Bibliography

Wasserstein, David, “The creation of Adam and the apocrypha in early Ireland”, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 88 C (1988): 1–17.

  • journal article
Citation details
Article
“The creation of Adam and the apocrypha in early Ireland”
Volume
88 C
Pages
1–17
Description
Abstract (cited)
A story in the Babylonian Talmud datable to roughly the fourth century A.D. relates how sods of earth taken from specific, named places were used in the formation of specific, named parts of Adam's body at the Creation. A number of stories in Old Irish texts and in other texts with Irish connections, as well as in Slavonic and Spanish texts, share this motif with the Talmudic story. It is argued here that the story in these Irish texts is a descendant of the Talmudic story: the form of the story is essentially the same, and the place-names are plausible as corruptions of the Hebrew (while otherwise they make no sense). The Irish versions, which are no more than anecdote, have totally lost the original purpose of the story, which was to provide a clear relationship between the parts of Adam's body and places which had a significance in a Jewish context.
Subjects and topics
Headings
apocryphal and pseudepigraphical literature
Other subjects
apocryphal traditions Adam octipartite (or septipartite)
Contributors
Dennis Groenewegen
Page created
August 2019