Andrei A. Orlov explores various traditions of the image of God found in the Jewish pseudepigrapha, focusing particularly on the symbolism in the Apocalypse of Abraham . The author argues that in early Jewish pseudepigraphical accounts, certain biblical characters — including Enoch, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and Aseneth — were envisioned as divine representations in the form of the eschatological imago Dei .
The book argues that these cultic metamorphoses preserve memories of ancient Near Eastern and Egyptian rituals involving the vivification of cultic statues. The Apocalypse of Abraham and other early Jewish pseudepigraphical accounts attempt to polemically refashion the concept of cultic statues by envisioning their protagonists as divine representations in the form of the eschatological image of God.