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Apocalypse of Abraham

About this book
Chapter 29

1 And I said: "Eternal [Mighty One]! And how long is an hour of the Age?" 2 And He said: "I have assigned twelve periods of this godless Age to rule among the pagans and your descendants;⁠ and until the end of the times it will be as you saw. 3 And calculate it and understand and look into the picture."

The Man Worshiped by the Nations

4 And I [looked and] saw a man going out from the left side of the pagans; and men and women and children went out from the side of the pagans in great crowds and worshiped him. 5 And while I was still looking, [many] came out from the right side, and some insulted that man, while some struck him; others, however, worshiped him.⁠ 6 [And] I saw how these worshiped him, and Azazel ran and worshiped him, and after kissing his face, he turned and stood behind him. 7 And I said: "Eternal, Mighty One! Who is the man insulted and beaten, who is worshiped by the pagans with Azazel?" 8 And He answered and said: "Listen, Abraham! The man whom you saw insulted and beaten and again worshiped is the relief (granted) by the pagans to the people who descend from you, in the last days, in this twelfth hour of the Age of godlessness. 9 But in the twelfth period of my final Age I will establish this man from your descendants, whom you saw (come) from my people; 10 everyone will follow this one, and those I call (will) join, (even) those who change in their plans. 11 And those whom you saw emerge from the left side of the picture, this means that many of the pagans will set their hopes on him; 12 and as for those whom you saw from your descendants on the right side, some insulting and striking, others worshiping him, many of them will be led into error because of him." 13 He, however, is testing those of your descendants who have worshiped him, in that twelfth hour of the End in order to shorten the Age of godlessness.⁠

Judgment and Deliverance

14 "Before the Age of the righteous begins to grow, my judgment will come on the lawless pagans through the people of your descendants who have been separated for me. 15 In those days I will bring on all creatures of the earth ten plagues through misfortune and disease and the sighs of their grieving souls. 16 I will bring this much on the human generations on the earth because of the provocation and the corruption of its creatures, by which they provoke me. 17 And then righteous men of your descendants will remain in their number, protected by me, hurrying in the glory of My Name to the place prepared in advance for them, which you saw devastated in the picture; 18 and they will live and be established through sacrifices and gifts of righteousness and truth in the Age of the righteous, 19 and will be joyful in Me continually; and they will destroy those who have destroyed them, And will insult those who have insulted them, And they will spit in the faces of those who slandered them, who are scorned by Me, 20 while they (the righteous) will see Me full of joy, being joyful with My people, and receiving those who return to Me [in repentance]. 21 See, Abraham, what you have seen. And [hear] what you have heard. And [take full knowledge of] what you have come to know. Go to your inheritance, And look, I am with you forever."

Texts in conversation

Compare 2 Baruch 27:1 and Apocalypse of Abraham 29:2

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses

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Summary

In 2 Baruch, God divides the disasters at the end of the age into twelve periods. In the Apocalypse of Abraham, God also divides the time before the end of the age into twelve hours of suffering for Abraham's descendants.

Passages

2 Baruch 27:1

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch
1 And He answered and said to me: ‘Into twelve parts is that time divided, and each one of them is reserved for that which is appointed for it. 2 In the first part there shall be the beginning of commotions. 3 And in the second part there shall be killings of the great ones. 4 And in the third part the fall of many by death. 5 And in the fourth part the sending of the sword. 6 And in the fifth part famine and the withholding of rain. 7 And in the sixth part earthquakes and terrors. 8 And in the eighth part a multitude of spectres and attacks of the Shedim. 9 And in the ninth part the fall of fire. 10 And in the tenth part robbery and much oppression, 11 And in the eleventh part wickedness and unchastity.
70–135 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 2 Baruch

Apocalypse of Abraham 29:2

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
2 And He said: "I have assigned twelve periods of this godless Age to rule among the pagans and your descendants; and until the end of the times it will be as you saw. 3 And calculate it and understand and look into the picture." 4 And I [looked and] saw a man going out from the left side of the pagans; and men and women and children went out from the side of the pagans in great crowds and worshiped him. 5 And while I was still looking, [many] came out from the right side, and some insulted that man, while some struck him; others, however, worshiped him. 6 [And] I saw how these worshiped him, and Azazel ran and worshiped him, and after kissing his face, he turned and stood behind him.
70–150 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Apocalypse of Abraham

References

“... In chap. xxx. the coming of the ten plagues on the heathen world is placed “at the passing over of the twelfth hour”; then follows (chap. xxxi.) the Messianic salvation. Apparently the present age is reckoned as enduring for twelve hours (each hour = 100 years), i. e. one day (cf. John xi. 9). [...] We may compare 4 Ezra xiv. 11 (“For the world-age is divided into twelve parts”), and the cloud and water vision in Ap. Bar. liii. f., where a similar division appears. ...”
G. H. Box with J. I. Landsman, The Apocalypse of Abraham (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1918), PDF 49.

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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2 Baruch 27:1 and Apocalypse of Abraham 29:2

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