The Testament of Adam — True Church Edition
The Testament of Adam 16
1When Shem the righteous was 700 years old, he died, and his son Arphaxad looked after him, and Salah and Eber, and they buried him. When Arphaxad was thirty years old, he begat Salah his son, and when he was 465 years old, he died, and Salah and Eber looked after him. They buried him in the town that Arphaxad had built, known as Arphaxad (cod. Arbalsarbat).
2When Salah was thirty years old, he begat Eber, and when he had completed 430 years, he died. Eber and Peleg looked after him; he was buried in the town that Salah had built, known as Salḥadîb. When Eber was thirty years old, he begat Peleg, and when he had completed 434 years, he died; his son Peleg buried him, and Reu and Serug in the town which Eber had built and had called by his name. When Peleg attained 239 years, all the tribes of the sons of Shem, and Ham and Japhet gathered themselves together and journeyed to the elevated land; they found in the place known as Shinar a beautiful plain.
3They dwelt in it, and their speech was altogether Syriac, and it is called Resany, and Chaldaean; it is the tongue and speech of Adam. Verily the Syriac language is the Queen of languages and the most comprehensive; from it all other tongues are derived; Adam is a Syriac name. Whoever asserts that it is Hebrew tells a falsehood. Speakers of Syriac will not stand on the left of the Lord but on His right, for the writing of Syriac runs from right to left, and of others the way of the Persian from left to right. In the days of Peleg the nations built the tower at Babel, upon which their tongues were diversified and confounded and divided; because of their confusion the town was called Babel. Peleg was very much grieved about this when he saw the scattering of the nations in the regions of the earth. He died, and his son Reu, and Serug and Nahor buried him in the town which he had built and had called by his name.
4The earth became two portions among two chiefs of tribes; they allowed to every tribe and tongue a king and a chief; they appointed in the race of Japhet thirty-seven kings, and in the race of Ham sixteen kings. The kingdom of the sons of Japhet was from the border of the holy mountain and Mount Nod (?), which is in the borders of the East, to the Tigris and the side of Algaut: and from Bactria to the island town (or Gades = Cadix). The kingdom of the sons of Shem was from the land of Persia, that is from the borders of the East to the Hardasalgs sea among the borders of the West. They had authority also in the centre of the earth.
5When Reu was thirty-two years old, Serug was born to him; the length of his life being 232 years. At the end of 163 years of the life of Reu, Nimrod the giant reigned over the whole earth. The beginning of his kingdom was from Babel. It was he who saw in the sky a piece of black cloth and a crown; he called Sasan the weaver to his presence, and commanded him to make him a crown like it; and he set jewels in it and wore it. He was the first king who wore a crown. For this reason people who knew nothing about it, said that a crown came down to him from heaven. The length of his reign was sixty-nine years. He died in the days of Reu, and the third thousand since Adam was completed. In his days the people of Egypt set up a king over them called Firnifs. He reigned over them for sixty-eight years. In his days also a king reigned over the town of Saba and annexed to his kingdom the cities of Ophir and Havilah, his name was Pharaoh.
6He built Ophir with stones of gold, for the stones of its mountains are pure gold. After him there reigned over Havilah a king called Hayul. He built it and cemented it, and after the death of Pharaoh women reigned over Saba until the time of Solomon son of David. When he (Reu) was 239 years old, he died. Serug his son and Nahor buried him in the town called Oa‘nân, which Reu had built for himself. When Serug was thirty years old, his son Nahor was born to him. In the days of Serug idols were worshipped, and they were adored instead of God, and the people in that day were scattered in the earth; there was not among them a teacher nor a lawgiver, nor a guide to the way of truth, nor even a right way. They wandered and were rebellious and became a sect.
7Some of them worshipped the Sun and the Moon, some of them worshipped the sky, some of them worshipped images, some of them worshipped the stars, some of them worshipped the earth, some of them worshipped beasts, some of them worshipped trees, and some of them worshipped waters and winds and such like, for the Devil blinded their hearts and left them in darkness without light. No one among them believed in the Last Day and the Resurrection. When one of them died, his people made an image in his likeness, and put it upon his tomb, lest his memory should be cut off. The earth was filled with sins, and idols were multiplied in it, made in the likenesses of males and females.