLAE, 10–12).1
This tradition is usually interpreted as a realisation of the curse of God
upon the serpent (Gen. 3:14–15), according to which an enmity will exist
between it and the woman, and between their offspring, or as an aetiological
story which recounts the moment at which the animals were released from
their status of subjugation to humankind, conferred on Adam and Eve after
their creation (Gen. 1:28).2 Its main concern is ‘how to keep the wild animals
from wreaking havoc on the human race’.3
According to this interpretation, it is generally agreed that the beast in
the GLAE was not intended to represent Satan. Most scholars refute the Latin
Life of Adam and Eve (LLAE) and the Armenian recension’s identification of the
beast as a symbol of Satan, arguing that these are secondary versions and
incompatible with the original concern of this episode. Because they regard
this tradition as a narrative based on biblical themes, they understand it as a
Jewish tradition rooted in a biblical Jewish background.4
In this paper, I will endeavour to establish that the battle between Seth
and the beast can also be perceived as a struggle between Seth and Satan, and
that the whole tradition should be viewed in a Christian context. In order to
reveal the tradition’s full meaning, three questions must be addressed. (1)
Who is the beast? (2) Why did the beast attack Seth and why could only he
control it? (3) Why did the beast have to wait in its dwelling place until the
Day of Judgement?

1
M. D. Johnson, ‘Life of Adam and Eve’, in J. H. Charlesworth (ed.), The Old Testament
Pseudepigrapha, vol. 2 (New York: Doubleday, 1985), pp. 273–5. For a critical text,
see J. Tromp, The Life of Adam and Eve in Greek (Leiden: Brill, 2005), pp. 132–4. See
also J. R. Levison, Texts in Transition (Atlanta, GA: Society of Biblical Literature, 2000),
pp. 58–61.
2
This rebellion of the animals is mentioned clearly in GLAE, 24:4; in the Slavonic version,
the beast declares that its intention was not simply to harm Seth, but to destroy Eve
and all her children (11–15). The rebellion is a clear symbol of the loss of Edenic life;
see The Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch, 73:5, which describes the future Paradise where the
animals will again be subjugated to humans. G. A. Anderson, ‘The Penitence Narrative
in the Life of Adam and Eve’, Hebrew Union College Annual (HUCA) 63 (1992), p. 30; D.A.
Bertrand, La Vie Grecque d’Adam et Eve (Paris: Librairie Adrien Maisonneuve, 1987), p. 24;
L. Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America,
1908–38), p. 201; M. de Jonge and J. Tromp, The Life of Adam and Eve and Related Literature
(Sheffield: Academic Press, 1997), p. 54.
3
Anderson, ‘Penitence Narrative’, pp. 34–5.
4
Ibid., p. 34; Johnson, ‘Life of Adam and Eve’, p. 274, n. 39.

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 The struggle between the ‘image of God’ and Satan

Who is the beast?

The indeterminate beast (θήρ) in the GLAE, which is identified with the
serpent in the LLAE,5 is described as wild (huge)6 and evil, with strong bared
teeth, and capable of speech. It rebukes Eve and blames her for the loss of
human authority, it is unafraid of attacking Seth and even dares to wound
him. Only Seth can fight and defeat the beast. He banishes it to its dwelling
place, where it would remain until the Day of Judgement.
This description is generally based on the vision of the four beasts in
Dan. 7:7–26 where the fourth beast is described as ‘dreadful, terrifying,
and exceedingly strong’ with great teeth of iron and a mouth from which
pompous words pour forth. It makes war against the Holy Ones of the Most
High, but is defeated and doomed to be judged on the Day of Judgement.
This became the model on which the image of the Antichrist was based in
Christianity.7 Thus, in Rev. 13 the beast (θήρ), which ascended from the
sea, is described as possessing power, a throne, authority and a belief in its
own invincibility: ‘Who is like unto the beast? And who can war with him?’
(13:4). As in the GLAE, so in Revelation, the beast has been given a mouth
which utters haughty and blasphemous words. In both sources the beasts
open their mouths and blaspheme God (or the image of God), both can
make war on the saints and almost overcome them and both are destined
to be judged on the Day of Judgement. The early Christian tradition indeed
identifies the beast from the sea in Rev. 13 with the Antichrist.8

