“I Am the Judge”: Judgment in the Apocalypse of Abraham Matthias Henze It would be difficult to overestimate the influence John J. Collins has had on the study of early Jewish apocalyptic literature. He has shaped our academic dis- cipline like few others, has opened up difficult texts to other readers, and has contributed greatly to making the world of the Jewish apocalyptic imagina- tion accessible to others. It is with great pleasure and a deep sense of gratitude that I devote this small study to him, trusting that it will become evident how indebted I am to him. The subject of this essay is the Apocalypse of Abraham, a Jewish composi- tion written in response to the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in the year 70 ce. Following the familiar composition of apocalypses, this text consists of two parts, a narrative introduction, or haggadic part (chs. 1–8), that relates how Abraham questions the efficacy of his father’s idols and becomes a monotheist, and a longer section, the apocalypse proper (chs. 9–31), in which Abraham ascends to heaven, sees the divine throne, and embarks on a longer conversation with God about the origin of evil in the world, the sinfulness of idolatry, the chosenness of Israel and the fate of the Gentiles, the connection between human free will and divine predetermination, and the eschatological judgment.1 The Apocalypse of Abraham is part of a small collection of Jewish texts written in the aftermath of the failed revolt against Rome, among them two other apocalypses, 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch. Unlike these compositions, how- ever, the Apocalypse of Abraham is an ascent apocalypse with a distinct interest in the heavenly mystical realm. In his 1960 study Jewish Gnosticism, Merkabah Mysticism, and Talmudic Tradition, Gershom Scholem wrote about the ori- gins of the Merkabah hymns, hymns that are addressed to the divine throne (cf. Ezek 1:5–28) and describe the heavenly realm. In search of the earliest examples in Jewish literature of such hymns of the angels before the divine throne, Scholem was drawn to the Apocalypse of Abraham. “Such hymns 1 The division of the Apocalypse of Abraham and the number of its chapters vary in the translations. I follow Alexander Kulik, Retroverting Slavonic Pseudepigrapha: Toward the Original of the Apocalypse of Abraham (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2004), though occasionally I have consulted the earlier translation by Ryszard Rubinkiewicz, “The Apocalypse of Abraham,” OTP 1:689–705. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���7 | doi ��.��63/97890043�4749_03� “I Am The Judge” 543 are mentioned not only in the Apocalypse of John (14:2–3), but also in the Apocalypse of Abraham (Chapter 18)—a text that more closely resembles a Merkabah text than any other in Jewish apocalyptic literature.”2 Since Scholem, others have turned their attention to the Apocalypse of Abraham and have read it as an early example of Merkabah mysticism.3 In her seminal study Ascent to Heaven in Jewish and Christian Apocalypses, for example, Martha Himmelfarb commented on the priestly symbolism in the text.4 Himmelfarb pointed out that the appearance and wardrobe of the angel Yahoel in 11:2–3 have priestly connotations. His wardrobe resembles the ward- robe of the high priest in Exod 28, and the golden staff that he carries in his right hand is reminiscent of Aaron’s rod in Exod 7:8–13 and Num 17:16–26.5 More significantly yet, the heaven in the Apocalypse of Abraham “is clearly a temple.”6 Abraham’s ascent to heaven in 15:1–16:4 is told in the context of the sacrifice he offers in Gen 15. It is through the sacrifice that Abraham gets into heaven, riding with his angelic tour guide on the wings of the sacrificial pigeon. Once in heaven, Abraham learns the heavenly song, a continuous heavenly liturgy of sorts, which he is to “recite without ceasing” (17:6). More recently, Alexander Kulik called the lost Hebrew original of the Apocalypse of Abraham “the earliest mystical writing of Judeao-Christian civilization and [a] repre- sentative of a missing link between early apocalyptic and medieval Hekhalot traditions.”7 2 Gershom Scholem, Jewish Gnosticism, Merkabah Mysticism, and Talmudic Tradition (2nd ed.; New York: Jewish Theological Seminary, 1965), 23. 3 Ithamar Gruenwald, Apocalyptic and Merkavah Mystic (Leiden: Brill, 1980), 51–57; Michael E. Stone, “Apocalyptic Literature,” in Jewish Writings of the Second Temple Period (ed. M. E. Stone; CRINT; Assen: Van Gorcum/Philadelphia: Fortress, 1984), 416–18; April DeConick, “Heavenly Temple Traditions and Valentinian Worship: A Case for First-Century Christology in the Second Century,” in The Jewish Roots of Christological Monotheism (ed. C. C. Newman, J. R. Davila, and G. S. Lewish; JSJSup 63; Leiden: Brill, 1999), 308–41. DeConick argues that the Apocalypse of Abraham “does not explicitly equate its seven heavens with chambers of the celestial Temple,” but then continues to comment that, when Abraham sees the fiery Throne of God in chapter 18, “[t]here is no doubt that Abraham has entered the Holy of Holies” (214–15). Others have pointed to a possible connection between the apocalypse and the Day of Atonement; e.g., Daniel Stökl Ben Ezra, The Impact of Yom Kippur on Early Christianity: The Day of Atonement from Second Temple Judaism to the Fifth Century (WUNT 163; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2003), 94–95; and Andrei A. Orlov, Heavenly Priesthood in the Apocalypse of Abraham (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 189. 4 Martha Himmelfarb, Ascent to Heaven in Jewish and Christian Apocalypses (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 61–66. 5 Himmelfarb, Ascent to Heaven, 62. 6 Himmelfarb, Ascent to Heaven, 66. 7 Kulik, Retroverting Slavonic Pseudepigrapha, 1..