Tupac Shakur, The Testament of Abraham, and the Logos of God

Though hip-hop artist Tupac Shakur (2Pac) was known to be a voracious and eclectic reader, it seems that he may not have read The Testament of Abraham – a Jewish pseudepigraphic apocalyptic text from the first or second century CE.  We can forgive him this lapse, however; it’s not a text that is widely read outside of the community of religious scholars.

Tupac’s music was full of apocalyptic styling, and he might have appreciated The Testament of Abraham.  But if he had read it, he might not have been able to write his song, Only God can Judge Me.[i] 


(*warning* Tupac uses some "bad" language in this song.)

In The Testament of Abraham we read of father Abraham’s reluctance to die and of his long journey, accompanied by an angel, into the presence of God.  Along the way Abraham sees a great throne of judgment.  The angel then says to him:

"Seest thou, most holy Abraham, the terrible man sitting upon the throne? This is the son of the first created Adam, who is called Abel, whom the wicked Cain killed, and he sits thus to judge all creation, and examines righteous men and sinners. For God has said, I shall not judge you, but every man born of man shall be judged. Therefore he has given to him judgment, to judge the world until his great and glorious coming, and then, O righteous Abraham, is the perfect judgment and recompense, eternal and unchangeable, which no one can alter. For every man has come from the first-created, and therefore they are first judged here by his son…”

Despite what Tupac claimed, God, according to this text, appointed a man, Abel the son of Adam (the son of man) to judge humanity on the highly developed ethical principal of “it takes one to know one.”   

Now, we could forgive Tupac for missing this text.  It is a bit obscure.  We could let his oversight slide if he hadn’t also missed a very similar thought in a much more familiar work from about the same time period.  If Tupac had read his New Testament – specifically the gospel of John – he might have noticed these verses:

“Morever, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.  … For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.”  John 5: 22-23, 26-27

And similarly, Tupac could have read in Acts 17: 31 “For he [God] has set a day when he will judge the world by the man he has appointed”

Sorry, Tupac.  Your judgment comes from a man, a Son of Man, the Son of Man.

There’s no evidence that the New Testament writers were quoting from or alluding directly to The Testament of Abraham but it does appear that in the first century it was a commonplace idea that God’s judgment at the end of the age would come, not from God directly, but through his appointed – human – agent.

In the worldview of that time God was understood as entirely distinct from his creation.  He was above and beyond all that he created. 

 And he interacted with that creation via his –lesser, submissive and obedient – agents. Sometimes he appointed human agents to enact his will or to speak his words.  Sometimes he entrusted angels to these purposes.  And sometimes God interacted with his creation via his Logos or Word or Wisdom.

The Jewish philosopher, Philo (20 BCE – 50 CE) described this Logos as “neither being uncreated as God, nor yet created as you, but being in the midst between these two extremities”[ii] 

This is a bit confusing.  How is something both uncreated and created? 

“The Logos (or Wisdom) is presented as being none other than God himself in his interaction with the world, and yet also as separate from and subordinate to God.”[iii]

Jesus’ conflict with the religious leaders of his time was rooted in this difficult distinction.  In his actions and his teachings, Jesus’ claimed the work and privileges of God (which would have been blasphemous, as his opponents claimed, if he were not God’s Logos.)  He worked on the Sabbath – because God works on the Sabbath.  He healed and gave life to the dead – because God heals and gives life to the dead.  Jesus shared all of the divine roles with his Father. 

But notice again what he says about the role of Judge, “the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son …he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.”

The end of the age, apocalyptic judgment of humanity would be done by Jesus, the son of man, (and not God) precisely because he was the son of man.  It is because of his familiarity with the both divine righteousness and the condition of sinful humanity that he is able to act as judge.

So Tupac may have been partly right.  We’ll give him half-credit on this one.  It is the divine prerogative[iv] to judge humanity,- God alone can judge - but he has given that role and the authority to do it to his appointed agent, his Son, Jesus, the Son of Man – who is one with and at the same time separate from, equal to and submissive to God the Father in heaven.

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[i] Tupac Shakur, on the 1996 album All Eyez on Me, Death Row / Interscope Records.

[ii] Philo -Who is the Heir of Divine Things? (206)

[iii] James McGrath – John’s Apologetic Christology: Legitimation and Development in Johannine Christology, Cambridge University Press, 2001.

[iv] By the way… does anyone ever pronounce that word “Prerogative” the way it’s written?