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Apocalypse of Abraham

About this book

The Gathering of Israel

Chapter 31

1 "And then I will sound the trumpet from the air, and will send my Chosen One, with one measure of all my power in him; and he will summon my despised people from the nations,⁠ 2 and I will burn with fire those who have insulted them and who have ruled among them in (this) Age. And I will hand those who have mocked me over to the scorn of the coming Age; 3 and I have prepared them to be food for the fire of Hades and for endless flight back and forth through the air in the underworld beneath the earth [the body filled with worms. 4 For the Creator's righteousness will be seen in them by those who have chosen to do my will, and those who have openly obeyed my commandments, (and) they will be joyful at the downfall of the people who remain,⁠ 5 who have followed the idols and their murders. For they will rot in the body of the evil worm Azazel, and be burned with the fire of Azazel's tongue; 6 for I waited for them to come to me, but they refused, 7 and they praised the foreign (god),⁠ 8 and they attached themselves to him, to whom they had not been assigned, and they have abandoned the mighty Lord."

Texts in conversation

Compare Matthew 24:31 and Apocalypse of Abraham 31:1

New Testament · Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses

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Summary

Matthew 24 and the Apocalypse of Abraham 31 both reflect Jewish tradition that describes the final moment when the sound of a trumpet calls the scattered of Israel from all directions, imagery tied to the permanent end of exile.

Passages

Matthew 24:31

New Testament
29 “Immediately after the suffering of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven will be shaken. 30 Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man arriving on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet blast, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. 32 “Learn this parable from the fig tree: Whenever its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. 33 So also you, when you see all these things, know that he is near, right at the door.
70–90 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Matthew

Apocalypse of Abraham 31:1

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
1 "And then I will sound the trumpet from the air, and will send my Chosen One, with one measure of all my power in him; and he will summon my despised people from the nations, 2 and I will burn with fire those who have insulted them and who have ruled among them in (this) Age. And I will hand those who have mocked me over to the scorn of the coming Age; 3 and I have prepared them to be food for the fire of Hades and for endless flight back and forth through the air in the underworld beneath the earth [the body filled with worms.
70–150 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Apocalypse of Abraham

References

"... while features of the two messianic figures often appear intertwined and sometimes confused, their respective eschatological functions are nevertheless clearly delineated in the program outlined by the authors. Thus, the first, mistreated messiah appears to be endowed with a rather misleading, yet purifying function, and, as the scapegoat of the atoning rite, can be understood as a gatherer and remover of the impurity associated with the Gentiles and idolatrous Hebrews. In contrast, the second messianic character appears to be playing the more traditional messianic role, the role reiterated in Apocalypse of Abraham 31:1, which depicts the parousia of the victorious messiah who will come with the sound of the trumpet and power in order to gather the elect ..."
Andrei A. Orlov, Divine Scapegoats: Demonic Mimesis in Early Jewish Mysticism (Albany, NY: State University of New York, 2015), 123–124.

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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Matthew 24:31 and Apocalypse of Abraham 31:1

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