journal of jewish studies, vol. liv, no. 2 , autumn 2003
The Gods of Nahor: A Note on the Pantheon
of the Apocalypse of Abraham
Alexander Kulik
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
A
mong the Jewish aggadic traditions preserved exclusively in Slavonic
sources are the names of the deities worshipped by Abraham before his
rejection of idolatry. These names are mentioned in the introductory portion
of the Apocalypse of Abraham (= Ap. Abr.),1 which contains the story of Abraham and the idols, the modifications of which are well known from Jubilees
12; Tanna debe Eliahu 2:25; Genesis Rabba 38:13; Seder Eliahu Rabba 33; etc.
If we trace the origin of these names, we discover that clarification of their
meanings may contribute to our understanding of the narrative and even shed
light on such issues as dating or the circumstances of its composition.
According to the Ap. Abr. 1:2 the pantheon of Nahor and Terah, ‘gods
of wood, stone, gold, silver, brass and iron’ (cf. Dan. 5:23), contains five
idols, whose names, in Slavonic transliteration, are as follows: (1) Varisat,
wooden domestic god of Terah; two gods of Terah’s sanctuary, (2) Maroumaf
(variants: Maroumafa and Maroumat), of stone, (3) Nakhon (or Nakhin), of
iron; and two idols belong to the temple of Nahor, (4) Yoavon, of silver, and
(5) Zoukh (or Zoukhe), of gold.
Only one of these names has been convincingly reconstructed. L. Ginzberg
suggested that Slavonic Varisatŭ (Варисатъ) must render the Aramaic øá
¨à©úùà ‘fiery’ (Ap. Abr. 5:4–11; see also 6:9–19):2
And it came to pass, when I [Abraham] was collecting the wooden splinters, I
found among them a small god, lying among the pieces of wood on my left. And
on his forehead was written: ‘god Varisat’. And it came to pass, when I found
him, I held back and did not tell my father that I had found the wooden god
Varisat among the chips. And it came to pass, after I had put the splinters on the
fire in order to cook food for my father, that I went out to ask about the food
and I put Varisat near the hearth of fire, saying to him menacingly, ‘Varisat,
make sure that the fire does not go out before I come back. If the fire does go
out, blow on it to make it flare up.’ [And] I went out, having made my fire. When
I came back again I found Varisat fallen backwards, his feet enveloped in fire
and terribly burned. Laughing greatly to myself, I said, ‘Varisat, you certainly
1 The Apocalypse of Abraham has been preserved solely in its Slavonic translation from the
Greek, accomplished in the tenth to the eleventh centuries approximately. However, features of
the Semitic original—and among them some that can hardly be common in the Judaeo-Greek
idiom—have been preserved even at the Slavonic stage of transmission of Apocalypse of Abraham. Its lost Hebrew (or, less probably, Palestinian Aramaic) original may be dated to the first
to second centuries CE. The document was published twice, by B. Philonenko-Sayar and M.
Philonenko, L’Apocalypse d’Abraham (= Semitica 31) (Paris, 1981), and by R. Rubinkiewicz,
L’Apocalypse d’Abraham en vieux slave (Lublin, 1987).
2 L. Ginzberg, ‘Abraham, Apocalypse of’, Jewish Encyclopedia 1 (New York, 1906), pp. 91–
92.
the gods of nahor
229
are able to kindle fire and cook food!’ And it came to pass, while I was speaking
laughingly, that he was gradually burned up by the fire and became ashes.
The name ‘fiery’ is quite appropriate to the function of this idol in the story:
being made of wood, he maintains the fire but is eventually burned by it.
