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Apocalypse of Abraham

About this book

The Ascent to Heaven

Chapter 15

1 And the sun went down, and look, there was smoke like that of a furnace. And the angels who had the portions of the sacrifice went up from the top of the smoking furnace.⁠ 2 And the Angel took me with his right hand and set me on the right wing of the pigeon, and seated himself on the left wing of the turtledove,⁠ which (birds) had neither been slaughtered nor divided. 3 And he carried me to the edge of the flaming fire 4 [and we went up as if carried by many winds to the heaven which was fixed on the surface. 5 And I saw in the air] at the height we had reached, a strong light that was impossible to describe, 6 and look, in this light there was a fiercely burning fire, and many people who looked like men, 7 all (constantly) changing in appearance and form, running and being transformed,⁠ and worshiping and crying out words whose sounds I did not recognize.⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare Genesis 15:17 and Apocalypse of Abraham 15:1

Hebrew Bible · Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses

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Summary

In Genesis, a smoking furnace appears among the divided animals as God makes his covenant with Abraham. In the Apocalypse of Abraham, angels carry the sacrifice up through this smoke, and Abraham then rises to heaven on the uncut birds.

Passages

Genesis 15:17

Hebrew Bible
14 But I will execute judgment on the nation that they will serve. Afterward they will come out with many possessions. 15 But as for you, you will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. 16 In the fourth generation your descendants will return here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its limit.” 17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking firepot with a flaming torch passed between the animal parts. 18 That day the Lord made a covenant with Abram: “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates River— 19 the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, 21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.”
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Genesis

Apocalypse of Abraham 15:1

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
1 And the sun went down, and look, there was smoke like that of a furnace. And the angels who had the portions of the sacrifice went up from the top of the smoking furnace. 2 And the Angel took me with his right hand and set me on the right wing of the pigeon, and seated himself on the left wing of the turtledove, which (birds) had neither been slaughtered nor divided. 3 And he carried me to the edge of the flaming fire 4 [and we went up as if carried by many winds to the heaven which was fixed on the surface.
70–150 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Apocalypse of Abraham

References

“... Cf. Gen. xv. 17 (also xv. 12). ...”
G. H. Box with J. I. Landsman, The Apocalypse of Abraham (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1918), PDF 35.
“... These verses reflect the exact list of animals that Abraham sacrifices in Gen 15, including the detail that the birds not be cut in half (Gen 15:10). In fact, the Apocalypse of Abraham provides a rationale for this command, since the birds are used to carry the angel Yahoel and Abraham to heaven in 15:2: “And the angel took me with his right hand and set me on the right wing of the pigeon and he himself sat on the left wing of the turtledove, since they both were neither slaughtered nor divided.” The birds that Abraham drives away from the carcasses in Gen 15:11 are turned into a narrative in which Azazel is the “impure bird” that “flew down upon the carcasses” (Apoc. Ab. 13:3). Azazel attempts to dissuade Abraham from staying with his sacrifice, but Yahoel instructs Abraham how to defeat Azazel, which is by repeating a sort of malediction (Apoc. Ab. 13:4-14:14). According to Gen 15:17, after the sun goes down a “smoking furnace” and a “burning torch” pass between the pieces of the split animals. The Apocalypse of Abraham echoes this, but with the addition of the involvement of angels: “And it came to pass that when the sun was setting, and behold, a smoke like that of a furnace, and the angels who had the divided parts of the sacrifice ascended from the top of the furnace of smoke” (Apoc. Ab. 15:1). The burning torch is not mentioned, but in the next verse, Abraham and Yahoel ascend to heaven on the birds, after which they are carried up “to the edge of the fiery flame” (Apoc. Ab. 15:3). ...”
Amy Elizabeth Paulsen-Reed, “The Origins of the Apocalypse of Abraham” (diss., Harvard Divinity School, 2016), 110–111.

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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Genesis 15:17 and Apocalypse of Abraham 15:1

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