Dark Mirrors Of The Heavens

Most people are aware of the events that take place in the Judaic-Christian Biblical Genesis, particularly of the Creation with Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah’s Ark and the great Flood that destroyed mankind, and the narrative of three important patriarchs – Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Genesis is a narrative before the time of Moses the Lawgiver, who first appears in the 2nd book of the Old Testament – Exodus – and in the next 3 books. Genesis formed one of the bases of the Jewish Torah and the Christian Old Testament Bible. What most people are unaware of is that between mid-6th century BC and the 4th century AD, a host of commentaries and non-canonical literature about the events in Genesis was written down, too.

In Dark Mirrors of Heaven, I will help you explores the fascinating but more obscure texts that have been left out of the Jewish-Christian Bible. Unless you are a scholar, most people have the tendency to ignore these alternative texts that were written by Jewish and Christian writers at that time, regarding these earliest events of Jewish history or legend.

These obscure texts that I am referring to are non-canonical scriptures and are sometimes known as apocryphal or pseudepigrapha writings. These writings are not exactly meant to replace what was in Genesis, but to supplement or to explain what was not originally included there.

I have read and studied the following non-canonical collections of texts:

Old Testament Apocrypha (texts not included in the Old Testament)
Old Testament Pseudepigrapha (texts falsely claiming to be written by an ancient Biblical character)
Haggadah (Judaic/Talmudic legends)
and the Gnostic literature from the Nag Hammadi Library.

The Old Testament Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha are sometimes referred to as intertestamental literature, ie. between the 2 testaments (Old Testament and New).

I have also included Gnostic texts in my research because they provide an interesting and different perspective to the origin of Christian and Judaic faiths.

Dark Mirrors of Heaven covers only the events from Creation to the time of Noah’s Flood. I’ve left out other events such as the patriarchs of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (as well as that of Moses). I would just like to limit my scope to the time before Abraham.

To best understand what I have written, it is helpful if you’ve some knowledge of Genesis or have even read Genesis before, especially the first eleven chapters of it. If you haven’t read Genesis for a while and you wish to refresh your memory, then you could always read my summary – Genesis: In Brief. This is only optional reading, so you can skip this page if you are already familiar with the Book of Genesis.

These other texts that I have included in my sources are generally regarded as apocryphal, pseudepigrapha or simply as heretical. As an amateur scholar, I only wished to point out that there are alternative texts that exist, apart from those available in the Christian Bible and the Jewish Torah, which most people are familiar with.