Adam's Contract with Satan
The Legend of the Cheirograph of Adam

Satan deceived Adam and Eve for a second time. 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.

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.

Preliminary Table of Contents: Abbreviations Preface 1. The Primary Adam Books and the Legend of Adam and Eve 2. Contract Penance and Redemption 3. Adam Ploughs and Satan Forbids: The Slavonic Story 4. The Legend in Balkan Art, Folklore and Tradition 5. Armenian Apocryphal Tales 6. The Story in Greek 7. The Cheirograph According to Colossians Conclusion and Implications Appendix 1: Texts in the Original Languages Appendix 2: An Ethiopic Text close to the Legend Appendix 3: The term Greek characters in the Papyri Bibliography