The Slavonic form may be explained by the Greek mediatory form *Βαρησατ
(pronounced in the Middle Greek as Varisat). We may support Ginzberg’s
suggestion with the following facts: the cognate Semitic name yšt is attested
for the Ugaritic goddess of fire;3 Philo of Byblos in his Phoenician History
(apud Eusebius, Praeparationis Evangelicae 1.10.9) lists three Phoenician gods
of fire, translating their Semitic names into Greek as Φω , Πυρ and Φλοξ.4
Another more obvious Semitic name, Nakhon, should have been recognised
by scholars, as well as Varisat. However, this is not the case, since this form
is never found in the translations of the Apocalypse of Abraham into modern
languages. The form Nakhon (Slavonic Нахонъ) appears only in the fifteenthcentury Volokolamsk Palaea Interpretata (A, the second oldest manuscript of
the Apocalypse of Abraham),5 while most manuscripts contain the corrupt
Nakhin (Нахинъ) and the oldest, Codex Sylvester (S),6 has an obvious emendation, нарицена, lit. ‘called’, in which case the verse would be the ‘god called
Iron’ in place of the ‘god Nakhon of iron’: ‘having entered their temple for
the service, I [Abraham] found a god named Marumaf, carved out of stone,
fallen at the feet of god Nakhon of iron.’ 7 The Hebrew ïåëð ‘stable; firmly
established’—a ‘speaking name’ like úùà øá above—is used to emphasise
that this idol has not fallen, in contrast to Maroumaf.8 The same form of a
proper name—ïåëð (Greek form Ναχων in the LXX)—occurs in 2 Sam. 6:6,
where the Ark of the Covenant is going to fall before ïåëð ïøâ ‘threshing-floor
of Nakhon’.9
In order to understand why the difference between the ‘stable’ god and the
‘fallen’ Maroumaf is so significant, it should be mentioned that the fall of
Maroumaf is a central point of the chapter, and the fall of idols in different
circumstances becomes a motif of the entire ‘aggadic’ part of the Apocalypse
of Abraham (cf. 1:3; 1:6; 2:4; 3:5; 3:7; 5:9). In any case, the tradition of the
3 See M. Dietrich, O. Loretz and J. Sanmartín, ‘Die keil-alphabethische Texte aus Ugarit’,
Alter Orient und Altes Testament 24 (1976).
4 Cf. V. Van der Toorn, B. Beching and P. W. Van der Horst, eds, Dictionary of Deities and
Demons in the Bible (Leiden, 1995), pp. 626—27.
5 The manuscript is published in N. S. Tikhonravov, Памятники отреченной русской
литературы, vol. 1 (St Petersburg, 1863), pp. 54—78.
6 Tikhonravov, Памятники (as in n. 5), pp. 32–53; P. P. Novitski, Откровение Авраама (=
Общество любителей древней письменности 99, 2) (St Petersburg, 1891).
7 Ap. Abr. 1:3. Cf. the Slavonic text: въшедъ въ церковь ихъ на служение обретохъ бога
Марумафа (according to 1:3, 7; 3:8; Марумафа in 1:9, Маруматъ in 3:5) именемъ отъ камени
изваяна падша ниць у ногу бога Нахона А нарицена Ѕ нахина (al.) железнаго.
8 Cf. èåîé àì ìñô ‘sculpture which will not fall’ (Is. 40:20) and ÷éôé àåìå íå÷æçé ‘they [idolmakers] fasten it [idol] that it will not move’ (Jer. 10:4).
9 Hebrew ïøâ ‘threshing-floor’ or sometimes, more generally, ‘open place’ (as in 1 Kgs 22:10; 1
Chron. 18:9) is associated with a sacred place, place of worship in 2 Sam. 24:18; 1 Chron. 21:18,
28; 2 Chron. 3:1, where it designates the location of David’s altar and Solomon’s Temple (ïøâ
éñåáéä ïðøà¯äðåøà).
230
journal of jewish studies
fall (= disgrace) of an idol or a divinised figure is much older. Note the same
sequence of events in 1 Sam. 5:3-4: Maroumaf and the god Dagon are both
found fallen in their own sanctuaries and, after an attempt to set them up
again, their heads (in the case of Dagon, also his hands) are found broken
off. Cf. also 3 Macc. 2:22, the divinised Ptolemy (very likely identified in this
composition with Caligula, since both claimed divine honours and tried to
defile the Jerusalem Temple), also falls, after entering the Temple.
Who is this ‘fallen god’ in our story? We know only his name, with
three different spellings—Maroumafŭ (Мароумафъ) according to 1:3, 7; 3:8;
Maroumafa (Мароумафа) in 1:9 and Maroumatŭ (Мароуматъ) in 3:5—and
the fact that his body was combined from the parts of two different statues:
with the torso of one idol and the head of another.
