Scriptural Savant

Apocalypse of Abraham 7

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.

1Behold, the fire is more worthy1 of honour than all things formed, because even that which is not subjected is subjected unto it, and things easily perishable are mocked by its flames.

2So even more worthy of honour is water, because it conquereth the fire and satisfie the earth.

3But even it I do not call God, because the waters subside under the earth and are subject to it.

4But I will not call it a goddess either, for it is dried by the sun subordinated to man for his work.

5more venerable among the Gods, I would say is the Sun, for with its rays it illuminates the whole world and the various atmospheres.

6nor will I place among the Gods the one who at night and by clouds its course is obscured.

7Nor again shall I call the moon or the stars Gods, because they also in their season obscure light at night.

8listen Terah my father, I shall seek before you2 the God who created everything, not these we consider as Gods.

9Who then is He? or what is He?

10Who made the heavens crimson and the sun golden,

11who has given light to the moon, and the stars with it.

12Who has dried the earth in the midst of the many waters,

13who set you yourself among the things and who has sought me out in the confusion of my thoughts?

14“Yet may God reveal Himself to us through Himself!”

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.