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Arboreal Metaphors and the Divine Body Traditions in the Apocalypse of Abraham
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 October 2009
Extract
The first eight chapters of the Apocalypse of Abraham, a Jewish pseudepigraphon preserved solely in its Slavonic translation, deal with the early years of the hero of the faith in the house of his father Terah.1 The main plot of this section of the text revolves around the family business of manufacturing idols. Terah and his sons are portrayed as craftsmen carving religious figures out of wood, stone, gold, silver, brass, and iron. The zeal with which the family pursues its idolatrous craft suggests that the text does not view the household of Terah as just another family workshop producing religious artifacts for sale. Although the sacerdotal status of Abraham's family remains clouded in rather obscure imagery, the authors of the Slavonic apocalypse seem to envision the members of Terah's household as cultic servants whose “house” serves as a metaphor for the sanctuary polluted by idolatrous worship. From the very first lines of the apocalypse the reader learns that Abraham and Terah are involved in sacrificial rituals in temples.2 The aggadic section of the text, which narrates Terah's and Abraham's interactions with the “statues,” culminates in the destruction of the “house” along with its idols in a fire sent by God. It is possible that the Apocalypse of Abraham, which was written in the first centuries of the Common Era,3 when Jewish communities were facing a wide array of challenges including the loss of the Temple, is drawing here on familiar metaphors derived from the Book of Ezekiel, which construes idolatry as the main reason for the destruction of the terrestrial sanctuary. Like Ezekiel, the hero of the Slavonic apocalypse is allowed to behold the true place of worship, the heavenly shrine associated with the divine throne. Yet despite the fact that the Book of Ezekiel plays a significant role in shaping the Abrahamic pseudepigraphon,4 there is a curious difference between the two visionary accounts. While in Ezekiel the false idols of the perished temple are contrasted with the true form of the deity enthroned on the divine chariot, the Apocalypse of Abraham denies its hero a vision of the anthropomorphic Glory of God. When in the second part of the apocalypse Abraham travels to the upper heaven to behold the throne of God, evoking the classic Ezekielian description, he does not see any divine form on the chariot. Scholars have noted that while they preserve some features of Ezekiel's angelology, the authors of the Slavonic apocalypse appear to be carefully avoiding the anthropomorphic description of the divine Kavod, substituting references to the divine Voice.5 The common interpretation is that the Apocalypse of Abraham deliberately seeks “to exclude all reference to the human figure mentioned in Ezekiel 1.”6
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References
1 For the published Slavonic manuscripts and fragments of Apoc. Ab., see Ioan Franko, “KΗиιа o AßрааМе ΠраОΤЦи и nаΤриарcи” [“The Book about the Forefather and the Patriarch Abraham”], in Anoĸрiфи i 