5
See also J. P. Mahé, ‘Le Livre d’Adam Georgien’, in R. Van den Broek & M.J. Vermasern
(eds), Studies in Gnosticism and Hellenistic Religions (Leiden: Brill, 1981), p. 242: ‘Cette bête
ne peut être, evidement, qu’un serpent’.
6
Thus the Slavonic recension: 11:5. 8
7
On the basis of the identification of the βδέλuγμα της ε’ ρημώσεως in Dan. 11:31
with the Antichrist: Mark 13:14; Matt. 24:15; 2 Thess. 2:4–12. On the similarities
of wording and content, see R.H. Charles, The Revelation of St. John (International Critical
Commentary 1; Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1920), p. 345. A. Y. Collins, The Myth in the
Book of Revelation (Missoula, MT: Scholars Press, 1976), p. 162; D. E. Aune, Revelation 6–16
(Word Biblical Commentary 52B; Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publication, 1998),
pp. 743–6.
8
Irenaeus, Adv. Haer. (5.28.2) who compares 2 Thess. 2:10. with Apoc. 13:5. H. B.
Swete, The Apocalypse of St John (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1968), pp. 161–5. See
also Ephraem des Syrers, Hymnen de Pharadiso 13.5 (Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum
Orientalium, Scriptores Syri, 78; Louvain: Secrétariat du Corpus SCO, 1957), p. 55:
Satan, who seduced Adam, is described as a beast: ‘David wept for Adam at how
he fell from the royal abode to that abode of wild animals. Because he went astray
through a beast he became like the beasts’ (atwyjl hymd awh a[f atwyjbd) On this
identification see: H. Lichtenberger, ‘The Down-Throw of the Dragon in Revelation
12 and the Down-Fall of God’s Enemy’, in C. Auffarh and L. Stuckenbruck (eds), The
Fall of the Angels (Leiden and Boston, MA: Brill, 2004), pp. 119–47.

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 scottish journal of theology

The LLAE and the Armenian version offer parallel traditions of the struggle
between Seth and the beast. These traditions are identical in almost every
detail to the story in the GLAE, differing only in how Seth addresses the
beast. In the LLAE (39:2), Seth calls the beast ‘cursed enemy of truth, chaotic
destroyer’ (maledicte inimice veritatis confusio perditionis), designations which usually
represent Satan9 and the Armenian version goes further by mentioning the
very name of Satan. Thus Seth rebukes the beast, ‘Close your mouth, O Satan’
(38:3).10
Although there is agreement that the traditions preserved in both the
Armenian and Latin versions are secondary to the GLAE,11 this fact does
not automatically invalidate their interpretations. According to Johannes
Tromp,12 the traditions about Adam and Eve were primarily transmitted
orally, and consisted of a series of brief tales which might have had their
original context in everyday discourse, and served either as exempla of
moral truths, or as explanations for the facts of life. At some point these
traditions were set down in writing so as to create the GLAE, but it is
clear that this earliest written form did not contain all the oral traditions
known to its compiler. The author knew more stories than he used for
his document and he deliberately chose to restrict himself to his selection.
Thus, he decided to refer to some stories only in passing, as for instance the
story of the Devil being cast out of Paradise,13 because he assumed that the
readers would know them as part of their common cultural heritage. This

