__________________________________________________________________

   Title: ANF08. The Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The
   Clementia, Apocrypha, Decretals, Memoirs of Edessa and Syriac
   Documents, Remains of the First Age
   Creator(s): Schaff, Philip
   Print Basis: Edinburgh: T&T Clark
   Rights: Public Domain
   CCEL Subjects: All; Early; Proofed
   LC Call no: BR65
   LC Subjects:

   Christianity

   Early Christian Literature. Fathers of the Church, etc.
     __________________________________________________________________

   The Writings of the Fathers Down to A.D. 325

   ANTE-NICENE FATHERS

   VOLUME 8.

   The Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina,
   Apocrypha, Decretals, Memoirs of Edessa and Syriac Documents, Remains
   of the First Ages

   Edited by

   ALEXANDER ROBERTS, D.D., and JAMES DONALDSON, LL.D.

   Revised and Chronologically Arranged, with Brief Prefaces and
   Occasional Notes by

   A. CLEVELAND COXE, D.D.

   T&T CLARK

   EDINBURGH

   __________________________________________________

   WM. B. EERDMANS PUBLISHING COMPANY

   GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN

   Fathers of the Third and Fourth Centuries:

   The Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina,
   Apocrypha, Decretals, Memoirs of Edessa and Syriac Documents, Remains
   of the First Ages.

   ------------------------

   American Edition.

   Chronologically Arranged, with Notes, Prefaces, and Elucidations,

   by

   A. Cleveland Coxe, D.D.

   Ta archaia ethe krateito.

   --The Nicene Council.
     __________________________________________________________________

   Introductory Notice.

   ------------------------

   This volume completes the American series, according to our agreement.
   But it will be found to afford much material over and above what was
   promised, and the editorial labour it has exacted has been much greater
   than might at first be suspected.  The Bibliography with which the work
   is supplemented, and which is the original work of Dr. Riddle, has been
   necessarily thrown into the Index by the overgrowth of this volume in
   original matter.

   The Apocryphal works of the Edinburgh collection have been here brought
   together, and "Fragments" have been sifted, and arranged on a plan
   strictly practical.  To my valued collaborator Dr. Riddle I have
   committed a task which demanded a specialist of his eminent
   qualifications.  He has had, almost exclusively, the task of editing
   the Pseudo-Clementina and the Apocryphal New Testament.  To myself I
   assigned the Twelve Patriarchs and Excerpts, the Edessene Memoirs and
   other Syriac Fragments, the False Decretals, and the Remains of the
   First Ages.  I have reserved this retrospect of historic truth and
   testimony to complete the volume.  As in music the tune ends on the
   note with which it began, so, after the greater part of the volume had
   been surrendered to forgery and fiction (valuable, indeed, for purposes
   of comparison and reference, but otherwise unworthy of a place among
   primitive witnesses), I felt it refreshing to return to genuine
   writings and to authentic histories.  The pages of Melito and others
   will restore something of the flavour of the Apostolic Fathers to our
   taste, and the student will not close his review of the Ante-Nicene
   Fathers with last impressions derived only from their fraudulent
   imitators and corrupters.

   The editor-in-chief renews his grateful acknowledgments to those who
   have aided him in his undertaking, with whose honoured names the reader
   is already acquainted.  Nor can he omit an expression of thanks to the
   reverend brother [1] to whom the hard work of the Indexes has been
   chiefly committed.  It would be equally unjust not to mention his
   obligations to the meritorious press which has produced these pages
   with a general accuracy not easily ensured under difficulties such as
   have been inseparable from this undertaking. [2]   The support which
   has been liberally afforded to the enterprise by Christians of divers
   names and communions ought not to be recognised by words of mere
   recognition:  it is a token of their common interest in a common
   origin, and a sign, perhaps, of a longing for that precious unity and
   brotherhood which was the glory of the martyr ages, for which all
   should unite in praise to God.  To the Christian press a grateful
   tribute is due from the editor and his publishers alike; more
   especially as it has encouraged, so generally, the production of
   another series, of which the first volume has already appeared, and
   which will familiarize the minds and hearts of thousands with the
   living thought and burning piety of those great doctors of the
   post-Nicene period, to whom the world owes such immense obligations,
   but who have been so largely unknown to millions even of educated men,
   except as bright and shining names.

   It is a cheering token, that, while the superficial popular mind may
   even be disposed to regard this collection as a mere museum of fossils,
   having little or no connection with anything that interests our age,
   there is a twofold movement towards a fresh investigation of the past,
   which it seems providentially designed to meet.  Thus, among Christians
   there is a general appetite for the study of primitive antiquity,
   stimulated by the decadence of the Papacy, and by the agitations
   concerning the theology of the future which have arisen in Reformed
   communions; while, on the other hand, scientific thought has pushed
   inquiry as to the sources of the world's enlightenment, and has found
   them just here,--in the school of Alexandria, and in the Christian
   writers of the first three centuries.  "It is instructive," says a
   forcible thinker, [3] and a disciple of Darwin and Huxley, "to note how
   closely Athanasius approaches the confines of modern scientific
   thought."  And again he says:  "The intellectual atmosphere of
   Alexandria for two centuries before and three centuries after the time
   of Christ was more modern than anything that followed, down to the days
   of Bacon and Descartes."

   It would be unmanly in the editor to speak of the difficulties and
   hindrances through which he has been forced to push on his work, while
   engaged in other and very sacred duties.  The conditions which alone
   could justify the publishers in the venture were quite inconsistent
   with such an editorial performance as might satisfy his own ideas of
   what should be done with such materials.  Four years instead of two, he
   felt, should be bestowed on such a work; and he thought that two years
   might suffice only in case a number of collaborators could be secured
   for simultaneous employment.  When it was found that such a plan was
   impracticable, and that the idea must be abandoned if not undertaken
   and carried forward as it has been, then the writer most reluctantly
   assumed his great responsibility in the fear of God, and in dependence
   on His lovingkindness and tender mercy.  Of the result, he can only say
   that "he has done what he could" in the circumstances.  He is rewarded
   by the consciousness that at least he has enabled many an American
   divine and scholar to avail himself of the labours of the Edinburgh
   translators, and to feel what is due to them, when, but for this
   publication, he must have remained in ignorance of what their erudition
   has achieved and contributed to Christian learning in the English
   tongue.

   And how sweet and invigorating has been his task, as page after page of
   these treasures of antiquity has passed under his hand and eye!  With
   unfailing appetite he has risen before daylight to his work; and far
   into the night he has extended it, with ever fresh interest and
   delight.  Obliged very often to read his proofs, or prepare his notes,
   at least in their first draught, while journeying by land or by water,
   he has generally found in such employments, not additional fatigue, but
   a real comfort and resource, a balance to other cares, and a sweet
   preparation and invigoration for other labours.  Oh, how much he owes,
   under God, to these "guides, philosophers, and friends,"--these Fathers
   of old time,--and to "their Father and our Father, their God and our
   God"!  What love is due from all who love Christ, for the words they
   have spoken, and the deeds they have done, to assure us that the
   Everlasting Word is He to whom alone we can go for the words of life
   eternal!

   A. C. C.
     __________________________________________________________________

   [1] The Rev. C. W. Hayes, M.A., of Westfield, N.Y.

   [2] The Boston Press of Rand Avery Company.

   [3] John Fiske, The Idea of God, Boston, 1886, pp. 73, 86.
     __________________________________________________________________
     __________________________________________________________________

   The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs.

   [Translated by the Rev. Robert Sinker, M.A., Trinity College,
   Cambridge.]
     __________________________________________________________________

   Introductory Notice

   to

   The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs.

   ------------------------

   This very curious fragment of antiquity deserves a few words in
   anticipation of the translator's valuable preface.  Grabe's Spicilegium
   is there referred to; but it may be well also to consult his citations,
   in elucidation, of Bull's Defensio Fidei Nicaenae, [4] where he treats
   the work with respect.  My most valued authority, however, on this
   subject, is Lardner, [5] who gives a very full account of the work with
   his usual candor and learning.  He seems to treat the matter with a
   needless profusion of space and consideration; yet in a much later
   volume of his great treatise he recurs to the subject [6] with
   expressions of satisfaction that he had dealt with it so largely
   before.

   Cave placed the composition of the Testaments about a.d. 192, but
   concedes a much earlier origin to the first portion of the work.
   Origen quotes from it, and Tertullian is supposed to have borrowed from
   it one of his expositions, as will be noted in its place.  Lardner
   clears it from charges of Ebionitism, [7] but thinks the author was so
   far in accord with that heresy as to use expressions savouring of
   "Unitarianism."  Of this charge he is not justly susceptible, it
   appears to me:  quite otherwise.  If we can imagine Trypho coming to
   the light after his kindly parting with Justin, [8] I can conceive of
   such a man as the author of this work.  He is a Christian awakening to
   the real purport of the Old-Testament Scriptures, and anxious to lead
   rather than drive his brethren after the flesh to the discovery of Him
   "concerning whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write:"  not a
   "Judaizing Christian," as Cave imagined, but the reverse,--a
   Christianizing Jew.  Now, I must think that such a writer would weave
   into his plan many accepted traditions of the Jews and many Rabbinical
   expositions of the sacred writers.  He was doubtless acquainted with
   that remarkable passage in the Revelation in which the patriarchs are
   so honourably named, [9] and with that corresponding passage which
   seems to unite the twelve patriarchs with the twelve apostles. [10]
   St. Paul's claim for the twelve tribes before Agrippa [11] would
   naturally impress itself on such a mind.  Whether the product of such a
   character with such a disposition would naturally be such an
   affectionate and filial attempt as this to identify the religion of the
   Crucified with the faith of the Jewish fathers, [12] may be judged of
   by my reader.

   It appears to me an ill-advised romance; not more a "pious fraud" than
   several fictions which have attracted attention in our own times, based
   on the traditions of the Hebrews.  The legends of the "Wandering Jew"
   have grown out of corresponding instincts among Christians.  To me they
   appear like the profane "Passion-plays" lately revived among
   Christians,--a most unwarrantable form of teaching even truth.  But as
   to the work itself, seeing it exists, I must acknowledge that it seems
   to me a valuable relic of antiquity, and an interesting specimen of the
   feelings and convictions of those believers over whom St. James
   presided in Jerusalem: [13]   "Israelites indeed," but "zealous of the
   law."  They were now convinced that Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, with
   Moses and all the prophets, looked for the Messiah who had appeared in
   Jesus of Nazareth.  The author of this book was anxious to show that
   the twelve patriarchs were twelve believers in the Paschal Lamb, and
   that they died in Christian penitence and faith.

   He, then, who will read or study the following waif of the olden time,
   as I have done, will not find it unprofitable reading.  It really
   supplies a key to some difficulties in the Scripture narrative.  It
   suggests what are at least plausible counterparts of what is written.
   "To the pure all things are pure;" and I see nothing that need defile
   in any of the details which expose the sins, and magnify the penitence,
   of the patriarchs.  In fact, Lardner's objection to one of the sections
   in the beautiful narrative of Joseph strikes me as extraordinary.  It
   is the story of a heroic conflict with temptation, the like of which
   was doubtless not uncommon in the days of early Christians living among
   heathens; [14] and I think it was possibly written to inspire a
   Joseph-like chastity in Christian youth.  "I do not suppose," says
   Lardner, "that the virtue of any of these ancient Hebrews was complete
   according to the Christian rule."  I am amazed at this; I have always
   supposed the example of Joseph the more glorious because he flourished
   as the flower of chastity in a gross and carnal age.  Who so pure as he
   save John the Baptist, that morning star that shone so near the Sun of
   Righteousness in the transient beauty of his "heliacal rising"?  Surely
   Joseph was a type of Christ in this as in other particulars, and our
   author merely enables us to understand the "fiery darts" which he was
   wont to hurl back at the tempter.  I own (reluctantly, because I
   dislike this form of teaching) that for me the superlative ode of the
   dying Jacob receives a reflected lustre from this curious book,
   especially in the splendid eulogy with which the old patriarch blesses
   his beloved Joseph.  "The author," says Lardner, "in an indirect
   manner...bears a large testimony to the Christian religion, to the
   facts, principles, and books of the New Testament.  He speaks of the
   nativity of Christ, the meekness and unblameableness of His life, His
   crucifixion at the instigation of the Jewish priests, the wonderful
   concomitants of His death, His resurrection, and ascension.  He
   represents the character of the Messiah as God and man:  the Most High
   God with men, eating and drinking with them; the Son of God; the
   Saviour of the world, of the Gentiles and Israel; as Eternal High
   Priest and King.  He likewise speaks of the effusion of the Holy Spirit
   upon the Messiah, attended with a voice from heaven; His unrighteous
   treatment by the Jews; their desolations and the destruction of the
   Temple upon that account; the call of the Gentiles; the illuminating
   them generally with new light; the effusion of the Spirit upon
   believers, but especially, and in a more abundant measure, upon the
   Gentiles....There are allusions to the Gospels of St. Matthew, St. Luke
   and St. John, the Acts of the Apostles, and of the Epistles to
   Ephesians, First Thessalonians, First Timothy, Hebrews, and First St.
   John, also to the Revelation.  So far as consistent with the assumed
   character of his work, the author declares the canonical authority of
   the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles of St. Paul."  Of which of
   the minor writers among the Ante-Nicene Fathers can so much be said?

