Various Jewish and Christian Extrabiblical folklore

[patrick457]

(To the Mods: If this thread does not belong here in the Sacred Scripture thread, please move it wherever it would fit.)

Here let’s discuss various Jewish and Christian folklore based on Biblical stories (Note that this is only folklore). Let’s start off with the Jewish midrash about the creation of man (adapted from Louis Ginzberg’s Legends of the Jews):

THE ANGELS ON THE CREATION OF MAN

When God finally resolved to create man, He asked counsel of all those around Him; first He asked counsel from the Heaven and the Earth, then to His other creations, and finally He asked from the Angels.

However, the Angels themselves were divided in their opinions on whether man should be created or not: The Angel of Love favored God’s plan, while the Angel of Truth refused, as man would be full of lies.
The Angel of Justice also favored it as man would practice justice, while the Angel of Peace disagreed, saying that man would be quarrelsome.

(It is said that God only told the Angels about the righteous; if God had told them about the wicked as well, they would have objected more strongly.)

To invalidate the Angel of Truth’s opinion, God cast him out of Heaven to the Earth. When the other Angels protested against such contemptuous treatment of their companion, God replied: “Truth will spring back out of the Earth.”

The Angels only knew half of the truth; even so, they were prompted to cry out: “What is man, that You are mindful of him? And the son of man, that You care for him?” (Psalm 8:4)

To this, God replied: “The birds of the air and the fish of the sea, what were they created for? Of what avail a larder full of appetizing dainties, and no guest to enjoy them?” (Psalm 8:8)
And the Angels could not but exclaim: “O Lord, our Lord, how wonderful is Your Name in all the Earth! Do as is pleasing in Your sight.” (Psalm 8:1a, 10)

When God summoned a band of Angels led by an Angel named Michael He asked them about their opinion on the creation of man. Most of the Angels answered scornfully: “What is man, that You are mindful of him? And the son of man, that You care for him?” God then stretched His little finger, and they were consumed by fire, all except for their chief Michael.

God then summoned and asked another band of Angels, this time led by an Angel named Gabriel, with the same results; Gabriel alone was saved from the destruction.

When God summoned a third band of Angels, their leader Labbiel warned his troop beforehand: “You have seen what misfortune overtook the angels who said ‘What is man, that You are mindful of him?’ Let us have a care not to do likewise, lest we suffer the same dire punishment. For God will not refrain from doing in the end what He has planned. Therefore it is advisable for us to yield to His wishes.”

Thus warned, Labbiel’s Angels approved of God’s plan, saying: “Lord of the World, it is well that You had thought of creating man. Create him according to Your Will. And as for us, we will be his attendants and his ministers, and reveal to him all our secrets.” God then changed Labbiel’s name to Raphael the Rescuer, because his host of Angels had been rescued by his sage advice.

He was appointed the Angel of Healing, who has in his safe-keeping all the celestial remedies, the types of the medical remedies used on Earth.

THE CREATION OF MAN FROM DUST

When the Angels finally gave assent to man’s creation, God sent the Angel Gabriel on an errand thus: “Go and fetch Me dust from the four corners of the Earth, and I will create man therewith.”

Gabriel went forth to do the bidding of the Lord, but the Earth drove him away, and refused to let him gather up dust from it. Gabriel then asked the Earth: “Why, O Earth, do you not hearken the voice of the Lord, who founded you upon the waters without props or pillars?” The Earth replied: “I am destined to become a curse, and to be cursed through man, and if God Himself does not take the dust from me, no one else shall ever do it.” When God heard this, He then stretched out His Hand, took some dust from the earth, and with it formed man.

Of set purpose the dust was taken from all four corners of the Earth, so that if a man from the East should happen to die in the West, or a man from the West in the East, the Earth should not dare refuse to receive the dead, and tell him to go from the place he was taken. Wherever a man happe s to die, and wherever he is buried, there will he return to the Earth from which he sprang. Also, the dust was of various colors–red, black, white, and green–red for the blood, black for the bowels, white for the bones and veins, and green for the pale skin.

At this early moment the Torah (the Law) interfered. She addressed herself to God: “O Lord of the World! The world is Yours, You can do anything with it as seems good in Your eyes. But the man You are now creating will be few of days and full of trouble and sin. If it is not Your purpose to have forbearance and patience with him, it would be better not to call him into being.” God replied, “Is it for nothing I am called long-suffering and merciful?”

God’s grace and loving kindness expressed themselves when He took a spoonful of dust from the spot where in the future the Altar would stand, saying: “I shall take man from the place of Atonement, that he may endure.”

