In this insightful book, Andrei A. Orlov examines the symbolism of the 'image of God' found in early Jewish pseudepigraphical accounts, paying special attention to the cultic traditions in the Apocalypse of Abraham . The study demonstrates that the Jewish pseudepigrapha transform various biblical characters ? including Enoch, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and Aseneth ? into eschatological embodiments of the imago Dei . The book argues that these cultic metamorphoses preserve memories of ancient Near Eastern and Egyptian rituals involving the vivification of cultic statues. The Apocalypse of Abraham and other early Jewish pseudepigraphical accounts attempt to polemically refashion the concept of cultic statues by envisioning their protagonists as divine representations in the form of the eschatological image of God.

Born 1960; 1990 Ph.D. at Institute of Sociology (Russian Academy of Sciences); 1995 M.A. and 1997 M.Div. at Abilene Christian University (TX); 2003 Ph.D. at Marquette University (WI); Professor of Judaism and Christianity in Antiquity, Marquette University (WI).