9
ε’ χθρóς is a designation for the Devil: Matt. 13:39; A. Piñero, ‘Angels and Demons in
the Greek Life of Adam and Eve’, Journal for the Study of Judaism (JSJ) 24 (1993), p. 203;
Johnson, ‘Life of Adam and Eve’, p. 274, n. 39: Eve’s words to the beast, as well as its
identification as a serpent, reveal that the Latin text views the beast as Satan; Anderson,
‘Penitence Narrative’, pp. 25–34.
10
See G. A. Anderson and M. Stone (eds), A Synopsis of the Books of Adam and Eve (Atlanta, GA:
Scholars Press, 1999), 43E.
11
It is agreed that the GLAE, represented by manuscripts DSV (K) PGB, was the foundation
of all subsequent development of the writing in its various recensions. The extant GLAE
represents the oldest traceable stage of this process, accounting for all other versions.
See de Jonge and Tromp, Adam and Eve, p. 30. The Armenian–Georgian versions are seen
as the first stage in the development of this tradition and predate the Latin recension.
See M. de Jonge, ‘The Literary Development of the Life of Adam and Eve’, in G. A.
Anderson, M. Stone and J. Tromp (eds), Literature on Adam and Eve (Leiden: Brill, 2000),
p. 246; Anderson, ‘Penitence Narrative’, pp. 3, 34, n. 60. In contrast, Piñero (‘Angels
and Demons’, p. 192) maintains that the Latin recension is the oldest of the other
major recensions: Slavonic, Armenian, and Georgian.
12
J. Tromp, ‘The Story of our Lives: The qz-Text of the Greek Life of Adam and Eve, the
Apostle Paul, and the Jewish-Christian Oral Tradition concerning Adam and Eve’, New
Testament Studies 50 (2004), pp. 218–23; Tromp, Life of Adam and Eve in Greek, pp. 67–70.
13
See below.

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 The struggle between the ‘image of God’ and Satan

author or storyteller not only chose different forms of the oral tradition,
but he could clarify and explicate the ambiguities and allusions in the Greek
version.14
There is, therefore, a reasonable possibility that the other versions of the
Life of Adam and Eve, albeit their later written forms, might preserve ancient
oral traditions selected by other authors, who were thoroughly cognisant
with all the various stories about Adam and Eve, because they found them
more suitable for the situation of their communities. In summary, the fact
that this beast is identified clearly by the Latin and the Armenian versions of
Adam and Eve as Satan should be taken into account in our evaluation of the
meaning of this tradition.
In what follows, I will attempt to prove that the identification of the beast
as Satan in the GLAE is evident not only from its description in this version
itself, and not only from its comparison with the parallel versions, as I have
shown above, but can be understood from the prominent role played, in this
tradition, by the idea of Seth as an image of God, and from its eschatological
aspect.

Why did the beast attack Seth and why could only he control it?
This tradition, with its comparatively small body of literature, stresses four
times that Seth is the image of God, and expresses wonder as to how he, as an
image of God, could be attacked by the beast. The author not only expresses
this wonder through Eve and in Seth’s reproach of the beast, he also stresses
it by making the beast itself admit publicly and clearly that Seth is the image
of God: ‘Then the beast said to Seth, See, I stand off, Seth, from the image
of God’ (12:2).
The idea that Seth possessed the image of God is based on Gen. 5:3: Seth
is the son of Adam and was born ‘in his own likeness, in his own image’.
Since Adam was created in the likeness of God (Gen. 1:26, 27, 5:1), Seth is
also an image of God. The fact that Adam was the symbol of the image of
God is a very important idea in the GLAE.15 According to this composition,
Adam was created by God’s own hand (37:2). Because he was made in the
image of God, he was pardoned by God through the mediation of the angels
and was exalted (33:5, 35:2, 37:2). This is why he received the promise of

14
M. de Jonge, ‘The Christian Origin of the Life of Adam and Eve’, in Pseudepigrapha of
the Old Testament as Part of Christian Literature (Leiden: Brill, 2003), p. 181; idem, ‘The
Christian Origin of the Greek Life of Adam and Eve’, in Literature on Adam and Eve,
p. 347.
15
Bertrand, La Vie Grecque, p. 59.

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 scottish journal of theology

resurrection (28:4), and the oil from the tree of life ‘at the end of times’
(ch. 13).16
According to this tradition, the fact that Adam was created in the image
of God is the very reason for his struggle with Satan in the Garden of Eden,
which eventually leads to the sin itself and to Adam and Eve’s expulsion. The
most complete tradition describing Adam’s enmity with Satan is found in
the story of the fall of Satan that has been passed down to us in three versions
of Adam and Eve: Latin, Armenian and Georgian (12–17).
At the heart of the narrative is Satan’s refusal to worship Adam, the image
of God. According to the narrative, Satan was expelled from heaven and
deprived of the glory he once possessed because he refused to obey Michael’s
command that the angels should prostrate themselves before Adam who had
been created in the image of God. Satan responded, ‘Why do you compel
me? I will not worship one inferior and subsequent to me. I am prior to him
in creation. Before he was made, I was already made. He ought to worship
me’ (LLAE, 14). It was this refusal to worship the image of God that resulted
in the expulsion of Satan and his angels from heaven to earth. According
to this tradition, this was the source of their enmity and of Satan’s envy of
Adam, and the reason he deceitfully assailed Eve: ‘And we were pained to see
you in such bliss of delights. So with deceit I assailed your wife and through
her caused you to be expelled from the joys of your bliss, as I have been
expelled from my glory’ (LLAE, 12–16).17

