Saturday, May 18, 2024

Andrey A. Romanov on the Depiction of Adam and Abel in Testament of Abraham (recension A)

  

The text of the Testament of Abraham (recension A) indeed presents a remarkable configuration of two types of enthronement. In ch. 11, the archangel Michael and Abraham (who is visiting the heavens) see ‘a man (ανηρ) sitting upon a gilded throne, and the appearance of that man was terrible, as of the Master’ (v. 4). This enthroned man is Adam. Although the text characterizes him as a ‘wondrous’ man (ο ανηρ ο θαυμασιος, 11.6,8), noting indicates the transformation of his human nature. He is called ‘first-formed’ or ‘first-created’ (ο πρωτοπλαστος). E. Sanders notes that the same term is found in a number of texts (For instance, Wis. 7:1; 10:1) in which undoubtedly points to the human nature of Adam. (This is vividly expressed in Wis. 7:1a where the author says: ‘I also am mortal, like everyone else, a descendant of the first-formed child of the earth’) Thus, a human being Adam occupies a throne that is in heaven. The ‘enthronement’, however, entails no particular action on Adam’s behalf. Adam is depicted as the one who looks at the souls entering the heaven and who rejoices when seeking righteous souls and ‘walls bitterly’ when seeing the ‘sinners’. In fact, Adam cannot be regraded as an ‘intermediary’ figure, for no mediation is implied.

 

A completely different model of enthronement is presented almost immediately, in ch. 12-13. Abraham sees now the other throne ‘and upon it sat [again] a wonderous man (ανηρ θαυματος) bright as the sun, like to the Son of God’ (TestAbr. 12.5). This man is ‘the son of Adam, the first-formed (πρωτοπλαστου), the one called Abel’ (13.2). Unlike his father, however, Abel does not just take a position upon the throne but executes judgment: ‘The wonderous man who sat upon the throne himself judged and sentenced the souls’ (και ο μεν ανηρ ο θαμυασιος ο καθημενος επι του θρονου, αυτος εκρινεν και απεφηνατο τας ψυχας) (12.11). The description ‘the son of Adam, the first-formed’ implies that Abel is a human, and his father, even if his human nature has somehow been transformed so that he looks like ‘the Son of God’. The human nature of Abel is indirectly confirmed through the reference to God’s words which explain the position of Abel as the judge (ο κριτης; 13.1, and elsewhere): ‘For God said, “I do not judge you, but every man is judged by a man” (Εγω συ κριων ημας, αλλα πας ανθρωπος εξ ανθρωπου κριθησεται)’ (13.3). God, this, delegates Abel the function of judgment.

 

Abel’s judgment, however, has a temporal value, for it is valid until God’s great and glorious Parousia (παρουσια, 13.4) only. Moreover, the text implies that one more judgment will take place between Abel’s judgment and that by God:

 

Then (after Parousia) there will be perfect judgement and recompense, eternal and unalterable, which no one can question. For every person has come from the first-created, and therefore they are first judged here by his son. And at the second Parousia they will be judged by the twelve tribes of Israel, every breath and every creature. And thirdly, they will be judged by the Master (δεσποτης) God of all, and then thereafter the fulfillment of that judgment is near, and fearful will be the sentence and there is none who can release. And thus the judgment and the recompense of the world is made through three tribunals. And therefore a matter is not ultimately established by one or two witnesses, but by three witnesses will everything be established.

 

In other words, the final judgement remains God’s prerogative. It is not quite clear to what extent Abel’s judgement has an effect on the results of God’s judgement, that is, what is the significance of Abel’s judgemnet. But there is a striking passage in the text which seems to downplay the value of Abel’s judgement. Abraham and Commander-in-Chief Michael, by praying on behalf of the soul that had an equal quantity of good deeds and sins, are able to ‘force’ God to execute His judgement already on the primary (that is to say, ‘Abel’s’) state and thus to ‘save’ this particular soul (TestAbr. 14.5ff); and this case is not an exception in the text (see similarly in ch. 15). In other words, God can intervene in the judgment at any level, and therefore the role of Abel becomes quite ‘technical’. Abel’s role could be even considered as a sort of ‘reward’ and not as an ‘assignment’, but Abel’s judgement has significant limitations and is by no means decisive. In effect, it is not his exclusive function. This factor relativizes the significance of Abel as a mediator, for his decision as the judgment is indispensable neither for human beings nor for God.

 

But one should not overlook that the two enthronements in the Testament of Abraham (those of Adam and Abel) are qualitatively different. Adam takes a position upon the throne but he does not mediate. In turn, the account of Abel is focused not so much on his position but rather on his function. It is noteworthy, however, that Abel received this commitment (‘God gave judgement’, δεδωκεν κρισιν; 13.4) which is of a temporal and relative significance.

 

According to the text, several angels assist Abel and the author of the Testament explicitly distinguishes the angels from Abel. A human being, therefore, has been exalted above at least some angels. This motif seems to be quite common in the writings of that period. A similar idea is present in 1 Corinthians also, when Pual addresses the Corinthians with rhetorical questions: ‘Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? […] Do you not know that we are to judge angels? ‘ (1 Cor. 6:2,4). But as scholars point out, the significant role in the formation of early Christological views belongs to those human mediators who have been ‘transformed’, that is, whose human nature has been changed into celestial nature. (Andrey A. Romanov, One God as One God and One Lord: The Lordship of Jesus Christ as a Hermeneutical Key to Paul’s Christology in 1 Corinthians (with a special focus on 1 Cor. 8:4-6) [Early Christian Studies 20; Macquarie Centre, Australia: 2021], 236-39)