- And then the Lord said, Let us go down. And they went down at the beginning and they organized and formed (that is, the Gods) the heavens and the earth. And the earth, after it was formed, was empty and desolate because they had not formed anything but the earth. And darkness reigned upon the face of the deep, and the spirit of the Gods was brooding upon the faces of the water.
- And they said (the Gods), Let there be light. And there was light. And they (the Gods), comprehended the light, for it was bright. And they divided the light, or caused it to be divided, from the darkness, and the Gods called the light day, and the darkness they called night. And it came to pass that from the evening until morning they called night, and from the morning until the evening they called day. And this was the first, or the beginning, of that which they called day and night.
- And the Gods also said, Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and it shall divide the waters from the waters. And the Gods ordered the expanse so that it divided the waters which were under the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse. And it was so, even as they ordered. And the Gods called the expanse heaven. And it came to pass that it was from evening until morning that they called night. And it came to pass that it was morning until evening that they called day. And this was the second time that they called night and day.
- And the Gods ordered, saying, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place and let the earth come up dry. And it was so, as they ordered. And the Gods pronounced the earth dry, and the gathering together of the waters pronounced they great waters. And the Gods saw that they were obeyed. And the Gods said, Let us prepare the earth to bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed in itself yields its own likeness upon the earth. And it was so, even as they ordered. And the Gods organized the earth to bring forth grass from its own seed, and the herb to bring forth herb from its own seed, yielding seed after his kind, and the earth to bring forth the tree from its own seed, yielding fruit whose seed could only bring forth the same in itself, after his kind. And the Gods saw that they were obeyed. And it came to pass that they numbered the days: from the evening until the morning that they called night. And it came to pass from the morning until the evening they called day. And it was the third time.
- And the Gods organized the lights in the expanse of the heaven, and caused them to divide the day from the night, and organized them to be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years, and organized them to be for lights in the expanse of the heaven to give light upon the earth. And it was so. And the Gods organized the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night; with the lesser light, he set the stars also. And the Gods set them in the expanse of the heavens, to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to cause to divide the light from the darkness. And the Gods watched those things which they had ordered until they obeyed. And it came to pass that it was from evening until morning that it was night. And it came to pass that it was from morning until evening that it was day. And it was the fourth time.
- And the Gods said, Let us prepare the waters to bring forth abundantly the moving creatures that have life, and the fowl that they may fly above the earth in the open expanse of heaven. And the Gods prepared the waters that they might bring forth great whales and every living creature that moves which the waters were to bring forth abundantly after their kind, and every winged fowl after their kind. And the Gods saw that they would be obeyed and that their plan was good. And the Gods said, We will bless them and cause them to be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, or great waters, and cause the fowl to multiply in the earth. And it came to pass that it was from evening until morning that they called night. And it came to pass that it was from morning until evening that they called day. And it was the fifth time.
- And the Gods prepared the earth to bring forth the living creature after his kind — cattle, and creeping things, and beasts of the earth after their kind. And it was so, as they had said. And the Gods organized the earth to bring forth the beasts after their kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps upon the earth after their kind. And the Gods saw they would obey. And the Gods took counsel among themselves, and said, Let us go down and form man in our image, after our likeness, and we will give them dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth. So the Gods went down to organize man in their own image, in the image of the Gods, to form they him — male and female, to form they them. And the Gods said, We will bless them. And the Gods said, We will cause them to be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and to have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth. And the Gods said, Behold, we will give them every herb bearing seed that shall come upon the face of all the earth and every tree which shall have fruit upon it — yea, the fruit of the tree yielding seed, to them we will give it; it shall be for their meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to everything that creeps upon the earth, behold, we will give them life, and also we will give to them every green herb for meat. And all these things shall be thus organized. And the Gods said, We will do everything that we have said and organize them, and behold, they shall be very obedient. And it came to pass that it was from evening until morning they called night. And it came to pass that it was from morning until evening they called day; and they numbered the sixth time.
- And thus we will finish the heavens, and the earth, and all the hosts of them. And the Gods said among themselves, On the seventh time we will end our work which we have counseled, and we will rest on the seventh time from all our work which we have counseled. And the Gods concluded upon the seventh time, because that on the seventh time they would rest from all their works which they, the Gods, counseled among themselves to form, and sanctified it. And thus were their decisions at the time that they counseled among themselves to form the heavens and the earth. And the Gods came down and formed these, the generations of the heavens and of the earth, when they were formed in the day that the Gods formed the earth and the heavens, according to all that which they had said concerning every plant of the field before it was in the earth and every herb of the field before it grew. For the Gods had not caused it to rain upon the earth when they counseled to do them, and had not formed a man to till the ground. But there went up a mist from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground. And the Gods formed man from the dust of the ground, and took his spirit — that is, the man’s spirit — and put it into him, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. And man became a living soul.
- And the Gods planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there they put the man, whose spirit they had put into the body which they had formed. And out of the ground made the Gods to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food; the Tree of Life also, in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. There was a river running out of Eden to water the garden, and from thence it was parted and became into four heads.
- And the Gods took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the Gods commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. You shall not eat of it, for in the time that you eat thereof, you shall surely die. Now I, Abraham, saw that it was after the Lord’s time, which was after the time of Kolob, for as yet the Gods had not appointed unto Adam his reckoning.
- And the Gods said, Let us make a help meet for the man, for it is not good that the man should be alone. Therefore, we will form a help meet for him. And the Gods caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept. And they took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh in the stead thereof. And the rib, which the Gods had taken from man, formed they a woman and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This was bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; now she shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. And out of the ground the Gods formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air, and brought unto Adam to see what he would call them. And whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that should be the name thereof; and Adam gave names to all cattle, to the fowl of the air, to every beast of the field. And for Adam there was found a help meet for him.
Chapter 7