Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs

TESTAMENTS OF THE TWELVE PATRIARCHS. The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs are an important con stituent of the apocryphal scriptures connected with the Old Testa ment, comprising the dying commands of the twelve sons of Jacob.

They were written in Hebrew in the later years of John Hyr canus—in all probability after his final victory over the Syrian power and before his breach with the Pharisees—in other words, between 109 and ro6. Their author was a Pharisee who combined loyalty to the best traditions of his party with the most unbounded admiration of Hyrcanus. The Maccabean dynasty had now reached the zenith of its prosperity, and in its reigning representative, who alone in the history of Judaism possessed the triple offices of prophet, priest and king, the Pharisaic party had come to recognize the actual Messiah. When we contrast the expectations of the original writer and the actual events that followed, it would seem that the chief value of his work would consist in the light that it throws on this obscure and temporary revolution in the Messianic expectations of Judaism towards the close of the 2nd century. But this is not so. The main, the overwhelming value of the book lies not in this province, but in its ethical teaching, which has achieved a real immortality by influencing the thought and diction of the writers of the New Testament, and even those of our Lord. This ethical teaching, which is indefinitely higher and purer than that of the Old Testament, is yet its true spiritual child, and helps to bridge the chasm that divides the ethics of the Old and New Testaments.

Date.—The indications in the book itself make it quite clear that it was written (1 ) in Hebrew, and (2) between 109-107 B.C. There are, however, numerous additions. A large body of these ad ditions can be classed under one head as written with a well-defined object and at a definite period. This period was about 70-40 B.C., and the object of the additions was the overthrow of the Macca bean high-priesthood, which in the 1st century B.C. had become guilty of every lewdness. Test. Lev. ±., xiv.–xvi. ; Test. Jud. xvii. 2–xviii. r (?), xxi. 6–xxiii., xxiv. 4-6; Test. Zeb. ix.; Test. Dan. v. 6-7, vii., 3 (?) ; Test. Naph. iv. ; Test. Gad. viii. 2; Test. Ash. vii. These additions are identical in object and closely related in character and diction with the Psalms of Solomon. Other addi tions are of various dates and cannot be more than mentioned here ; i.e., Test. Reub. ii. 3–iii. 2; Test. Lev. xvii. 1-9 ; Test. Zeb.

vi. 4-6, vii.–viii. 3 ; Test. Jos. x. 5–xviii.

Christian Additions to the Text

—These additions are to be found in most of the Testaments and were made at different periods. The existence of these Christian elements in the text mis led nearly every scholar for the past 40o years into believing that the book itself was a Christian apocryph. To Grabe, Schnapp and Conybeare belongs the credit of showing that the Christian ele ments were interpolations—to Conybeare especially of the three, since, whereas the two others showed the high probability of their contention on internal evidence, Conybeare proved by means of the Armenian version that when it was made many of the interpo lations had not yet found their way into the text. For a full treat ment of these passages see Charles's Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs (1908), Introd. §20.

Influence on the New Testament

—St. Paul twice quoted from the Greek text of the Testaments : Rom. i. 32 and r Thess. ii. 16. But these give the very faintest idea of the degree of his indebtedness in thought and phraseology in several of his Epistles, especially that to the Romans. Of still greater interest are the passages in the Gospels which show the influence of the Testa ments, and these belong mainly to the sayings and discourses of our Lord. We may mention two of the most notable of these. Thus Matt. xviii. 15, 35, which deal with the great question of for giveness, are clearly dependent on our text.

Matt. xviii. 15. T. Gad. vi. 3.

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Besides Charles (as above), are his Apoc. and Pseudepig. vol. ii. and the S.P.C.K. Translations of Early Documents (1917).