Testament of Abraham

Translator:   G. H. Box
Publisher:   The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1927

This writing has been preserved in the Greek text in a number of MSS. and in two Reclensions – the Longer and the Shorter. One school of thought claims that it was written in the second century C.E. by a Christian writer who used The Apocalypse of Peter as one of his sources. Another school of thought considers it as a pre-Christian Hebrew composition, perhaps Essene in character, which was later translated into Greek.

In the story, Abraham, who is pictured as the hospitable sheikh, is visited by the archangel Michael, who has been commissioned by God to receive his soul. The events of this meeting are described.

The two reclensions appear in this edition. The appendix includes The Testament of Isaac and The Testament of Jacob.