The first sunrise. Adam and Eve
think it is a fire coming to burn them.
Book I. Chapter XVI.
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After this Adam and Eve
ceased not to stand in the cave, praying and weeping, until the
morning dawned upon them.
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And when they saw the light
returned to them, they retrained from fear, and strengthened their
hearts.
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Then Adam began to come out
of the cave. And when he came to the mouth of it, and stood and
turned his face towards the east, and saw the sun rise in glowing
rays, and felt the heat thereof on his body, he was afraid of it, and
thought in his heart that this flame came forth to plague him.
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He wept then, and smote upon
his breast, and fell upon the earth on his face, and made his request,
saying:—
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"O Lord, plague me not,
neither consume me, nor yet take away my life from the earth."
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For he thought the sun was
God.
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Inasmuch as while he was in
the garden and heard the voice of God and the sound He made in the
garden, and feared Him, Adam never saw the brilliant light of the sun,
neither did the flaming heat thereof touch his body.
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Therefore was he afraid of
the sun when flaming rays of it reached him. He thought God
meant to plague him therewith all the days He had decreed for him.
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For Adam also said in his
thoughts, as God did not plague us with darkness, behold, He has
caused this sun to rise and to plague us with burning heat.
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But while he was thus
thinking in his heart, the Word of God came unto him and said:—
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"O Adam, arise and stand
up. This sun is not God; but it has been created to give light
by day, of which I spake unto thee in the cave saying, 'that the dawn
would break forth, and there would be light by day.'
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"But I am God who
comforted thee in the night."
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And God ceased to commune
with Adam.
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