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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 Isaiah 53:3 and Apocalypse of Abraham 29:5

Hebrew Bible · Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses

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Summary

In Isaiah, the suffering servant is despised and rejected. In the Apocalypse of Abraham, Abraham sees a similar figure, a man whom some insult and beat while others worship him, and even Azazel bows down to him and kisses his face.

Passages

Isaiah 53:3

Hebrew Bible
2 He sprouted up like a twig before God, like a root out of parched soil; he had no stately form or majesty that might catch our attention, no special appearance that we should want to follow him. 3 He was despised and rejected by people, one who experienced pain and was acquainted with illness; people hid their faces from him; he was despised, and we considered him insignificant. 4 But he lifted up our illnesses, he carried our pain; even though we thought he was being punished, attacked by God, and afflicted for something he had done. 5 He was wounded because of our rebellious deeds, crushed because of our sins; he endured punishment that made us well; because of his wounds we have been healed.
740–450 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Isaiah

Apocalypse of Abraham 29:5

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

“... The man is clearly intended to be Jesus. [...] Cf. Is. liii. 3. [...] The worship of Christ by the Devil (Azazel) is a striking feature in this representation. It is difficult to determine its exact significance here. Does it reflect the Jewish-Christian feeling that the access of so large a part of the heathen world to Christianity endangered the purity of the new faith by inevitably bringing in its train a large admixture of heathenism? It can hardly mean that Azazel had been truly converted. Indeed, his homage is significantly depicted as lip-homage (“kissed his face”; cf. the treacherous kiss of Judas). ...”
G. H. Box with J. I. Landsman, The Apocalypse of Abraham (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1918), PDF 50.

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 53:3 and Apocalypse of Abraham 29:5

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