The Testament of Abraham

Abraham arose and went into his house; and Death also followed him there; and Abraham went up into his chamber; and Death also went up with him; and Abraham reclined on his couch; and Death also came and sat at his feet.

But Abraham said, “Go away, go away from me, for I wish to rest on my couch.”

Death says, “I will not depart until I take your spirit from you.”

Abraham says to him, “By the immortal God I tell you that you must tell me the truth: are you Death?”

Death says to him, “I am Death; I am the one who corrupts the world.”

But Abraham said, “I beg you, since you are Death, tell me, do you go to all others thus in such beauty and glory and comeliness?”

And Death said, “No, my lord Abraham; for your righteousnesses and the immeasurable depth of your hospitality and the greatness of your love for God became a crown upon my head, and I approach the righteous in beauty and in much tranquility and flattery.

But to sinners I approach in much rottenness and savagery and greatest bitterness and with a savage and pitiless gaze.”

But Abraham said, “I beg you, listen to me and show me your savagery and all your rottenness and bitterness.”

And Death said, “You will not be able to gaze upon my ferocity, most righteous Abraham.”

But Abraham said, “Yes, I will be able to gaze upon all your ferocity for the sake of the name of the living God, because the power of my heavenly God is with me.”

Then Death stripped off all his beauty and charm, and all the glory and the sun-like form that he wore,

and he put on a tyrannical garment, and made his appearance dark and wilder than all kinds of beasts and more unclean than all uncleanness.

And he showed Abraham seven fiery heads of dragons, and fourteen faces, of most flaming fire and great ferocity, and a dark face and a most gloomy face of a viper and a most terrifying face of a precipice and a fiercer face of an asp and a face of a terrifying lion and a face of a horned serpent and a basilisk.

He also showed the face of a fiery sword and a sword-bearing face and a face of lightning terribly flashing and the sound of terrifying thunder.

He also showed another face of a wild surging sea and a wild boiling river and a terrifying three-headed dragon and a cup filled with poisons.

And, to speak simply, he showed him much ferocity and unbearable bitterness and every deadly disease as the stench of Death.

And because of the great bitterness and ferocity, about seven thousand children and maidservants died.

And the righteous Abraham came to a disregard for death so that his spirit was about to fail.