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About this book

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 Deuteronomy 29:26 and Apocalypse of Abraham 31:8

Hebrew Bible · Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses

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Summary

In Deuteronomy, Moses warns that exile will come as a consequence of worshipping foreign gods not assigned to Israel. The Apocalypse of Abraham uses the same language for Azazel, describing a fallen angel as a god never assigned to Israel.

Passages

Deuteronomy 29:26

Hebrew Bible
24 Then all the nations will ask, ‘Why has the Lord done all this to this land? What is this fierce, heated display of anger all about?’ 25 Then people will say, ‘Because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt. 26 They went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods they did not know and that he did not permit them to worship. 27 That is why the Lord’s anger erupted against this land, bringing on it all the curses written in this scroll. 28 So the Lord has uprooted them from their land in anger, wrath, and great rage and has deported them to another land, as is clear today.’
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Deuteronomy

Apocalypse of Abraham 31:8

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
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."
70–150 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Apocalypse of Abraham

References

“... The choice of the name Horeb instead Sinai reflects the author’s utilization of Deuteronomistic traditions. This is borne out throughout the rest of the text, which contains the incorporation of Deuteronomistic language and motifs, most notably regarding the absence of anthropomorphism and its substitution with God’s Name, a rational approach to cult and ritual, and its rhetoric concerning idolatry. This reflected in the fact that idolatry provokes God’s anger (Deut 7:4; 32:16, 21), the identification of idolatry as the cause of punishment and exile (Deut 8:19; 28:36, 64), the seductive nature of idolatry (Deut 7:16, 25; 11:16; 12:30; 13:6, 13; 30:17), the detestable and corrupting nature of idolatry (Deut 4:16, 25; 12:31; 20:18; 29:17), and the repeated warnings to be on guard against falling into idolatry (Deut 4:23; 11:16; 12:30). [...] Note particularly the striking verbal parallels between Deut 29:26 and Apoc. Ab. 31:8. ...”
Amy Elizabeth Paulsen-Reed, “The Origins of the Apocalypse of Abraham” (diss., Harvard Divinity School, 2016), 176.

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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Deuteronomy 29:26 and Apocalypse of Abraham 31:8

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