The meaning of his name was widely discussed. Rubinkiewicz believes that
‘Maroumat is an abbreviation of the Hebrew Martā Rômā’.10 Box posits here
äîøî ïáà ‘ “stone of deceit”, which was a chief object of Abraham’s worship
at this period’11 (cf. Philonenko: ‘de l’hébreu miremoth “tromperies”).’12 We
reconstruct here Greek *Μαρουμαθ(α)/Μαρουματ, which unambiguously follows from the Slavonic transliteration, and renders the Aramaic ¨à©úîåà øî
‘the lord of the nation(s)’. There are other Semitic names of deities derived
according to the same model: cf. Aramaic mr ylhy ‘lord of gods’ and Akkadian mr byty ‘lord of house’.13 The meaning of the name of ¨à©úîåà øî (‘lord
of the nation’) may be connected to the combined nature of this idol ‘having
the head of one stone and being made of another’ (Ap. Abr. 3:6–8):
his [Maroumaf’s] head fell off of him. And he [Terah] placed it on another stone
of another god, which he had made without a head . . . And I said to myself, ‘If
it is thus, how then can my father’s god, Maroumaf, having a head of one stone
and the rest being made of another stone, save a man, or hear a man’s prayer
and reward him?’
This kind of alternation was very common for Roman emperors’ statues.
The very close parallel to this description is found in Suetonius, De Vita Caesarum. Suetonius ascribes to Caligula the mass alteration of Greek statues of
gods (Vita Calig. 4:22):
he began from that time on to claim to divine majesty; for after giving orders
that such statues of the gods as were especially famous for their sanctity or their
10 R. Rubinkiewicz and H. G. Lunt, ‘The Apocalypse of Abraham’, in The Old Testamental
Pseudepigrapha ed. J. H. Charlesworth, vol. 2 (New York, 1983), p. 682.
11 G. H. Box and J. I. Landsman, The Apocalypse of Abraham (London, 1918).
12 Philonenko-Sayar and Philonenko, L’Apocalypse (as in n. 1), p. 39. Developing Box’s idea
we could add that äîøî is well attested in the MT in the plural form úåîøî, which is closer
phonetically to Марумат/ фъ, and that a homographic name for Jewish priests úåîøî occurs in
Ezra 8:33; 10:36; Neh. 3:4,21; 10:6; 12:3. In the LXX it is sometimes transliterated as Μαρειμωθ
(L, Neh. 12:3) or Μαρεμωθ (A, Ezr. 10:36). In Ps. 36:4 äîøî is used together with ïåà, whereas Ap.
Abr. 6:9 contains another name of an idol—Иоавонъ—probably going back to ïåà (see below).
Thus, ïåà¨å©é and úåîøî ìà in the Apocalypse of Abraham might be parallel to äîøîå ïåà of Ps.
36:4.
13 T. M. Green, The City of the Moon God: Religious Traditions of Harran (Leiden, 1992), p.
67; cf. van der Toorn et al., Dictionary (as in n. 4), p. 1370.
the gods of nahor
231
artistic merit, including that of Jupiter of Olympia, should be brought from
Greece, in order to remove their heads and put his own in their place . . . [italics
are mine—A. K.]
Images of Caligula were introduced in the Alexandrian synagogues (Philo,
Leg. 20, 25, 29, 30), and he was also the first to try to bring the emperor’s
cult to Jerusalem, ordering his statue to be set up in the Temple. Thus, the
very name ¨à©úîåà øî may go back to something like Greek κριο θνου
or Latin dominus populi, designating a divinised Roman emperor (for Roman
emperor called κριο , equivalent of Latin dominus; see e.g. Acts 25:26). Negative accounts of Caligula in other Jewish sources from the same period are
found in Syb. Or. 12:50–67 and possibly in 3 Macc. 2:22 (see above).
It is more difficult to retrovert the names of the two ‘gods of Nahor’:
Zoukh(e) and Yoavon. In distinct of Terah’s idols, they are only briefly mentioned (Ap. Abr. 6:5–9):
Father Terah, whichever of these gods you praise, you err in your thinking. Behold, my brother Nahor’s gods standing in the holy temple are more honored
than yours. For behold, Zoukh, my brother Nahor’s god, is more honored than
your god Maroumaf, since he is made of gold sold by men. And if he becomes
worn out with the years, he will be remade, whereas Maroumaf, if he is changed
or broken, will not be remade, since he is of stone. [And] what about Yoavon, a
god who is in the power of another god, who stands beside Zoukh? Since [even]
he is more honored than the god Varisat who is made of wood, while [Yoavon
is] forged of silver.