   Regarded as a sort of Jewish surrender to Justin's argument with
   Trypho, this book is interesting, and represents, no doubt, the
   convictions of thousands of Jewish converts of the first age.  It is,
   in short, worthy of more attention than it has yet received.

   Here follows Mr. Sinker's valuable Introductory Notice:--

   The apocryphal work known as the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs
   professes to be, as its name implies, the utterances of the dying
   patriarchs, the sons of Jacob.  In these they give some account of
   their lives, embodying particulars not found in the scriptural account,
   and build thereupon various moral precepts for the guidance of their
   descendants.  The book partakes also of the nature of an Apocalypse:
   the patriarchs see in the future their children doing wickedly, stained
   with the sins of every nation; and thus they foretell the troubles
   impending on their race.  Still at last God will put an end to their
   woe, and comfort is found in the promise of a Messiah

   There can be little or no doubt that the author was a Jew, who, having
   been converted to Christianity, sought to win over his countrymen to
   the same faith, and thus employed the names of the patriarchs as a
   vehicle for conveying instruction to their descendants, as winning by
   this means for his teaching at any rate a prima facie welcome in the
   eyes of the Jewish people.

   It does not seem hard to settle approximately the limits of time within
   which the book was probably written.  It cannot be placed very late in
   the second century, seeing that it is almost certainly quoted by
   Tertullian, [15] and that Origen [16] cites the Testaments by name,
   apparently indeed holding it in considerable respect.  We can, however,
   approximate much more nearly than this; for the allusions to the
   destruction of Jerusalem assign to the Testaments a date subsequent to
   that event.  This will harmonize perfectly with what is the natural
   inference from several passages,--namely, that the Gentiles now were a
   majority in the Church,--as well as with the presence of the many
   formulae to express the incarnation, and with the apparent collection
   of the books of the New Testament into a volume. [17]

   On the other hand, important evidence as to the posterior limit of the
   date of writing may be derived from the language used with reference to
   the priesthood.  Christ is both High Priest and King, and His former
   office is higher than the latter, and to Him the old priesthood must
   resign its rights.  Now such language as this would be almost
   meaningless after Hadrian's destruction of Jerusalem consequent on the
   revolt of Bar-Cochba (a.d. 135), after which all power of Judaism for
   acting directly upon Christianity ceased; and, indeed, on the
   hypothesis of a later date, we should doubtless find allusions to the
   revolt and its suppression.  On the above grounds, we infer that the
   writing of the Testaments is to be placed in a period ranging from late
   in the first century to the revolt of Bar-Cochba; closer than this it
   is perhaps not safe to draw our limits. [18]

   The language in which the Testaments were written was no doubt the
   Hellenistic Greek in which we now possess them; presenting as they do
   none of the peculiar marks which characterize a version.  Whether there
   were a Hebrew work on which the present was modelled--a supposition by
   no means improbable in itself--we cannot tell, nor is it a matter of
   much importance.  The phenomena of the book itself may be cited in
   support of this conclusion:  for instance, the use of the word diatheke
   in its ordinary classical meaning of "testament," not "covenant" as in
   Hellenistic Greek, for which former meaning there would be no strictly
   equivalent word in Hebrew; the numerous instances of paronomasia, such
   as athetein, nouthetein, [19] aphairesis, anairesis, [20] limos,
   loimos, [21] en taxei, atakton, [22] taxis, ataxia; [23] the frequent
   use of the genitive absolute, and of the verb mellein; the use of
   various expressions pertaining to the Greek philosophy, as diathesis,
   aisthesis, phusis, telos.

   It seems doubtful how far we can attempt with safety to determine
   accurately the religious standpoint of the writer beyond the obvious
   fact of his Jewish origin, though some have attempted to show that he
   was a Nazarene, and others a Jewish Christian of Pauline tendencies.
   We shall therefore content ourselves with referring those who seek for
   more specific information on this point to the works mentioned below.

   To refer now briefly to the external history of our document, we meet
   with nothing definite, after its citation by Origen, for many
   centuries:  there are possible allusions in Jerome [24] and in
   Procopius Gazaeus; [25] there is also a mention of patriarchai in the
   Synopsis Sacrae Scripturae found among the writings of Athanasius, as
   well as in the Stichometria of Nicephorus of Constantinople, on which
   it is probably based.  Again, in the Canons of the Council of Rome (494
   a.d.) under Gelasius, and of the Council of Bracara (563 a.d.), are
   possible references, though it is far from improbable that in some of
   the foregoing passages the reference may be to a writing ton trion
   Patriarchon alluded to in the Apostolic Constitutions, [26] or is even
   of somewhat loose application.

   After this a blank ensues until the middle of the thirteenth century,
   when it was brought to the knowledge of Western Europe by Robert
   Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln, the earliest of the great English
   reformers. [27]   We cite here the account of the matter given by
   Matthew Paris, although of course we need not accept all the opinions
   of the old chronicler respecting the document in question:  "At this
   same time, Robert, Bishop of Lincoln, a man most deeply versed in Latin
   and Greek, accurately translated the Testaments of the XII. Patriarchs
   from Greek into Latin.  These had been for a long time unknown and
   hidden through the jealousy of the Jews, on account of the prophecies
   of the Saviour contained in them.  The Greeks, however, the most
   unwearied investigators of all writings, were the first to come to a
   knowledge of this document, and translated it from Hebrew into Greek,
   and have kept it to themselves till our times.  And neither in the time
   of the blessed Jerome nor of any other holy interpreter could the
   Christians gain an acquaintance with it, through the malice of the
   ancient Jews.  This glorious treatise, then, the aforesaid bishop (with
   the help of Master Nicolaus, a Greek, and a clerk of the Abbey of St.
   Alban's) translated fully and clearly, and word for word, from Greek
   into Latin, to the strengthening of the Christian faith, and to the
   greater confusion of the Jews." [28]

   Again, after speaking of the death of "Master John de Basingstokes,
   Archdeacon of Leicester," a man of very great learning in Latin and
   Greek, he proceeds: [29]   "This Master John had mentioned to Robert,
   Bishop of Lincoln, that when he was studying at Athens he had seen and
   heard from learned Greek doctors certain things unknown to the Latins.
   Among these he found the Testaments of the XII. Patriarchs, that is to
   say, of the sons of Jacob.  Now it is plain that these really form part
   of the sacred volume, but have been long hidden through the jealousy of
   the Jews, on account of the evident prophecies about Christ which are
   clearly seen in them.  Consequently this same bishop sent into Greece;
   and when he obtained them, he translated them from Greek into Latin, as
   well as certain other things."

   After this it would seem as though the same fate still pursued our
   document, for the entire Greek text was not printed until the eve of
   the eighteenth century, when it was published for the first time by
   Grabe, whose edition has been several times reprinted. [30]

   Four Greek mss. of the Testaments are known to exist:--

   1.  The ms. Ff. i. 24 in the University Library of Cambridge, to which
   it was given by Archbishop Parker, whose autograph it bears on its
   first page.  It is a quarto on parchment, of 261 leaves (in which the
   Testaments occupy ff. 203a-261b), double columns, 20 lines in a column,
   handwriting of the tenth century.  It is furnished with accents and
   breathings, and a fairly full punctuation.  There are very strong
   grounds for believing that it was this ms. that Grosseteste's version
   was made, exhibiting as it does a very large amount of curious verbal
   coincidence with it. [31]   The text of this ms. has been that given in
   the various editions mentioned below.

   2.  The ms. Barocci 133 in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, where it
   came with the rest of the Barocci collection from Venice, and was
   presented to the University by its Chancellor, the Earl of Pembroke.
   It is a quarto volume; and except a leaf or two of parchment,
   containing writing of an older period, consists of a number of
   treatises on paper, apparently by several different hands, in the
   writing of the latter part of the fourteenth century.  The Testaments
   occupy ff. 179a-203b.  The amount of difference between this ms. and
   the preceding is considerable, and is sufficient to show that it has
   had no direct communication with the latter.  A large number of
   omissions occur in it, in some instances amounting to entire chapters.
   The variations of this ms. are given more or less fully in the various
   editions.

   3.  A ms. in the Vatican Library at Rome, not yet edited.  It is said
   to be a small quarto on paper, written in a very distinct hand, though
   unfortunately some leaves are damaged.  It bears a subscription with
   the date 1235.  I owe my knowledge of this ms. to an article by Dr.
   Vorstman in the Godgeleerde Bijdragen for 1866, p. 953 sqq.

   4.  A ms. discovered by Tischendorf in the island of Patmos, of which
   no details have yet been published. [32]

   The entire Greek text of the Testaments was first printed by Grabe in
   his Spicilegium Patrum et Haereticorum, Oxford, 1698, professedly from
   the Cambridge ms., but in reality from some very inaccurate transcript
   of it, very possibly from one made by Abednego Seller, also in the
   Cambridge University Library, Oo. vi. 92.  Grabe also gave a few of the
   variations of the Oxford ms.  Fabricius, in his Codex Pseudepigraphus
   Veteris Testamenti, [33] gives little more than a reprint from Grabe.
   In the second edition of the latter (1714) the true text has been
   restored in several passages; but in many places Grosseteste's Latin
   version, which witnessed to the true reading, was altered to suit
   Grabe's incorrect text.  Fabricius' second edition (1722) is perhaps,
   on the whole, less accurate than his first.  Since then the text and
   notes, as given in Grabe's second edition, have been reprinted, with
   but few additions, by Gallandi, in his Bibliotheca Veterum Patrum, vol.
   i. p. 193 sqq., Venice, 1765, and in Migne's Patrologia Graeca, vol.
   ii., Paris, 1857.  The text of the Cambridge ms. with a full statement
   of the variations of the Oxford ms., has recently been edited directly
   from the mss. by myself, Cambridge, 1869; from this edition the present
   translation has been made.

   The mss. of Grosseteste's Latin version are numerous, there being no
   less than twelve in Cambridge alone and it has been frequently printed,
   both with the editions of the Greek text and independently. [34]

   Besides the Latin version, the Testaments have also been translated
   into several European languages, in all cases apparently from the
   Latin.  The English translation made by Arthur Golding was first
   printed by John Daye in Aldersgate in 1581, and has since been
   frequently reproduced; the British Museum, which does not possess all
   the editions, having no less than eleven. [35]

   The author of the French translation [36] appears to believe, as the
   English translator had done, that we have here really the last words of
   the sons of Jacob.  A German translation has also several times been
   published, [37] and a German translation in ms. is to be found in the
   British Museum. [38]   We may further mention a Dutch translation
   (Antwerp, 1570), a Danish translation (1601), and a ms. Icelandic
   translation of the eighteenth century in the British Museum, add. mss
   11,068.

   For further information on the subject of the Testaments, reference may
   be made, in addition to works already mentioned, to the
   following:--Nitzsch, Commentatio Critica de Testamentis XII.
   Patriarcharum, libro V. T. Pseudepigrapho (Wittenberg, 1810); Ritschl,
   Die Entstehung der altkatholischen Kirche (Bonn, 1850; ed. 2, 1857), p.
   171 sqq.; Vorstman, Disquisitio de Testamentorum XII. Patriarcharum
   origine et pretio (Rotterdam, 1857); Kayser in Reuss and Cunitz's
   Beitraege zu den theol. Wissenschaften for 1851, pp. 107-140;
   Luecke,Einleitung in die Offenbarung des Joh., vol. i. p. 334 sqq., ed.
   2.

   R. S.

   Trinity College, Cambridge.

   February 21, 1871.
     __________________________________________________________________

   [4] Vol. v. p. 176, ed. 1827.

   [5] Credib., vol. ii. pp. 345-364.

   [6] Vol. vi. p. 384.

   [7] The honour done to St. Paul is enough to settle any suspicion of
   this sort.

   [8] See vol. i. p. 270, note 2, this series.

   [9] Rev. vii. 4.  Dan is excepted.

   [10] Rev. iv. 4.  See vol. vii. p. 348, this series.

   [11] Acts xxvi. 7.

   [12] See The Christ of Jewish History in Stanley Leathes' Bampton
   Lectures, p. 51, ed. New York, 1874; also Westcott, Introduction to
   Study of the Gospels, 3d ed., London, Macmillans, 1867.  Note, on the
   Book of Henoch, pp. 69, 93-101; on the Book of Jubilees p. 109.  He
   puts this book into the first century, later than Henoch, earlier than
   the Twelve Patriarchs.  Consult this work on the Alexandrian Fathers,
   on inspiration of Scripture, etc.; and note the Jewish doctrine of the
   Messiah, pp. 86, 143, 151, also the apocryphal traditions of words of
   our Lord, p. 428.

   [13] Acts xxi. 18-26.  To my mind a most touching history, in which it
   is hard to say whether St. Paul or St. James is exhibited in the more
   charming light.  It suggests the absolute harmony of their Epistles.

   [14] Vol. i. Elucid. II. p. 57, this series.

   [15] Adv. Marcionem, v. 1; Scorpiace, 13; cf. Benj. 11.

