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In Jubilees 12, Abraham challenges Terah's worship of handmade gods that need people to carry them. The Apocalypse of Abraham turns his complaint into a comic story in which Abraham and Terah lift a fallen god and its head breaks off.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Jubilees 12:5
Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions
3 For there is no spirit in them, For they are dumb forms, and a misleading of the heart. Do not worship them: 4 Worship the God of heaven, Who causes the rain and the dew to descend on the earth And does everything upon the earth, And has created everything by His word, And all life is from before His face. 5 Why do you worship things that have no spirit in them? For they are the work of (men's) hands, And on your shoulders you bear them, And you have no help from them, But they are a great cause of shame to those who make them, And a misleading of the heart to those who worship them: Do not worship them.'
Apocalypse of Abraham 1:6
Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
4 And it came to pass, when I saw it, my heart was perplexed, and I considered in my mind that I should not be able to bring him back to his place, I, Abraham, alone, because he was heavy, being of a large stone, 5 and I went forth and made it known to my father. And he entered with me, 6 and when both of us moved him (the god) forward, so that we might bring him back to his place, his head fell from him while I was still holding him by the head. 7 And it came to pass, when my father saw that the head of Merumath had fallen from him, he said to me: "Abraham!" 8 And I said: "Here I am." And he said to me: "Bring me an axe, of the small ones, from the house."
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Notes and References
“... You can read a couple of the anecdotes that the author
relates to prepare the reader for Abraham’s profession of monotheistic
faith. These anecdotes have all the flavour of popular stories, spiced with
a healthy dose of humour and irony: ...”
Florentino García Martínez
"Abraham and the Gods" in Hindy Najman and Eibert Tigchelaar (eds.) Between Philology and Theology: Contributions to the Study of Ancient Jewish Interpretation
(p. 9) Brill, 2013
* 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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