Apocalypse of Moses: Introduction

The Apocalypse of Moses is a narrative about the life of Adam and Eve after their expulsion from paradise, which presents itself as a revelation conveyed to Moses by the Archangel Michael when he received the Tablets of the Law. In general, it shows an effort to solve exegetical problems of the Genesis text narratively. There is also an interest in the biblical Adam tradition as the etiology of death and sin. In terms of structure and genre, the report of the death and burial of Adam and Eve takes up a lot of space, and elements of the De Morte narrative and the Testament literature can be recognized. The environment in which it was written is probably a Greek-speaking, scribed Palestinian Jewry at the end of the 1st century or the beginning of the 2nd century AD. Ultimately, however, the Apocalypse of Moses cannot be assigned with certainty to Judaism or Christianity (this applies to the Adamvites in general). Unlike the Adamvites, however, it does not contain any clearly Christian theologumena. But even in the Adamvites these can easily be isolated from the text, so that there too a basic text without specifically Christian elements can be identified. Many motifs in the Apocalypse of Moses have parallels in rabbinic literature; the washing in Lake Acherus (in Greek mythology a lake in the underworld to which the souls of the dead go or which they must cross, cf. Knittel 2002: p. 139-141 ), which is mentioned in the text quoted here, has parallels only in Christian texts. In addition to the Greek text, the Apocalypse of Moses is also available in an Armenian translation. It is also close to three Adamvites (Latin (cf. TUK_0454 ), Armenian, Georgian), especially the Armenian and Georgian versions. In addition, there is the Slavic Adam Book, as well as Coptic fragments and an Arabic one, which can also be assigned to the Adam literature. (For details on the Apocalypse of Moses, see Dochhorn 2005: p. 3-172, va 3-14 )