Testaments of Abraham Collection

The 1st Testament of Abraham is the Christian version of the Testament of Abraham, a Christianized version of the 2nd Testament of Abraham. The designation of 1st and 2nd were determined by early Christian scholars, who decided that the 2nd version was a corrupted version of the 1st version. Modern scholars have come to the conclusion that the 1st version was a Christianized version of the older 2nd version, which itself was likely a Jewish version, originally written in Aramaic or Hebrew. One of the reasons that the 2nd version is considered older, is because it has survived in a number of languages, including Greek, Coptic, Old Slavonic, Arabic, Ge'ez, and Romanian, while the 1st version has only survived in Greek and Romanian.

The 2nd version has also been considered scripture by several Churches and Israelite groups, including the Coptic Church in Egypt, Beta Israel in Ethiopia, and Beta Abraham in Sudan. The Testament of Abraham was also quoted by Origen circa 200 AD, and later in the Qur'an, showing it's significance to the people of the Middle East in the early Christian era. It is generally accepted that Origen was quoting the 1st version, meaning the text had already been Christianized by his time, however, the final paragraph is believed to be a later addition by an Orthodox cleric some time after the Council of Nicene in the 4th-century.