names of children in the "Apocalypse of Moses"

[fieldfarmer38]

Hello,

I am reposting this from the “Christian Texts and History” section after a suggestion from Ben, that it might be better suited for this area.

I’m not a scholar by any means, and I’m sadly only fluent in English. I’m just an adult student of life and I enjoy learning. I had a question or two about the text that I thought was called “The Apocalypse of Moses.” I’m going to go ahead and post my original question along with Ben’s comments (Ben, forgive me if this is considered uncouth) and I’d love to learn more, if someone has something further to add…

“Hello,

I'm new to this board. I searched the archives before posting this question, but if it has already been discussed somewhere here, I didn't see it. Forgive me if it has.

I was reading the "Apocalypse of Moses", and I noticed a discrepancy of the names of Adam and Eve's children between a couple of translations, and I was hoping that someone could shed some light on it for me. In most of the versions online, there's the line "Adiaphotos, who is called Cain and Amilabes who is called Abel" with the names even being defined as Adiaphotos meaning "a planter", and Amilabes meaning "a keeper of sheep".

While in another version, the names are given as "Anlojs" (instead of Adiaphotos) meaning "without light" and "Barekhooh" (instead of Amilabes) meaning "well-minded".

I understand that there are often differences in translations, but not usually with names. And, these seem so very different names that I'm having trouble making the connection without huge leaps in creative thinking.

So, I guess I'm wondering a couple of things. Firstly, is one of these more correct than the other? Also, is there a reason that the names would be different in different translations?

To anyone taking the time to read this, I thank you.

-Loran”

And, Ben was kind enough to respond with this:

“Hi, Loran.

This thread might be better posted in Jewish Texts and History.

The Greek text (mistakenly called the Apocalypse of Moses) ‪that Tischendorf published has τὸν Διάφωτον τὸν καλούμενον Κάϊν καὶ τὸν Ἀμιλαβὲς τὸν καλούμενον Ἄβελ. This would be the source of the names Diaphotos and Amilabes. The Greek text ‪published by Ceriani has Adiaphotus and Amilabes. But Adiaphotos does not mean "planter" in Greek; it means "without light". And Amilabes does not mean anything in Greek that I can find. It may be a corruption of some other language (Hebrew or Aramaic, I would imagine).

Anloys and Barekhooh appear to be Armenian.

What you have to understand is that this basic story appears in Greek, Latin, Slavonic, Armenian, and Georgian versions (only the Greek, I believe, is called the Apocalypse of Moses; the rest are called the Life of Adam and Eve), and they all differ from each other quite a lot. These different names would be only the tip of the iceberg. You can get a sense of them here: ‪http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/anderson/vita/vita.html.

Ben.”

Thank you to anyone who has time to offer additional input.

-Loran

[Ben C. Smith]

Hello,

I am reposting this from the “Christian Texts and History” section after a suggestion from Ben, that it might be better suited for this area.

I’m not a scholar by any means, and I’m sadly only fluent in English. I’m just an adult student of life and I enjoy learning. I had a question or two about the text that I thought was called “The Apocalypse of Moses.” I’m going to go ahead and post my original question along with Ben’s comments (Ben, forgive me if this is considered uncouth)…

Not at all. Perfectly fine.

[MrMacSon]

To get the benefits of all the url-links in Ben's post-reply on the other thread, here it is -

Hi, Loran.

The Greek text (mistakenly called the Apocalypse of Moses) that Tischendorf published has τὸν Διάφωτον τὸν καλούμενον Κάϊν καὶ τὸν Ἀμιλαβὲς τὸν καλούμενον Ἄβελ. This would be the source of the names Diaphotos and Amilabes. The Greek text published by Ceriani has Adiaphotus and Amilabes. But Adiaphotos does not mean "planter" in Greek; it means "without light". And Amilabes does not mean anything in Greek that I can find. It may be a corruption of some other language (Hebrew or Aramaic, I would imagine).

