Some
"Known" early sources of Abraham traditions
(see also shorter
sections of works on other subjects):
- Genesis
- Genesis apocryphon (and a couple of references
in CD)
- Jubilees [12 in Ur, Abr destroys idols; in
Haran, he studies
stars, confesses God]
- Artapanos (Eusebius Prep 9.17.2-9)
- ps-Eupolemos (Eusebius Prep 9.18.1)
- unattributed fragment (Eusebius Prep 9.18.2)
- Philo (passim)
- Josephus, Antiquities
- LAB (briefly)
- Testament of Abraham (in two recensions)
- Apocalypse of Abraham (Slavonic)
- "Abraham" (Nicephorus
list, 300 lines, or 1300 or 3300)
- a Sethian Apocalypse (according to
Epiphanius)
- Books of the three Patriarchs (according to
Apostolic
Constitutions)
- Origen quote (on Luke, Hom. 35). "We
read -- at least if any one likes to accept a writing of the kind -- of
the
angels of righteousness and of iniquity disputing over the salvation or
perdition of Abraham, each band wishing to claim him for its own
company."
- materials in Jeffrey Siker, "Abraham in
Graeco-Roman Paganism,"
JSJ 18 (1987) 188-208
- Rabbinic traditions (reported in Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews & Kugel, Traditions of the Bible)
- Quran and Islamic traditions ( Reuven
Firestone, Journeys
in Holy Lands: The Evolution of the Abraham-Ishmael Legends in
Islamic Exegesis [State University of New York Press, 1990]) -- "According
to the legends, Abraham discovers the religious truth of monotheism
through a series of personal experiences
and
trials in the land of the East, culminating in his opposition to the
spurious religion of the tyrant Nimrod. Nimrod counters by having him
thrown into a fiery furnace, which is miraculously cooled by a miracle
of God. Abraham finally leaves his own land and people in order to
worship the one God and practice his religion as he knows he must. His
emigration is mentioned or assumed in the Qur'ān in "Sūras"
19:48-9, 21:71, 29:26, and 37:99, but a full picture can be found only
in the exegetical literature."