Texts in Conversation
In Genesis Rabbah, Abraham’s vision in Genesis 15 is expanded into a prophetic scene showing the final judgment. This echoes 4 Ezra, where Abraham receives revelations about secret knowledge. Both reshape his vision in early Jewish apocalyptic tradition.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
4 Ezra 3:14
2 Esdras
Pseudepigrapha
12 ‘The population of the earth increased; families and peoples multiplied, nation upon nation. But then once again they began to sin, more wickedly than those' before them. 13 When they sinned, you chose for yourself one of them, whose name was Abraham; 14 him you loved, and to him alone, secretly, at dead of night, you showed how the world would end. 15 You made an everlasting covenant with him and promised never to abandon his descendants. 16 You gave him Isaac, and to Isaac you gave Jacob and Esau; of these you chose Jacob for yourself and rejected Esau; and Jacob grew to be a great nation.
Genesis Rabbah 44:21
Aggadah
Rabbinic
“It happened when the sun had set, that there was extreme darkness, and, behold, there was a smoking furnace, and a flaming torch that passed between those pieces” (Genesis 15:17). “It was when the sun had set, that there was extreme darkness [alata]” – there was a thick mist. “Behold, there was a smoking furnace, and a flaming torch” – Shimon bar Abba said in the name of Rabbi Yoḥanan: He [thereby] showed him four things: Gehenna; [the Four] Kingdoms; the giving of the Torah; and the Temple [service]. He said to him: ‘As long as your descendants are engaged in two [of these], they will be saved from [the other] two. If they deviate from the two, they will be sentenced with [the other] two.’ He said to him: ‘Through which do you wish your descendants to be punished, through Gehenna or through the Kingdoms?’ Rabbi Ḥanina bar Pappa said: Abraham chose the Kingdoms. Rabbi Yudan, Rabbi Idi, and Rabbi Ḥama bar Ḥanina said: Abraham chose Gehenna, but the Holy One blessed be He [demurred and] chose the Kingdoms on his behalf. That is what is written: “Had their rock not given them over” (Deuteronomy 32:30), this is Abraham; “and the Lord delivered them” (Deuteronomy 32:30), it teaches that the Holy One blessed be He agreed with his words. Rabbi Huna said in the name of Rabbi Aḥa: This is how our forefather Abraham sat and pondered that entire day. He said: ‘What shall I choose, Gehenna or the Kingdoms?’ The Holy One blessed be He said to him: ‘Abraham, eliminate your anxiety from here [and choose the Kingdoms].’ “On that day, the Lord established a covenant with Abram, saying: To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt until the great river, the Euphrates River” (Genesis 15:18). “On that day, the Lord established a covenant with Abram, saying” – what is meant by “saying”? We come to the dispute between Rabbi Ḥanina bar Pappa [on the one side, and] Rabbi Yudan, Rabbi Idi, and Rabbi Ḥama bar Ḥanina [on the other]. Rabbi Ḥanina bar Pappa has said: Abraham chose the Kingdoms [and God concurred]. [And Rabbi Yudan, Rabbi Idi, and Rabbi Ḥama bar Ḥanina have said: Abraham chose Gehenna, but the Holy One blessed be He chose the Kingdoms on his behalf.] That is what is written: “You let people stand over our heads; we would have gone through fire and water” (Psalms 66:12). Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: He showed him the splitting of the Red Sea as well, as it is written: “That passed between those pieces [gezarim]” (Genesis 15:17), just as it says: “Who split the Red Sea into sections [gezarim]” (Psalms 136:13).
Date: 500 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... interpreters came to a further conclusion: what was particularly trying about this incident was the fact that God had actually shown Abraham far more than the period of slavery in Egypt to be endured by his descendants. To begin with, if God had shown Abraham four hundred years of future history, it seemed logical to interpreters that He would have shown him the rest as well, including the punishment to be meted out to the later "nation[s] which they serve." Such a notion could only be supported by the text's mention of the "dread and great darkness falling" on Abraham (Genesis 15:12)—for certainly such dread ought not to have been caused merely by the sight of his descendants' sojourn in, and exodus from, Egypt. Interpreters therefore came to view this incident as a fully prophetic apocalypse in which Abraham was afforded a view of all of human history, of heaven and hell, and other things normally hidden from the sight of mere mortals ..."
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