   [16] Hom. in Josuam, xv. 6; cf. Reub. 2, 3.

   [17] Benj. 11.

   [18] [Compare Westcott, Introduction to Study of the Gospels, p. 132,
   ed. Boston, 1862.]

   [19] Benj. 4.

   [20] Judah 23.

   [21] Judah 23.

   [22] Naph. 2.

   [23] Naph. 3.

   [24] Adv. Vigilantium, c. 6.

   [25] Comm. in Genesin, c. 38.

   [26] vi. 16.  [See vol. vii. p. 457, this series.]

   [27] [Of whom see Lightfoot, Apostolic Fathers, Part II. vol. i. p. 77,
   ed. London, 1885.]

   [28] Historia Anglorum, a.d. 1242, p. 801, ed. London, 1571.

   [29] Op. cit. a.d. 1252, p. 1112.

   [30] Vide infra.

   [31] [See, e.g., the curious reading in Levi 18, kai stesei, where the
   Latin mss. are unanimous in giving stare faciet; also the mistake of
   'Iakob for 'Roubem in Issachar 1.

   [32] See Tischendorf, Aus dem heiligen Lande, p. 341.

   [33] Hamburgh, 1713.

   [34] e.g., 1483; Hagenau, 1532; Paris, 1549; and often.

   [35] This English translation having been made from the Latin, the
   printed editions of which swarm with inaccuracies (Grosseteste's Latin
   version itself being a most exact translation), I have been able to
   make much less use of it than I could have desired.  It has, however,
   been compared throughout.

   [36] Monsieur Mace, Chefecier, cure de Saint Opportune, Paris, 1713.

   [37] e.g., Vienna, 1544; Strasburgh, 1596; Hamburgh, 1637.

   [38] mss. Harl., 1252.
     __________________________________________________________________

   The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs.

   ------------------------

   I.--The Testament of Reuben Concerning Thoughts.

   1.  The copy of the Testament of Reuben, what things he charged his
   sons before he died in the hundred and twenty-fifth year of his life.
   When he was sick two years after the death of Joseph, his sons and his
   sons' sons were gathered together to visit him.  And he said to them,
   My children, I am dying, and go the way of my fathers.  And when he saw
   there Judah and Gad and Asher, his brethren, he said to them, Raise me
   up, my brethren, that I may tell to my brethren and to my children what
   things I have hidden in my heart, for from henceforth my strength
   faileth me.  And he arose and kissed them, and said, weeping:  Hear, my
   brethren, give ear to Reuben your father, what things I command you.
   And, behold, I call to witness against you this day the God of heaven,
   that ye walk not in the ignorance of youth and fornication wherein I
   ran greedily, and I defiled the bed of Jacob my father.  For I tell you
   that He smote me with a sore plague in my loins for seven months; and
   had not Jacob our father prayed for me to the Lord, surely the Lord
   would have destroyed me.  For I was thirty years old when I did this
   evil in the sight of the Lord, and for seven months I was sick even
   unto death; and I repented for seven years in the set purpose of my
   soul before the Lord.  Wine and strong drink I drank not, and flesh
   entered not into my mouth, and I tasted not pleasant food, [39]
   mourning over my sin, for it was great.  And it shall not so be done in
   Israel.

   2.  And now hear me, my children, what things I saw in my repentance
   concerning the seven spirits of error.  Seven spirits are given against
   man from Beliar, and they are chief of the works of youth; and seven
   spirits are given to him at his creation, that in them should be done
   every work of man. [40]   The first (1) spirit is of life, with which
   man's whole being is created.  The second (2) spirit is of sight, with
   which ariseth desire.  The third (3) spirit is of hearing, with which
   cometh teaching.  The fourth (4) spirit is of smelling, with which
   taste is given to draw air and breath.  The fifth (5) spirit is of
   speech, with which cometh knowledge.  The sixth (6) spirit is of taste,
   with which cometh the eating of meats and drinks; and by them strength
   is produced, for in food is the foundation of strength.  The seventh
   (7) spirit is of begetting and sexual intercourse, with which through
   love of pleasure sin also entereth in:  wherefore it is the last in
   order of creation, and the first of youth, because it is filled with
   ignorance, which leadeth the young as a blind man to a pit, and as
   cattle to a precipice.

   3.  Besides all these, there is an eighth (8) spirit of sleep, with
   which is created entrancement of man's nature, and the image of death.
   With these spirits are mingled the spirits of error.  The first (1),
   the spirit of fornication, dwelleth in the nature and in the senses;
   the second (2) spirit of insatiateness in the belly; the third (3)
   spirit of fighting in the liver and the gall.  The fourth (4) is the
   spirit of fawning and trickery, that through over-officiousness a man
   may be fair in seeming.  The fifth (5) is the spirit of arrogance, that
   a man may be stirred up and become high-minded.  The sixth (6) is the
   spirit of lying, in perdition and in jealousy to feign words, and to
   conceal [41] words from kindred and friends.  The seventh (7) is the
   spirit of injustice, with which are theft and pilferings, that a man
   may work the desire of his heart; for injustice worketh together with
   the other spirits by means of craft.  Besides all these, the spirit of
   sleep, the eighth (8) spirit, is conjoined with error and fantasy.  And
   so perisheth every young man, darkening his mind from the truth, and
   not understanding the law of God, nor obeying the admonitions of his
   fathers, as befell me also in my youth.

   And now, children, love the truth, and it shall preserve you.  I
   counsel you, hear ye Reuben your father.  Pay no heed to the sight of a
   woman, nor yet associate privately with a female under the authority of
   a husband, nor meddle with affairs of womankind.  For had I not seen
   Bilhah bathing in a covered place, I had not fallen into this great
   iniquity. [42]   For my mind, dwelling on the woman's nakedness,
   suffered me not to sleep until I had done the abominable deed.  For
   while Jacob our father was absent with Isaac his father, when we were
   in Gader, near to Ephratha in Bethlehem, Bilhah was drunk, and lay
   asleep uncovered in her chamber; and when I went in and beheld her
   nakedness, I wrought that impiety, and leaving her sleeping I
   departed.  And forthwith an angel of God revealed to my father Jacob
   concerning my impiety, and he came and mourned over me, and touched her
   no more. [43]

   4.  Pay no heed, therefore, to the beauty of women, and muse not upon
   their doings; but walk in singleness of heart in the fear of the Lord,
   and be labouring in works, and roaming in study and among your flocks,
   until the Lord give to you a wife whom He will, that ye suffer not as I
   did.  Until my father's death I had not boldness to look stedfastly
   into the face of Jacob, or to speak to any of my brethren, because of
   my reproach; and even until now my conscience afflicteth me by reason
   of my sin.  And my father comforted me; for he prayed for me unto the
   Lord, that the anger of the Lord might pass away from me, even as the
   Lord showed me.  From henceforth, then, I was protected, and I sinned
   not.  Therefore, my children, observe all things whatsoever I command
   you, and ye shall not sin.  For fornication is the destruction of the
   soul, separating it from God, and bringing it near to idols, because it
   deceiveth the mind and understanding, and bringeth down young men into
   hell before their time.  For many hath fornication destroyed; because,
   though a man be old or noble, it maketh him a reproach and a
   laughing-stock with Beliar and the sons of men.  For in that Joseph
   kept himself from every woman, and purged his thoughts from all
   fornication, he found favour before the Lord and men.  For the Egyptian
   woman did many things unto him, and called for magicians, and offered
   him love potions, and the purpose of his soul admitted no evil desire.
   Therefore the God of my fathers delivered him from every visible and
   hidden death.  For if fornication overcome not the mind, neither shall
   Beliar overcome you.

   5.  Hurtful are women, my children; because, since they have no power
   or strength over the man, they act subtilly through outward guise how
   they may draw him to themselves; and whom they cannot overcome by
   strength, him they overcome by craft.  For moreover the angel of God
   told me concerning them, and taught me that women are overcome by the
   spirit of fornication more than men, and they devise in their heart
   against men; and by means of their adornment they deceive first their
   minds, and instil the poison by the glance of their eye, and then they
   take them captive by their doings, for a woman cannot overcome a man by
   force.

   Therefore flee fornication, my children, and command your wives and
   your daughters that they adorn not their heads and their faces; because
   every woman who acteth deceitfully in these things hath been reserved
   to everlasting punishment.  For thus they allured the Watchers [44]
   before the flood; and as these continually beheld them, they fell into
   desire each of the other, and they conceived the act in their mind, and
   changed themselves into the shape of men, and appeared to them in their
   congress with their husbands; and the women, having in their minds
   desire toward their apparitions, gave birth to giants, for the Watchers
   appeared to them as reaching even unto heaven. [45]

   6.  Beware, therefore, of fornication; and if you wish to be pure in
   your mind, guard your senses against every woman.  And command them
   likewise not to company with men, that they also be pure in their
   mind.  For constant meetings, even though the ungodly deed be not
   wrought, are to them an irremediable disease, and to us an everlasting
   reproach of Beliar; for fornication hath neither understanding nor
   godliness in itself, and all jealousy dwelleth in the desire thereof.
   Therefore ye will be jealous against the sons of Levi, and will seek to
   be exalted over them; but ye shall not be able, for God will work their
   avenging, and ye shall die by an evil death.  For to Levi the Lord gave
   the sovereignty, and to Judah, [46] and to me also with them, [47] and
   to Dan and Joseph, that we should be for rulers.  Therefore I command
   you to hearken to Levi, because he shall know the law of the Lord, and
   shall give ordinances for judgment and sacrifice for all Israel until
   the completion of the times of Christ, the High Priest whom the Lord
   hath declared.  I adjure you by the God of heaven to work truth each
   one with his neighbour; and draw ye near to Levi in humbleness of
   heart, that ye may receive a blessing from his mouth.  For he shall
   bless Israel; and specially Judah, because him hath the Lord chosen to
   rule over all the peoples.  And worship we his Seed, because He shall
   die for us in wars visible and invisible, and shall be among you an
   everlasting king.

   7.  And Reuben died after that he had given command to his sons; and
   they placed him in a coffin until they bore him up from Egypt, and
   buried him in Hebron in the double [48] cave where his fathers were.
     __________________________________________________________________

   [39] There seems a reminiscence here of the words of Dan. x. 3, LXX.
   [For proofs of penitence, see p. 11, note 3, infra.]

   [40] For this use of pneumata as applied to the senses, we may cite
   Plutarch (De placitis philosophorum, iv. 21), who, speaking with
   reference to the Stoic philosophy, says, he men horasis esti pneuma
   diateinon apo tou hegemonikou mechris ophthalmon.

   [41] This clause is only found in Cd. Oxon.; it seems demanded by the
   following apo

   [42] Cf. Gen. xxxv. 22.  The Gader mentioned below is the Edar of ver.
   21, the Hebrew E+  being reproduced, as often, by g.

   [43] [This section is censured by Lardner as unsuitable to dying
   admonitions.  He forgets Oriental simplicity.]

   [44] This name, occurring once again in the Testaments (Naph. 3), is
   one frequently found applied to the angels as the custodians of the
   world and of men.  Thus, in the Chaldee of Daniel (iv. 10, 14, 20: 13,
   17, 23, Eng. Ver.), we find the expression R+J+E+, which Aquila and
   Symmachus render egregoros.  The corresponding Ethiopic term is of
   frequent occurrence in the book of Enoch, not only of the fallen angels
   (e.g., x. 9, 15, xvi. 1, etc.), but of the good (xii. 2, 3, etc., ed.
   Dillmann).  See also Gesenius, Thesaurus, s.v. R+J+E+.

   [45] [Gen. vi. 4; Revised margin, 1 Cor. xi. 10; Jude 6, 7.]

   [46] [See Lardner on this root idea of our author, vol. ii. p. 353; but
   he is wrong as to Levi and Mary.  Also Joseph, sec. 19, note 2, infra.]

   [47] The reading of Cd. Oxon., met' auton, is doubtless to be
   preferred.

   [48] i.e., Machpelah, which in Hebrew means double, and is so rendered
   by the LXX., e.g., Gen. xxiii. 9.
     __________________________________________________________________

   II.--The Testament of Simeon Concerning Envy.

   1.  The copy of the words of Simeon, what things he spake to his sons
   before he died, in the hundred and twentieth year of his life, in the
   year in which Joseph died.  For they came to visit him when he was
   sick, and he strengthened himself and sat up and kissed them, and said
   to them:--

   2.  Hear, O my children, hear Simeon your father, what things I have in
   my heart.  I was born of Jacob my father, his second son; and my mother
   Leah called me Simeon, because the Lord heard her prayer. [49]   I
   became strong exceedingly; I shrank from no deed, nor was I afraid of
   anything.  For my heart was hard, and my mind was unmoveable, and my
   bowels unfeeling:  because valour also has been given from the Most
   High to men in soul and in body.  And at that time I was jealous of
   Joseph because our father loved him; [50] and I set my mind against him
   to destroy him, because the prince of deceit sent forth the spirit of
   jealousy and blinded my mind, that I regarded him not as a brother, and
   spared not Jacob my father.  But his God and the God of his fathers
   sent forth His angel, and delivered him out of my hands.  For when I
   went into Shechem to bring ointment for the flocks, and Reuben to
   Dotham, where were our necessaries and all our stores, Judah our
   brother sold him to the Ishmaelites.  And when Reuben came he was
   grieved, for he wished to have restored him safe to his father. [51]
   But I was wroth against Judah in that he let him go away alive, and for
   five months I continued wrathful against him; but God restrained me,
   and withheld from me all working of my hands, for my right hand was
   half withered for seven days.  And I knew, my children, that because of
   Joseph this happened to me, and I repented and wept; and I besought the
   Lord that He would restore my hand unto me, and that I might be kept
   from all pollution and envy, and from all folly.  For I knew that I had
   devised an evil deed before the Lord and Jacob my father, on account of
   Joseph my brother, in that I envied him.

