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Apocalypse of Abraham

About this book

Abraham Tests His Father’s Idols

Chapter 1

1 On the day when I was carving the gods of my father Terah and the gods of my brother Nahor, while trying to discover who the Mighty God really is, 2 I, Abraham, had been chosen by lot and was performing the services (the sacrifices) of my father Terah to his gods of wood and stone, gold and silver, brass and iron. 3 I entered their temple to serve and found the god named Merumath (which was) carved from stone, lying facedown at the feet of the iron god Nahon. 4 And when I saw this, I was troubled, and I thought that I, Abraham, could not put him back in his place alone, because he was heavy and made from a large stone, 5 and I went out and told my father. And he came in with me, 6 and when we both moved him (the god) forward, to put him back in his place, his head fell off while I was still holding him by the head.⁠ 7 And when my father saw that Merumath's head had fallen off, he said to me: "Abraham!" 8 And I said: "Here I am." And he said to me: "Bring me an axe and a chisel from the house." 9 And I brought them to him. And he carved another Merumath from another stone, without a head, and he put the head that had fallen off Merumath on it, and he smashed the rest of Merumath.

Texts in conversation

Compare Jubilees 12:5 and Apocalypse of Abraham 1:6

Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions · Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses

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Summary

In Jubilees, Abraham tells Terah that his idols are useless, since they cannot even move unless people carry them. The Apocalypse of Abraham echoes a similar tradition in a comic story where Abraham and Terah lift a fallen god and its head breaks off.

Passages

Jubilees 12:5

Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions
3 For there is no spirit in them, For they are lifeless forms that cannot speak, and a deception 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 you carry them on your shoulders, And you have no help from them, But they are a great cause of shame to those who make them, And a deception of the heart to those who worship them: Do not worship them.'
170–125 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Jubilees

Apocalypse of Abraham 1:6

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
4 And when I saw this, I was troubled, and I thought that I, Abraham, could not put him back in his place alone, because he was heavy and made from a large stone, 5 and I went out and told my father. And he came in with me, 6 and when we both moved him (the god) forward, to put him back in his place, his head fell off while I was still holding him by the head. 7 And when my father saw that Merumath's head had fallen off, he said to me: "Abraham!" 8 And I said: "Here I am." And he said to me: "Bring me an axe and a chisel from the house."
70–150 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Apocalypse of Abraham

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 Between Philology and Theology: Contributions to the Study of Ancient Jewish Interpretation, ed. Hindy Najman and Eibert Tigchelaar, JSJSup 162 (Leiden: Brill, 2013), 9.
“... Although Jubilees provides a less elaborated account of the story in comparison with the one found in the Apocalypse of Abraham, it attests to a formative initial core of the story which would be expanded or altered by subsequent pseudepigraphical and rabbinic developments. ...”
Andrei A. Orlov, “‘The Gods of My Father Terah’: Abraham the Iconoclast and the Polemics with the Divine Body Traditions in the Apocalypse of Abraham,” JSP 18.1 (2008): 37–38.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Jubilees 12:5 and Apocalypse of Abraham 1:6

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