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Jubilees describes Abraham facing many tests of faith like famine, death, and the near sacrifice of Isaac. Rabbinic traditions, such as in Pirkei Avot, also list ten trials for Abraham, though the details of which events were trials differ between them.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Jubilees 17:17
Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions
16 And the prince Mastêmâ came and said before God, 'Behold, Abraham loves Isaac his son, and he delights in him above all things else; tell him to offer him as a burnt-offering on the altar, and You will see if he will do this command, and You will know if he is faithful in everything in which You try him. 17 And the Lord knew that Abraham was faithful in all his afflictions; for He had tried him through his country and with famine, and had tried him with the wealth of kings, and had tried him again through his wife, when she was torn (from him), and with circumcision; and had tried him through Ishmael and Hagar, his maid-servant, when he sent them away.
Date: 170–125 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Pirkei Avot 5:3
Mishnah
Rabbinic
2 There were ten generations from Adam to Noah, in order to make known how patient He is, for all those generations kept on provoking Him, until He brought upon them the waters of the flood. There were ten generations from Noah to Abraham, in order to make known how patient He is, for all those generations kept on provoking Him, until Abraham came and received the reward of all of them. 3 With ten trials was Abraham, our father, may he rest in peace, tried, and he withstood them all; to make known how great was the love of Abraham, our father, peace be upon him.
Date: 190–230 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... If there are seven trials mentioned in Jubilees 17:17, the binding of Isaac (Jubilees 18:1–19) was the eighth and Sarah’s death (Jubilees 19:2) possibly the ninth, although these events are not noted in a context designated as trial. If this were the case, the plea for a place to bury her would be the tenth test ... VanderKam also points to Numbers 14:22, where it is said that the people “have tested me these ten times and have not obeyed my voice.” Abraham was also tested ten times in Rabbinic literature, see Pirkei Avot 5:2; Avot of Rabbi Natan 33; Pirkei Rabbi Eliazar 26. The Rabbinic sources do not agree as to what the trials were ..."
Jacques T. A. G. M. van Ruiten, Abraham in the Book of Jubilees: The Rewriting of Genesis 11:26–25:10 in the Book of Jubilees 11:14–23:8, JSJSup 161 (Leiden: Brill, 2012), 233.
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