Apocalypse of Abraham 20

Related ancient text — scholarly reference

Extra-canonical text — not LDS scripture and not in the KJV Apocrypha. Provided as scholarly reference for parallel literature of the Second Temple period and the early Christian era. Read with discernment; the Apostle Jude quotes 1 Enoch and Paul knew this material, but inclusion here is for study, not doctrine.

1And the ETERNAL Mighty One said to me: “Abraham! Abraham!”, and I said: “Here am I!”.

2So He said: “Consider from above the stars which are beneath you,

3and number them for me, and make known to me their number.”

4And I said: “How can I? For I am but a man of the dust of the earth.1”

5And He said to me: “As the number of the stars and their power,

6so will I make your seed a nation and a people set apart for me as my own inheritance, as distinct from that of Azazel.

7And yet I include Azazel in my house.2

8And I said: “O ETERNAL Mighty One! Let your servant speak before You

9and let not your anger be kindled against your chosen one! For lo! before I came up hither, Azazel inveighed against me.

10And so, now he is not before You, how can You consider Yourself with him?

Public-domain text (R.H. Charles 1913 and equivalents). These works are not canonical, but several were widely read in antiquity and one (1 Enoch) is quoted by name in Jude 1:14–15. Useful for understanding the doctrinal landscape from which the apostles and earliest saints taught.