Show THE TESTAMENT OF ABRAHAM A testament of abraham is referred to by origen and athena athana among the apocryphal books of the old testament an apocalypse of abraham la in also mentioned by as an being in the possession of the Set Bethi hites teB an obscure gnostic sect of the early ages age of our era but whether these two documents were identical Is IB a matter of doubt it is ia now claimed that two greek ver versions eions of the long lost writing have been foun dand the text la published by mr montague rhodes modes james a wolf weh known duglish specialist alist the story etory treats entirely of the death of the venerable patriarch michael Is IB first sent to him to an that his hie end la is approaching pro aching the heavenly messenger I 1 ID n the form of af a warrior appears to abraham and is ia kindly treated but he be tails falls to deliver his bis message when again in the pres presence erAce ot of the loru he explains that he be had bad not courage enough to tell the news to so pious a man the almighty then ordered him back again to perform his work and promised promis eu him to give to 10 isaacs isaac a dream which michael is to inter interpret peet this b eppens isaac dreams that he sees the sun and the moon above him and that a man comes and takes away the heavenly luminaries michael interprets this as meaning the death of abraham and barab but the patriarch refuses refuse to follow the arob augel miahael the he partial failure of his mission and is then told to show abraham why he guht fiut submit to the ibe common fate 0 of mankind michael does as lie he is commanded but now abraham beseeches god to shw sh w him the entire world and the things that are therein and the lord grants his prayer among the thit thi gs ga opened tu to his bis vision are t e fates of won wen and the last judgment among others he sees a soul ial which the good and d the bitu bad deeds exactly balance ait abraham roquet michael invergo jes to for this soul it is saved Ab abiram itam Is ia woid taken home again michael wan urgently reminds him that now BOW h he should consent to departout depart But the patriarch arch baill refuses to diemand adlean die and michael reports this fact to god god then bends another messenger namely assumes the shining form of an arch a gel abraham still refuses to go then ensues a long discussion between Abrah abraham abrahano aso aud and deab Deia tb until the tap iata accomplishes his bis end by telling abra ham bam that he ble will receive life anh and strength it if he be will klea kies his Deathy ie s band this the patriarch dope does and Y at onoe once dlee dies his hie soul in carried by michael and a host of angels into paradise while his body is buried near he oak of mamre this is a brief summary of the con tents of the book as ad given in a naper in the litter of recent date the document is of value chiefly as showing the character of religious thought among the people who sc accepted it as genuine ard and of the age in which it was aritte it was no doubt an important writing at one time however absurd some of its ita propositions now may seem theo then the existence of writings erroneously ascribed to abraham makes it probable that the patriarch really must have left some records of which the people who accepted the forged documents bad some traditional k knowledge bowled ge at least for u unless n less a genuine ins record had at some time existed existe dox a forged one would home have had but little chance of being accepted probably the genuine book of abraham was known knon by tradition among the earl earliest teft christians although all traces of it subsequently were lost until the ibe valur able book itself again was discovered by the prophet of the nineteenth century |