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In 1 Samuel 5, the statue Dagon falls in front of the ark and loses its head after being put back in place. The Apocalypse of Abraham echoes this narrative, as Abraham and Terah try to lift their fallen god and its head breaks off.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
1 Samuel 5:4
Hebrew Bible
1 Now the Philistines had captured the ark of God and brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. 2 The Philistines took the ark of God and brought it into the temple of Dagon, where they positioned it beside Dagon. 3 When the residents of Ashdod got up early the next day, Dagon was lying on the ground before the ark of the Lord. So they took Dagon and set him back in his place. 4 But when they got up early the following day, Dagon was again lying on the ground before the ark of the Lord. The head of Dagon and his two hands were sheared off and were lying at the threshold. Only Dagon’s body was left intact.
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
“... This stone idol, like Dagon in 1 Sam. 5:3–4, is found prostrate in his sanctuary, and
after an attempt to put him back, his head breaks off. ...”
Kulik, Alexander
"Apocalypse of Abraham" in Louis H. Feldman, James L. Kugel, and Lawrence H. Schiffman (eds.) Outside the Bible: Ancient Jewish Writings Related to Scripture
(pp. 1456-1457) The Jewish Publication Society, 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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