In my previous post I summarized C. John Collins’ thoughts on
Adam and Eve in the Hebrew Scriptures. In this post I will do
the same regarding his section on Adam and Eve in Second Temple
Jewish Literature (c. 516 BCE to 70 CE). Collins notes that
Judaism at this time was quite varied. The Judaism that survived
the war with Rome was that of the Pharisees. It was the
“mainline” Judaism of the day and it was able to adapt to a
post-temple world. What interest Collins though is whether or
not the views on Adam and Eve were uniform at a time when
Judaism was not (pp. 71-72). Collins senses that it was: Book of
Tobit: “The clearest and most complete statement about Adam and
Eve from the Apocrypha comes in the book of Tobit (from
somewhere between 250 and 175 b.c.)…Tobias says these words as
part of his prayer (Tob. 8:6): [O God of our fathers,] You made
Adam and gave him Eve his wife as a helper and support. From
them the race of mankind has sprung. You said, “It is not good
that the man should be alone; let us ma