Testamento de Abraão

o enfrentamento da monstruosidade da Morte

Abstract

The Testament of Abraham is a book found in the collections of apocrypha and pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament published in several modern  languages. Like the other books in these collections, this one has not yet received the attention it deserves from scholars in Brazil, both theologians and religious scientists, and therefore it still represents a source of knowledge to be explored for the development of a renewed understanding of Second Temple Judaism, which is necessary for a broader understanding of the cultural framework of ancient Judaism. In our brief approach to the apocryphal book, we discuss this text based on the procedure of situating its genre, the ‘testament’, in its historical-literary context, as proposed by the theory of the Russian philologist Mikhail Bakhtin. After that, we discuss its narrative and some of its other characteristics, highlighting in particular the combination of comedy with apocalyptic and biblical intertextuality. Finally, we present the excerpt in which the character Death shows his monstrous expression. The reflection carried out results in a critical note on traditional Biblical Theology that omits the apocrypha and pseudepigrapha, given that these books represent a nuisance to the idealized portrait of Old Testament Theology and ancient Judaism.