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Apocalypse of Abraham

About this book

The Duration of Exile

Chapter 28

1 And I answered and said: "Mighty, [Eternal One], holy through Your power! Please grant my request, [for this You have brought me up here, so show me]. As You have brought me up to Your height, 2 so explain [this] to me, Your beloved one, what I ask: will what I saw happen to them for long?" 3 And He showed me a great crowd of His people, 4 and said to me: "Because of them, through four movements, as you saw, they will provoke me,⁠ and in these my punishment for their deeds will be (accomplished).⁠ 5 But during the fourth movement of a hundred years and one hour of the age, which is a hundred years, it will suffer misfortune among the pagans [but one hour in mercy and insults, as among the pagans]."

Texts in conversation

Compare Daniel 7:3 and Apocalypse of Abraham 28:4

Hebrew Bible · Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses

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Summary

In Daniel, four beasts represent four kingdoms that rule before God’s judgment. In the Apocalypse of Abraham, God shows Abraham the same pattern of four periods in which his descendants will suffer under foreign rule.

Passages

Daniel 7:3

Hebrew Bible
3 Then four large beasts came up from the sea; they were different from one another. 4 “The first one was like a lion with eagles’ wings. As I watched, its wings were pulled off, and it was lifted up from the ground. It was made to stand on two feet like a human being, and a human mind was given to it. 5 “Then a second beast appeared, like a bear. It was raised up on one side, and there were three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. It was told, ‘Get up and devour much flesh!’ 6 “After these things, as I was watching, another beast like a leopard appeared, with four bird-like wings on its back. This beast had four heads, and ruling authority was given to it.
200–101 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Daniel

Apocalypse of Abraham 28:4

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
1 And I answered and said: "Mighty, [Eternal One], holy through Your power! Please grant my request, [for this You have brought me up here, so show me]. As You have brought me up to Your height, 2 so explain [this] to me, Your beloved one, what I ask: will what I saw happen to them for long?" 3 And He showed me a great crowd of His people, 4 and said to me: "Because of them, through four movements, as you saw, they will provoke me, and in these my punishment for their deeds will be (accomplished). 5 But during the fourth movement of a hundred years and one hour of the age, which is a hundred years, it will suffer misfortune among the pagans [but one hour in mercy and insults, as among the pagans]."
70–150 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Apocalypse of Abraham

References

“... Most scholars have understood the four ascents to refer to the four kingdoms of Daniel, modified, as they are in other apocalypses, to sig- nify Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome. ...”
Kenneth R. Jones, Jewish Reactions to the Destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70: Apocalypses and Related Pseudepigrapha, JSJSup 151 (Leiden: Brill, 2011), 253.

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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Daniel 7:3 and Apocalypse of Abraham 28:4

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