In the opening chapters of the Apocalypse of Abraham that discuss Abraham's conversion from idolatry, the pagan gods Merumath, Nakhin, Barisat, Zouchaios and Ioav are named.
What do we know about these gods? Can they be traced to actual pagan traditions?
G.H. Box, in his 1918 translation and commentary on the book, translates the gods names as Merumath, Barisat, Nahon, Zucheus, and Joavon.
Notably, each of the idols is identified by the material it is made from, following the pattern established in the first chapter of the book (i.e. 'my father Terah to his gods of wood and stone, gold and silver, brass and iron', cf. Deuteronomy 4.28; Isaiah 60.17; Daniel 5.4).
Box comments in his introduction that Merumath and Barisat are 'sarcastic names' derived from Hebrew and Aramaic:
The names ridicule the idols: 'Merumath' because he is made of stone, but is no god worthy of worship, and 'Barisat' because he was built from wood which was burnt in the fire. If there is a meaning behind the names Nahon, Zucheus, and Joavon, we would expect it to follow this pattern, though I haven't found any scholars who offer suggestions.
However, another theory proposed in more recent decades, is that the names are ciphers for the five prevailing empires that ruled over the Jewish people.
Rubinkiewicz, 'Apocalypse of Abraham', The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, p 682:
The Slavonic text of the Apocalypse of Abraham contains several Hebrew names, words, and phrases. The most impressive examples are the following: Ioavan is a Slavonic deformation of the Hebrew ywn (Greece); Souzouch is probably a transcription of the name kwrwŝ (Cyrus); and Maroumat is an abbreviation of the Hebrew Martā Rômā.
If this is the case, the choice of the materials may be influenced by Daniel 2.31-45 and 5.4. The former in particular identifies a series of kingdoms, which was commonly interpreted in the Second Temple period as referring to Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome.
Alexander Kulik in his paper "The Gods of Nahor: A Note on the Pantheon of the Apocalypse of Abraham", Journal of Jewish Studies 54 (2003), pp. 228-232 suggested the following meanings for the names:
Barisatu (varyingly spelled 'Varisatu') -> Aramaic בר אשת(א), Bar Eshta = "fiery"/"son of fire". Being the wooden god used by Abraham in the story to stoke the fire, this name makes sense. This suggestion was first made by Louis Ginzberg.
Nakhon (varyingly spelled 'Nakhin') -> Hebrew נכון = "steady". This god stands steady as opposed to Maroumat, the stone god which fell at its feet.
Maroumat (varyingly spelled 'Maroumaf') -> Aramaic מר אומת(א), Mar Umata = "Lord of the nation". Kulik suggests that this title is connected with Maroumat's head being placed on the body of another statue, similar to how Roman emperors' statutes were altered (for example: Suetonius, De Vita Caesarum IV (Caligula), 22). The name Mar Umata may be the Aramaic version of something like the Greek κύριος ἔθνος or Latin dominus populi, i.e., a divinized Roman emperor.
Kulik found the last deities, Zoukh(e) and Yoavon, to be more difficult, but suggested the following:
Zoukh(e) -> Greek Ζεωχ which appears in Hellenistic Greek Magical Papyri (PGM) as the name of a deity. This god appears, among other places, in a particular papyrus which features a version of a prayer to Helios, together with another deity, 'Yao', interchanged with the forms 'Yavo', 'Yavou' and 'Yaou' (Ιαω, Ιαβω, Ιαβου, Ιαου). This latter may be Yoavon, the god standing next to Zoukh(e) in the story.
