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In Genesis 12, God calls Abraham to leave his father's household and promises a new land and descendants. The Apocalypse of Abraham reshapes this call into an urgent escape from Terah's idolatry, just before fire destroys the family home.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Genesis 12:1
Hebrew Bible
1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go out from your country, your relatives, and your father’s household to the land that I will show you. 2 Then I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great, so that you will exemplify divine blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, but the one who treats you lightly I must curse, so that all the families of the earth may receive blessing through you.” 4 So Abram left, just as the Lord had told him to do, and Lot went with him. (Now Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Haran.)
Apocalypse of Abraham 8:4
Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
1 And it came to pass while I spoke thus to my father Terah in the court of my house, there comes down the voice of a Mighty One from heaven in a fiery cloud-burst, saying and crying: "Abraham, Abraham!" 2 And I said: "Here I am." 3 And He said: "You are seeking in the understanding of your heart the God of Gods and the Creator; I am He: 4 Go out from your father Terah, and get out from the house, that you also not be slain in the sins of your father's house." 5 And I went out. And it came to pass when I went out, that before I succeeded in getting out in front of the door of the court, 6 there came a sound of a [great] thunder and burnt him and his house, and everything whatever in his house, down to the ground, forty cubits.
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Notes and References
“... God responds to Abraham’s desire to find the God of gods, the Cre-
ator, by revealing himself and telling Abraham that he must leave his
father’s house. Before Abraham has even made it out of the court-
yard, he hears the sound of thunder and sees the house burned to the
ground with Terah and all his possessions inside (8).5 Thus a motive is
established for the otherwise inexplicable call of Abram in the biblical
account: Abraham sought God. ...”
Jones, Kenneth R.
Jewish Reactions to the Destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70: Apocalypses and Related Pseudepigrapha
(p. 248) Brill, 2011
* 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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