Abraham as an Eschatological Divine Statue? (Apocalypse of Abraham) (Prof. Orlov)

Article

1. 4.3.1 Sanctification Language
2. In Apoc. Ab. 10:3, right before Yahoel begins his initiation of Abraham, God defines the angel’s mission thus: “And when I was still face down on the earth, I heard the voice , saying, ‘Go, Yahoel, the namesake of the mediation of my ineffable name, sanctify (святи) 1 this man and strengthen him from his trembling!” (Kulik, Retroverting Slavonic Pseudepigrapha, 17). In Apoc. Ab. 25, Abraham sees in the vision an idol installed in the Holy of Holies. God tells the seer standing in the heavenly Holy of Holies that the true cultic representation that replaces this idol will be “my image of the sanctification (святительства) of the name of my glory” (Kulik, Retroverting Slavonic Pseudepigrapha 29. Philonenko-Sayar and Philonenko, L’Apocalypse d’Abraham, 92). Given this later reference, the command “sanctify this man” in Apoc. Ab. 10:3 may have a sacerdotal significance and pertain to the cultic role of Abraham as an eschatological statue sanctified through Yahoel’s induction ritual.

1. 4.3.2 Abraham’s Golem
2. For our study of the imago Dei traditions, it is equally significant that, in his very first encounter with his apprentice, Yahoel finds Abraham in a defenseless, vulnerable state reminiscent of a golem’s condition, namely, as a lifeless entity lying on the ground. In Apoc. Ab. 10:2, Abraham describes his helpless state immediately before Yahoel appears: “And behold, there was no breath of man, and my spirit was affrighted, and my soul fled from me, and I became like a stone, and fell down upon the earth, for there was no longer strength in me to stand up on the earth” (Kulik, Retroverting Slavonic Pseudepigrapha, 17). At the same time, the Apocalypse of Abraham’s description evokes familiar details of Adam’s creation as portrayed in rabbinic accounts, which often portray the protoplast as an incapacitated golem before his vivification. Three details are noteworthy. Abraham reports that his soul “fled from him”; he says that he became like a stone; and he is unable to stand on the ground. These details recall Adam’s vulnerable condition as a golem. To illustrate, Nachmanides in his commentary on Gen 2:7 describes the first human’s state in the following words: “he lay there lifeless like a dumb stone, and the Holy One, blessed be He, breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and then man became a living soul.” 5 One can see that the description of Abraham’s condition is strikingly similar to Nachmanides’ portrayal of Adam in his golem state, as both accounts compare their subject to a stone and also describe his “departed” or acquired soul.

This depiction of Abraham as an incapacitated golem at the beginning of the apocalyptic section seems deliberate. Having been forcefully uprooted from his previous social and physical environment, he is now “born” to a new life. In this respect, Abraham’s state mirrors an ancient statue’s condition whose process of vivification is often likened to the first minutes of a newborn baby, defenseless and vulnerable. To recall, the crucial step in manufacturing a Near Eastern divine statue was “a rite of separation in which the image was removed from its former material existence” (McDowell, The Image of God in the Garden of Eden, 70).

From the perspective of ancient vivification rituals, Abraham’s presence in the house of false statues, represented by Terah’s idols, can be seen structurally as a period of gestation or forming an “embryo” of a future eschatological imago Dei. Scholars have previously acknowledged this “gestational” aspect of the Mesopotamian and Egyptian animation rituals. Boden sees that “the Mesopotamian version of this common transition motif (gestation and birth) emphasizes the act which enables the first breath, closely associated with life.” Boden, The Mesopotamian Washing of the Mouth (mīs pî) Ritual, 1998, 172. Following Boden’s insights, McDowell concludes that, “Its (divine statue) creation is attributed, ultimately, not to human craftsmen but to a group of creator gods who, through a collaborative effort, form the divine embryo which then gestates overnight while divine powers are transferred to the materials collected in the tamarisk ‘womb.’” McDowell, The Image of God in the Garden of Eden, 72. Berlejung criticizes this approach by arguing that “there is no evidence for the hypothesis that the mouth washing ritual enacts the procreation and birth of the statue in the different stages of its evolution.” Berlejung, “Washing the Mouth,” 35. The formation of a “human statue” in an initial idolatrous environment also emerges in other biblical and pseudepigraphical accounts, including the Book of Daniel and Joseph and Aseneth.

In the cultic context of our apocalypse, it appears deliberate that Yahoel’s first physical act is the erection of his apprentice. As has been noted, this action recalls the symbolism found in the first part of the apocalypse where Terah erects the statue of Mar-Umath. It also parallels some rabbinic Adamic stories and medieval Golem legends where the protoplast or a golem must be set vertically as part of its induction. Apoc. Ab. 11:1 describes Abraham’s elevation in the following words: “And I stood and saw him who had taken my right hand and set me on my feet.” As in the case of the first human, this action becomes a pivotal moment in Abraham’s initiation into his role as an eschatological imago Dei.

