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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 1 Corinthians 14:2 and Apocalypse of Abraham 15:7

New Testament · Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses

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Summary

In 1 Corinthians, Paul describes speaking in a heavenly language directed to God that no human understands. The Apocalypse of Abraham follows a similar tradition, describing Abraham hearing a crowd of angels shouting in a language he did not understand.

Passages

1 Corinthians 14:2

New Testament
1 Pursue love and be eager for the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. 2 For the one speaking in a tongue does not speak to people but to God, for no one understands; he is speaking mysteries by the Spirit. 3 But the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouragement, and consolation. 4 The one who speaks in a tongue builds himself up, but the one who prophesies builds up the church. 5 I wish you all spoke in tongues, but even more that you would prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets so that the church may be strengthened.
55–57 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Corinthians

Apocalypse of Abraham 15:7

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
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.
70–150 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Apocalypse of Abraham

References

“... In Apoc. Ab. 15.2-7, Abraham is taken to the seventh heaven, where he encounters humanlike creatures, crying out in a language unknown to him: [...] And behold, in this light a fiery Gehenna was enkindled, and a great crowd in the likeness of men. They all were changing in aspect and shape, running and changing form and prostrating themselves and crying aloud words [...] I did not know. Rubinkiewicz’s translation does not clearly indicate that the angels spoke an esoteric language: the reference to “words” that Abraham “did not know” could simply refer to his inability to hear them clearly. Alexander Kulik, however, has recently reconstructed the Greek behind the present “semantic calque”, finding there the term [...], denoting a “special angelic language”. 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. Himmelfarb’s translation (presented above in brackets) essentially agrees with the view of Kulik. ...”
John C. Poirier, The Tongues of Angels: The Concept of Angelic Languages in Classical Jewish and Christian Texts, Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 2. Reihe 287 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2010), 88.

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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1 Corinthians 14:2 and Apocalypse of Abraham 15:7

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