   3.  And now, children, take heed of the spirit of deceit and of envy.
   For envy ruleth over the whole mind of a man, and suffereth him neither
   to eat, nor to drink, nor to do any good thing:  it ever suggesteth to
   him to destroy him that he envieth; and he that is envied ever
   flourisheth, but he that envieth fades away.  Two years of days I
   afflicted my soul with fasting in the fear of the Lord, and I learnt
   that deliverance from envy cometh by the fear of God.  If a man flee to
   the Lord, the evil spirit runneth away from him, and his mind becometh
   easy.  And henceforward he sympathizeth with him whom he envied, and
   condemneth not those who love him, and so ceaseth from his envy.

   4.  And my father asked concerning me, because he saw that I was sad;
   and I said, I am pained in my liver.  For I mourned more than they all,
   because I was guilty of the selling of Joseph.  And when we went down
   into Egypt, and he bound me as a spy, I knew that I was suffering
   justly, and I grieved not.  Now Joseph was a good man, and had the
   Spirit of God within him:  compassionate and pitiful, he bore not
   malice against me; nay, he loved me even as the rest of his brothers.
   Take heed, therefore, my children, of all jealousy and envy, and walk
   in singleness of soul and with good heart, keeping in mind the brother
   of your father, that God may give to you also grace and glory, and
   blessing upon your heads, even as ye saw in him.  All his days he
   reproached us not concerning this thing, but loved us as his own soul,
   and beyond his own sons; and he glorified us, and gave riches, and
   cattle, and fruits freely to us all.  Do ye then also, my beloved
   children, love each one his brother with a good heart, and remove from
   you the spirit of envy, for this maketh savage the soul and destroyeth
   the body; it turneth his purposes into anger and war, and stirreth up
   unto blood, and leadeth the mind into frenzy, and suffereth not
   prudence to act in men:  moreover, it taketh away sleep, and causeth
   tumult to the soul and trembling to the body.  For even in sleep some
   malicious jealousy, deluding him, gnaweth at his soul, and with wicked
   spirits disturbeth it, and causeth the body to be troubled, and the
   mind to awake from sleep in confusion; and as though having a wicked
   and poisonous spirit, so appeareth it to men.

   5.  Therefore was Joseph fair in appearance, and goodly to look upon,
   because there dwelt not in him any wickedness; for in trouble of the
   spirit the face declareth it.  And now, my children, make your hearts
   good before the Lord, and your ways straight before men, and ye shall
   find grace before God and men.  And take heed not to commit
   fornication, for fornication is mother of all evils, separating from
   God, and bringing near to Beliar.  For I have seen it inscribed in the
   writing of Enoch [52] that your sons shall with you be corrupted in
   fornication, and shall do wrong against Levi with the sword.  But they
   shall not prevail against Levi, for he shall wage the war of the Lord,
   and shall conquer all your hosts; and there shall be a few divided in
   Levi and Judah, and there shall be none [53] of you for sovereignty,
   even as also my father Jacob prophesied in his blessings.

   6.  Behold, I have foretold you all things, that I may be clear from
   the sin of your souls.  Now, if ye remove from you your envy, and all
   your stiffneckedness, as a rose shall my bones flourish in Israel, and
   as a lily my flesh in Jacob, and my odour shall be as the odour of
   Libanus; and as cedars shall holy ones be multiplied from me for ever,
   and their branches shall stretch afar off.  Then shall perish the seed
   of Canaan, and a remnant shall not be to Amalek, and all the
   Cappadocians [54] shall perish, and all the Hittites [55] shall be
   utterly destroyed.  Then shall fail the land of Ham, and every people
   shall perish.  Then shall all the earth rest from trouble, and all the
   world under heaven from war.  Then shall Shem be glorified, because the
   Lord God, the Mighty One of Israel, shall appear upon earth as man,
   [56] and saved by Him Adam. [57]   Then shall all the spirits of deceit
   be given to be trampled under foot, and men shall rule over the wicked
   spirits.  Then will I arise in joy, and will bless the Most High
   because of His marvellous works, because God hath taken a body and
   eaten with men and saved men.

   7.  And now, my children, obey Levi, and in Judah shall ye be redeemed:
   [58]   and be not lifted up against these two tribes, for from them
   shall arise to you the salvation of God.  For the Lord shall raise up
   from Levi as it were a Priest, [59] and from Judah as it were a King,
   God and man. [60]   So shall He save all the Gentiles and the race of
   Israel.  Therefore I command you all things, in order that ye also may
   command your children, that they may observe them throughout their
   generations.

   8.  And Simeon made an end of commanding his sons, and slept with his
   fathers, being an hundred and twenty years old.  And they laid him in a
   coffin of incorruptible wood, to take up his bones to Hebron.  And they
   carried them up in a war of the Egyptians secretly:  for the bones of
   Joseph the Egyptians guarded in the treasure-house of the palace; for
   the sorcerers told them that at the departure of the bones of Joseph
   there should be throughout the whole of Egypt darkness and gloom, and
   an exceeding great plague to the Egyptians, so that even with a lamp a
   man should not recognise his brother.

   9.  And the sons of Simeon bewailed their father according to the law
   of mourning, and they were in Egypt until the day of their departure
   from Egypt by the hand of Moses.
     __________________________________________________________________

   [49] Gen. xxix. 33.

   [50] That Simeon was prominent in the hostility to Joseph, is perhaps
   implied by his detention in Egypt as a surety for the return of the
   others; and Jewish tradition generally accords with this view.  Cf. the
   Targum of the Pseudo-Jonathan on Gen. xxxvii. 19:  "Simeon and Levi,
   who were brothers in counsel, said one to another, Let us kill him."
   Also this same Targum on Gen. xlii. 24:  "And he took from them Simeon,
   who had counselled to kill him."  Cf. also Breshith Rabba, S: 91.

   [51] [Gen. xxxvii. 22, 29; xlii. 22.]

   [52] [See Speaker's Com., N.T., vol. iv. p. 387, ed. Scribners.]

   [53] The Cam. ms. seems wrongly to omit the negative here.  The
   reference is doubtless to Gen. xlix. 7.

   [54] The reference seems to be to the Philistines.  Cf. Deut. ii. 23;
   Amos ix. 7, where the LXX. reads Kappadokia.

   [55] [For modern views of these, see Encyc. Brit., s.v. "Hittites."]

   [56] [Two of the many passages that leave no room for Lardner's
   imaginary "Unitarianism" in this author.]

   [57] The construction here is awkward of the participles after hoti:
   possibly a clause may have dropped out after 'Adam.

   [58] [See p. 10, note 5, supra.]

   [59] John the Baptist.  His greatness is declared by Christ Himself.]

   [60] [Two of the many passages that leave no room for Lardner's
   imaginary "Unitarianism" in this author.]
     __________________________________________________________________

   III.--The Testament of Levi Concerning the Priesthood and Arrogance.

   1.  The copy of the words of Levi, what things he appointed to his
   sons, according to all that they should do, and what things should
   befall them until the day of judgment.  He was in sound health when he
   called them to him, for it had been shown to him that he should die.
   And when they were gathered together he said to them:--

   2.  I Levi was conceived in Haran and born there, and after that I came
   with my father to Shechem.  And I was young, about twenty years of age,
   when with Simeon I wrought the vengeance on Hamor for our sister
   Dinah.  And when we were feeding our flocks in Abel-Maul, a spirit of
   understanding of the Lord came upon me, [61] and I saw all men
   corrupting their way, and that unrighteousness had built to itself
   walls, and iniquity sat upon towers; and I grieved for the race of men,
   and I prayed to the Lord that I might be saved.  Then there fell upon
   me a sleep, and I beheld a high mountain:  this is the mountain of
   Aspis [62] in Abel-Maul.  And behold, the heavens were opened, and an
   angel of God said to me, Levi, enter.  And I entered from the first
   heaven into the second, and I saw there water hanging between the one
   and the other.  And I saw a third heaven far brighter than those two,
   for there was in it a height without bounds.  And I said to the angel,
   Wherefore is this?  And the angel said to me, Marvel not at these, for
   thou shalt see four other heavens brighter than these, and without
   comparison, when thou shalt have ascended thither:  because thou shalt
   stand near the Lord, and shalt be His minister, and shall declare His
   mysteries to men, and shalt proclaim concerning Him who shall redeem
   Israel; [63] and by thee and Judah shall the Lord appear among men,
   saving in them every race of men; and of the portion of the Lord shall
   be thy life, and He shall be thy field and vineyard, fruits, gold,
   silver.

   3.  Hear, then, concerning the seven [64] heavens.  The lowest is for
   this cause more gloomy, in that it is near all the iniquities of men.
   The second hath fire, snow, ice, ready for the day of the ordinance of
   the Lord, in the righteous judgment of God:  in it are all the spirits
   of the retributions for vengeance on the wicked.  In the third are the
   hosts of the armies which are ordained for the day of judgment, to work
   vengeance on the spirits of deceit and of Beliar.  And the heavens up
   to the fourth above these are holy, for in the highest of all dwelleth
   the Great Glory, in the holy of holies, far above all holiness.  In the
   heaven next to it are the angels of the presence of the Lord, who
   minister and make propitiation to the Lord for all the ignorances of
   the righteous; and they offer to the Lord a reasonable sweet-smelling
   savour, and a bloodless offering.  And in the heaven below this are the
   angels who bear the answers to the angels of the presence of the Lord.
   And in the heaven next to this are thrones, dominions, in which hymns
   are ever offered to God.  Therefore, whenever the Lord looketh upon us,
   all of us are shaken; yea, the heavens, and the earth, and the abysses,
   are shaken at the presence of His majesty; but the sons of men,
   regarding not these things, sin, and provoke the Most High.

   4.  Now, therefore, know that the Lord will execute judgment upon the
   sons of men; because when the rocks are rent, [65] and the sun
   quenched, and the waters dried up, and the fire trembling, and all
   creation troubled, and the invisible spirits melting away, and the
   grave [66] spoiled in the suffering of the Most High, [67] men
   unbelieving will abide in their iniquity, therefore with punishment
   shall they be judged.  Therefore the Most High hath heard thy prayer,
   to separate thee from iniquity, and that thou shouldest become to Him a
   son, and a servant, and a minister of His presence.  A shining light of
   knowledge shalt thou shine in Jacob, and as the sun shalt thou be to
   all the seed of Israel.  And a blessing shall be given to thee, and to
   all thy seed, until the Lord shall visit all the heathen in the tender
   mercies of His Son, even for ever.  Nevertheless thy sons shall lay
   hands upon Him to crucify Him; and therefore have counsel and
   understanding been given thee, that thou mightest instruct thy sons
   concerning Him, because he that blesseth Him shall be blessed, but they
   that curse Him shall perish.

   5.  And the angel opened to me the gates of heaven, and I saw the holy
   temple, and the Most High upon a throne of glory.  And He said to me,
   Levi, I have given thee the blessings of the priesthood until that I
   shall come and sojourn in the midst of Israel.  Then the angel brought
   me to the earth, and gave me a shield and a sword, and said, Work
   vengeance on Shechem because of Dinah, and I will be with thee, because
   the Lord hath sent me.  And I destroyed at that time the sons of Hamor,
   as it is written in the heavenly tablets. [68]   And I said to Him, I
   pray Thee, O Lord, tell me Thy name, that I may call upon Thee in a day
   of tribulation.  And He said, I am the angel who intercedeth for the
   race of Israel, that He smite them not utterly, because every evil
   spirit attacketh it.  And after these things I was as it were awaked,
   and blessed the Most High, and the angel that intercedeth for the race
   of Israel, and for all the righteous. [69]

   6.  And when I came to my father I found a brazen shield; [70]
   wherefore also the name of the mountain is Aspis, which is near Gebal,
   on the right side of Abila; and I kept these words in my heart.  I took
   counsel with my father, and with Reuben my brother, that he should bid
   the sons of Hamor that they should be circumcised; for I was jealous
   because of the abomination which they had wrought in Israel.  And I
   slew Shechem at the first, and Simeon slew Hamor.  And after this our
   brethren came and smote the city with the edge of the sword; and our
   father heard it and was wroth, and he was grieved in that they had
   received the circumcision, and after that had been put to death, and in
   his blessings he dealt otherwise with us.  For we sinned because we had
   done this thing against his will, and he was sick upon that day.  But I
   knew that the sentence of God was for evil upon Shechem; for they
   sought to do to Sarah as they did to Dinah our sister, and the Lord
   hindered them.  And so they persecuted Abraham our father when he was a
   stranger, and they harried his flocks when they were multiplied upon
   him; and Jeblae his servant, born in his house, they shamefully
   handled.  And thus they did to all strangers, taking away their wives
   by force, and the men themselves driving into exile.  But the wrath of
   the Lord came suddenly upon them to the uttermost. [71]

   7.  And I said to my father, Be not angry, sir, because by thee will
   the Lord bring to nought the Canaanites, and will give their land to
   thee, and to thy seed after thee.  For from this day forward shall
   Shechem be called a city of them that are without understanding; for as
   a man mocketh at a fool, so did we mock them, because they wrought
   folly in Israel to defile our sister.  And we took our sister from
   thence, and departed, and came to Bethel.

