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Bethsaida (βηθσαϊδά; βηθσαϊδάν, in Mark), “House of the Fisherman” (or Hunter), is best known from the New Testament Gospels as a primary venue for the activities of Jesus of Nazareth and the home of his first disciples. Several miracles are attributed to Jesus in and around Bethsaida, as well as an ominous pronouncement against its inhabitants for failing to repent in light of these extraordinary deeds. The village is mentioned in both rabbinic literature and medieval Christian pilgrim…

By most accounts, the Testament of Abraham is an originally Alexandrian Jewish text, composed in Greek sometime around the turn of the Common Era. An engaging narrative, the Testament of Abraham recounts the final days of the patriarch’s long, righteous, and hospitable life but defies the testamentary genre with its uncharacteristic humor, irony, and lack of a testament. In the longer, more coherent version (see the recension issue below), God sends his archangel Michael to remind Abraham of his mortality so that he mi…