Texts in Conversation
In the Testament of Job, heavenly girdles enable Job’s daughters to sing in the language of angels. The Apocalypse of Abraham echoes this special language during heavenly praise, but Abraham hears it without understanding their speech.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Testament of Job 11:24
Pseudepigrapha, Testaments
23 Then rose the one whose name was Day Yemima and wound it around herself; and immediately she departed her body, as her father had said, and she put on another heart, as if she never cared for earthly things. 24 And she sang angelic hymns in the voice of angels, and she chanted forth the angelic praise of God while dancing. 25 Then the other daughter, Kassia by name, put on the girdle, and her heart was transformed, so that she no longer wished for worldly things. 26 And her mouth assumed the dialect of the heavenly rulers Archonts and she sang the doxology of the work of the High Place and if any one wishes to know the work of the heavens he may take an insight into the hymns of Kassia.
Apocalypse of Abraham 15:7
Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
2 And the Angel took me with the right hand and set me on the right wing of the pigeon, and set himself on the left wing of the turtle dove, which (birds) had neither been slaughtered nor divided. 3 And he bore me to the borders of the flaming fire 4 [and we ascended as with many winds to the heaven which was fixed upon the surface. 5 And I saw on the air] on the height, to which we ascended a strong light, which it was impossible to describe, 6 and behold! in this light a fiercely burning fire for people, many people of male appearance, 7 all (constantly) changing in aspect and form, running and being transformed, and worshipping and crying with a sound of words which I did not know.
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Notes and References
“... This reconstruction leads him to translate 15.7 as "They
[= the angels] were shouting in the language the words of which I did not
know," listing the Testament
of Job and 1 Corinthians, as conceptual
parallels.
1 9 3 Himmelfarb's translation (presented above in brackets) essen
tially agrees with the view of Kulik. ...”
Poirier, John C.
The Tongues of Angels: The Concept of Angelic Languages in Classical Jewish and Christian Texts
(p. 88) Mohr Siebeck, 2010
* 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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