16
In the Armenian version, Adam is even referred to as God: ‘Come bow down to god
whom I made’. Anderson and Stone, Synopsis of the Books of Adam and Eve, 16E.
17
This story, based on Isa. 14:12–15, appears in numerous Christian and apocalyptic
texts: see e.g. 2 Enoch 11:73–5, 29:4, 31:3. On the tradition in 2 Enoch, see M.E.
Stone, ‘The Fall of Satan and Adam’s Penance: Three Notes on the Books of Adam and
Eve’, Journal of Theological Studies 44 (1993), pp. 146–8; Rev. 12:9; Gospel of Bartholomew
4:51–60 in M. R. James, Apocryphal New Testament (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963), pp.
178–9; Tertullian, De paenitentia 5.7; Irenaeus, Adv. Haer. 4.40.3: ‘Because the (bad) angel
is an apostate and enemy of the Lord, since he was envious of man’ (plasma dei); ‘The Son
of Zebede’, in W. Wright, Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles (Amsterdam: Philo Press, 1968),
p. 13; E. A. Wallis Budge, The Book of the Cave of Treasures (London: Religious Tract Society,
1927), pp. 55–6; G. A. Anderson, ‘Ezekiel 28, the Fall of Satan, and the Adam Books’,
in Anderson et al., Literature on Adam and Eve, p. 141; idem, ‘The Exaltation of Adam and
the Fall of Satan’, ibid., pp. 83–5; Aune, Revelation, pp. 6–16, 695–6. A. Altmann (‘The
Gnostic Background of the Rabbinic Adam Legends’, Jewish Quarterly Review 35 (1945),
pp. 371–9) argued for the Gnostic origin of this tradition. See indeed the Gnostic tone
of Satan’s words in the LLAE 15:3: ‘I will place my seat above the stars of heaven and
I will be like the most High’. In the Armenian version Adam is referred to as God:
‘Come bow down to god whom I made’. An exegetical Gnostic and anti-Jewish line,
recorded by Irenaeus, also ascribes to the Demiurge a strong feeling of envy towards

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 The struggle between the ‘image of God’ and Satan

Although this story has no direct counterpart in the GLAE, it appears to

have been familiar to the author of this composition, as the story of the
fall of Satan is alluded to twice. In the first instance, the evil one, trying to
seduce the serpent, says, ‘Rise and come and let us cause him to be cast out
of Paradise through his wife, just as we were cast out through him’ (GLAE,
16:3).
The second allusion is God’s promise to Adam to establish him in his
dominion above the throne of his seducer who will be cast down to earth:
‘I will establish you in your dominion on the throne of your seducer. But
that one shall be cast into this place, so that you might sit above him.
Then he himself and those who listen to him shall be condemned, and they
shall greatly mourn and weep when they see you sitting on his glorious
throne’ (39:1–3).18 From these two allusions it is clear, as Marinus de Jonge
concluded,19 that the Greek author seems to know this story in some oral or
written form, and to suppose that his readers will know it too.
But according to this tradition, the struggle between Adam and Satan did
not end with Adam’s victory and Satan’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden.
Satan did not concede defeat; on the contrary, he sought to deceive man and
to lead Adam and his wife astray even on earth. The struggle between Adam,
the image of God, and Satan in the Garden of Eden continues, therefore,
in the struggle between Seth, the image of God, and the beast outside the
garden, on the way leading to it.
The theme of Satan trying to bar the way which leads to paradise, and
needing to be conquered in order to reopen it, is a known Christian tradition.
According to J. Daniélou, this idea underlies exorcisms which are combined
in the baptismal rites.20 Thus Cyril of Jerusalem notes that these exorcisms
are an expression of the conflict which is being waged between Christ and
Satan around the faithful soul.
Great is the Baptism that lies before you . . . a chariot to heaven; the delight
of Paradise; a welcome into the kingdom; the gift of adoption! But there is
a serpent by the wayside watching those who pass by: beware lest he bite
thee with unbelief. He sees so many receiving salvation, and he is seeking
whom he may devour. Thou art coming in unto the Father of Spirit, but