 

[patrick457]

(continued)

THE FALL OF SATAN (from Jewish folklore)

"When man (Adam) was created, his extraordinary qualities (such as his huge height, said to reach from Heaven to Earth, as well as various other physical and spiritual qualities; for short Adam was the ideal man) aroused the envy of the Angels. They attempted to consume him with fire, and he would have perished, had not the protecting hand of God rested upon him, and established peace between him and the heavenly Host. An Angel named Satan (the Accuser) was particularly envious of Adam, and it was this thoughts that was said to lead him to his downfall.

After Adam had been endowed with a soul, God invited all the Angels to come and pay him reverence and homage. Satan, the only Angel to bear twelve wings instead of six like the others, protested, saying: “You created us Angels from the splendor of the Shekinah (the Divine Presence), and now You are commanding us to cast ourselves down before the creature which You fashioned out of the dust of the ground!” God answered: “Yet this ‘dust of the ground’ has more wisdom and understanding than you have.”

Satan then demanded a trial of wit with Adam, and God assented, saying: “I have created beasts, birds, and reptiles, I shall have them all come before you and Adam. If you able to give them names, I shall command Adam to show honor to you, and you shall rest next to the Shekinah of My Glory. But if not, and Adam calls them by the names I have assigned to them, then you will be subject to Adam, and he shall have a place in My garden, and cultivate it.” Thus spoke God, and He betook Himself to Paradise, Satan following Him. When Adam saw God, he said to his wife: “O come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.” (Psalm 95:6)

Satan then attempted to assign names to the animals, however he failed with the first two that presented themselves, the ox and the cow. He also failed with the next two that presented themselves, the camel and the donkey. Then God turned to Adam, and questioned him regarding the names of the same animals, framing His questions in such a manner that the first letter of the first word was the same as the first letter of the name of the animal standing before him. Thus Adam guess the proper name, and Satan was forced to acknowledge the superiority of the first man.

Nevertheless he broke out in wild outcries that reached the Heavens, and he refused to do homage to Adam as he had been told to do, with his band of Angels following suit, despite the urgent representations of the Archangel Michael, who was the first to prostrate himself before Adam in order to show a good example to the other Angels.

Michael then told Satan: “Give adoration to the image of God! But if you would not do it, then the Lord God will break out in wrath against you.” Satan retorted back: “If He breaks out in wrath against me, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will be like the Most High!” (Isaiah 14:13-14)

At once God flung Satan and his host out of Heaven down to the Earth, and from that moment the enmity between Satan and man started."

You can also share some if you wish.

 

[patrick457]

JESUS BRINGS TWELVE CLAY SPARROWS TO LIFE (From the Infancy Gospel of Thomas)

When the boy Jesus was five years old, he was playing in a narrow part of a rushing stream. He was gathering the flowing waters into ponds, and immediately they were made clean, and he ordered these things with a single word. And after he made clay, he molded twelve sparrows from it. And it was the Sabbath when he did these things. But there were also many other children playing with him. Then, a certain Jew saw what Jesus was doing while playing on the Sabbath. Immediately, he departed and reported to Jesus’ father, Joseph, “Look, your child is in the stream and he took clay and formed twelve birds and profaned the Sabbath.”

And Joseph went to the area and when he saw him, he shouted, “Why are you doing these things that are not permitted on the Sabbath?” Jesus, however, clapped his hands and shouted to the sparrows, “Depart, fly, and remember me now that you are alive.” And the sparrows departed shrieking. When the Jews saw this, they were amazed. After they had gone away, they described to their leaders what they had seen Jesus do.

JESUS RAISES A BOY FROM THE DEAD (From the Infancy Gospel of Thomas)

And after a few days passed, Jesus was up on a roof of a house. And one of the children playing with him died after falling off the roof. And when the other children saw, they fled and Jesus was left standing alone. When the parents of the one who had died came, they accused Jesus, “Troublemaker, you threw him down!” But Jesus replied, “I did not throw him down, rather he threw himself down. When he was not acting carefully, he leaped off the roof and died.” Jesus leaped off the roof and stood by the corpse of the boy and cried out with a loud voice and said, “*Zeno, *(for that was his name) rise up, talk to me: did I throw you down?”

And rising up immediately, he said, “No, Lord, you did not throw me down, but you did raise me up.” And when they saw this, they were overwhelmed. The parents of the child glorified God on account of the sign which had happened and they worshipped Jesus.