   8.  And there I saw a thing again even as the former, after we had
   passed seventy days.  And I saw seven men in white raiment saying to
   me, Arise, put on the robe of the priesthood, and the crown of
   righteousness, and the breastplate of understanding, and the garment of
   truth, and the diadem of faith, and the tiara of miracle, and the ephod
   of prophecy. [72]   And each one of them bearing each of these things
   put them on me, and said, From henceforth become a priest of the Lord,
   thou and thy seed for ever.  And the first anointed me with holy oil,
   and gave to me the rod of judgment.  The second washed me with pure
   water, and fed me with bread and wine, the most holy things, [73] and
   clad me with a holy and glorious robe.  The third clothed me with a
   linen vestment like to an ephod.  The fourth put round me a girdle like
   unto purple.  The fifth gave to me a branch of rich olive.  The sixth
   placed a crown on my head.  The seventh placed on my head a diadem of
   priesthood, and filled my hands with incense, so that I served as a
   priest to the Lord.  And they said to me, Levi, thy seed shall be
   divided into three branches, [74] for a sign of the glory of the Lord
   who is to come; and first shall he be that hath been faithful; no
   portion shall be greater than his.  The second shall be in the
   priesthood.  The third--a new name shall be called over Him, because He
   shall arise as King from Judah, and shall establish a new priesthood,
   after the fashion of the Gentiles, to all the Gentiles. [75]   And His
   appearing shall be unutterable, as of an exalted [76] prophet of the
   seed of Abraham our father.  Every desirable thing in Israel shall be
   for thee and for thy seed, and everything fair to look upon shall ye
   eat, and the table of the Lord shall thy seed apportion, and some of
   them shall be high priests, and judges, and scribes; for by their mouth
   shall the holy place be guarded.  And when I awoke, I understood that
   this thing was like unto the former.  And I hid this also in my heart,
   and told it not to any man upon the earth.

   9.  And after two days I and Judah went up to Isaac after [77] our
   father; and the father of my father blessed me according to all the
   words of the visions which I had seen:  and he would not come with us
   to Bethel.  And when we came to Bethel, my father Jacob saw in a vision
   concerning me, that I should be to them for a priest unto the Lord; and
   he rose up early in the morning, and paid tithes of all to the Lord
   through me.  And we came to Hebron to dwell there, and Isaac called me
   continually to put me in remembrance of the law of the Lord, even as
   the angel of God showed to me.  And he taught me the law of the
   priesthood, of sacrifices, whole burnt-offerings, first-fruits,
   free-will offerings, thank-offerings.  And each day he was instructing
   me, and was busied for me before the Lord.  And he said to me, Take
   heed, my child, of the spirit of fornication; for this shall continue,
   and shall by thy seed pollute the holy things.  Take therefore to
   thyself, while yet thou art young, a wife, not having blemish, nor yet
   polluted, nor of the race of the Philistines or Gentiles.  And before
   entering into the holy place, bathe; [78] and when thou offerest the
   sacrifice, wash; and again when thou finishest the sacrifice, wash.  Of
   twelve trees ever having leaves, offer up the fruits to the Lord, as
   also Abraham taught me; and of every clean beast and clean bird offer a
   sacrifice to the Lord, and of every firstling and of wine offer
   first-fruits; and every sacrifice thou shalt salt with salt. [79]

   10.  Now, therefore, observe whatsoever I command you, children; for
   whatsoever things I have heard from my fathers I have made known to
   you.  I am clear from all your ungodliness and transgression which ye
   will do in the end of the ages against the Saviour of the world, acting
   ungodly, deceiving Israel, and raising up against it great evils from
   the Lord. [80]   And ye will deal lawlessly with Israel, so that
   Jerusalem shall not endure your wickedness; but the veil of the temple
   shall be rent, so as not to cover your shame.  And ye shall be
   scattered as captives among the heathen, and shall be for a reproach
   and for a curse, and for a trampling under foot.  For the house which
   the Lord shall choose shall be called Jerusalem, as is contained in the
   book of Enoch the righteous. [81]

   11.  Therefore, when I took a wife I was twenty-eight years old, and
   her name was Melcha.  And she conceived and bare a son, and she called
   his name Gersham, for we were sojourners in our land:  for Gersham is
   interpreted sojourning.  And I saw concerning him that he would not be
   in the first rank.  And Kohath was born in my thirty-fifth year,
   towards the east.  And I saw in a vision that he was standing on high
   in the midst of all the congregation.  Therefore I called his name
   Kohath, which meaneth, beginning of majesty and instruction.  And
   thirdly, she bare to me Merari, in the fortieth year of my life; and
   since his mother bare him with difficulty, she called him Merari, which
   meaneth my bitterness, because he also died.  And Jochebed was born in
   my sixty-fourth year, in Egypt, for I was renowned then in the midst of
   my brethren.

   12.  And Gersham took a wife, and she bare to him Lomni and Semei.  And
   the sons of Kohath, Ambram, Isaar, Chebro, and Ozel.  And the sons of
   Merari, Mooli and Homusi.  And in my ninety-fourth year Ambram took
   Jochebed my daughter to him to wife, for they were born in one day, he
   and my daughter.  Eight years old was I when I went into the land of
   Canaan, and eighteen years when I slew Shechem, and at nineteen years I
   became priest, and at twenty-eight years I took a wife, and at forty
   years I went into Egypt.  And behold, ye are my children, my children
   even of a third generation.  In my hundred and eighteenth year Joseph
   died.

   13.  And now, my children, I command you that ye fear our Lord with
   your whole heart, and walk in simplicity according to all His [82]
   law.  And do ye also teach your children learning, that they may have
   understanding in all their life, reading unceasingly the law of God;
   for every one who shall know the law of God shall be honoured, and
   shall not be a stranger wheresoever he goeth.  Yea, many friends shall
   he gain more than his forefathers; and many men shall desire to serve
   him, and to hear the law from his mouth.  Work righteousness, my
   children, upon the earth, that ye may find treasure in the heavens, and
   sow good things in your souls, that ye may find them in your life.  For
   if ye sow evil things, ye shall reap all trouble and affliction.  Get
   wisdom in the fear of God with diligence; for though there shall be a
   leading into captivity, and cities be destroyed, and lands and gold and
   silver and every possession shall perish, the wisdom of the wise none
   can take away, save the blindness of ungodliness and the palsy of sin:
   for even among his enemies shall it be to him glorious, and in a
   strange country a home, and in the midst of foes shall it be found a
   friend.  If a man teach these things and do them, he shall be enthroned
   with kings, as was also Joseph our brother.

   14.  And now, my children, I have learnt from the writing of Enoch that
   at the last ye will deal ungodly, laying your hands upon the Lord in
   all malice; and your brethren shall be ashamed because of you, and to
   all the Gentiles shall it become a mocking.  For our father Israel
   shall be pure from the ungodliness of the chief priests who shall lay
   their hands upon the Saviour of the world.  Pure is the heaven above
   the earth, and ye are the lights of the heaven as the sun and the
   moon.  What shall all the Gentiles do if ye be darkened in
   ungodliness?  So shall ye bring a curse upon our race for whom came the
   light of the world, which was given among you for the lighting up of
   every man. [83]   Him will ye desire to slay, teaching commandments
   contrary to the ordinances of God.  The offerings of the Lord will ye
   rob, and from His portion will ye steal; and before ye sacrifice to the
   Lord, ye will take the choicest parts, in despitefulness eating them
   with harlots.  Amid excesses [84] will ye teach the commandments of the
   Lord, the women that have husbands will ye pollute, and the virgins of
   Jerusalem will ye defile; and with harlots and adulteresses will ye be
   joined.  The daughters of the Gentiles will ye take for wives,
   purifying them with an unlawful purification; and your union shall be
   like unto Sodom and Gomorrah in ungodliness.  And ye will be puffed up
   because of the priesthood lifting yourselves up against men.  And not
   only so, but being puffed up also against the commands of God, ye will
   scoff at the holy things, mocking in despitefulness.

   15.  Therefore the temple which the Lord shall choose shall be desolate
   in uncleanness, and ye shall be captives throughout all nations, and ye
   shall be an abomination among them, and ye shall receive reproach and
   everlasting shame from the righteous judgment of God; and all who see
   you shall flee from you.  And were it not for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
   our fathers, not one from my seed should be left upon the earth.

   16.  And now I have learnt in the book of Enoch that for seventy weeks
   will ye go astray, and will profane the priesthood, and pollute the
   sacrifices, and corrupt the law, and set at nought the words of the
   prophets.  In perverseness ye will persecute righteous men, and hate
   the godly; the words of the faithful will ye abhor, and the man who
   reneweth the law in the power of the Most High will ye call a deceiver;
   [85] and at last, as ye suppose, ye will slay Him, not understanding
   His resurrection, wickedly taking upon your own heads the innocent
   blood. [86]   Because of Him shall your holy places be desolate,
   polluted even to the ground, and ye shall have no place that is clean;
   but ye shall be among the Gentiles a curse and a dispersion, until He
   shall again look upon you, and in pity shall take you to Himself
   through faith and water. [87]

   17.  And because ye have heard concerning the seventy weeks, hear also
   concerning the priesthood; for in each jubilee there shall be a
   priesthood.  In the first jubilee, the first who is anointed into the
   priesthood shall be great, and shall speak to God as to a Father; and
   his priesthood shall be filled with the fear of the Lord, and in the
   day of his gladness shall he arise for the salvation of the world.  In
   the second jubilee, he that is anointed shall be conceived in the
   sorrow of beloved ones; and his priesthood shall be honoured, and shall
   be glorified among all.  And the third priest shall be held fast in
   sorrow; and the fourth shall be in grief, because unrighteousness shall
   be laid upon him exceedingly, and all Israel shall hate each one his
   neighbour.  The fifth shall be held fast in darkness, likewise also the
   sixth and the seventh.  And in the seventh there shall be such
   pollution as I am not able to express, before the Lord and men, for
   they shall know it who do these things.  Therefore shall they be in
   captivity and for a prey, and their land and their substance shall be
   destroyed.  And in the fifth week they shall return into their desolate
   country, and shall renew the house of the Lord.  And in the seventh
   week shall come the priests, worshippers of idols, contentious, lovers
   of money, proud, lawless, lascivious, abusers of children and beasts.

   18.  And after their punishment shall have come from the Lord, then
   will the Lord raise up to the priesthood a new Priest, to whom all the
   words of the Lord shall be revealed; and He shall execute a judgment of
   truth upon the earth, [88] in the fulness of days.  And His star shall
   arise in heaven, [89] as a king shedding forth the light of knowledge
   in the sunshine of day, and He shall be magnified in the world until
   His ascension.  He shall shine forth as the sun in the earth, and shall
   drive away all darkness from the world under heaven, and there shall be
   peace in all the earth.  The heavens shall rejoice in His days, and the
   earth shall be glad, and the clouds shall be joyful, and the knowledge
   of the Lord shall be poured forth upon the earth, as the water of seas;
   and the angels of the glory of the presence of the Lord shall be glad
   in Him.  The heavens shall be opened, and from the temple of glory
   shall the sanctification come upon Him with the Father's voice, as from
   Abraham the father of Isaac.  And the glory of the Most High shall be
   uttered over Him, and the spirit of understanding and of sanctification
   shall rest upon Him in the water.  He shall give the majesty of the
   Lord to His sons in truth for evermore; and there shall none succeed
   Him for all generations, even for ever. [90]   And in His priesthood
   shall all sin come to an end, and the lawless shall rest from evil, and
   the just shall rest in Him.  And He shall open the gates of paradise,
   and shall remove [91] the threatening sword against Adam; and He shall
   give to His saints to eat from the tree of life, [92] and the spirit of
   holiness shall be on them.  And Beliar shall be bound by Him, and He
   shall give power to His children to tread upon the evil spirits. [93]
   And the Lord shall rejoice in His children, and the Lord shall be well
   pleased in His beloved for ever.  Then shall Abraham and Isaac and
   Jacob be joyful, and I will be glad, and all the saints shall put on
   gladness.

   19.  And now, my children, ye have heard all; choose therefore for
   yourselves either the darkness or the light, either the law of the Lord
   or the works of Beliar.  And we answered our father, saying, Before the
   Lord will we walk according to His law.  And our father said, The Lord
   is witness, and His angels are witnesses, and I am witness, and ye are
   witnesses, concerning the word of your mouth.  And we said, We are
   witnesses.  And thus Levi ceased giving charge to his sons; and he
   stretched out his feet, and was gathered to his fathers, after he had
   lived a hundred and thirty-seven years.  And they laid him in a coffin,
   and afterwards they buried him in Hebron, by the side of Abraham, and
   Isaac, and Jacob.
     __________________________________________________________________

   [61] [Isa. xi. 2.]