еιеΗ∂и З украiΗcькиx рукonиciß [The Apocrypha and the Legends From the Ukrainian Manuscripts] (5 vols.; Monumenta Linguae Necnon Litterarum Ukraino-Russicarum [Ruthenicarum]; Lvov, Ukraine, 1896–1910) 1:80–86; Alexander I. Jacimirskij, “OΤкрoßеΗие Aßрааmа” [“The Apocalypse of Abraham”], in Anoкрифы ßеΤxoЗаßеΤΗые [The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha] (vol. 1 of Биб иoιрафичеcкиŭ oбЗoр аnoкрифoß ß южΗoc аßяΗcкoŭ и руccкoŭ nиcьmеΗΗocΤи [The Bibliographical Survey of Apocryphal Writings in South Slavonic and Old Russian Literature]; Petrograd: The Russian Imperial Academy of Sciences, 1921) 99–100; Petr P. Novickij, ed., “OΤкрoßеΗие Aßрааmа” [“The Apocalypse of Abraham”], in Oб еcΤßo юбиΤе еŭ ∂реßΗеŭ nиcьmеΗΗocΤи [The Society of Lovers of Ancient Literature] 99.2 (St. Petersburg: Markov, 1891); Ivan Ja. Porfir'ev, “OΤкрoßеΗие Aßрааmа” [“The Apocalypse of Abraham”], in Anoкрифичеcкие cкаЗаΗия o ßеΤxoЗаßеΤΗыx иЦаx и coбыΤияx no рукonиcяm co oßеЦкoŭ биб иoΤеки [The Apocryphal Stories about Old Testament Characters and Events according to the Manuscripts of the Solovetzkoj Library] (Sbornik Otdelenija russkogo jazyka i slovesnosti Imperatorskoj akademii nauk 17.1; St. Petersburg: The Russian Imperial Academy of Sciences, 1877) 111–30; Belkis Philonenko-Sayar and Marc Philonenko, L'Apocalypse d'Abraham. Introduction, texte slave, traduction et notes (Semitica 31; Paris, 1981) 36–105; Alexander N. Pypin, ЛoжΗые и oΤречеΗΗые кΗиιи c аßяΗcкoŭ и руccкoŭ cΤариΗы. ΠаmяΤΗики cΤариΗΗoŭ руccкoŭ иΤераΤуры, иЗ∂аßаеmые ιрафom Γриιoриеm Kу е еßыm-БеЗбoрo∂кo [The False and Rejected Books of Slavonic and Russian Antiquity: Memorials of Ancient Russian Literature] (ed. Count Gregory Kushelev-Bezborodko; St. Petersburg: Kulesh, 1860–62) 3:24–36; Ryszard Rubinkiewicz, L'Apocalypse d'Abraham en vieux slave. Édition critique du texte, introduction, traduction et commentaire (Towarzystwo Naukowe Katolickiego Uniwersytetu Lubelskiego: Źródła i monografie 129; Lublin, 1987) 98–256; Izmail I. Sreznevskij, “KΗиιи OΤкрoßеΗия Aßрааmа” [The Apocalypse of Abraham], in ИЗßеcΤия ИmnераΤoрcкoŭ ака∂еmии Ηаук no oΤ∂е еΗию руccкoιo яЗыка и c oßеcΗocΤи [Proceedings of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, Division of Russian Language and Literature] (St. Petersburg: Russian Academy of Sciences, 1861–1863) 10:648–65; Nikolaj S. Tihonravov, ΠаmяΤΗики oΤречеΗΗoŭ руccкoŭ иΤераΤуры [Memorials of Russian Apocryphal Literature] (2 vols.; St. Petersburg: Obschestvennaja Pol'za, 1863) 1:32–77. For translations of the Apoc. Ab., see Nathanael Bonwetsch, Die Apokalypse Abrahams. Das Testament der vierzig Märtyrer (Studien zur Geschichte der Theologie und der Kirche Bd. 1, Heft 1; Leipzig: Deichert, 1897); George Herbert Box and J. I. Landsman, Apocalypse of Abraham (TED 1.10; London: Macmillan, 1918) 35–87; Mario Enrietti and Paolo Sacchi, “Apocalisse di Abramo,” in Apocrifi dell'Antico Testamento (ed. Paolo Sacchi et al.; 5 vols.; Turin: Unione tipografico-editrice torinese, 1981–1997) 3:61–110; Alexander Kulik, Retroverting Slavonic Pseudepigrapha: Toward the Original of the Apocalypse of Abraham (Atlanta: SBL, 2004) 9–35; A. Pennington, “Apocalypse of Abraham,” AOT 363–491; Donka Petkanova, “OΤкрoßеΗие Ηа Aßрааm” [“The Apocalypse of Abraham”], in Cmарoбb ιарcка AcxаΤo oιия. AΗΤo oιия [Old Bulgarian Eschatology: Anthology] (ed. Donka Petkanova and Anisava Miltenova; Slavia Orthodoxa; Sofia: Slavica, 1993) 17–30; Belkis Philonenko-Sayar and Marc Philonenko, “Die Apokalypse Abrahams,” JSHRZ 5.5 (Gütersloh: Mohn, 1982) 413–60; Paul Rießler, “Apokalypse des Abraham,” in Altjüdisches Schriftum außerhalb der Bibel (Freiberg: Kerle, 1928) 13–39, 1267–69; Ryszard Rubinkiewicz, “Apocalypse of Abraham,” OTP 1:681–705; idem, “Apocalypsa Abrahama,” in Apokryfy Starego Testamentu (ed. R. Rubinkiewicz; Warsaw: Oficyna Wydawnicza “Vocatio,” 1999) 460–81.
2 Apocalypse of Abraham 1:2–3: “… at the time when my lot came up, when I had finished the services of my father Terah's sacrifice to his gods of wood, stone, gold, silver, brass and iron, I, Abraham, having entered their temple for the service …” (Kulik, Retroverting the Slavonic Pseudepigrapha, 9).
