Texts in Conversation
Revelation describes the one like a son of man with a sharp sickle to reap the earth. The Testament of Abraham uses the same image for death, a sickle that gathers everyone who comes from Adam and Eve.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Revelation 14:14
New Testament
13 Then I heard a voice from heaven say, “Write this: ‘Blessed are the dead, those who die in the Lord from this moment on!’”“Yes,” says the Spirit, “so they can rest from their hard work, because their deeds will follow them.” 14 Then I looked, and a white cloud appeared, and seated on the cloud was one like a son of man! He had a golden crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand. 15 Then another angel came out of the temple, shouting in a loud voice to the one seated on the cloud, “Use your sickle and start to reap, because the time to reap has come, since the earth’s harvest is ripe!”
Testament of Abraham 4:9
Pseudepigrapha
8 Now, Lord, what am I to do? How can I avoid this, sitting at the same table with him? The Lord said: Go down to him and do not worry about this, for when you sit down with him I will send a devouring spirit on you, and it will consume everything on the table out of your hands and through your mouth. 9 Rejoice with him in everything. Only be sure to interpret the things of the vision well, so that Abraham may know the sickle of death and the uncertain end of life, and may dispose of all his possessions, for I have blessed him beyond the sand of the sea and like the stars of heaven.
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Notes and References
... A further explanation for the presence of a sickle might be an interpretation as a symbol for death, similar to Testament of Abraham 4:11 [Recension A], where Michael carries a “sickle of death”. The sickle as a symbol for death and destruction might hint at an identification of Christ with the Destroyer as in the Exodus tradition (see section 3.1.2.5. below). Fifth, the description of the one like a son of man as “sitting” can be explained by the assumption of the use of the Joel tradition, because Joel 4 also includes a scenario of judgement. Notably in Joel 4:12 God is judging in the valley of Jehoshaphat while he is “sitting”. Possibly the description of the one like a son of man as “sitting” could additionally express a certain increase of power and therefore represent his enthronement. The sickle can probably be interpreted as a sign representing a certain juridical function of the one like a son of man which becomes rather obvious by the following description of the scenario of the harvest in Apocalypse 14:15-20: The depiction continues to be very reminiscent of Joel 4. ...
Hoffmann, Matthias Reinhard
Angelomorphic Christology and the Book of Revelation
(pp. 48-49) The University of Durham, 2003
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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