32 texts in Apocrypha & Pseudepigrapha
The stone god fell on its face. That was the beginning of everything. Abraham worked in his father's idol shop. Every day he carved gods out of stone and wood and metal for Terah, ...
Terah made five new gods and handed them to his son. "Sell these in the street," he said. Abraham loaded the idols onto his father's donkey and set off toward the marketplace. On t...
Walking home from the river, Abraham could not silence his own mind. "What evil is my father doing?" he thought. "He carves these gods with his own chisels and lathes. He shapes th...
Abraham arrived home, watered the donkey, set out hay, and placed the silver from the idol sale into his father's hand. Terah was delighted. "Blessed are you, Abraham, by my gods! ...
Abraham left the room to cool his father's anger. But Terah called after him: "Abraham!" "Here I am." "Gather the wood splinters from the gods I carved before you came, and prepare...
Abraham laughed in his mind and sighed in the grief and anger of his soul. "How can something manufactured by my father be his helper? Should the body be subject to its soul, and t...
Abraham had demolished the idols. Now he turned his mind to the elements themselves. "Fire is more worthy of honor than all things formed," he reasoned, "because even that which is...
Abraham was still speaking to his father Terah in the courtyard of the house when a voice came down from heaven. Not a whisper. Not an intuition. A voice, falling from the sky in a...
The voice came again. Twice it called his name: "Abraham, Abraham!" "Here I am." "It is I. Fear not, for I am before the worlds, a mighty God who has created the light of the world...
When the voice stopped speaking, Abraham looked in every direction. No one. No breath of a man anywhere. His spirit was seized with terror. His soul fled from him. He became like a...
Abraham rose and saw the one who had grasped his hand and lifted him to his feet. The sight was overwhelming. Iaoel's body was like sapphire. His face shone like chrysolite. The ha...
They walked together for forty days and forty nights. Abraham ate no bread and drank no water. His food was the sight of the angel beside him. His drink was Iaoel's speech. This wa...
Abraham did everything the angel commanded. He slaughtered the animals, divided them, and gave the portions to the angels who had appeared beside him. Iaoel took the birds. Abraham...
The angel turned back to Abraham. "Know from this moment that the Eternal One has chosen you. Be of good courage and use this authority, as far as I bid you, against him who slande...
The sun went down. Smoke rose from the ground like the smoke of a furnace (Genesis 15:17). The angels who held the portions of the sacrifice ascended from the top of the smoking fu...
Abraham turned to the angel in distress. "Why have you brought me up here? I cannot see anymore. I am already grown weak, and my spirit is departing from me." The mortal body was f...
While Iaoel was still speaking, fire closed in around them on every side. A voice was inside the fire, like the voice of many waters (Ezekiel 1:24), like the roaring of the sea in ...
While Abraham was still reciting the song, the fire on the surface rose up on high. He heard a voice like the roaring of the sea. The fire would not stop. And as it climbed, ascend...
A voice came from the midst of the fire. "Abraham, Abraham!" "Here I am." "Consider the expanses beneath the firmament on which you are now placed, and see that on no single expans...
The Eternal Mighty One said: "Abraham, Abraham!" "Here I am." "Look down at the stars beneath your feet. Count them for me. Make known to me their number." Abraham looked down from...
God told Abraham to look beneath his feet at the firmaments and understand the creation that was foreshadowed in the expanse, the creatures existing upon it, and the age prepared a...
Abraham asked: "O Eternal, Mighty One! What is this picture of the creatures?" God answered: "This is my will with regard to those who exist in the divine world-counsel. It seemed ...
"Now look again in the picture," God said. "See who it is that seduced Eve and what is the fruit of the tree. You will know what shall be and how it shall be for your seed among th...
God answered Abraham's question about evil with a revelation about the nations. He was angered at them on account of Abraham's descendants, the people who would be separated after ...
The vision shifted. Abraham saw something that struck closer to home than the cosmic sins of Cain and Desire. He saw an idol standing inside a Temple. The idol of jealousy. It look...
Abraham asked the question that every prophet and mystic after him would ask: "O Eternal, Mighty One! Why have you established that things should be this way, and then proclaimed t...
The picture in the vision swayed. From its left side, a heathen people emerged. They fell upon those on the right side, the people of Abraham's seed, and pillaged them. Men, women,...
Abraham could no longer contain himself. "O Mighty, Eternal One, hallowed by Your power! Be favorable to my petition. As you have brought me up to your height, so make known to me,...
Abraham asked again: "How long a time is an hour of the Age?" God answered: "Twelve years have I ordained of this ungodly age to rule among the heathen and in your seed. Until the ...
While God was still speaking, Abraham suddenly found himself back upon the earth. "O Eternal, Mighty One," he said, "I am no longer in the glory in which I was while on high, and w...
After the ten plagues, after the final convulsions of the dying age, God revealed to Abraham the moment everything would change. "Then I will sound the trumpet out of the air and w...
The vision was nearly complete. God spoke His final words to Abraham, circling back from the cosmic future to the personal promise that had started everything. "Therefore hear, O A...
