Testament of Abraham

An apocryphal writing originating among first-century Jews (Köhler) or second-century Jewish-Christians (M.R. James). It describes how the patriarch is shown the universe and told that it will survive seven thousand years. Then the archangel Michael at the first gate of heaven shows him the paths to hell and paradise, and three different judgments taking place. Praying for the forgiveness of sinners, Abraham is returned to earth and on to paradise. The major interest is in the fate of individual souls and not with the impending crisis characteristic of conventional Jewish apocalyptic. The Greek text, which includes Christian passages (interpolations?), survives in a longer and a shorter recension, with translations in Coptic, Arabic, Ethiopic, Slavonic, and Romanian.