Abraham Sees the Garden of Eden and the Abyss Below

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 according to it.

Abraham looked down. The six heavens opened below him, and then the earth itself, and he saw everything.

He saw the earth and its fruits. Everything that moved upon it and its living creatures. The power of its men. The ungodliness of their souls. Their righteous deeds. The beginnings of their works.

He saw the lower regions and the perdition within them. The Abyss and its torments. The place where the impure angels dwell, the pit described in the visions of Enoch, the underworld reserved for those who chose darkness.

He saw the sea and its islands, its monsters and fish. He saw Leviathan and his dominion, the great sea-beast whose dwelling is in the lowest waters, whose fins support the middle bar of the earth, whose hunger sends forth a heat so great that all the waters of the deep boil. Abraham saw Leviathan's camping-ground, his caves, the world that lay upon him, his movements, and the destructions of the world on his account.

He saw the streams and the rising of their waters and their windings.

And he saw the Garden of Eden. Its fruits. The source of the stream issuing from it. Its trees and their blossoms. Those who behaved righteously dwelling within it, eating its food in blessedness. The heavenly Paradise, the abode prepared for the righteous, whose fruits are incorruptible and whose tree of life stands at its center.

Then Abraham saw a great multitude: men, women, and children. Half of them stood on the right side of the picture. Half stood on the left. The entire world divided into two halves, and Abraham stood above it all, watching.

And He said to me: “Look, now, beneath thy feet at the firmaments8 and understand9 the creation10 foreshadowed11 in this expanse, the creatures existing on it, and the age12 prepared according to it.” And I saw beneath [the surfaces of the13 feet, and I saw beneath]14 the sixth heaven 15 and what was therein,16 and then the earth and its fruits, and what moved upon it and its animate beings;17 and the power of its men, and the ungodliness of their souls, and their righteous deeds [and the beginnin gs of their works],18 and the lower regions19 and the perdition therein, the Abyss20 and its torments. I saw there the sea and its

3 S omits; K, + to me. Cf. Gen. xv. 5. S omits. Cf. Gen. xviii. 27, 4 Ezra iv. 5, 6. The bracketed clause is attested by A K, but omitted by S. Cf. Gen. xv. 5 (the MSS. read for thy seed instead of thy seed). S adds ( af t e r nation) of people wrongly. The underlyin g i dea seems to be that God’s heritage, the created world, is, under the conditions of sin, “shared” with Azazel (see further Introduction, p. xxxii), i. e. it is largely under the dominion of evil powers. This is one of t h e f undamental conceptions of Apocalyptic. On the oth er hand, th e Chosen People—who are ideally identified with the righteous—redeem the world, and in the m s el v es make it once again fit to be God’s heritage. From another point of view the same quest i o n is discussed in 4 Ezra—the problem, why, if the world was cr eated for Israel, is Israel disinherited? (cf. 4 Ezra vi. 38-59). Cf. Gen. xviii. 32. 9 Lit. surface. + now. Slavonic text, creature. Or represented. So S; A K, ages (“won,” “æons”). K, my. S omits. A K, the likeness of heaven (or for the sixth heaven render the six heavens). A, what was with it. =? “its spirits” (Bonwetsch). The bracketed clause is attested by A K; S omits. Cf. Ephesians iv. 9 (“the lower parts of th e earth”). i. e. Tartarus; cf. 2 Enoch xxviii. 3, xxix. 5. The “Abyss” is described in 1 E n och xviii. 11-16 (xxi. 1-6, xc. 25, 26), where it is th e abode of the impure angels; cf. Luke viii. 31; Rev. ix. 1, xi. 7.

islands, and its monsters and its fishes, and Lev iathan and his dominion,1 and his camping-ground, and his caves, and the world which lay upon him,2 and his movements, and the destructions of the world on his account.3 I saw there streams and the rising of their waters, and their windings. And I saw there the Garden of Eden and its fruits, the source 4 of the stream issuing from it, and its trees and their bloom, and those who behaved righteously. And I saw therein their foods and blessedness. 5 And I saw there a great multitude—men and women and children [half of them on the right side of the picture]6 and half of them on the left side of the picture.7 The Fall of Man and its Sequel (Chapters XXIL-XXV.).