   [62] See below, c. 6.

   [63] Cf. Luke xxiv. 21.

   [64] For the Jewish idea of seven heavens, cf. Clement of Alexandra,
   Strom., iv. 7; and Wetstein's note on 2 Cor. xii. 2; [also vol. vii.
   note 11, this series; and vol. ii. note 7, p. 438, this series].

   [65] [Matt. xxvii. 51-53.]

   [66] [Hades, rather.]

   [67] [epi to pathei tou ;;Upsisou.  Compare Tatian, vol. ii. p. 71,
   this series.]

   [68] This document, the idea of which is that of a book containing what
   is fore-ordained in heaven as to the course of the future, is one often
   appealed to in Apocalyptic literature, when some oracular declaration
   of weighty import is needed.  Thus, in the Book of Enoch, the angel
   Uriel tells Enoch that the tablets contain all wisdom, the dying Enoch
   tells his children that the tablets are the source of all
   understanding, etc. (see, e.g., cc. 81. 1; 93. 2; 106. 19, ed.
   Dillmann).  In the Book of Jubilees, again, it is said that inscribed
   on the tablets are, e.g., the punishment of the angels who sinned with
   mortal women, the plan of the division of weeks, the name of Abraham as
   the friend of God, etc. (cc. 5, 6, 19).  See also Test. Asher, 2, 7,
   infra.

   [69] [Gen. xlviii. 16.  The Jehovah-Angel.]

   [70] aspis.  The Latin version gives the other meaning to aspis here,
   of asp or viper.  The epithet chalken, however, renders "shield" much
   more probable, as there seems nothing in the context pointing to the
   "brazen serpent."

   [71] A quotation from 1 Thess. ii. 16, where the context also is
   similar to the present.  [See Lardner's refutation of the learned Grabe
   on this quotation, vol. ii. p. 359.]

   [72] With the whole of this passage we may compare the description of
   the vestments of Aaron.  See especially Ex. xxix. 5, 6 (LXX.).  The
   petalon is the translation of ZjJ+ZJ, the plate of gold on the forehead
   of the high priest over the mitre.  The logion, or logeion, is the
   breastplate, with the Urim and Thummim.  For the poderes, see Ex.
   xxviii. 27 (LXX.).

   [73] On the possible reference here to the elements of the Eucharist,
   see Grabe's note, Spicilegium, in loc.

   [74] Nitzsch (p. 19, n. 37) explains this division into three archai,
   as referring to the three orders of the Christian priesthood.  This,
   however, seems improbable.  Cf. Kayser, p. 119; Vorstman, p. 41.  It is
   far more probable that the reference is to Moses, Aaron, and Christ.
   Thus with pisteusas we may compare Num. xii. 7.  For this use of arche,
   cf. Gen. ii. 10.  [Isa. lxvi. 21.]

   [75] [Rom. xvi. 15, 16, 17, Greek.  Compare Heb. v. 1.]

   [76] Or, if we follow the reading of Cd. Oxon., "Prophet of the Most
   High."

   [77] Or rather, with Cd. Oxon., "with our father."

   [78] We constantly find Peter, in the Clementine Homilies and
   Recognitions, combining with the Agapae the practice of bathing.  Cf.,
   e.g., Recog., iv. 3, v. 36.

   [79] Cf. Hom., xiv. 1.  [Lev. ii. 13; Mark ix. 49.]

   [80] [Annas and Caiaphas.  John xix. 11.]

   [81] This document is frequently quoted in the Testaments:  cf. Sim. 5;
   Levi 14, 16; Judah 18; Dan 5; Naph. 4; Benj. 9.  Most of these
   citations, however, are not to be found in the work as it has come down
   to us.  We must therefore either assume the reference to some other
   books of Enoch not now extant, or rather perhaps that they are general
   appeals to the spirit of the book, regarded as a great fount of
   prophecy.

   [82] Read autou with Cd. Oxon.

   [83] [John i. 4-9; viii. 12; ix. 5, etc.]

   [84] The word pleonxia, like the English "excess," has not unfrequently
   special reference to sins of sensuality.  Cf. 1 Cor. v. 11; Eph. iv.
   19; v. 3, 5; Col. iii. 5; 1 Thess. iv. 6, the context in all of which
   passages points strongly to this conclusion.  See Suicer's Thesaurus,
   s.v.

   [85] Cf. Matt. xxvii. 63, where ekeinos ho planos is said of our Lord.

   [86] [Matt. xxvii. 25.]

   [87] [John iii. 5; Isa. xii. 3; 1 Pet. iii. 20.]

   [88] [Jer. xxxiii. 15.]

   [89] [Matt. ii. 2.  Constant references to the Gospels proofs of text.]

   [90] An additional clause occurs here in Cd. Oxon., which generally has
   a tendency to omit; the copyist of Cd. Cam. having possibly looked on
   to the same initial words in the next clause:  "And in His priesthood
   shall the Gentiles be multiplied in knowledge on the earth and shall be
   enlightened through the grace of the Lord; but Israel shall be minished
   in ignorance, and be darkened in sorrow."

   [91] The reading of Cd. Oxon. here, apostesei, is to be preferred to
   Cd. Cam., stesei.  Grosseteste's Latin version, in all probability made
   from the latter, has stare faciet.  [See p. 7, note 1, supra.]

   [92] [Rev. ii. 7.]

   [93] [Luke x. 18, 19.]
     __________________________________________________________________

   IV.--The Testament of Judah Concerning Fortitude, and Love of Money,
   and Fornication.

   1.  The copy of the words of Judah, what things he spake to his sons
   before he died.  They gathered themselves together, and came to him,
   and he said to them:  I was the fourth son born to my father, and my
   mother called me Judah, saying, I give thanks to the Lord, because He
   hath given to me even a fourth son. [94]   I was swift and active in my
   youth, and obedient to my father in everything.  And I honoured my
   mother and my mother's sister.  And it came to pass, when I became a
   man, that my father Jacob prayed over me, saying, Thou shalt be a king,
   and prosperous in all things.

   2.  And the Lord showed me favour in all my works both in the field and
   at home.  When I saw that I could run with the hind, then I caught it,
   and prepared meat for my father.  I seized upon the roes in the chase,
   and all that was in the plains I outran.  A wild mare I outran, and I
   caught it and tamed it; and I slew a lion, and plucked a kid out of its
   mouth.  I took a bear by its paw, and rolled it over a cliff; and if
   any beast turned upon me, I rent it like a dog.  I encountered the wild
   boar, and overtaking it in the chase, I tore it.  A leopard in Hebron
   leaped upon the dog, and I caught it by the tail, and flung it from me,
   and it was dashed to pieces in the coasts of Gaza.  A wild ox feeding
   in the field I seized by the horns; and whirling it round and stunning
   it, I cast it from me, and slew it.

   3.  And when the two kings of the Canaanites came in warlike array
   against our flocks, and much people with them, I by myself rushed upon
   King Sur and seized him; and I beat him upon the legs, and dragged him
   down, and so I slew him.  And the other king, Taphue, [95] I slew as he
   sat upon his horse, and so I scattered all the people.  Achor the king,
   a man of giant stature, hurling darts before and behind as he sat on
   horseback, I slew; for I hurled a stone of sixty pounds weight, and
   cast it upon his horse, and killed him.  And I fought with Achor for
   two hours, and I killed him; and I clave his shield into two parts, and
   I chopped off his feet.  And as I stripped off his breastplate, behold,
   eight men his companions began to fight with me.  I wound round
   therefore my garment in my hand; and I slang stones at them, and killed
   four of them, and the rest fled.  And Jacob my father slew Beelisa,
   king of all the kings, a giant in strength, twelve cubits high; and
   fear fell upon them, and they ceased from making war with us.
   Therefore my father had no care in the wars when I was among my
   brethren.  For he saw in a vision concerning me, that an angel of might
   followed me everywhere, that I should not be overcome.

   4.  And in the south there befell us a greater war than that in
   Shechem; and I joined in battle array with my brethren, and pursued a
   thousand men, and slew of them two hundred men and four kings.  And I
   went up against them upon the wall, and two other kings I slew; and so
   we freed Hebron, and took all the captives of the kings.

   5.  On the next day we departed to Areta, [96] a city strong and walled
   and inaccessible, threatening us with death.  Therefore I and Gad
   approached on the east side of the city, and Reuben and Levi on the
   west and south.  And they that were upon the wall, thinking that we
   were alone, charged down upon us; and so our brethren secretly climbed
   up the wall on both sides by ladders, and entered into the city, while
   the men knew it not.  And we took it with the edge of the sword; and
   those who had taken refuge in the tower,--we set fire to the tower, and
   took both it and them.  And as we were departing the men of Thaffu set
   upon our captives, and we took it with our sons, and fought with them
   even to Thaffu; and we slew them, and burnt their city, and spoiled all
   the things that were therein.

   6.  And when I was at the waters of Chuzeba, [97] the men of Jobel came
   against us to battle, and we fought with them; and their allies from
   Selom [98] we slew, and we allowed them no means of escaping, and of
   coming against us.  And the men of Machir [99] came upon us on the
   fifth day, to carry away our captives; and we attacked them, and
   overcame them in fierce battle:  for they were a host and mighty in
   themselves, and we slew them before they had gone up the ascent of the
   hill.  And when we came to their city, their women rolled upon us
   stones from the brow of the hill on which the city stood.  And I and
   Simeon hid ourselves behind the town, and seized upon the heights, and
   utterly destroyed the whole city.

   7.  And the next day it was told us that the cities [100] of the two
   kings with a great host were coming against us.  I therefore and Dan
   feigned ourselves to be Amorites, and went as allies into their city.
   And in the depth of night our brethren came, and we opened to them the
   gates; and we destroyed all the men and their substance, and we took
   for a prey all that was theirs, and their three walls we cast down.
   And we drew near to Thamna, [101] where was all the refuge of the
   hostile kings.  Then having received hurt I was wroth, and charged upon
   them to the brow of the hill; and they slang at me with stones and
   darts; and had not Dan my brother aided me, they would have been able
   to slay me.  We came upon them therefore with wrath, and they all fled;
   and passing by another way, they besought my father, and he made peace
   with them, and we did to them no hurt, but made a truce with them, and
   restored to them all the captives.  And I built Thamna, and my father
   built Rhambael. [102]   I was twenty years old when this war befell,
   and the Canaanites feared me and my brethren.

   8.  Moreover, I had much cattle, and I had for the chief of my herdsmen
   Iran [103] the Adullamite.  And when I went to him I saw Barsan, king
   of Adullam, and he made us a feast; and he entreated me, and gave me
   his daughter Bathshua to wife.  She bare me Er, and Onan, and Shelah;
   and the two of them the Lord smote that they died childless:  for
   Shelah lived, and his children are ye.

   9.  Eighteen years we abode at peace, our father and we, with his
   brother Esau, and his sons with us, after that we came from
   Mesopotamia, from Laban.  And when eighteen years were fulfilled, in
   the fortieth year of my life, Esau, the brother of my father, came upon
   us with much people and strong; and he fell by the bow of Jacob, and
   was taken up dead in Mount Seir:  even as he went above Iramna [104]
   was he slain.  And we pursued after the sons of Esau.  Now they had a
   city with walls of iron and gates of brass; and we could not enter into
   it, and we encamped around, and besieged them.  And when they opened
   not to us after twenty days, I set up a ladder in the sight of all, and
   with my shield upon my head I climbed up, assailed with stones of three
   talents' weight; and I climbed up, and slew four who were mighty among
   them.  And the next day Reuben and Gad entered in and slew sixty
   others.  Then they asked from us terms of peace; and being aware of our
   father's purpose, we received them as tributaries.  And they gave us
   two hundred cors of wheat, five hundred baths of oil, fifteen hundred
   measures of wine, until we went down into Egypt.

   10.  After these things, my son Er took to wife Tamar, from
   Mesopotamia, a daughter of Aram. [105]   Now Er was wicked, and he
   doubted concerning Tamar, because she was not of the land of Canaan.
   And on the third day an angel of the Lord smote him in the night, and
   he had not known her, according to the evil craftiness of his mother,
   for he did not wish to have children from her.  In the days of the
   wedding-feast I espoused Onan to her; and he also in wickedness knew
   her not, though he lived with her a year.  And when I threatened him,
   he lay with her, [106] ...according to the command of his mother, and
   he also died in his wickedness.  And I wished to give Shelah also to
   her, but my wife Bathshua suffered it not; for she bore a spite against
   Tamar, because she was not of the daughters of Canaan, as she herself
   was.

   11.  And I knew that the race of Canaan was wicked, but the thoughts of
   youth blinded my heart.  And when I saw her pouring out wine, in the
   drunkenness of wine was I deceived, and I fell before her.  And while I
   was away, she went and took for Shelah a wife from the land of Caanan.
   And when I knew what she had done, I cursed her in the anguish of my
   soul, and she also died in the wickedness of her sons.