3 On the date and provenance of Apoc. Ab., see Box and Landsman, The Apocalypse of Abraham, xv–xix; Philonenko-Sayar and Philonenko, L'Apocalypse d'Abraham, 34–35; Rubinkiewicz, “Apocalypse of Abraham,” 683; idem, L'Apocalypse d'Abraham en vieux slave, 70–73; Alexander Kulik, “K ∂аΤирoßке ‘OΤкрoßеΗия Aßрааmа' ” [“About the Date of the Apocalypse of Abraham”], In Memoriam of Ja. S. Lur'e (eds. N. M. Botvinnik and Je. I. Vaneeva; St. Petersburg, 1997) 189–95; idem, Retroverting the Slavonic Pseudepigrapha, 2–3.
4 Scholars have noted that the seer's vision of the divine throne found in the Apocalypse of Abraham “draws heavily on Ezekiel and stands directly in the tradition of Merkabah speculation.” John Collins, The Apocalyptic Imagination: An Introduction to Jewish Apocalyptic Literature (2d ed.; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1998) 183. See also Ithmar Gruenwald, Apocalyptic and Merkavah Mysticism (AGAJU 14; Leiden: Brill, 1980) 55–57; Christopher Rowland, The Open Heaven: A Study of Apocalyptic in Judaism and Early Christianity (New York: Crossroad, 1982) 86–87.
5 Such polemical development, which attempts to confront the anthropomorphic understanding of the Deity by replacing it with the imagery of the divine Voice or Name, has its roots in the Bible, particularly in the Book of Deuteronomy and later deuteronomistic writings. On these traditions, see Oskar Grether, Name und Wort Gottes im Alten Testament (BZAW 64; Giessen: Toepelmann, 1934) 1–58; Moshe Weinfeld, Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic School (Oxford: Clarendon, 1972) 191–201; Tryggve N. D. Mettinger, The Dethronement of Sabaoth: Studies in the Shem and Kabod Theologies (Coniectanea Biblica. Old Testament Series 18; Lund: Wallin & Dalholm, 1982) 124–29; Ian Wilson, Out of the Midst of Fire: Divine Presence in Deuteronomy (SBLDS 151; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995) 1–15; Charles A. Gieschen, Angelomorphic Christology: Antecedents and Early Evidence (AGAJU 42; Leiden: Brill, 1998) 51–123. On the formative role of the Deuteronomic tradition for the theophanic imagery of the Apocalypse of Abraham, see Andrei Orlov, “Praxis of the Voice: The Divine Name Traditions in the Apocalypse of Abraham,” JBL 127 (2008) 53–70, at 58–60.
6 Rowland, The Open Heaven, 87.
7 For a discussion of the divine body traditions in biblical, pseudepigraphic, and rabbinic materials see Andrei Orlov, The Enoch-Metatron Tradition (TSAJ 107; Tübingen: Mohr/Siebeck, 2005) 143–46, 211–52; idem, “ ‘Without Measure and Without Analogy': The Tradition of the Divine Body in 2 (Slavonic) Enoch,” in From Apocalypticism to Merkabah Mysticism: Studies in the Slavonic Pseudepigrapha (ed. Andrei Orlov; JSJSupp. 114; Leiden: Brill, 2007) 149–74.
8 For the background of the story of Abraham as a fighter with idols in the Book of Jubilees and later rabbinic materials (Gen. Rab. 38:13, Tanna debe Eliahu 2:25, S. Eli. Rab. 33), see Box and Landsman, The Apocalypse of Abraham, 88–94; Rubinkiewicz, L'Apocalypse d'Abraham, 43–49.
9 On Bar-Eshath and the background of this name, see Kulik, Retroverting the Slavonic Pseudepigrapha, 63.
10 Ibid., 12.
11 Ibid., 12–13.
12 On hypostatic voice of God, see James H. Charlesworth, “The Jewish Roots of Christology: The Discovery of the Hypostatic Voice,” SJT 39 (1986) 19–41.
13 See Andrei Orlov, “ ‘The Gods of My Father Terah': Abraham the Iconoclast and the Polemics with the Divine Body Traditions in the Apocalypse of Abraham,” JSP 18 (2008) 33–53.
