God said, “Let the land bring forth plants, those that produce seeds and fruit trees that have seeds inside of the fruit they bear, each according to its own kind. And it was so.

The land brought forth plants, each according to its kind, and trees that have fruit with seeds inside of them, each according to its kind.” God saw that they were good.

And God said, “Behold, I give you every plant that produces seeds upon the earth and every tree that has fruit with its seed inside of it: these shall be your food.

And I give all green plants to every wild animal and to all the birds of the air and to all creatures that move upon the surface of the earth and that have the breath of life in them.” And it was so.

Then the Lord God formed man out of the dust of the earth and he breathed his breath of life into his nostrils and man became a living creature.

The Lord God made all sorts of beautiful and nourishing trees sprout out of the earth, among which was the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

The Lord God told the man, “You can eat of any of the trees in the garden,

but you must never eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you were to eat from it, you would surely die.”

Chapter 3

Origin of Evil. The serpent was the most clever of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. It said to the woman, “Is it true that God told you not to eat of any of the trees in the garden?”

The woman answered the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden,

but as for the fruit of the tree in the midst of the garden, God said that we must not eat it, nor even touch it, lest we die.”

The woman saw that the tree was good for food and pleasing to look at and desirable for imparting wisdom. She took some fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband who was with her, and he also ate it.

They then heard the Lord God walking in the garden toward the evening. The man and his wife hid themselves from the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.

He said, “Who let you know that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat?”

The man answered, “The woman whom you put here with me, she gave me some fruit from the tree and I ate it.”

The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, you will be the most cursed of all the animals and of all the wild beasts. On your belly you shall crawl and you shall eat dust for all the days of your life.

To the man he said, “Because you listened to the voice of your wife and you ate from the tree from which I had commanded you not to eat, “Cursed be the soil because of you! With effort you shall obtain food all the days of your life.

The Lord God said, “Behold, man has become like one of us, for he has knowledge of that which is good and that which is evil. Now, we must prevent him from reaching out and taking the fruit of the tree of life lest he eat it and live forever.”

When he expelled him, he placed cherubim to the east of the Garden of Eden with flaming swords to keep watch over the way to the tree of life.

“Behold, I will send a flood. The waters shall cover the earth to destroy the life of everything under the skies that has the breath of life in it. Everything on the earth shall perish.

this happened in the six hundredth year of the life of Noah, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month. On that very day the springs of the great abyss and the floodgates of the heavens opened.

Every creature on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died.

It returned to him toward the evening. In its beak it had a sprig from an olive tree. Noah understood that the waters had receded from the earth.

In the six hundred and first year of Noah’s life, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters dried up upon the earth. Noah removed the covering from the ark and, behold, the surface of the earth was dry.

“Whatever moves and has life will be used for your food. I give you all these things, just as I have already given you every green plant.