the first man because he was made as a likeness of God and contained a spirit of which
the Demiurge was deprived. See Irenaeus, Adv. Haer. 1.30.6–7.
18
See on this tradition Stone, ‘Fall of Satan and Adam’s Penance’, pp. 153–6.
19
De Jonge, ‘Literary Development of Life of Adam and Eve’, p. 245; Tromp, ‘Story of
our Lives’, p. 220; Aune, Revelation, p. 696.
20
J. Daniélou, The Bible and the Liturgy (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press,
1956), pp. 23–4.

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 scottish journal of theology

thou art going past that serpent. How then mayest thou pass him? Have
thy feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; that even if he
bite, he may not hurt thee. Have faith indwelling, steadfast hope, a strong
sandal that thou mayest pass the enemy, and enter the presence of thy
Lord.21
This theme appears also in connection with martyrdom. Thus during an
ecstasy, Perpetua saw ‘on a ladder that mounted to heaven, a dragon lying, of
an extraordinary size, who sets ambushes for those who climb the ladder’.22
The demon is presented as also trying to bar the way to heaven to the souls
of the dead. St Anthony sees in a vision ‘an enormous being, reaching to
heaven, who stretching out his hands, prevents the souls from rising up. He
understood that this was the “enemy”’.23
This theme might also underlie Jesus’ symbolic struggle with Judas
Iscariot. In referring to the scene between Judas Iscariot and Jesus, which
according to John 18:1–2 occurred in the ‘garden’, F. Manns24 interprets the
‘garden’ as the Garden of Eden, and explains the entire scene as a struggle
between Judas, the tool of Satan, and Jesus: ‘Judas, en qui est entré Satan, ne
peut continuer son oeuvre de mort. Judas avait voulu arrêter et écraser Jésus.
En réalité les rôles sont inverses: c’est Judas qui est écrasé. Devant le Jardin
est executé l’ordre de mort dont Yahveh avait menacé le serpent. Après la
manifestation de la Gloire de Jésus, le Prince de ce monde est jeté dehors.’25
This struggle with Satan near the gates of the Garden of Eden is also
described in Tes. Levi 18:10–12: ‘And he shall open the gates of Paradise,
and shall remove the sword that has threatened since Adam. And he will
grant to the saints to eat the tree of life, the spirit of holiness shall be upon
them. And Beliar shall be bound by him.’26 In both traditions, Seth and Levi
are prototypes of Jesus; both are able to remove the sword and bind the beast

21
Cyril of Jerusalem, Procatechesis, 16 (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers 7; Peabody, MA:
Hendrikson, 1995), p. 5.
22
The Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicitas 4, in The Acts of the Christian Martyrs, tr. H. Musurillo
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972), pp. 110–11.
23
Athanase d’Alexandrie, Vie d’Antoine, 66, tr. G. J. M. Bartelink (Source Chrétiennes 400;
Paris: Les Éditions du Cerf, 1994), pp. 308–9.
24
F. Manns, ‘Le symbolism du jardin dans le récit de la Passion selon St. Jean’, Liber Annus
37 (1987), pp. 74–5.
25
For Judas as a symbol of Satan, see ‘The Act of Judas Thomas’, in Apocryphal Acts of the
Apostles, p. 172.
26
H. C. Kee, ‘Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs’, in J. H Charlesworth (ed.), The Old
Testament Pseudepigrapha, vol. 1, p. 795; Manns, ‘Le symbolism du jardin’, p. 75: Jésus
comme le prêtre-sauveur du Testament de Lévi 18 ouvre les portes du jardin et
enchaine Béliar qui est entré en Judas.