14 Philonenko-Sayar and Philonenko, L'Apocalypse d'Abraham, 48; Kulik, Retroverting Slavonic Pseudepigrapha, 14. In Alexander Kulik's English translation of the Apocalypse of Abraham the elements of the text which do not occur in the version of the Sylvester Codex (ms S) are enclosed.
15 Kulik (Retroverting the Slavonic Pseudepigrapha, 72) also points out the text's similarity to Isa 44:14–20.
16 On the author's use of the Ezekielian traditions, see Rubinkiewicz, “Apocalypse of Abraham,” 1.685. In his monograph, L'Apocalypse d'Abraham en vieux slave, Rubinkiewicz provides a helpful outline of the usage of Ezekielian traditions in Apoc. Ab. He notes that “among the prophetic books, the book of Ezekiel plays for our author the same role as Genesis in the Pentateuch. The vision of the divine throne (Apoc. Ab. 18) is inspired by Ezekiel 1 and 10. Abraham sees the four living creatures (Apoc. Ab. 18:5–11) depicted in Ezek 1 and 10. He also sees the wheels of fire decorated with eyes all around (Apoc. Ab. 18:3), the throne (Apoc. Ab. 18:3; Ezek 1:26), the chariot (Apoc. Ab. 18:12 and Ezek 10:6); he hears the voice of God (Apoc. Ab. 19:1 and Ezek 1:28). When the cloud of fire raises up, he can hear ‘the voice like the roaring sea' (Apoc. Ab. 18:1; Ezek 1:24). There is no doubt that the author of the Apocalypse of Abraham takes the texts of Ezekiel 1 and 10 as sources of inspiration.”
17 Christopher Rowland, “The Vision of God in Apocalyptic Literature,” JSJ 10 (1979) 137–54; idem, The Open Heaven, 86–87; Orlov, “Praxis of the Voice,” 53–70; idem, “The Pteromorphic Angelology of the Apocalypse of Abraham,” CBQ 71 (2009) 830–42.
18 In recent years scholars have become increasingly aware of the formative value of the Adamic traditions in the shaping of ideologies about the anthropomorphic body of the Deity. Already in the Book of Ezekiel the imagery of the human-like Kavod is connected to the protological developments reflected in the Genesis account where humanity is said to be created in the image of God.
19 Several early Jewish sources attest to the lore about the enormous body that Adam possessed before his transgression in Eden. Thus, Philo in QG 1.32 mentions a tradition according to which the first humans received at their creation bodies of vast size reaching a gigantic height: “… [the first humans] … were provided with a very great body and the magnitude of a giant….” (Philo, Questions and Answers on Genesis [trans. R. Marcus; Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1949] 19). Moreover, in some pseudepigraphic accounts Adam's body is portrayed, not simply as gigantic, but even as comparable to the dimensions of the divine body. Thus, in several pseudepigraphic materials the depictions of Adam's stature are linked to the imagery of the enthroned divine anthropomorphic manifestation known from the Priestly and Ezekielian sources as God's Kavod.
20 The pseudepigraphic and rabbinic sources also refer to the luminosity of the original human's body, which, like the divine body, emitted light. Thus, the Targums attest to the prelapsarian luminosity of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The biblical background for these traditions includes Gen 3:21, in which “the Lord God made for Adam and his wife garments of skin and clothed them.” The Targumic traditions, both Palestinian and Babylonian, read “garments of glory” instead of “garments of skin.” For example, in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Gen 3:21 the following tradition can be found: “And the Lord God made garments of glory for Adam and for his wife from the skin which the serpent had cast off (to be worn) on the skin of their (garments of) fingernails of which they had been stripped, and he clothed them” (Targum Pseudo-Jonathan: Genesis [trans. Michael Maher, M.S.C.; The Aramaic Bible, 1B; Collegeville, 1992] 29). Targum Neofiti on Gen 3:21 unveils a similar tradition: “And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of glory, for the skin of their flesh, and he clothed them” (Targum Neofiti 1: Genesis [trans. Martin McNamara, M.S.C.; The Aramaic Bible 1A; Collegeville, Minn., 1992] 62–63; Alejandro Díez Macho, Neophiti 1: Targum Palestinense MS de la Biblioteca Vaticana [Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 1968] 1.19). The Fragmentary Targum on Gen 3:21 also uses the imagery of glorious garments: “And He made: And the memra of the Lord God created for Adam and his wife precious garments [for] the skin of their flesh, and He clothed them” (Michael I. Klein, The Fragment-Targums of the Pentateuch according to Their Extant Sources [2 vols.; AB 76; Rome, 1980] 1.46, 2.7). Targum Onqelos on Gen 3:21 reads: “And the Lord God made for Adam and his wife garments of honor for the skin of their flesh, and He clothed them” (Targum Onqelos to Genesis [trans. Bernard Grossfeld; The Aramaic Bible 6; Wilmington, Del.: Glazier, 1988] 46; The Bible in Aramaic Based on Old Manuscripts and Printed Texts [ed. Alexander Sperber; Leiden: Brill, 1959] 1.5).
