The Holy Scripture
Chapter VI
1. When I, Abraham, heard words like this from my father, I laughed in my mind,
2. and I groaned in the bitterness and anger of my soul. I said, "How then is a
figment of a body made by him (Terah) an aid for my father? Or can he have subordinated (his) body to his soul, his soul to a spirit, and the spirit to stupidity
4. and ignorance?" And I said, "It is only proper to endure evil that I may throw
5. my mind to purity and I will expose my thoughts clearly to him." I answered and said, "Father Terah, whichever of these gods you extol, you err in your thought.
6. Behold, the gods of my brother Nahor standing in the holy sanctuary are more
7. venerable than yours. For behold, Zouchaios, my brother Nahor�s god is more venerable than your god Marumath because he is made of gold, valued by man.
8. And if he grows old with time, he will be remolded, whereas Marumath, if h
9. e is changed or broken, will not be renewed, because he is stone. What about Ioav, the god on the other god, who stands with Zouchaios? For he is also more venerable than the god Barisat; he is carved from wood and forged from silver. Because he too is a term of comparison, being valued by man according to external 10,11experience. But Barisat, your god, when he was still not carved, rooted in the
12. earth, being great and wondrous, with branches and flowers; and praise...But
13. you made him with an axe, and by your skill he was made a god. And behold
14. he has already dried up and his fatness has perished. He fell from the height to
15. the earth, he came from greatness to smallness, and the appearance of his face
17. wasted away. And, he himself was burned up by the fire and he became ashes
18. and is no more. And you say, Let me make another and tomorrow he will make
19. my food for me. But in perishing he left himself no strength for his (own) destruction." Chapter 7