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 The struggle between the ‘image of God’ and Satan

(Beliar in the Testaments). As in the Testament of Levi, Seth’s battle with the
beast is the means by which he can enter the Garden of Eden and obtain the
‘oil which flows from the tree’ in order to bestow eternal life upon Adam.
But both were promised that only in the future would they be able to eat
from the tree of life.27
The struggle of Seth with the beast/Satan should be understood in this
Christian context. The emphasis placed by this tradition on the idea of Seth as
the image of God explains why he was attacked by the beast,28 and why only
he could overcome it. As the image of God, Seth (like his father Adam), is the
prototype of Jesus, and his life foreshadows that of Jesus, the ultimate and
complete image of God.29 This connection between Adam, Seth and Jesus
is expressed clearly in The Armenian Commentary on Genesis attributed to Ephrem
the Syrian: ‘As for Adam, because he was born according to the image of the
form of God, so that the origin of the first would be the image of the second
Adam, the image of this first Adam was transferred in the second generation
to Seth.’30
Seth’s unique status as the image of God and the prototype of Jesus is the
basis for his appearance in the genealogy of Jesus in Luke (3:38). Likewise,
his struggle with the beast at the gates of Paradise in the story of Adam
and Eve should be understood as a prefiguration of the battle that Jesus will
conduct with Satan at the gates of the Garden of Eden at the end of times. The
story’s emphasis on Seth being the image of God, and the public confession
made by the beast that Seth is the image of God, seem to point to the main
tendency of this tradition; although by seducing Adam and Eve to sin, Satan
succeeded in bringing about their expulsion from the Garden of Eden and,
in spite of the loss of human dominion over animals as a result of that sin,
Seth, Adam’s descendant, is still the definitive and indisputable image of

27
D. M. Stanley and B. P. Robinson, in R.E. Brown, The Gospel According to John (Garden City,
NY: Doubleday, 1970), p. 806.
28
According to the Georgian version, it was not Seth who was attacked, but one of Eve’s
descendants. But this does not correspond with the beast’s words to Seth at the end of
this tradition: ‘Alors aussi la bête dit à Seth: Voici donc que je m’écarte de toi, l’image
de Dieu, l’éclat éblouissant de Dieu’ (Mahé, p. 243). In my opinion, this change from
the overall tradition and its meaning points to the Georgian version’s effort to retain
Seth as a real image of God who cannot be wounded by a beast.
29
Rom. 8:29; 1 Cor. 11:7, 15:49; 2 Cor. 3:18, 4:4; Col. 3:10.
30
The Armenian Commentary on Genesis, attributed to Ephrem the Syrian, tr. E. G. Mathews
(Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium 573, Scriptores Armeniaci 24;
Louvain: Aedibus Peeters, 1998), p. 58; idem, Hymns on the Nativity 1.41, 48 (Éphrem
de Nisibe, Hymnes sur la Nativité (Sources Chréiennes 459; Paris: Les Éditions du Cerf,
2001), pp. 37, 38; ‘History of the Fathers, 28’, in M. E. Stone, Armenian Apocrypha Related
to Adam and Eve (Leiden: Brill, 1996), p. 194.

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 scottish journal of theology

God.31 The struggle between Seth and the beast/Satan is only one link in this
chain of struggle between the image of God and Satan. It begins in Adam’s
lifetime in the Garden of Eden, continues on earth in Seth’s lifetime outside
the Garden of Eden, and will culminate with the victory of Jesus over Satan
at the end of times and the establishment of the new Garden of Eden.32
This story as a whole is based on the battle of Jesus and Satan described
in Rev. 12:1–17. Like Satan in the GLAE, who was expelled from Paradise
because Adam was born and given the image of God, and who continued
to deceive Seth, Adam’s descendant on earth, the ‘great dragon, the ancient
serpent,33 who is called Devil and Satan’ in Revelation, was cast down from
heaven after Jesus, ‘the man child’,34 was born and ascended (was caught
up ηρπ
‘ άσθη) to God’s throne. Knowing that his time on earth was brief,
Satan pursued the followers of Jesus, ‘the remnant of her [the woman’s]
seed’, on earth.35 As we shall see in the following section, the destiny of the
beast in the GLAE and Satan in Revelation will also be the same.

