NT Allusions to the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha

 

ascension of isaiah

 

1.  5.11-15:  And they seized Isaiah the son of Amoz and sawed him in half with a wood saw.  And Manasseh, and Belkira, and the false prophets, and the princes, and the people and all stood by looking on.  And to the prophets who were with him he said before he was sawed in half, “Go to the district of Tyre and Sidon, because for me alone the Lord has mixed the cup.”  And while Isaiah was being sawed in half, he did not cry out, or weep, but his mouth spoke with the Holy Spirit until he was sawed in two.  Beliar did this to Isaiah through Belkira and through Manasseh, for Sammael was very angry with Isaiah from the days of Hezekiah, king of Judah, because of the things which he had seen concerning the Beloved.

          Heb 11.37: They were stoned to death, they were sawn in two, they were killed by the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, persecuted, tormented