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In Genesis 37, a caravan of merchants with camels travelling to Egypt becomes the means of selling Joseph. The Apocalypse of Abraham echoes the caravan in Abraham's sale of idols, where a camel frightens the donkey and three gods smash.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Genesis 37:25
Hebrew Bible
24 Then they took him and threw him into the cistern. (Now the cistern was empty; there was no water in it.) 25 When they sat down to eat their food, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were carrying spices, balm, and myrrh down to Egypt. 26 Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is there if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? 27 Come, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites, but let’s not lay a hand on him, for after all, he is our brother, our own flesh.” His brothers agreed. 28 So when the Midianite merchants passed by, Joseph’s brothers pulled him out of the cistern and sold him to the Ishmaelites for 20 pieces of silver. The Ishmaelites then took Joseph to Egypt.
Apocalypse of Abraham 2:3
Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
3 And behold! merchants from Fandana in Syria were travelling with camels going to Egypt, to trade. 4 And I spoke with them. And one of their camels uttered a groan, and the ass took fright and sprang away and upset the gods; and three of them were smashed, and two were preserved. 5 And it came to pass, when the Syrians saw that I had gods, they said to me: "Why did you not tell us [that you had gods? Then we would have bought them] before the ass heard the sound of the camel, and they would not have been lost. 6 Give us, at any rate, the gods that remain, and we will give you the proper price for the broken gods, also for the gods that have been preserved."
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Notes and References
“... And behold, merchants from Paddan-aram came with camels The verse is borrowed almost verba-
tim from Gen. 37:25. ...”
Kulik, Alexander
"Apocalypse of Abraham" in Louis H. Feldman, James L. Kugel, and Lawrence H. Schiffman (eds.) Outside the Bible: Ancient Jewish Writings Related to Scripture
(p. 1457) The Jewish Publication Society, 2013
* 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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