When I first bought this book from Amazon, there were not any reviews posted about it and I bought it on a gamble hoping that it would have what I needed. That gamble was beyond worth it!
I have been working on a book and one of the subjects that I was trying to tackle was to defend Eve against the historical demonizing of her that has gone on over the millenia. I knew with certainty that various theologians from the early centuries of the Church, such as Tertullian, had perpetuated this concept, but I needed more sources to expand my study. This book provided that and more.
This book is a collection of Biblical sources, extra-Biblical sources (such as Jubilees), collections of Jewish Midrash, the Talmud, other Jewish writers during the advent of Christianity, early Christian theologians (such as Tertulian, John Chrysostom, and Augustine), Medieval Jewish and Christian writings (such as Saint Thomas Aquinas), Islamic writings, Protestant Reformation/Revolt era writings (i.e. Martin Luther and John Calvin), and many more up to the present. The book collects translations of these many texts as well as commentaries on the context of the writings and their writers. As a historian, these primary sources are a pivotal resource! Moreover, collected together as they are in one volume, this saves the researcher a lot of time searching for them.
But now that I have finally had the chance to write a review about this book, I have found that there are others who have already beaten me to the punch on being the first to review this book. In regards to what one reviewer said about this book being boring, if you are a historian who is enthralled with this subject, this book is far from boring! (If you are not a historian, then you might be bored because this book is collected together in a scholastic format that seems to be primarily aimed at historians.) In addition, there was another reviewer who said that he/she wished that there were more heretical writings to compliment the orthodox ones. In regards to that I find a few problems with that idea: (1) These are for the most part orthodox writings in the nature of their content and if one wants to do a thorough study from an orthodox viewpoint, it is better to limit the collection to writings that are primarily orthodox in their content; (2) This volume is so dense with material that to also include an extensive collection of heretical materials would require a second volume of material; (3) Since this book focuses on the many (and even conflicting) orthodox traditions of Adam and Eve, heretical writings are not needed for study in this context because that their nature of being heretical did not have influence on the orthodox mindset of the times; (4) If someone wants to read the heretical writings about this subject (such as from the Gnostics, the Arians, the Modalists, etc.), then one should not limit one's self to studying only one book for reference. In fact, as a resource for my own research, this is only one book of many that I have used to study; it is a VERY important book used in my research, but it is only one of many. Thus, in defense of the editors in the context of what the other reviewer mentioned about the desire for there also being an inclusion of heretical writings, I politely suggest to that reviewer and to anyone else that if they want to study on the heretical perspective of this subject that you find a work of an identical nature that focuses just on that.
In summation, this is a wonderful book for reference, whether you are religious or not. If you are looking for a collection of primary sources about Adam and Eve written by (though translated from) the original writers, this book is for you.
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