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Apocalypse of Abraham

About this book

The Throne of Glory

Chapter 18

1 And while I was still reciting the song, the mouth of the fire which was on the surface rose high into the air. 2 And I heard a voice like the roaring of the sea; and it did not stop because of the great abundance of fire. 3 And as the fire rose higher and higher, I saw under the fire a throne of fire, and all-seeing beings around it, reciting the song, and under the throne four fiery living creatures singing, 4 and they all looked alike, each one of them with four faces.⁠ 5 And their faces looked like those of a lion, a man, an ox, and an eagle.⁠ Four heads [were on their bodies] [so that the four creatures had sixteen faces]; 6 and each had six wings; from their shoulders, [and their sides] and their hips. 7 And with the (two) wings from their shoulders they covered their faces, and with the (two) wings which (sprang) from their hips they covered their feet, while they spread the (two) middle wings to fly straight ahead.⁠ 8 And when they had finished singing, they looked at one another and threatened one another. 9 And when the angel who was with me saw that they were threatening each other, he left me and went running to them 10 and turned the face of each living creature away from the face directly opposite it, so that they could not see each other's threatening faces. 11 And he taught them the song of peace which has its origin [in the Eternal One]. 12 And as I stood alone and looked, I saw behind the living creatures a chariot with fiery wheels, each wheel full of eyes all around; 13 and over the wheels was a throne that I saw, and it was covered with fire, and fire encircled it all around,⁠ and look, an indescribable light surrounded a fiery crowd. 14 And I heard its holy voice like the voice of a man.

Texts in conversation

Compare Isaiah 6:2 and Apocalypse of Abraham 18:7

Hebrew Bible · Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses

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Summary

In Isaiah, the beings around God’s throne have six wings, for covering their faces and feet and for flying. In the Apocalypse of Abraham, the four living creatures also have six wings, like Isaiah’s winged beings and Ezekiel’s throne bearers combined.

Passages

Isaiah 6:2

Hebrew Bible
1 In the year of King Uzziah’s death, I saw the Lord seated on a high, elevated throne. The hem of his robe filled the temple. 2 Seraphs stood over him; each one had six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and they used the remaining two to fly. 3 They called out to one another, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies! His majestic splendor fills the entire earth!” 4 The sound of their voices shook the door frames, and the temple was filled with smoke. 5 I said, “Woe to me! I am destroyed, for my lips are contaminated by sin, and I live among people whose lips are contaminated by sin. My eyes have seen the king, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.”
740–450 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Isaiah

Apocalypse of Abraham 18:7

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
3 And as the fire rose higher and higher, I saw under the fire a throne of fire, and all-seeing beings around it, reciting the song, and under the throne four fiery living creatures singing, 4 and they all looked alike, each one of them with four faces. 5 And their faces looked like those of a lion, a man, an ox, and an eagle. Four heads [were on their bodies] [so that the four creatures had sixteen faces]; 6 and each had six wings; from their shoulders, [and their sides] and their hips. 7 And with the (two) wings from their shoulders they covered their faces, and with the (two) wings which (sprang) from their hips they covered their feet, while they spread the (two) middle wings to fly straight ahead.
70–150 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Apocalypse of Abraham

References

“... The second way in which Revelation’s description of the h\ayyoµt coheres with other Jewish interpretations is in the identification of the h\ayyoµt or cherubim with the seraphim of Isaiah’s vision (Isa. 6:2–3). Some Jewish exegetes did not conflate the cherubim and the seraphim but treated them as two different orders of angelic beings (1 Enoch 61:10; 71:7; 2 Enoch 19:6;14 21:1; T. Adam 4:8; Apost. Const. 7.35.3; 8.12.27). Others, however, identified the two (Apoc. Ab. 18; b. H|ag. 13b; Lev. Rab. 27:3). ...”
Richard Bauckham, Living with Other Creatures: Green Exegesis and Theology (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2011), 167.

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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Isaiah 6:2 and Apocalypse of Abraham 18:7

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