Attachment to the Body in the Greek Testament of Abraham : A Reappraisal of the Short Recension

Abstract

The Greek text of the Testament of Abraham has been preserved in two recensions. While most studies focus on the long recension, the short one has been often overlooked as lacking coherence and unity. In this article, I suggest that the attachment to the body can be regarded as one of the main themes around which the short recension revolves, as death is presented as a separation between body and soul. In contrast with the long recension, where a disobedient Abraham opposes God’s messengers, the short text does not stage a conflict between characters, but a common apprehension of death as loss of the body, voiced primarily by the archangel Michael.