The Book of the Cave of Treasures

The Book of the Cave of Treasures (Syriac Me'arath Gazze), a Christian retelling of the history of the world from Creation to the Crucifixion and Pentecost, traditionally ascribed to Ephrem the Syrian (died AD 373) but written later, probably in the sixth century AD and in Syriac. Its central thread is the body of Adam, kept in a cave near Paradise with the gold, myrrh and frankincense that the Magi later bring to Christ, then carried by Noah and Shem to the centre of the earth, which the book identifies with Golgotha. It also gives the long genealogies of the patriarchs and of Mary. This is E.A. Wallis Budge's English of 1927 from British Museum MS. Add. 28875; his section titles, notes and the plates of Ur excavation finds are not reproduced. Not scripture in any tradition.