The Tree of Good and Evil Photographic Print

The Tree of Good and Evil Photographic Print
Stephens, Bill
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Azazel

In Lev. xvi we read that among other ceremonies the high priest, on the Day of Atonement, cast lots on two goats; one lot was for the Lord, and the other lot for Azazel; the goat on which the latter lot fell was the SCAPEGOAT. No satisfactory explanation of the word Azazel has been forthcoming; it may have referred to the scapegoat itself, or the place to which it was sent, or (which seems most likely) to an evil spirit inhabiting the desert. Milton uses the name for the standardbearer of the rebel angels ( Paradise Lost, i. 534). In Islam, Azazel is a jinn of the desert. When God commanded the angels to worship Adam, Azazel replied, "Why, should the son of fire fall down before a son of clay?" and God cast him out of heaven. His name was then changed to EBLIS, which means "despair."

Peter Rubens Adam and Eve Giclee Print

Adam and Eve Giclee Print
Peter Rubens
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Adam and Eve

In the Old Testament, the first man and woman. The familiar story of their creation, sin and expulsion from the Garden of Eden is told in the first chapters of Genesis and forms the basis for Milton Paradise Lost.

Mohammedan legends add to the Bible story the tradition that--

God sent Gabriel, Michael, and Israfel one after the other to fetch, seven handfuls of earth from different depths and of different colors for the creation of Adam (thereby accounting for the varying colors of mankind) but they returned empty-handed because Earth foresaw that the creature to be made from her would rebel against God and draw down his curse on her, whereupon Azrael was sent. He executed the commission. and for that reason was appointed to separate the souls from the bodies and hence became the Angel of Death. The earth he had taken was carried into Arabia to a place between Mecca and Tayef, where it was kneaded by the angels, fashioned into human form by God, and left to dry for either forty days or forty years. It is also said that while the clay was being endowed with life and a soul, when the breath breathed by God into the nostrils had reached as far as the navel, the only half-living Adam tried to rise up and got an ugly fall for his pains.

old as Adam

Generally used as a reproof for stating as news something well known. "That's as old as Adam," it was known as far back as the days of Adam.




The Creation of Adam, c.1510 Giclee Print
, Michelangelo
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