Why did the beast have to wait in its dwelling place until the
Day of Judgement?
The perception of the beast as a symbol of Satan is also derived from the
eschatological aspect of this tradition. Seth rebukes the beast and drives it to
its dwelling place until the ‘day of judgement’. How should this expression
be interpreted?
Gary A. Anderson points out that there is a degree of ambiguity in
this formulation because it is unclear whether the reference to the Day
of Judgement is merely a neutral, and somewhat mundane, demarcation of
a unit of time – stay apart from humankind until the moment of the final
judgement – or whether these words imply the idea of the final judgement of
the beast itself – stay apart from humankind until the time when God brings
you to final judgement. Anderson chooses the first option, relying on the
Slavonic version (rather than its Latin, Armenian or Georgian counterparts),
where the notion of final judgement has been obscured, which dovetails with
his efforts to deny any possible reference to Satan in the primary and original
tradition of the life of Adam and Eve. He perceives the Day of Judgement as
a moment of justice, a point at which the animal world will again reside in

31
J. R. Levison, Portraits of Adam in Early Judaism (Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1988), p. 167.
32
Bertrand, La Vie Grecque, p. 55.
33
This is the serpent that deceived Eve: Swete, Apocalypse of St John, p. 149; A. E. Harvey, A
Companion to the New Testament (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), p. 813.
34
The ‘man child’ is Christ: Swete, Apocalypse of St John, p. 151.
35
See Lichtenberger, ‘Down-Throw of the Dragon’, pp. 119–21

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 The struggle between the ‘image of God’ and Satan

peace under the watchful eye of a redeemed humanity in accordance with

traditions like those found in Isaiah (11:6–9) and with other Jewish writings
from the Second Temple period.36
Unlike Anderson, I believe that the second option he raises is more
compatible with the whole meaning of this tradition. On the basis of the
vision of the four beasts in Dan. 7:9–11, the apocalyptic literature anticipates
a final judgement at the end of days ‘when all creation visible and invisible,
as the Lord created it, shall end, then every man goes to the great judgement’
(2 Enoch 65:6). ‘It will be in the end of this age and the beginning of
the immortal age to come, in which corruption has passed away, sinful
indulgence has come to an end, unbelief has been cut off, and righteousness
has increased and truth has appeared. Therefore no one will then be able to
have mercy on him who has been condemned in the judgement, or to harm
him who is victorious’ (4 Ezra 7:113–15).37
This will be the day of ‘dispensing punishment’ (LLAE 47:3) when God
will bring down the wrath of his judgement upon the human race: The sinner
will be condemned and the righteous will be rewarded. But the demons,
in particular their leader, Azazel, will also receive their rightful punishment
and be judged and cast down into the fire.38
‘The Day of Judgement’, until which time the beast must wait in its
dwelling place, refers to the final judgement following the appearance of the
Messiah and the end of days. This point can be confirmed by a comparison
between the Greek, and the Georgian and Armenian versions. According to
the GLAE, when Eve sees the beast attacking Seth, she says, ‘Woe is me! For
when I come to the day of resurrection, all who have sinned will curse me’
(10:2). But instead of ‘the day of resurrection’, the Georgian and Armenian
versions use the term ‘the day of judgement’ (Mahé, p. 242).39 From this
interchange, we can assume that in this tradition the ‘day of judgement’
parallels ‘the day of resurrection’, namely that it refers to the time after the
appearance of the Messiah at the end of days.
The final judgement, for which the beast in the GLAE must wait, is an
integral part of the eschatological aspect of this composition. This is apparent

36
Anderson, ‘Penitence Narrative’, pp. 34–5.
37
The apocalyptic literature includes ample descriptions of the Day of Judgement, such
as in LLAE 47:2–3, 49; 2 Baruch 24:1, 25:1, 30; 1 Enoch 18:15–16, 19.
38
1 Enoch 10:6, 41:1–2, 55:3–56:4; 2 Enoch 7:1–3, 18:7. See D. S. Russell, The Method
and Message of Jewish Apocalyptic (London: SCM Press, 1964), pp. 379–85.
39
See J. Tromp, ‘Literary and Exegetical Issues in the Story of Adam’s Death and Burial
(GLAE 31–42)’, in J. Frishman and L. Van Rompay (eds), The Book of Genesis in Jewish and
Oriental Christian Interpretation (Louvain: A. Peeters, 1997), p. 33, in reference to the Day
of Judgement in GLAE 37:5 and the day of resurrection in 10:2.