1. 4.3.4 Purifying the Statue
2. We have learned in our study how the vivification rituals include extensive purification routines in both their ancient Near Eastern/Egyptian patterns and their Jewish biblical and extrabiblical versions. Walker and Dick recount that “the ‘washing of the mouth’ was essentially a purificatory rite which prepared the object/person for contact with the divine. It washed away impurities” (Walker and Dick, The Induction of the Cult Image, 12). McDowell also reminds us that “the mīs pî … was primarily a ritual intended to purify the recipient in preparation for cultic activity” (McDowell, The Image of God in the Garden of Eden, 44). In the Jewish versions of the ritual, several biblical exemplars, in preparation for their role as “walking statues,” also endure elaborate purification regiments, which include fasting and self-denial. These purification routines receive special significance in the stories of Aseneth and Abraham, where the adepts were previously exposed to the polluting praxis of idolatry. Cursing formulas that Yahoel imposes on Azazel in chapters 13 and 14, and his promises to transfer Abraham’s unclean garment upon the antagonist, may also play an important role in these purification rites. One incantation tablet, which is associated with mīs pî pīt pî rituals, reads: “May the god become pure like heaven, clean like the earth, bright like the center of heaven. May the evil tongue stand aside.” Walker and Dick, The Induction of the Cult Image, 101.

Animal sacrifices here, more explicitly than in Abraham’s biblical story, fulfill a cleansing function, which removes previous defilement and sins arising from prior interactions with idols. In Apoc. Ab. 9:7 the deity further instructs our hero to abstain from food, wine, and anointing: “But for forty days abstain from every food which issues from fire, and from the drinking of wine, and from anointing yourself with oil..
In later rabbinic interpretations, the power of the divine Name vivifies several prominent biblical idols. Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer 55 says that the Golden Calf was created with the help of the divine Name (” Friedlander, Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer, 354-355). From b. Sota 47a we learn that Gehazi placed the divine Name in Jeroboam’s bull idol so that it was able to exclaim the first words of the Decalogue: “I am thy God” and “Thou shalt have no other” (b. Sota 47a). For our study, however, it is more significant that some rabbinic passages report that these vivifications were accomplished through the placement of the Tetragrammaton in the mouth of the idols. One such motif comes in Song of Songs Rabbah 7:15 which portrays the enlivening of the infamous idol of Nebuchadnezzar.
4.3.6 Nourishment on the Hypostasized Name
The Apocalypse of Abraham’s hero, the patriarch Abraham, was sustained through the angelic hypostasis of the divine Name as a part of his induction. We have witnessed that Joseph and Aseneth attests to a similar process as it depicts its hero, Aseneth, being fed by the Angel of the Name and brought to eternal life through his breath embodied in the honeycomb. Reflecting on the Heavenly Man’s credentials, Ross Kramer deduces that “the designation of the angelic double of Joseph … probably closely associated, if not to be identified, with the Name-Bearing Angel.” 24 The similarities between the two pseudepigraphical accounts are also manifested in the fact that, in both stories, the vivifying agency comes from the mouths of the angels. In the Apocalypse of Abraham, the patriarch receives his unconventional provision from Yahoel’s mouth, as the speech of the great angel serves as Abraham’s drink. A similar mode of nourishment is also present in Joseph and Aseneth, hinted at, among other things, through Aseneth’s repeated affirmations about the provenance of the honeycomb from the mouth of the celestial being. The vivification ceremonies of the Egyptian maiden and the Jewish patriarch found in Joseph and Aseneth and the Apocalypse of Abraham are profoundly affected by the onomatological powers of their heavenly guides, as they are both brought to a new life by their ingestion of the divine Name.
4.3.7 Opening the Statue’s Eyes
In Abraham’s induction ceremony, both his eyes and mouth are opened, when he is described as being nourished by the sight of Yahoel. We have already witnessed similar metamorphoses in the stories of other protological and eschatological images of God whereby their eyes were “activated.” Opening eyes and mouth in the Apocalypse of Abraham again points to the similarity between a cultic statue and a newborn baby whose orifices also must be opened so that s/he can survive. McDowell rehearses that, if the animation rites were “at least in part, a birthing ceremony, this would explain why a divine statue’s sensory organs, particularly its eyes and ears, had to be activated. Like the human baby, it too must have been considered blind and deaf prior to birth as it formed inside the darkness of the womb.” She also details that the animation of the sensory organs was one of the primary goals of both the mīs pî and the wpt-r rituals to ensure that the image is completely alive and capable of functioning correctly. In the case of the mīs pî ritual, the primary focus was on the mouth as the central organ, but the process of opening the eyes was also an essential part of the animation process. McDowell heeds that, in the Babylon version, it is explicitly stated that the priest should open the statue’s eyes, whereas, in the Nineveh version, the act of opening the eyes is implied through the repeated directive to position the image’s eyes in the direction of the rising sun. However, in the Apocalypse of Abraham, the eye-opening event is not as dramatic as in Joseph and Aseneth where the statue’s eyes, like in the Near Eastern ritual, are opened precisely at sunrise.
4.3.8 Grasping the Hands
In the Mesopotamian rituals of the divine statues’ induction, the āšipu-priest grasps the statue’s hand (Berlejung, “Kultische Küsse,” 86; B. Pongratz-Leisten, Ina šulmi īrub. Die kulttopographische und ideologische Programmatik der akitu-Prozession in Babylonien und Assyrien im 1. Jahrtausend v.Chr. (BaF, 16; Mainz am Rhein: P. von Zabern, 1994) 171-174) and causes it to enter the sanctuary (Berlejung, “Refreshed Cultic Kisses,” 53).
4.3.9 Clothing the Statue