21 See, for example, Chrispin Fletcher-Louis, All the Glory of Adam: Liturgical Anthropology in the Dead Sea Scrolls (STDJ 42; Leiden: Brill, 2002) 101–3; Silviu N. Bunta, “The Mēsu-Tree and the Animal Inside: Theomorphism and Theriomorphism in Daniel 4,” in The Theophaneia School: Jewish Roots of Eastern Christian Mysticism (ed. Basil Lourié and Andrei Orlov; Scrinium 3; St. Petersburg: Byzantinorossica, 2007) 364–84.
22 Daphna Arbel, “ ‘Seal of Resemblance, Full of Wisdom, and Perfect in Beauty’: The Enoch/Metatron Narrative of 3 Enoch and Ezekiel 28,” HTR 98 (2005) 121–42.
23 Another example of such dialectical interplay of reaffirmation and demotion can be found in Ezek 28:1–19, a symbolic depiction of judgment against the prince of Tyre. This account also appears to be informed by the Adamic traditions. As will be shown later, Ezek 28 also contributes to the background for the imagery found in the Apoc. Ab. since in both texts the idolatrous statues are destroyed by fire.
24 The concept of the cosmic tree as the building material for the divine figure found in the arboreal hymn of Apoc. Ab. appears to be reminiscent not only of the descriptions in Ezek 31 and Dan 4 but also some Mesopotamian traditions about the cosmic tree also known as the Mēsu-Tree. Scholars have noted that the tradition about the wondrous tree reflected in Ezek 31 seems to draw on Mesopotamian traditions about the Mēsu-Tree, a cosmic plant envisioned as the building material for the divine statues. The traditions about the mythological tree are documented in several sources, including the Book of Erra, a Mesopotamian work dated between the eleventh and eighth centuries b.c.e. The Book of Erra 1:150–56 reads:
“Where is the mēsu tree, the flesh of the gods, the ornament of the king of the uni[verse]?
That pure tree, that august youngster suited to supremacy,
Whose roots reached as deep down as the bottom of the underwor[ld]: a hundred double hours through the vast sea waters;
Whose top reached as high as the sky of [Anum]?
Where is the glittering zaginduru stone …
Where is Ninildu, the great woodcarver of my godhead,
Who carries the golden axe, who knows his own….” (L. Cagni, The Poem of Erra [SANE 1/3; Malibu: Undena, 1977] 32).
This passage vividly demonstrates that the Mesopotamian “matrix” of traditions about the gigantic cosmic tree as the building material for the divine statues is reflected not only in Ezekiel, but also in the Slavonic apocalypse, where the “flesh” of the cosmic tree serves as the building material for the idolatrous statue of Bar-Eshath. Strikingly, the accounts of the cosmic tree in Apoc. Ab. and the passage in the Book of Erra share several features, including the motif of a craftsman carving the wooden statues of a godhead with his axe. On the Mesopotamian traditions about the Mēsu-Tree and their connection to Ezek 31 and Dan 4, see Bunta, “The Mēsu-Tree and the Animal Inside.”
25 The motif of the Deity demoting or diminishing the original gigantic stature of the first human is a dialectical device of reaffirmation widespread in the pseudepigraphic and rabbinic materials associated with the divine body traditions. See Jarl Fossum, “The Adorable Adam of the Mystics and the Rebuttals of the Rabbis,” in Geschichte-Tradition-Reflexion. Festschrift für Martin Hengel zum 70. Geburtstag (ed. Hubert Cancik, Hermann Lichtenberger, and Peter Schäfer; 3 vols.; Tübingen: Mohr, 1996) 1:529–30.
