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Apocalypse of Abraham

About this book

The Promise of Descendants

Chapter 20

1 And the Eternal Mighty One said to me: "Abraham, Abraham!" 2 And I said: "Here I am." 3 [And He said:] "Look down at the stars beneath you,⁠ and count them [for me],⁠ and report [to me] their number."⁠ 4 And I said: "How could I do that? For I am only a man [of dust and ashes]."⁠ 5 And he said to me: "As great as the stars in number and power, (so will) I make your descendants a nation and a people, set apart for me in my inheritance with Azazel."⁠

Abraham Asks about Evil

6 And I said: "Eternal, Mighty One! Let your servant speak in Your presence, and do not let Your anger flare up against Your chosen one! 7 Look, before You led me up Azazel attacked me with words. How, then, while he is not now in Your presence, have You established Yourself with him?"

Texts in conversation

Compare Isaiah 14:13 and Apocalypse of Abraham 20:3

Hebrew Bible · Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses

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Summary

The Apocalypse of Abraham describes Abraham rising above the stars, following ancient Near Eastern and Hebrew Bible cosmology found in texts like Isaiah, which similarly describes figures rising above the stars which are attached to the solid firmament.

Passages

Isaiah 14:13

Hebrew Bible
12 “Look how you have fallen from the sky, O shining one, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the ground, O conqueror of the nations! 13 You said to yourself, ‘I will climb up to the sky. Above the stars of El I will set up my throne. I will rule on the mountain of assembly on the remote slopes of Zaphon. 14 I will climb up to the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High!’
740–450 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Isaiah

Apocalypse of Abraham 20:3

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
1 And the Eternal Mighty One said to me: "Abraham, Abraham!" 2 And I said: "Here I am." 3 [And He said:] "Look down at the stars beneath you, and count them [for me], and report [to me] their number." 4 And I said: "How could I do that? For I am only a man [of dust and ashes]." 5 And he said to me: "As great as the stars in number and power, (so will) I make your descendants a nation and a people, set apart for me in my inheritance with Azazel."
70–150 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Apocalypse of Abraham

References

"... Furthermore, the Apocalypse of Abraham 20:1-5 is a retelling of Genesis 15:5 ... In this retelling, Abraham has already ascended to heaven and is looking down upon the stars. This parallels rabbinic midrashim that argue that the Hebrew word for “look” here is only used when one is looking down on something, not up. Genesis Rabbah 44:12 reads, “R. Judah b. R. Simon in the name of R. Yohanan: ‘He brought him above the vault of heaven. That is in line with the statement, “Look toward heaven and number the stars,” and the meaning of the word ‘look’ is only ‘from above to below’ (Hence he looked downward from above the vault of heaven].” The Apocalypse of Abraham is not the only ancient work apart from midrash to speculate on what heavenly secrets God revealed to Abraham during this theophany ..."
Amy Elizabeth Paulsen-Reed, “The Origins of the Apocalypse of Abraham” (diss., Harvard Divinity School, 2016), 111–112.

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 14:13 and Apocalypse of Abraham 20:3

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