They kept not all the words of God—were deceived, deceived unto sickness.
They kept not all the law of God—were deceived, deceived unto death.”
It is evident that this tradition came from a written source, and there is no other source than the books of Moses.
There is in the Christian world an erroneous acceptation of the first and second chapters of the first book of Moses. Expounders of the Pentateuch, of our enlightened age, err with respect to these two chapters, and the consequence of this error is much confusion among believers. These expounders say that God created only one man at the creation of the world; and that when this man complained of ennui and loneliness, then the Almighty created the woman to keep him company. This account of the creation of man has been the cause of many controversies and divisions and secessions from the true faith.
In the first chapter of Genesis, Moses records the creation of heaven and earth with all the contents of each of them. Man, male and female, was created on the sixth day—not one couple, but many couples, as other animals were created; they were without number. And the Almighty blessed them, and told them to multiply and replenish the earth, and subdue it; to have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. He gave them every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed, for meat, &c.
This was accomplished on the sixth day; and “on the seventh day He rested from all His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it He had rested from all His work which God had created and made.”
After this first seventh day, God created Adam, and the Lord God formed this man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and he became a living soul. “And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put this man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.”
The man Adam was ruddy, for the earth or dust out of which he was formed was red. The rest of the men who were created on the sixth day were black, for the garden of Eden was divided from the rest of negroland by the river Nile, which surrounded it entirely. During the heavy rains in this portion of Africa, the waters of the lakes overflow, the Nile, passing in its course through the red soil of Ethiopia, gets tinged with that colour; and the waters, after entering Egypt, retain that hue for a long distance towards the Mediterranean Sea.
“And the Lord God took the man (Adam) and put him in the garden of Eden, to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” So this man alone, of all the created human beings, received this commandment from God.
There is sculptured on the wall of a palace in Upper Egypt, which Norden, the Danish traveller saw and sketched, a group of three persons with a tree in the centre. The principal personage in this group is seated, and is addressing a man standing before him, as if giving the commandment above stated. The third figure is of a man standing behind the seated person, with a sarcastic expression of countenance. This sculpture no doubt represents the event in question.