[91] S. Fabricius, Cod. pseudepigr. V. T., p. 398 ff. [↑]
[92] Gemara Sanh., as in note 3. The colloquy between Abraham and Satan is thus continued:
1. Satanas: Annon tentare te (Deum) in tali re ægre feras? Ecce erudiebas multos—labantem erigebant verba tua—quum nunc advenit ad te (Deus taliter te tentans) nonne ægre ferres ([Job iv. 2–5])?
Cui resp. Abraham: Ego in integritate mea ambulo ([Ps. xxvi. 11]).
2. Satanas: Annon timor tuus, spes tua ([Job iv. 6])?
Abraham: Recordare quæso, quis est insons, qui perierit ([v. 7])?
3. Quare, quum videret Satanas, se nihil proficere, nec Abrahamum sibi obedire, dixit ad illum: et ad me verbum furtim ablatum est ([v. 12]), audivi—pecus futurum esse pro holocausto ([Gen. xxii. 7]), non autem Isaacum.
Cui resp. Abraham: Hæc est pæna mendacis, ut etiam cum vera loquitur, fides ei non habeatur.
I am far from maintaining that this rabbinical passage was the model of our history of the temptation; but since it is impossible to prove, on the other side, that such narratives were only imitations of the New Testament ones, the supposed independent formation of stories so similar shows plainly enough the ease with which they sprang out of the given premises. [↑]