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In the Apocalypse of Zephaniah, one set of angels records good deeds while the accuser’s angels record their sins. The Testament of Abraham follows a similar tradition, with an angel on the right writing good deeds and one on the left the sins.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Apocalypse of Zephaniah 3:6
Pseudepigrapha
5 Then I saw two other angels weeping over the three sons of Joatham, the priest. 6 I said, “O angel, who are these?” He said, “These are the angels of the Lord Almighty. They write down all the good deeds of the righteous upon their scrolls as they watch at the gate of heaven.” 7 And I take them from their hands and bring them up before the Lord Almighty; He writes their name in the Book of the Living. 8 Also the angels of the accuser who is upon the earth, they also write down all the sins of men upon their scrolls. 9 They also sit at the gate of heaven. They tell the accuser and he writes them upon his scroll so that he might accuse them when they come out of the world and go down there.”
Testament of Abraham 13:3
Pseudepigrapha
2 Every person has come from the first created, and so they are judged here first by his son, and at the second coming they will be judged by the twelve tribes of Israel, every breathing thing and every creature. But the third time they will be judged by the Lord God of all, and then the end of that judgment is near, and the sentence is terrifying, and there is no one to rescue them. So the judgment of the world and the repayment is carried out by three courts, and for this reason a matter is not finally confirmed by one or two witnesses, but everything is established by three witnesses. 3 The two angels on the right and on the left are the ones who write down the sins and the righteous deeds; the one on the right writes down the righteous deeds, and the one on the left the sins. The angel like the sun, holding the balance in his hand, is the archangel Dokiel, the just weigher, and he weighs the righteous deeds and the sins with the righteousness of God. The fiery and merciless angel, holding the fire in his hand, is the archangel Puruel, who has power over fire and tests what people have done by fire. If the fire consumes anyone's work, the angel of judgment immediately seizes him and carries him away to the place of sinners, a most bitter place of punishment. 4 But if the fire approves someone's work and does not take hold of it, that person is justified, and the angel of righteousness takes him and carries him up to be saved among the righteous. So, most righteous Abraham, everything in everyone is tested by fire and by the balance.
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Notes and References
... The Testament of Abraham (both recensions), 2 Enoch, and the Apocalypse of Zephaniah, and 2 Baruch are to the best of my knowledge the only texts that mention a book of good deeds in addition to a book of wicked ones. In 2 Enoch, the scribe notes that ‘I have set down the achievements of each person in the writings’ (50:1). The Testament of Abraham (Recension A) and the Apocalypse of Zephaniah explicitly juxtapose the two types of books with angels, in the Testament of Abraham by contrasting the angel on the right and the angel on the left, and in the Apocalypse of Zephaniah by contrasting two corresponding sets of angels, the angels of the Lord Almighty and the angels of the accuser, who record good and evil deeds, respectively. ...
Baynes, Leslie
The Heavenly Book Motif in Judeo-Christian Apocalypses 200 B.C.E.–200 C.E.
(pp. 100-101) Brill, 2012
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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