Texts in Conversation
The Apocalypse of Abraham and Revelation 4 echo Isaiah’s six-winged beings in their living creatures around God’s throne. Their faces differ, with four faces on each creature in Abraham’s vision and a different creature for each form in Revelation.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Apocalypse of Abraham 18:6
Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
3 And as the fire raised itself up, ascending into the height, I saw under the fire a throne of fire, and, round about it all-seeing ones, reciting the song, and under the throne four fiery living creatures singing, 4 and their appearance was one, each one of them with four faces. 5 And such was the appearance of their faces, of a lion, of a man, of an ox, of an eagle. four heads [were upon their bodies] [so that the four creatures had sixteen faces]; 6 and each had six wings; from their shoulders, [and their sides] and their loins. 7 And with the (two) wings from their shoulders they covered their faces, and with the (two) wings which (sprang) from their loins they covered their feet, while the (two) middle wings they spread out for flying straightforward.
Revelation 4:8
New Testament
8 Each one of the four living creatures had six wings and was full of eyes all around and inside. They never rest day or night, saying: “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God, the All-Powerful, Who was, and who is, and who is still to come!” 9 And whenever the living creatures give glory, honor, and thanks to the one who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders throw themselves to the ground before the one who sits on the throne and worship the one who lives forever and ever, and they offer their crowns before his throne, saying: 11 “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, since you created all things, and because of your will they existed and were created!”
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Notes and References
“... At the same time we may notice two significant differences:
1. In the Apocalypse of Abraham the h\ayyoµt and the wheels are distinct,
as they are in Ezekiel, though the Apocalypse of Abraham shares
with other Jewish readings of Ezekiel the view that the wheels are
animate creatures who sing the praises of God along with the
h\ayyoµt. In the Apocalypse of Abraham, therefore, the many eyes
belong to the wheels (18:3,12), but in Revelation they belong to the
h\ayyoµt (4:6,8).
2. In the Apocalypse of Abraham each of the four h\ayyoµt has four faces
and looks just like the other three. (It may be that there is some tex-
tual confusion and that verse 12b originally meant that each crea-
ture had four heads and each head four faces, so that each creature
had sixteen faces, making a total of sixty-four faces altogether. This
interpretation of Ezekiel is found in the Targum [1:6].)20 In Revel-
ation, however, each creature is different: one like a lion, one like an ...”
Bauckham, Richard
Living with Other Creatures: Green Exegesis and Theology
(p. 169) Baylor University Press, 2011
* 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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