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Revelation

About this book
Chapter 20

1 Then I saw an angel descending from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the abyss and a huge chain.⁠ 2 He seized the dragon—the ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan—and tied him up for a thousand years.⁠ 3 The angel then threw him into the abyss and locked and sealed it so that he could not deceive the nations until the one thousand years were finished. (After these things he must be released for a brief period of time.)⁠ 4 Then I saw thrones and seated on them were those who had been given authority to judge. I also saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of the testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God. These had not worshiped the beast or his image and had refused to receive his mark on their forehead or hand. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.⁠ 5 (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were finished.) This is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy is the one who takes part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years. 7 Now when the thousand years are finished, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will go out to deceive the nations at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to bring them together for the battle. They are as numerous as the grains of sand in the sea. 9 They went up on the broad plain of the earth and encircled the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and devoured them completely.⁠ 10 And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet are too, and they will be tormented there day and night forever and ever. 11 Then I saw a large white throne and the one who was seated on it; the earth and the heaven fled from his presence, and no place was found for them.⁠ 12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne. Then books were opened,⁠ and another book was opened—the book of life.⁠ So the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to their deeds.⁠ 13 The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and Death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each one was judged according to his deeds.⁠ 14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death—the lake of fire.⁠ 15 If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, that person was thrown into the lake of fire.

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Compare Revelation 20:12 and Testament of Abraham 12:6

New Testament · Pseudepigrapha, Testaments

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Summary

Revelation describes the dead judged by what is written in heavenly books. The Testament of Abraham describes the same courtroom in detail, with angels writing down deeds and a judge who orders a book opened to find people's sins.

Passages

Revelation 20:12

New Testament
11 Then I saw a large white throne and the one who was seated on it; the earth and the heaven fled from his presence, and no place was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne. Then books were opened, and another book was opened—the book of life. So the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to their deeds. 13 The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and Death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each one was judged according to his deeds.
92–96 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Revelation

Testament of Abraham 12:6

Pseudepigrapha, Testaments
5 The marvelous man who sat on the throne judged and sentenced the souls himself, and the two angels on the right and on the left wrote down the record, the one on the right the righteousness and the one on the left the wickedness. The one in front of the table, who held the balance, weighed the souls, and the fiery angel, who held the fire, tested the souls. Abraham asked the chief-captain Michael: What is this that we are seeing? The chief-captain said: These things that you see, holy Abraham, are the judgment and the repayment. 6 Then the angel holding the soul in his hand brought it before the judge, and the judge said to one of the angels who served him: Open this book for me, and find me the sins of this soul. Opening the book, he found its sins and its righteous deeds equally balanced, and he gave it neither to the tormentors nor to those who were saved, but set it in the middle.
100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Testament of Abraham

References

... The multiplication of books in Revelation 20:12 troubled Augustine, who interpreted the book of life as the “commandments each man had kept or not kept. If we imagine this book to be a book in the literal sense, who could measure its size or length? How much time would it take to read a book in which the whole life of each man is written? Will there be as many angels as men at the last judgment, so that every man will hear his life recited by the angel assigned to him? In that case, therefore, there would not be one book for all lives, but one for each. However, the Scripture wishes us to take it as one book. It says, ‘another book was opened’. We must therefore understand this book to signify a certain divine power, by which it will be made possible for every man to recall to memory all his own works, both good and evil, and for the mind to review them all with miraculous speed, so that each man’s knowledge will accuse or excuse his conscience, and thus all and each will be judged simultaneously. And this divine power is no doubt called a ‘book’ because we shall as it were read in it all that it causes us to remember.” The City of God against the Pagans, 20:14 (translated by R. W. Dyson; Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 999. Augustine’s reflections on the sheer size required of a book of judgment are reminiscent of the enormous book in Testament of Abraham Recension A, while the way Augustine expresses books’ tight connections with memory brings to mind the function of the book of sins in Testament of Abraham Recension B. ...
Leslie A. Baynes, The Heavenly Book Motif in Judeo-Christian Apocalypses, 200 B.C.E.–200 C.E., Journal for the Study of Judaism 152 (Leiden: Brill, 2012), 164–165.

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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