Apocalypse of Abraham 8

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 it came to pass while I was thinking things like these with regard to my father Terah in the court of my house,

2the voice of the Mighty One3 came down from heaven in a stream of fire,

3saying and calling: “Abraham, Abraham!”, and I said: “Here am I”.

4And He said: “You are seeking in the understanding of your heart for the God of Gods, the Creator.

5I am He. Go out from your father Terah, and get out from the house, that you too may not be slain in the sins of your father’s house.”

6So I went out, and it came to pass that before I succeeded in getting out in front of the entrance of the court,

7there came a sound of a great thunder and burnt him and his house.

8So everything in his house, down to the ground, forty cubits. 4 Show notes 1 can be also traslated “venerable”*2* Literally “*I will investigate* (or *examine*) *before your concerning”**3* From the Hebrew *hǎ’el, “GOD”* cf. 4Ezra 9, 45*4* The Midrashic story about the burning of Terah’s house is really based upon an interpretation of the Biblical “Ur of the Chaldees” (Gen 11, 31 ; 15, 7). Here “Ur” is interpreted as “fire”, Abraham was brought out of the “Ur” (“fire”) by the LORD ## PART II THE APOCALYPSE OF ABRAHAM (Cap. 9-32)

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.