   12.  And after these things, while Tamar was a widow, she heard after
   two years that I was going up to shear my sheep; then she decked
   herself in bridal array, and sat over against the city by the gate.
   For it is a law of the Amorites, that she who is about to marry sit in
   fornication seven days by the gate. [107]   I therefore, being drunk at
   the waters of Chozeb, recognised her not by reason of wine; and her
   beauty deceived me, through the fashion of her adorning.  And I turned
   aside to her, and said, I would enter in to thee.  And she said to me,
   What wilt thou give me?  And I gave her my staff, and my girdle, and my
   royal crown; and I lay with her, and she conceived.  I then, not
   knowing what she had done, wished to slay her; but she privily sent my
   pledges, and put me to shame.  And when I called her, I heard also the
   secret words which I spoke when lying with her in my drunkenness; and I
   could not slay her, because it was from the Lord.  For I said, Lest
   haply she did it in subtlety, and received the pledge from another
   woman:  but I came near her no more till my death, because I had done
   this abomination in all Israel.  Moreover, they who were in the city
   said that there was no bride in the city, because she came from another
   place, and sat for awhile in the gate, and she thought that no one knew
   that I had gone in to her. [108]   And after this we came into Egypt to
   Joseph, because of the famine.  Forty and six years old was I, and
   seventy and three years lived I there.

   13.  And now, my children, in what things so ever I command you hearken
   to your father, and keep all my sayings to perform the ordinances of
   the Lord, and to obey the command of the Lord God.  And walk not after
   your lusts, nor in the thoughts of your imaginations in the haughtiness
   of your heart; and glory not in the works of the strength of youth, for
   this also is evil in the eyes of the Lord.  For since I also gloried
   that in wars the face of no woman of goodly form ever deceived me, and
   upbraided Reuben my brother concerning Bilhah, the wife of my father,
   the spirits of jealousy and of fornication arrayed themselves within
   me, until I fell before Bathshua the Canaanite, and Tamar who was
   espoused to my sons.  And I said to my father-in-law, I will counsel
   with my father, and so will I take thy daughter.  And he showed me a
   boundless store of gold in his daughter's behalf, for he was a king.
   And he decked her with gold and pearls, and caused her to pour out wine
   for us at the feast in womanly beauty.  And the wine led my eyes
   astray, and pleasure blinded my heart; and I loved her, and I fell, and
   transgressed the commandment of the Lord and the commandment of my
   fathers, and I took her to wife.  And the Lord rewarded me according to
   the thought of my heart, insomuch that I had no joy in her children.

   14.  And now, my children, be not drunk with wine; for wine turneth the
   mind away from the truth, and kindleth in it the passion of lust, and
   leadeth the eyes into error.  For the spirit of fornication hath wine
   as a minister to give pleasures to the mind; for these two take away
   the power from a man.  For if a man drink wine to drunkenness, he
   disturbeth his mind with filthy thoughts to fornication, and exciteth
   his body to carnal union; and if the cause of the desire be present, he
   worketh the sin, and is not ashamed.  Such is wine, my children; for he
   who is drunken reverenceth no man.  For, lo, it made me also to err, so
   that I was not ashamed of the multitude in the city, because before the
   eyes of all I turned aside unto Tamar, and I worked a great sin, and I
   uncovered the covering of the shame of my sons.  After that I drank
   wine I reverenced not the commandment of God, and I took a woman of
   Canaan to wife.  Wherefore, my children, he who drinketh wine needeth
   discretion; and herein is discretion in drinking wine, that a man
   should drink as long as he keepeth decency; but if he go beyond this
   bound, the spirit of deceit attacketh his mind and worketh his will;
   and it maketh the drunkard to talk filthily, and to transgress and not
   to be ashamed, but even to exult in his dishonour, accounting himself
   to do well.

   15.  He that committeth fornication, and [109] uncovereth his
   nakedness, hath become the servant of fornication, and escapeth not
   [110] from the power thereof, even as I also was uncovered.  For I gave
   my staff, that is, the stay of my tribe; and my girdle, that is, my
   power; and my diadem, that is, the glory of my kingdom.  Then I
   repented for these things, and took no wine or flesh until my old age,
   nor did I behold any joy.  And the angel of God showed me that for ever
   do women bear rule over king and beggar alike; and from the king they
   take away his glory, and from the valiant man his strength, and from
   the beggar even that little which is the stay of his poverty.

   16.  Observe therefore, my children, moderation in wine; for there are
   in it four evil spirits--of (1) lust, of (2) wrath, of (3) riot, of (4)
   filthy lucre.  If ye drink wine in gladness, with shamefacedness, with
   the fear of God, ye shall live.  For if ye drink not with
   shamefacedness, and the fear of God departeth from you, then cometh
   drunkenness, and shamelessness stealeth in.  But [111] even if ye drink
   not at all, take heed lest ye sin in words of outrage, and fighting,
   and slander, and transgression of the commandments of God; so shall ye
   perish before your time.  Moreover, wine revealeth the mysteries of God
   and men to aliens, even as I also revealed the commandments of God and
   the mysteries of Jacob my father to the Canaanitish Bathshua, to whom
   God forbade to declare them.  And wine also is a cause of war and
   confusion.

   17.  I charge you, therefore, my children, not to love money, nor to
   gaze upon the beauty of women; because for the sake of money and beauty
   I was led astray to Bathshua the Canaanite.  For I know that because of
   these two things shall ye who are my race fall into wickedness; for
   even wise men among my sons shall they mar, and shall cause the kingdom
   of Judah to be diminished, which the Lord gave me because of my
   obedience to my father. [112]   For I never disobeyed a word of Jacob
   my father, for all things whatsoever he commanded I did.  And Abraham,
   the father of my father, blessed me that I should be king in Israel,
   and Isaac further blessed me in like manner.  And I know that from me
   shall the kingdom be established.

   18.  For I have read also in the books of Enoch the righteous what
   evils ye shall do in the last days.  Take heed, therefore, my children,
   of fornication and the love of money; hearken to Judah your father, for
   these things do withdraw you from the law of God, and blind the
   understanding of the soul, and teach arrogance, and suffer not a man to
   have compassion upon his neighbour:  they rob his soul of all goodness,
   and bind him in toils and troubles, and take away his sleep and devour
   his flesh, and hinder the sacrifices of God; and he remembereth not
   blessing, and he hearkeneth not to a prophet when he speaketh, and is
   vexed at the word of godliness.  For one who serveth two passions
   contrary to the commandments of God cannot obey God, because they have
   blinded his soul, and he walketh in the day-time as in the night.

   19.  My children, the love of money leadeth to idols; because, when led
   astray through money, men make mention of those who are no gods, and it
   causeth him who hath it to fall into madness.  For the sake of money I
   lost my children, and but for the repentance of my flesh, and the
   humbling of my soul, and the prayers of Jacob my father, I should have
   died childless.  But the God of my fathers, who is pitiful and
   merciful, pardoned me, because I did it in ignorance. [113]   For the
   prince of deceit blinded me, and I was ignorant as a man and as flesh,
   being corrupted in sins; and I learnt my own weakness while thinking
   myself unconquerable. [114]

   20.  [115] Learn therefore, my children, that two spirits wait upon
   man--the spirit of truth and the spirit of error; and in the midst is
   the spirit of the understanding of the mind, to which it belongeth to
   turn whithersoever it will.  And the works of truth and the works of
   error are written upon the breast of men, and each one of them the Lord
   knoweth.  And there is no time at which the works of men can be hid
   from Him; for on the bones of his breast hath he been written down
   before the Lord.  And the spirit of truth testifieth all things, and
   accuseth all; and he who sinneth is burnt up by his own heart, and
   cannot raise his face unto the Judge.

   21.  And now, my children, love Levi, that ye may abide, and exalt not
   yourselves against him, lest ye be utterly destroyed.  For to me the
   Lord gave the kingdom, and to him the priesthood, and He set the
   kingdom beneath the priesthood.  To me He gave the things upon the
   earth; to him the things in the heavens.  As the heaven is higher than
   the earth, so is the priesthood of God higher than the kingdom upon the
   earth.  For the Lord chose him above thee, to draw near to Him, and to
   eat of His table and first-fruits, even the choice things of the sons
   of Israel, and thou shalt be to them as a sea.  For as, on the sea,
   just and unjust are tossed about, some taken into captivity while
   others are enriched, so also shall every race of men be in thee, some
   are in jeopardy and taken captive, and others shall grow rich by means
   of plunder.  For they who rule will be as great sea-monsters,
   swallowing up men like fishes:  free sons and daughters do they
   enslave; houses, lands, flocks, money, will they plunder; and with the
   flesh of many will they wrongfully feed the ravens and the cranes; and
   they will go on further in evil, advancing on still in covetousness.
   And there shall be false prophets like tempests, and they shall
   persecute all righteous men.

   22.  And the Lord shall bring upon them divisions one against another,
   and there shall be continual wars in Israel; and among men of other
   race shall my kingdom be brought to an end, until the salvation of
   Israel shall come, until the appearing of the God of righteousness,
   that Jacob and all the Gentiles may rest in peace. [116]   And he shall
   guard the might of my kingdom for ever:  for the Lord sware to me with
   an oath that the kingdom should never fail from me, and from my seed
   for all days, even for ever.

   23.  Now I have much grief, my children, because of your lewdness, and
   witchcrafts, and idolatries, which ye will work against the kingdom,
   following them that have familiar spirits; ye [117] will make your
   daughters singing girls [118] and harlots for divinations and demons of
   error, and ye will be mingled in the pollutions of the Gentiles:  for
   which things' sake the Lord shall bring upon you famine and pestilence,
   death and the sword, avenging siege, and dogs for the rending in pieces
   of enemies, and revilings of friends, destruction and blighting of
   eyes, children slaughtered, wives carried off, possessions plundered,
   temple of God in flames, your land desolated, your own selves enslaved
   among the Gentiles, and they shall make some of you eunuchs for their
   wives; and whenever ye will return to the Lord with humility of heart,
   repenting and walking in all the commandments of God, then will the
   Lord visit you in mercy and in love, bringing you from out of the
   bondage of your enemies.

   24.  And after these things shall a Star arise to you from Jacob in
   peace, and a Man shall rise from my seed, like the Sun of
   righteousness, walking with the sons of men [119] in meekness and
   righteousness, and no sin shall be found in Him.  And the heavens shall
   be opened above Him, to shed forth the blessing of the Spirit from the
   Holy Father; and He shall shed forth a spirit of grace upon you, and ye
   shall be unto Him sons in truth, and ye shall walk in His commandments,
   the first and the last.  This is the Branch of God Most High, and this
   the Well-spring unto life for all flesh.  [120] Then shall the sceptre
   of my kingdom shine forth, and from your root shall arise a stem; and
   in it shall arise a rod of righteousness to the Gentiles, to judge and
   to save all that call upon the Lord.

   25.  And after these things shall Abraham and Isaac and Jacob arise
   unto life, and I and my brethren will be chiefs, even your sceptre in
   Israel:  Levi first, I the second, Joseph third, Benjamin fourth,
   Simeon fifth, Issachar sixth, and so all in order.  And the Lord
   blessed Levi; the Angel of the Presence, me; the powers of glory, [121]
   Simeon; the heaven, Reuben; the earth, Issachar; the sea, Zebulun; the
   mountains, Joseph; the tabernacle, Benjamin; the lights of heaven, Dan;
   the fatness of earth, Naphtali; the sun, Gad; the olive, Asher:  and
   there shall be one people of the Lord, and one tongue; and there shall
   no more be a spirit of deceit of Beliar, for he shall be cast into the
   fire for ever.  And they who have died in grief shall arise in joy, and
   they who have lived in poverty for the Lord's sake shall be made rich,
   and they who have been in want shall be filled, and they who have been
   weak shall be made strong, and they who have been put to death for the
   Lord's sake shall awake in life. [122]   And the harts of Jacob shall
   run in joyfulness, and the eagles of Israel shall fly in gladness; but
   the ungodly shall lament, and sinners all weep, and all the people
   shall glorify the Lord for ever.

   26.  Observe, therefore, my children, all the law of the Lord, for
   there is hope for all them who follow His way aright.  And he said to
   them:  I die before your eyes this day, a hundred and nineteen years
   old.  Let no one bury me in costly apparel, nor tear open my bowels,
   [123] for this shall they who are kings do:  and carry me up to Hebron
   with you.  And Judah, when he had said these things, fell asleep; and
   his sons did according to all whatsoever he commanded them, and they
   buried him in Hebron with his fathers.
     __________________________________________________________________

   [94] Gen. xxix. 35.  [The name = "Praise".  So Gen. xlix. 3.]

   [95] In c. 5 we find this name, with a slight variety of spelling, as
   that of a place over which this king may have ruled.  It is doubtless
   equivalent to the Hebrew Tappuah, a name of several cities mentioned in
   the Old Testament.  See Josh. xv. 34; xvi. 8; xvii. 8; 1 Chron. ii.
   43.  Cf. Thapha, Jubilees, 34.