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 scottish journal of theology

from the Georgian recension, according to which the beast must wait in its
dwelling place not until the Day of Judgement, but ‘jusq’au jour où Dieu
te fera comparaı̂tre’.40 According to a tradition in the Pseudepigrapha, one sign
of the approach of the end of days and the messianic era is the appearance
of the old beasts, Behemoth and Leviathan, kept until that time. Such a
tradition appears, for example, in The Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch: ‘And it will
happen that when all that which should come to pass in these parts has been
accomplished, the Anointed One will begin to be revealed. And Behemoth
will reveal itself from its place, and Leviathan will come from the sea, the
two great monsters which I created on the fifth day of creation and which I
shall have kept until that time.’41
The fate of these beasts – one which ascended from the sea (13:1–10)
and one which emerged from the earth (13:11–12) – is described in the
Book of Revelation. Both will be cast into the lake of fire (19:20), but the
dragon, which embodies Satan, the Diabolos and the Antichrist, will be cast
down into the abyss and chained there for a thousand years (20:1–3). At the
close of this millennium it will be released from its prison, battle with the
saints, and be defeated and thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone to be
tormented for eternity (Rev. 20:1–11).
The ‘day of judgement’ referred to by Seth is the eschatological judgement,
according to which the beast will be decisively defeated.42 Like the beast in
Revelation, the beast that attacked Seth will wait in its dwelling place until
the end of times, when God will make it reappear, only to be defeated forever
by the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Seth, as an image of God, could defeat the beast
in front of the gates of Paradise and banish it to its dwelling place until the
Day of Judgement, but only Jesus, the ultimate image of God, can defeat the
beast forever, remove the guarding sword, reopen the gates of Paradise, and
establish a new Garden of Eden.
Thus, the struggle between Seth and the beast in the GLAE is deeply
entrenched in Christian speculation about the final battle between Jesus and
Satan at the end of times. J. Tromp suggests that the GLAE is a compilation of
stories which may have their original context in everyday discourse, serving

40
Mahé, ‘Livre d’Adam Georgien’, p. 243. On the priority of the Georgian version over
the Latin, see Anderson, ‘Penitence Narrative’, pp. 1–3; De Jonge, ‘Christian Origin
of Life of Adam and Eve’, pp. 182–3.
41
The Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch, 29:3–4; see also 4 Ezra 6:49–52; 1 Enoch 60:7–9, 24–
5, 62:7–16. On the entire topic, see R. Nir, The Destruction of Jerusalem and the Idea of
Redemption in the Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch (Atlanta, GA: Society of Biblical Literature, 2003),
pp. 133–7.
42
Piñero, ‘Angels and Demons’, p. 210. See also Ignatius of Antioch, ad Phil. 11:3;
Gospel of Bartholomew 4:37–44; James, Apocryphal New Testament, pp. 176–7.

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 The struggle between the ‘image of God’ and Satan

as answers to the ethical and existential questions of a certain audience.43

This tradition might well reflect the feelings of Christians who accepted
seriously the warning of 1 Peter’s author: ‘Keep sober and alert because your
enemy the devil is on the prowl like a roaring lion looking for someone
to devour’ (1 Pet. 5:8). Accordingly, they regarded their lives as an endless
struggle with Satan and, seeing themselves all as images of God,44 hoped for
release through his final defeat by the Messiah.45

43
Tromp, ‘Story of our Lives’, p. 218; idem, Life of Adam and Eve in Greek, p. 67.
44
The Epistle of Barnabas, 6:12: ‘For it is concerning us that the scripture says that he
says to the Son “Let us make man after our image and likeness, and let them rule the
beasts of the earth”’.
45
Tromp, ‘Story of our Lives’, p. 216.

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