Texts in Conversation
John 4 describes Jesus' food as carrying out God's will, beyond the food his disciples bring. The Apocalypse of Abraham echoes this idea of nourishment beyond a meal, as Abraham lives on seeing the angel and hearing him speak during the journey.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Apocalypse of Abraham 12:2
Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
1 And we went, the two of us together, forty days and nights, 2 and I ate no bread, and drank no water, because my food was to see the angel who was with me, and his speech — that was my drink. 3 And we came to the Mount of God, the glorious Horeb. 4 And I said to the angel: "Singer of the Eternal One! Behold! I have no sacrifice with me, nor am I aware of a place of an altar on the mountain: how can I bring a sacrifice?" 5 And he said to me: "Look round!" 6 And I looked round, and behold! there were following us all the prescribed sacrificial (animals) — the young heifer, and the she-goat, and the ram, and the turtle-dove, and the pigeon.
John 4:32
New Testament
31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” 33 So the disciples began to say to one another, “No one brought him anything to eat, did they?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to complete his work. 35 Don’t you say, ‘There are four more months and then comes the harvest?’ I tell you, look up and see that the fields are already white for harvest! 36 The one who reaps receives pay and gathers fruit for eternal life, so that the one who sows and the one who reaps can rejoice together. 37 For in this instance the saying is true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’
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Notes and References
“... Cf. John iv. 31-34. Elijah ate and drank before starting on his journey to Horeb, and “went in the
strength of that meat fort y days and forty nights” (1 Kings xix. 8): cf. Ex. xxiv. 18. There is a close parallel
to our text in Philo, Life of Moses, Bk. III. 1, where it is said of Moses in the Mount: “he neglected all
meat and drink fo r forty days together, evidently because he had more excellent food than that in those
contemplations with which he was inspired from above from heaven. ...”
Box, G. H., with J. I. Landsman
The Apocalypse of Abraham
(p. PDF 32) Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1918
* 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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