Page:Judaism and Islam, a prize essay - Geiger - 1898.pdf/95

 ADAM AND THE ANGELS. 77

created man He caused the animals to pass before him and asked him for their names, and he replied : ' This is an ox, that an ass, this a horse and that a camel/ ' But what art thou called ? ; ' It is fitting that I should "be called earthy, for I am formed of the earth.' ( And I ? ' ' Thou art called LORD, for thou rulest all Thy creatures.' " From this arose the other legend 1 that God, after the creation of man, commanded the angels to fall down before him, which they all did except Iblis, 2 the devil. The legend bears unmistakeable marks of Christian development, in that Adam is represented in the beginning as the God-man, worthy of adoration, which the Jews are far from asserting. 3 It is true that in Jewish writings great honour is spoken of as shewn by the angels to Adam, but this never went so far as adoration; indeed when this was once about to take place in error, God frustrated the action. We find in Sanhedrin 29,4 Adam sat in the Garden of Eden, and the angels roasted flesh for him, and prepared cooling wine"; and in another passage it is said, 5 " After God had created man, the angels went astray in regard to him, and wanted to say before him,

1 Suras VII. 10-18, XV. 28-44, XVII. 63-68, XVIII. 48, XX. 115, XXXVIII. 71-86.


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3 The legend of the devil's refusal to worship Adam, given by me as a Christian one, was found by Zunz (" Die Gottesdienstlichen Vor trage der Juden," page 291. Note.) in the MS. Midrash of Eabbi Moses Haddarshan. who however lived in the eleventh century.

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5 Midrash Eabbah on Genesis, para. 3.

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