This text is attributed to Ephrem Syrus, who was born at Nisibis soon after AD 306 and died in 373, but it is now generally believed that its current form is 6th century or newer. The assertion that the Cave of Treasures was written in the 4th century is supported by the general contents of the work. These reproduce Ephrem's peculiar methods of exegesis and supply many examples of his methods in religious argument, with which we are familiar from his other writings. His pride in the antiquity of the Syriac language also appears in this work. That it was written in Mesopotamia by a Syrian, there is no doubt, and if Ephrem was not the original author, or perhaps later editor, belonged to the school of Ephrem. The oldest Christian work on the history of God's dealing with man from Adam to Christ is probably the anonymous Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan, which, in its original form, is from the 5th or 6th century AD. The writer of the Cave of Treasures borrowed largely from the Conflict of Adam and Eve, or shared a common source with it.

And in the days of Nimrod, the mighty man (or giant), a fire appeared which ascended from the earth, and Nimrod went down, and looked at it, and worshipped it, and he established priests to minister there, and to cast incense from it. From that day the Persians began to worship fire...-from "The Fourth Thousand Years"One of the most prolific and respected Egyptologists of the Victorian era, Budge here offers his translation of the 4th-century A.D. Syrian text commonly known as "the Cave of Treasures," a history of the world from the Creation to the crucifixion of Christ and considered by some to be an apocryphal book of the Bible. Budge's extensive notes, linking the work to other ancient writings, as well as the numerous illustrations, make this unusual work, first published in 1927, an excellent resource for students of ancient civilizations and comparative mythology.SIR E. A. WALLIS BUDGE (1857-1934) was curator of Egyptian and Assyrian antiquities at the British Museum from 1894 to 1924. Among his many works of translation and studies of ancient Egyptian religion and ritual is his best-known project, The Egyptian Book of the Dead.

Despite its Harry Potter-like title, The Book of the Cave of Treasures is actually a rich seam of Jewish and Christian apocryphal lore, by means of which its 5th century author frames the story of Jesus in a truly cosmic context -- as the inevitable conclusion of God's redemptive plan for humanity, set in train since the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise. Along the way we are treated to a feast of extra-Biblical details: of the life of the Patriarchs; of the Wind-Flood that overthrew Ur of the Chaldees, Abraham's home; of the mysterious Priest-King Melchizedek; the origin of the Magi; the genealogy of Mary; and Adam's secret burial at the 'navel of the world', the very spot where Christ was later crucified. Translated from the Syriac by Sir E.A.Wallis Budge, former curator of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities at the British Museum, the book is extensively annotated, and contains 21 illustrations.

E.A. Wallis Budge was an English philologist and writer who worked for the British museum. Budge wrote a lot on the ancient East after taking multiple trips to Egypt and the Sudan. This book is about the apocryphal New Testament book The Cave of Treasures. In The Cave of Treasures, Budge collected a volume of the history of the patriarchs and kings and translated the Syriac text of the history of the world starting with its creation.