Anloys and Barekhooh appear to be Armenian.

What you have to understand is that this basic story appears in Greek, Latin, Slavonic, Armenian, and Georgian versions (only the Greek, I believe, is called the Apocalypse of Moses; the rest are called the Life of Adam and Eve), and they all differ from each other quite a lot. These different names would be only the tip of the iceberg. You can get a sense of them here: http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/anderson/vita/vita.html.

Ben.

[Ben C. Smith]

Thanks, MrMacSon.

And Amilabes does not mean anything in Greek that I can find. It may be a corruption of some other language (Hebrew or Aramaic, I would imagine).

Here we go: http://hurqalya.ucmerced.edu/sites/hurq ... caster.pdf. Page 80 of the full book (page 10 of the file) has the following:

Various traditions found in the pseudepigraphical writings and in rabbinic literature are also of interest in connection with Adam's primordial priesthood and glorious garments. Jubilees 3, for example, has it on the basis of Gen. 3.21 that Adam only made sacrifices to God after he had 'covered his shame'. The mention of the first couple's 'garments of honour/glory' (לבושׂין דסקר) in the Targums to Gen. 3.21 (Targ. Onq; 1TJ.; 2TJ.; Targ. Neof.} may presuppose the legend that Adam's garments were glorious priestly garments which were handed down. Adam's having handed down his priestly garments is explicitly mentioned in rabbinic midrashim (see Num. R. 4.8.; M. Tanh. on Gen. 3.21; etc.) and possibly alluded to in the (so-called) Apocalypse of Moses (1.3) where Cain is named Adiaphotos (MS 'D'), 'one devoid of light' (?) and Abel Amilabes (MSS 'A' and 'D') which may be a garbled transliteration of the Hebrew for 'he who dons the garment [of light]' (מעיל לבשׂ or the like).

[fieldfarmer38]

Ben,

Thank you for the link. It seems that the consensus is for Adiaphotos and Amilabes.

For anyone reading who is interested, here's a link to where I saw the different set of names. They are in the last paragraph on the page:

https://www.jstor.org/stable/1450231?se ... b_contents

-Loran

[Ben C. Smith]

Thank you for the link. It seems that the consensus is for Adiaphotos and Amilabes.

I agree that Adiaphotos looks like it is probably a solid part of the transmission tradition. Amilabes, however, seems to be a slightly different story. If it is a garbled rendition of something Aramaic or Hebrew, then the Armenian word meaning "well minded" is probably either an independently garbled rendition or an independent guess as to the original meaning.

[fieldfarmer38]

Ben (or others),

Out of pure curiosity, how would one pronounce "Adiaphotos"? My eyes keep zeroing in on the "photo" part of the name.

-Loran

P.S. excuse me putting the question mark outside of the quotation marks; I learned otherwise in school, but I read an article a while ago that seemed to indicate that scholars and Millennials (or perhaps scholars *because of * Millennials) had reversed their preference to including punctuation inside of quotation marks. I think they cited something to do with email addresses and general dot-coms causing confusion. As a result, I'm not sure what's standard anymore.

[DCHindley]

Out of pure curiosity, how would one pronounce "Adiaphotos"? My eyes keep zeroing in on the "photo" part of the name.

My guess would be "Adia-photos", just for ease of English pronunciation.

It is a compound word that Greek is famous for: A = negation/none, dia = through, photos = light. I do not think it was supposed to be complimentary.

DCH

[Ben C. Smith]

Ben (or others),

Out of pure curiosity, how would one pronounce "Adiaphotos"? My eyes keep zeroing in on the "photo" part of the name.

By the way I was taught to pronounce ancient Greek, it would be "ah-dee-AH-foe-toss". But my professors stressed that no modern scholar has ever interviewed an ancient Greek, so there is an element of educated guesswork.

[Secret Alias]

It would be funny is the name is a corruption of adiaphoros - the one name you can't imagine a parent naming one of their kids!