Nevertheless, we can point out the similarity of these names to two names
also brought together in other, apparently non-Jewish, sources. Greek magical papyri from the Hellenistic period contain Ζεωχ as a god’s name,14 while
the forms Ζουχ, Ζουκι,15 Ζουχηλ16 and (twice) Ζουχε,17 which is identical to
the Slavonic form under discussion, were identified by Preisendanz as Zauberworte. Actually, these forms may be gods’ names as well as Ζεωχ brought
above: Ζουχηλ has a theophoric suffix (-ηλ, Hebrew ìàÐ) and the form Ζουχε
is identical to Slavonic Zoukhe (Зоухе) of the oldest versions of the Apocalypse of Abraham (Codex Sylvester).18 Moreover, in one of the papyri (P. IV,
1983) the name Zoukhe (Ζουχε) occurs in the prayer to Helios together with
‘Yao’, interchanged with the forms ‘Yavo’, ‘Yavou’ and ‘Yaou’ (Ιαω, Ιαβω,
Ιαβου, Ιαου),19 while in the Apocalypse of Abraham the golden god Zoukh(e)
(Зоухе of Codex Sylvester) stands beside the god Yoavon (Slavonic Иоавонъ
14
K. Preisendanz, Papyri Graecae Magicae (Leipzig and Berlin, 1928–1941), 1:78, P. XII, 296.
Preisendanz, Papyri (as in n. 14), 1:130, P. IV, 1919.
16 Preisendanz, Papyri (as in n. 14), 2:65, P. XII, 117.
17 Preisendanz, Papyri (as in n. 14), 1:132, P. IV, 1983 and 2:142, P. XIX, 11.
18 Golden ‘Zoukh’ or ‘Zoukhe’ might be connected to Semitic zh ‘be proud’, zwh ‘distrait,
.
.
distracted’, zh.wh. ‘haughty, high, mighty’. Cf. the name Azukhan (interchanged with Akhuzan) in
Slavonic 2 Enoch (see A. Vaillant, Le Livre des Secrets d’Hénoch (Paris, 1952), p. 122), probably
derived from the same root: Slavonic Азуханъ < Greek *Αζουχαν < Aramaic *ïçåæà (as causative
ì¢òôà form + suffix of substantivation -ân?).
19 See Preisendanz, Papyri (as in n. 14), 3:222–223; cf. Fr. Preisigke, Wörterbuch der
Griekischen Papyrusurkunden (Berlin, 1925–1931), 3:39.
15
232
journal of jewish studies
of Codex Sylvester 6:9, going back to Greek *Ιαβον).20
The identifications noted above are of different degrees of reliability. They
demonstrate, however, that the names in this story are anything but incidental: they are connected to the function of the characters (as Bar Eshata and
Nakhon) or/and were created according to existing models (cf. Bar Eshata
and Ugaritic yšt; Mar Umatha and Aramaic mr ylhy or Akkadian mr byty)
or even probably borrowed from real sacral practices (as Zoukhe attested in
other sources). An obviously Semitic origin of these names is the most striking argument in favor of the Semitic origin of the whole composition. The
hypothesis of the connection between Mar Umatha and the cult of Caligula
(or the Roman emperor in general), might provide evidence for a terminus a
quo of the Apocalypse of Abraham.
20 Other manuscripts have Иоаву, Иову and Надву. The first two variants emend Иоавонъ
to the more familiar biblical names Joab and Job; the last one contains the obviously corrupt
Иоаву (и > н; о > а; а > д). Codex Sylvester must preserve the primary form here also. It might
have contained the Hebrew ïåà (ïåà means ‘idolatry’ in Hos. 4:15; 5:8; 10:8; 10:15; 12:12; Is.
41:29; 66:3; cf. also ïåà ùéà 6:12; Is. 55:7, ïåà úéá in Hos. 4:15; ïåà úåîá in Hos. 9:8) or, less
probably, ïåò ‘wrong’. Hebrew ïåà and ïåò may have been interchangeable in the rabbinic period:
cf. ïåéìâ ïåà and ïåéìâ ïåò as derogatory equivalents for εαγγ!λιον (bShabb. 110a). It may be also
a corrupted form of Ιαω, Ιαβω, etc. (see above). On ‘Yao’ used as a pagan god’s name see E.
R. Goodenough, Jewish Symbols in the Graeco-Roman Period (1953–1968), 2:207, 245–58; M.
Philonenko, ‘L’Anguipède alectorocéphale et le dieu Iaô,’ Académie des Inscriptions et BellesLettres (1979), pp. 297–304.