26 Thus, for example, Apoc. Ab. 6.2 relates Terah's “creation” of the bodies of the idols.
27 This Slavonic word can be literally translated as “praises.” For a discussion of the translation of Slavonic “noxßаа” as “beauty,” see Kulik, Retroverting the Slavonic Pseudepigrapha, 73 n. 6.
28 Thus, Daphna Arbel observes that “the bejeweled garb covered with precious stones that adorns the primal figure further highlights his state of exaltation.” Arbel, “ ‘Seal of Resemblance, Full of Wisdom, and Perfect in Beauty,' ” 131.
29 Ibid.
30 On the Adamic background of Ezek 28 see James Barr, “ ‘Thou art the Cherub': Ezek 28.14 and the Postexilic Understanding of Genesis 2–3,” in Priests, Prophets and Scribes: Essays on the Formation and Heritage of Second Temple Judaism in Honour of Joseph Blenkinsopp (ed. Eugene Ulrich et al.; JSOTSupp. 149; Sheffield, England: JSOT Press, 1992) 213–23; Norman C. Habel, “Ezekiel 28 and the Fall of the First Man,” Concordia Theological Monthly 38 (1967) 516–24; Knud Jeppesen, “You are a Cherub, but no God!” SJOT 1 (1991) 83–94; Dale Launderville, O.S.B., “Ezekiel's Cherub: A Promising Symbol or a Dangerous Idol?” CBQ 65 (2004) 165–83; Oswald Loretz, “Der Sturz des Fürsten von Tyrus (Ezek 28:1–19),” UF 8 (1976) 455–58; Herbert G. May, “The King in the Garden of Eden: A Study of Ezekiel 28:12–19,” in Israel's Prophetic Heritage: Essays in Honor of James Muilenburg (eds. Bernhard Anderson and Walter Harrelson; New York: Harper, 1962) 166–76; James E. Miller, “The Maelaek of Tyre (Ezekiel 28: 11–19),” ZAW 105 (1994) 497–501; Anthony J. Williams, “The Mythological Background of Ezekiel 28:12–19?” BTB 6 (1976) 49–61; Kalman Yaron, “The Dirge over the King of Tyre,” ASTI 3 (1964) 28–57.
31 Kulik, Retroverting the Slavonic Pseudepigrapha, 14.
32 Launderville, “Ezekiel's Cherub,” 173–74.
33 Rubinkiewicz, L'Apocalypse d'Abraham, 116 [translation mine, from Slavonic text].
34 Francis Andersen, “2 (Slavonic Apocalypse of) Enoch,” Old Testament Pseudepigrapha (ed. James H. Charlesworth; 2 vols.; New York: Doubleday, 1983–1985) 1:152.
35 Matvej I. Sokolov, “Materialy i zametki po starinnoj slavjanskoj literature. Vypusk tretij. VII. Slavjanskaja Kniga Enoha Pravednogo. Teksty, latinskij perevod i izsledovanie. Posmertnyj trud avtora prigotovil k izdaniju M. Speranskij,” Chtenija v Obshchestve Istorii i Drevnostej Rossijskih 4 (1910) 1.44, 96. [Matvej I. Sokolov, “Materials and Notes about Ancient Slavonic Literature. 3.VII. Slavonic Book of Enoch the Righteous. Texts, Latin Translation and Study. A Posthumous Edition Prepared by M. Speranskij,” Proceedings of the Society of Russian History and Antiquities 4 (1910) 1.44, 96.]
36 Andersen, “2 Enoch,” 1.170.
37 See 2 Enoch 30:10.
38 Kulik traces this Slavonic expression to the Hebrew expression (Retroverting the Slavonic Pseudepigrapha, 14 n. 30; 72–73).
39 Rubinkiewicz, L'Apocalypse d'Abraham, 116; Philonenko-Sayar and Philonenko, L'Apocalypse d'Abraham, 48.
40 For example, Box and Landsman consider it “a later interpolation” (Apocalypse of Abraham, 41 n. 5). B. Philonenko-Sayar and M. Philonenko include the passage with the arboreal tale only in the footnotes of their critical edition of the text (L'Apocalypse d'Abraham, 48).