Cave of Treasurers (Syriac Apocrypha)

[Pavel Mosko]

This book and "The Book of the Bee" (Nestorian) are two related Syriac Apocryphal works. It's something to read when you are looking for something quirky or when you want to try to understand how some of the non-Western Christians of ancient times believed and thought about things.


Origin[edit]
This text is attributed to Ephrem Syrus, who was born at Nisibis soon after AD 306 and died in 373, but it is now generally believed that its current form is 6th century or newer.

The assertion that the Cave of Treasures was written in the 4th century is supported by the general contents of the work. These reproduce Ephrem's peculiar methods of exegesis and supply many examples of his methods in religious argument, with which we are familiar from his other writings. His pride in the antiquity of the Syriac language also appears in this work. That it was written in Mesopotamia by a Syrian, there is no doubt, and if Ephrem was not the original author, or perhaps later editor, belonged to the school of Ephrem.

The oldest Christian work on the history of God's dealing with man from Adam to Christ is probably the anonymous Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan, which, in its original form, is from the 5th or 6th century AD. The writer of the Cave of Treasures borrowed largely from the Conflict of Adam and Eve, or shared a common source with it.

Cave of Treasures - Wikipedia



The Book of the Cave of Treasures - The First Thousand Years

 

[Pavel Mosko]

Sometimes you can pick up some useful stuff when it comes to Bible study etc. I sort of wanted to under sell that in the OP because their is some strange stuff in the these books.


[THE MAKING OF EVE.]

"...God did not make Eve of earth, that she might not be considered something alien to Adam in nature".


[THE SYMBOLISM OF EDEN.]

Now Eden is the Holy Church, and the Church [xc), saying, "Lord, Thou hast been an abiding place for us throughout all generations," that is to say, "Thou hast made us to have our abiding place in Thy compassion." And, when entreating God on behalf of the redemption of the children of men, David said, "Remember Thy Church, which Thou didst acquire in olden time " (Ps. lxxiv. 2), that is to say, "[Remember] Thy compassion, which Thou art about to spread over our feeble race." Eden is the Holy Church, and the Paradise which was in it is the land of rest, and the inheritance of life, which God hath prepared for all the holy children of men. And because [Gen. ii. 15, 16 ?). And God made Adam and Eve to dwell in Paradise. True is this word, and it proclaimeth the truth: That Tree of Life which was in the midst of Paradise prefigured the Redeeming Cross, which is the veritable Tree of Life, and this it was that was fixed in the middle of the earth.