Satan deceived Adam and Eve for a second time. This is what we learn from a legend that is unexpectedly broadly spread from Greece in the West to Armenia and Georgia in the East. They concluded a contract with the Devil, submitting their offspring to his rule " until the Unbegotten is born an the Undying One dies" . Christ's baptism puts an end to this contract and servitude. This legend spread through popular and artistic sources through Eastern Christendom, alive still in the popular tales of Bulgaria and Greece, painted on Romanian churches and spread in Armenia legends. In his book Stone pursues this tale through its sometime exotic transmission and explores the world-view that emerges from it, contrasting it with the Western view, perpetuated by Augustine, of Adam's sin in the Garden. This is a detective tale of the pursuit of a tradition and its transmission and an exploration of its implications for the understanding of the human state.
- ISBN10 0253339022
- ISBN13 9780253339027
- Publish Date 5 February 2002
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 8 January 2014
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Indiana University Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 216
- Language English