Legends of Old Testament Characters

I often quote this book on my pages about Adam, the death of Adam and the pre-Adamites. Here you can read all of it.

Legends of Old Testament Characters, from the Talmud and Other Sources is a book by the Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould. Macmillan and Co. published it in London and New York in 1871. Baring-Gould collected the stories that grew around the people of the Old Testament. His sources are the Talmud, the Midrash, Muslim writers like Tabari, Persian books and Christian legends. Many of these stories are not in the Bible. They tell of the fall of the angels, the giants before the Flood, the books of Enoch and the wisdom of Solomon.

About the text

The text on these pages is the full book, chapter by chapter, with the original notes. The book is in the public domain. Baring-Gould died in 1924. I took the text from the proofread edition on Wikisource. In this copy I changed long dashes to commas. The words are the same as in the book.

Contents

1. Preface
2. Chapter 1: The Fall of the Angels
3. Chapter 2: Adam
4. Chapter 3: Eve
5. Chapter 4: The Fall of Man
6. Chapter 5: Adam and Eve after the Fall
7. Chapter 6: Cain and Abel
8. Chapter 7: The Death of Adam
9. Chapter 8: Seth
10. Chapter 9: Cainan son of Enos
11. Chapter 10: Enoch
12. Chapter 11: The Giants
13. Chapter 12: Lamech
14. Chapter 13: Methuselah
15. Chapter 14: Noah
16. Chapter 15: Heathen Legends of the Deluge
17. Chapter 16: The Planting of the Vine
18. Chapter 17: The Sons of Noah
19. Chapter 18: Relics of the Ark
20. Chapter 19: Certain Descendants of Ham
21. Chapter 20: Serug
22. Chapter 21: The Prophet Eber
23. Chapter 22: The Prophet Saleh
24. Chapter 23: The Tower of Babel
25. Chapter 24: Abraham
26. Chapter 25: Melchizedek
27. Chapter 26: Of Ishmael and the Well Zemzem
28. Chapter 27: Esau and Jacob
29. Chapter 28: Joseph
30. Chapter 29: The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs
31. Chapter 30: Job
32. Chapter 31: Jethro
33. Chapter 32: Moses
34. Chapter 33: Joshua
35. Chapter 34: The Judges
36. Chapter 35: Samuel
37. Chapter 36: Saul
38. Chapter 37: David
39. Chapter 38: Solomon
40. Chapter 39: Elijah
41. Chapter 40: Isaiah
42. Chapter 41: Jeremiah
43. Chapter 42: Ezekiel
44. Chapter 43: Ezra
45. Chapter 44: Zechariah

About the author

Sabine Baring-Gould (1834 to 1924) was an English priest, novelist and collector of folk songs and old legends. He also wrote Curious Myths of the Middle Ages and The Origin and Development of Religious Belief.

Credits and public domain

The public-domain ebook is Project Gutenberg ebook 72268. The original publication is London, Macmillan and Co., 1871. Gutenberg credits David Edwards, David King, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at pgdp.net. The file was produced from images made available by the Internet Archive. Gutenberg marks the text public domain in the USA.