Editing Testament of Adam (section)

{{Short description|2nd&ndash;5th century Christian work}}
The '''Testament of Adam''' is a [[Christianity|Christian]] work of [[Old Testament pseudepigrapha]] that dates from the 2nd to 5th centuries AD in origin, perhaps composed within the Christian communities of Syria.  It purports to relate the final words of [[Adam]] to his son [[Seth]]; Seth records the Testament and then buries the account in the legendary Cave of Treasures.  Adam speaks of prayer and which parts of Creation praise God each hour of the day; he then prophesies both the coming of the [[Messiah]] and the [[Deluge (mythology)|Great Flood]]; and finally, a description of the [[Christian angelology|celestial hierarchy of angels]] is given.

The work was likely originally written in [[Syriac language|Syriac]].  Manuscripts are extant in Syriac, [[Arabic]], [[Garshuni|Karshuni]], [[Geʽez|Ethiopic]], [[Armenian language|Armenian]], [[Georgian language|Georgian]], and [[Koine Greek|Greek]].  The earliest surviving manuscript is dated to the 9th century, and there appear to be three major [[recension]]s of the text.<ref name="robinson">{{cite book |translator-last=Robinson |translator-first=S. E. |last=Robinson |first=S. E. |date=1983 |editor-last=Charlesworth |editor-first=James |editor-link=James H. Charlesworth |title=The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Volume 1 |publisher=Doubleday |pages=989&ndash;995 |chapter=Testament of Adam |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/the-old-testament-pseudepigrapha-vol.-1-charlesworth-1983/page/989/mode/2up |isbn=0-385-09630-5}}</ref>