At the turn of the 12th-13th centuries, the Jeu d’Adam inaugurated the history of French theater by staging the origins of human history: the creation, temptation, and fall of Adam and Eve, and the murder of Abel. This is the first critical edition of the only copy of this masterpiece, setting the work in its social and liturgical environment. The Jeu d’Adam has its place in the Latin theater tradition, which it subverts by adopting French to achieve dialogues of unprecedented dramatic force and subtlety. The translation to modern French endeavours to be as accurate as possible.