Abraham, Testament of

The *Testament of Abraham* is a pseudepigraphal narrative about the patriarch's death, composed in Greek sometime between AD 100 and 200. Its provenance is debated — likely Jewish in origin but lightly Christianized in transmission, surviving in two recensions of different length plus several ancient versions (Coptic, Romanian, Arabic, Ethiopic). It is not canonical in any branch of Christianity, though some Eastern Orthodox traditions read selections from it liturgically.

The narrative is part comedy, part theodicy. God sends the archangel Michael to summon Abraham to his death; Abraham, ever the bargainer, refuses to go and asks instead for a tour of the world first. Michael takes him through the heavens, where Abraham sees souls being judged by Abel at the gates and witnesses the harsh sentencing of sinners. His own first instinct is severe — but God tempers Abraham's judgment, showing him mercy beyond what the patriarch was inclined to grant. The book ends with Death itself called to fetch Abraham, who finally yields and dies in his bed.

The work is notable for its proto-mystical interest in afterlife judgment, its portrayal of Abraham as a man whose mercy must be schooled by God's, and its sustained narrative — a long-form genre rare in Jewish religious literature of the period. It is included here, like the *Apocalypse of Abraham*, for completeness; it is not scripture.