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xxxix. 7), whereas the Book of Jubilees presents the later one
(compare Gen. R. xxx. 4, xxxix. 7, where Terah is treated quite mildly).
As the Book of Jubilees cannot have been written later than 70 (see
Jubilees, Book of), the date of the composition should be set before the
middle of the first century.
Date of Composition.
Concerning the date of the composition of the Apocalypse proper, it
clearly cannot have been written before the destruction of the First
Temple, as it contains Abraham's lamentations over that catastrophe.
The emphasis laid on the freedom of will, notwithstanding the fall of
man, presupposes a knowledge of the Christian doctrine of sin, against
which this passage seems to be directed. But this very opposition to
the Christian dogma shows that at the time the Apocalypse was written
Christianity was not far removed from Judaism, at least not in
Palestine, where, since he used a Semitic language, the author must
have lived. The last decades of the first century appear to be the
period in which the Apocalypse was written. This remark, however,
applies to the main part of the book, and not to its Christian and
Gnostic interpolations. In connection with these must be considered
the statement found in the Apocalypse that Azazel, who is described as
being endowed with twelve wings (which description coincides exactly
with that given in the Haggadah, Pire R. El. xiii.), shares with God the
power over Israel. This is, no doubt, the Gnostic doctrine of the God of
Subtracting, then, the first part, which does not belong to the
Apocalypse, and the Gnostic and Christian interpolations, only about
three hundred lines remain, and this number would exactly correspond
with the number which, according to the stichometry of Nicephorus,
the Apocalypse of Abraham contained. Outside of this, no trace of the
Apocalypse is found in ancient writings. The quotation by Origen ("In
Lucam," hom. 35) from an apocalypse of Abraham certainly does not
refer to the present text. Compare also Azazel and Abraham,
Testament of.
Bibliography:
Die Apokalypse Abrahams, ed. G. Nathanael Bonwetsch in Studien zur
Gesch. der Theol. und Kirche, ed. G. Nathanael Bonwetsch and R.
Seeberg, i. 1, Leipsic, 1897;
Schrer, Gesch. iii. 250-253;
Ginzberg, Die Haggadah b. d. Kirchenvtern, in Monatsschrift, 1898,
pp. 537-549, and 1899, pp. 17-22, 61-75, etc.
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