And a voice came to me out of the midst of the fire, saying: “Abraham, Abraham!” I said: “Here am I!” 1 And He said: “Consider the expanses which are under the firmament on which thou art (now) placed, 2 and see how on no single expanse is there any other but He whom thou hast sought, or who hath loved thee.”3 And w hile He 4 was yet speaking (and) lo! the expanses opened, and beneath me5 the heavens. And I saw upon the seventh firmament upon which I stood a fire widely extended, and light, and dew, and a multitude of angels, and a power of invisible glory over the living creatures which I saw; but no other being did I see there.6 And I looked from the mountain 7in which I stood7 [downwards] 8 to the sixth firmament, and saw there a multitude of angels, of (pure) spirit, without bodies, who carried out the commands of the fiery angels who were upon the ei ghth 9firmament, as I was standing suspended over them. And behold, upon this firmament 10there were no other powers10 of (any) other form, but only angels of (pure) spirit, like the power which I saw on the seventh firmament. 11 And He commanded 12that the sixth firmament13 should be taken away.12 And I saw there, on the fifth firmament,13 the powers of the stars which carry out the commands laid upon them, and the elements of the earth obeyed them. 14
Cf. Ex. iii. 4, 4 Ezra xiv. 1 (K, + Lord). Abraham is now presumably “placed” in the seventh heaven, and surveys from abov e what is discl osed t o him as existin g in th e various firmaments below him, and in th e earth (the angels, celestial bodies, and everythin g th at is movin g on th e earth). ? God is the sole controller of all these, and in this sense is the only reality. 5 A K this (voice). A, them. In Asc. Is. vii. 7 f. it is said that Isaiah saw in the seventh heaven “a wonderful light and angels innumerable,” an d “ al l the righteous from the time of Adam” (including Abel and Enoch); in T. B. Hag. 12b th e seventh heaven (‘Araboth) c on t a in s judgement and righteousness, the treasures of life, peace, and blessing, the souls of the departed righ teous, the spirits and souls yet unborn, th e dew with which God will awake the dead, t he Seraphim, Ophannim, Hayyoth, and other angels of service, and God Himself sitting on the Throne of Glory. No doubt the “dew” in our passage is th e r esurrection-dew. Fire and light are much dwelt upon in this connexion. Possibly this mystical literature was in flue nced by the cult of Mithra, who was especially the God of Light. 8 Lit. of my standing. S omits. 10 eighth can hardly be righ t: read? seventh. So A; S, their powers were not. In 2 Enoch xix. the seer describes what he saw in th e s ixth h eaven: legions of angels more resplendent than the sun, the archangels set over the sun, star s, s e as o n s, rivers, vegetation, the living things and the souls of men, w i t h s i x p h œ n i x e s, seven cherubim, and seven hayyoth in the midst, all singing with a voice indescribably beautiful; cf. also Asc. Is. viii. 1 ff, 6 ff., where the sixth heaven is described as full of hosts of angels utterin g pr ai s e. In our passage apparently th e angels of service (ministering angels) are located in this heaven. A K, the sixth firmament and it went away: S reads third for sixth. Lit. surface. In T. B. Hag. 12b th e sun, moon, and stars are l ocat ed in t h e second heaven; in 2 Enoch xi. 1-5 “the course of the sun” and the angels “which wait upon the sun” are located in the fourth heaven.
The Promise of a Seed (Chapter XX.).