   [96] Cd. Oxon. reads heteran; but cf. Aresa, Jubilees, 34.

   [97] Cf. c. 12; also Chezib (Gen. xxxviii. 5), Chozeba (1 Chron. iv.
   22), and Achzib (Josh. xv. 44; Mic. i. 14), all of which are probably
   different names for the same place, and all connected with Judah.

   [98] Cf. Selo, Jubilees, l.c.

   [99] Cf. 1 Chron. xi. 36.  [Here the translator supplies a note of
   doubt--an interrogation-point.]

   [100] Cd. Oxon. reads Gaas polis basileon.  Cf. Josh. xxiv. 30; Judg.
   ii. 9; 2 Sam. xxiii. 30.  Cf. also "Gaiz," Jubilees, l.c.

   [101] The Timnah of the Old Testament, which name is, however, borne by
   several places.  Most probably it is the Timnah near Bethshemesh, on
   the north frontier of Judah, in the neighbourhood, that is, of many of
   the other localities mentioned in the Testaments.  This may be the same
   as the Timnathah on the Danite frontier (Josh. xix. 43), and with the
   Timnathah where Samson's wife dwelt (Judg. xiv. 1 sqq ).  The
   geographical position of Timnath-serah is against the allusion being to
   it here.  Cf., however, Jubilees, c. 34, where Thamnathares is one of
   the hostile towns.

   [102] Cf. Robel, Jubilees, l.c.

   [103] Cf. Gen. xxxviii. 1.

   [104] Cd. Oxon. en 'Anoniram, probably per incuriam scribae, for epano
   'Iram

   [105] This seems to arise from the wish to disconnect Israel as far as
   possible from non-Shemite associations.  Cf. the Targum of Onkelos on
   Gen. xxxviii. 6.  "Judah took a wife for Er, his first-born, a daughter
   of the great Shem, whose name was Tamar."

   [106] diephtheire de to sperma epi ten gen

   [107] [Herod. i., cap. 199; Baruch vi. 43.]

   [108] [To this section Lardner objects.  But compare Gen. xxxviii. 12.]

   [109] Cd. Oxon. here reads the additional clause zemioumenos ouk
   aisthanetai kai adoxon ouk aischunetai.  Kan gar tis basileuse,
   porneuon--perhaps omitted from Cd. Cant. through the homoeoteleuton.

   [110] Cd. Oxon. omits the negative.  The basileia will then be that
   from which the man falls by his sin.

   [111] Cd. Oxon. reads ti de lego; med' holos pinete, which seems much
   more suitable to the context.

   [112] [1 Kings xi. 1, and ver. 11.]

   [113] [Num. xv. 25 and Acts iii. 17.]

   [114] [See cap. 13, p. 19, supra.]

   [115] Cd. Oxon. omits the whole of this chapter.

   [116] [Rom. xi. 26.]

   [117] The reading of Cd. Oxon. is doubtless to be preferred, which
   joins kledosi kai daimosi planes to what precedes

   [118] [Eccles. ii. 8; Ecclus. ix. 4.]

   [119] [Prov. viii. 31.]

   [120] Cd. Oxon. omits from here to end of c. 25.

   [121] [Eph. iii. 10.]

   [122] [2 Macc. vii. 9-36 and Heb. xi. 35.]

   [123] i.e., for the purpose of embalmment.
     __________________________________________________________________

   V.--The Testament of Issachar Concerning Simplicity.

   1.  The record of the words of Issachar.  He called his sons, and said
   to them:  Hearken, my children, to Issachar your father; give ear to my
   words, ye who are beloved of the Lord.  I was the fifth son born to
   Jacob, even the hire of the mandrakes. [124]   For Reuben [125] brought
   in mandrakes from the field, and Rachel met him and took them.  And
   Reuben wept, and at his voice Leah my mother came forth.  Now these
   mandrakes were sweet-smelling apples which the land of Aram produced on
   high ground below a ravine of water.  And Rachel said, I will not give
   them to thee, for they shall be to me instead of children.  Now there
   were two apples; and Leah said, Let it suffice thee that thou hast
   taken the husband of my virginity:  wilt thou also take these?  And she
   said, Behold, let Jacob be to thee this night instead of the mandrakes
   of thy son.  And Leah said to her, Boast not, and vaunt not thyself;
   for Jacob is mine, and I am the wife of his youth.  But Rachel said,
   How so? for to me was he first espoused, and for my sake he served our
   father fourteen years.  What shall I do to thee, because the craft and
   the subtlety of men are increased, and craft prospereth upon the
   earth?  And were it not so, thou wouldest not now see the face of
   Jacob.  For thou art not his wife, but in craft wert taken to him in my
   stead.  And my father deceived me, and removed me on that night, and
   suffered me not to see him; for had I been there, it had not happened
   thus.  And Rachel said, Take one mandrake, and for the other thou shalt
   hire him from me for one night.  And Jacob knew Leah, and she conceived
   and bare me, and on account of the hire [126] I was called Issachar.

   2.  Then appeared to Jacob an angel of the Lord, saying, Two children
   shall Rachel bear; for she hath refused company with her husband, and
   hath chosen continency.  And had not Leah my mother given up the two
   apples for the sake of his company, she would have borne eight sons;
   and for this thing she bare six, and Rachel two:  because on account of
   the mandrakes the Lord visited her.  For He knew that for the sake of
   children she wished to company with Jacob, and not for lust of
   pleasure. [127]   For she went further, and on the morrow too gave up
   Jacob that she might receive also the other mandrake.  Therefore the
   Lord hearkened to Rachel because of the mandrakes:  for though she
   desired them, she ate them not, but brought them to the priest of the
   Most High who was at that time, and offered them up in the house of the
   Lord.

   3.  When, therefore, I grew up, my children, I walked in uprightness of
   heart, and I became a husbandman for my parents and my brethren, and I
   brought in fruits from the field according to their season; and my
   father blessed me, for he saw that I walked in simplicity.  And I was
   not a busybody in my doings, nor malicious and slanderous against my
   neighbour.  I never spoke against any one, nor did I censure the life
   of any man, but walked in the simplicity of my eyes.  Therefore when I
   was thirty years old I took to myself a wife, for my labour wore away
   my strength, and I never thought upon pleasure with women; but through
   my labour my sleep sufficed me, and my father always rejoiced in my
   simplicity.  For on whatever I laboured I offered first to the Lord, by
   the hands of the priests, of all my produce and all first-fruits; then
   to my father, and then took for myself.  And the Lord increased twofold
   His benefits in my hands; and Jacob also knew that God aided my
   simplicity, for on every poor man and every one in distress I bestowed
   the good things of the earth in simplicity of heart.

   4.  And now hearken to me, my children, and walk in simplicity of
   heart, for I have seen in it all that is well-pleasing to the Lord.
   The simple coveteth not gold, defraudeth not his neighbour, longeth not
   after manifold dainties, delighteth not in varied apparel, doth not
   picture to himself to live a long life, but only waiteth for the will
   of God, and the spirits of error have no power against him.  For he
   cannot allow within his mind a thought of female beauty, that he should
   not pollute his mind in corruption.  No envy can enter into his
   thoughts, no jealousy melteth away his soul, nor doth he brood over
   gain with insatiate desire; for he walketh in uprightness of life, and
   beholdeth all things in simplicity, not admitting in his eyes malice
   from the error of the world, lest he should see the perversion of any
   of the commandments of the Lord.

   5.  Keep therefore the law of God, my children, and get simplicity, and
   walk in guilelessness, not prying over-curiously into the commands of
   God and the business of your neighbour; but love the Lord and your
   neighbour, have compassion on the poor and weak.  Bow down your back
   unto husbandry, and labour in tillage of the ground in all manner of
   husbandry, offering gifts unto the Lord with thanksgiving; for with the
   first-fruits of the earth did the Lord bless me, even as He blessed all
   the saints from Abel even until now.  For no other portion is given to
   thee than of the fatness of the earth, whose fruits are raised by toil;
   for our father Jacob blessed me with blessings of the earth and of
   first-fruits.  And Levi and Judah were glorified by the Lord among the
   sons of Jacob; for the Lord made choice of them, and to the one He gave
   the priesthood, to the other the kingdom.  Them therefore obey, and
   walk in the simplicity of your father; for unto Gad hath it been given
   to destroy the temptations that are coming upon Israel.

   6.  I know, my children, that in the last times your sons will forsake
   simplicity, and will cleave unto avarice, and leaving guilelessness
   will draw near to malice, and forsaking the commandments of the Lord
   will cleave unto Beliar, and leaving husbandry will follow after their
   wicked devices, and shall be dispersed among the Gentiles, and shall
   serve their enemies.  And do you therefore command these things to your
   children, that if they sin they may the more quickly return to the
   Lord; for He is merciful, and will deliver them even to bring them back
   into their land.

   7.  I am a hundred and twenty-two years old, and I know not against
   myself a sin unto death.  Except my wife, I have not known any woman.
   I never committed fornication in the haughtiness of my eyes; I drank
   not wine, to be led astray thereby; I coveted not any desirable thing
   that was my neighbour's; guile never entered in my heart; a lie never
   passed through my lips; if any man grieved, I wept with him, and I
   shared my bread with the poor.  I never ate alone; I moved no landmark;
   in all my days I wrought godliness and truth.  I loved the Lord with
   all my strength; likewise also did I love every man even as my own
   children.  So ye also do these things, my children, and every spirit of
   Beliar shall flee from you, and no deed of malicious men shall rule
   over you; and every wild beast shall ye subdue, having with yourselves
   the God of heaven walking with men in simplicity of heart.

   And he commanded them that they should carry him up to Hebron, and bury
   him there in the cave with his fathers.  And he stretched out his feet
   and died, the fifth son of Jacob, in a good old age; and with every
   limb sound, and with strength unabated, he slept the eternal sleep.
   [128]
     __________________________________________________________________

   [124] See Gen. xxx. 14 sqq.

   [125] The Cam. ms. reads 'Iakob by an obvious error.

   [126] Sachar.

   [127] [Tobit viii. 7, 8.]

   [128] [See Dan, note 12, p. 26, infra.  "Eternal" ="long."]
     __________________________________________________________________

   VI.--The Testament of Zebulun Concerning Compassion and Mercy.

   1.  The record of Zebulun, which he enjoined his children in the
   hundred [129] and fourteenth year of his life, thirty-two years after
   the death of Joseph.  And he said to them:  Hearken to me sons of
   Zebulun, attend to the words of your father.  I am Zebulun, a good gift
   [130] to my parents.  For when I was born our father was increased very
   exceedingly, both in flocks and herds, when with the streaked rods he
   had his portion.  I know not, my children, that in all my days I have
   sinned, save only in thought.  Nor do I remember that I have done any
   iniquity, except the sin of ignorance which I committed against Joseph;
   for I screened my brethren, not telling to my father what had been
   done.  And I wept sore in secret, for I feared my brethren, because
   they had all agreed together, that if any one should declare the
   secret, he should be slain with the sword.  But when they wished to
   kill him, I adjured them much with tears not to be guilty of this
   iniquity.

   2.  For Simeon and Gad came against Joseph to kill him.  And Joseph
   fell upon his face, and said unto them, Pity me, my brethren, have
   compassion upon the bowels of Jacob our father:  lay not upon me your
   hands to shed innocent blood, for I have not sinned against you; yea,
   if I have sinned, with chastening chastise me, but lay not upon me your
   hand, for the sake of Jacob our father.  And as he spoke these words, I
   pitied him and began to weep, and my heart melted within me, and all
   the substance of my bowels was loosened within my soul.  And Joseph
   also wept, and I too wept with him; and my heart throbbed fast, and the
   joints of my body trembled, and I was not able to stand.  And when he
   saw me weeping with him, and them coming against him to slay him, he
   fled behind me, beseeching them.  And Reuben rose and said, My
   brethren, let us not slay him, but let us cast him into one of these
   dry pits which our fathers digged and found no water.  For for this
   cause the Lord forbade that water should rise up in them, in order that
   Joseph might be preserved; and the Lord appointed it so, until they
   sold him to the Ishmaelites.

   3.  For in the price of Joseph, my children, I had no share; but Simeon
   and Gad and six other of our brethren took the price of Joseph, and
   bought sandals [131] for themselves, their wives, and their children,
   saying, We will not eat of it, for it is the price of our brother's
   blood, but will tread it down under foot, because he said that he was
   king over us, and so let us see what his dreams mean.  Therefore is it
   written in the writing of the law of Enoch, that whosoever will not
   raise up seed to his brother, his sandal shall be unloosed, and they
   shall spit into his face. [132]   And the brethren of Joseph wished not
   that their brother should live, and the Lord loosed unto them the
   sandal of Joseph.  For when they came into Egypt they were unloosed by
   the servants of Joseph before the gate, and so made obeisance to Joseph
   after the fashion of Pharaoh.  And not only did they make obeisance to
   him, but were spit upon also, falling down before him forthwith, and so
   they were put to shame before the Egyptians; for after this the
   Egyptians heard all the evils which we had done to Joseph.

   4.  After these things they brought forth food; for I through two days
   and two nights tasted nothing, through pity for Joseph.  And Judah ate
   not with them, but watched the pit; for he feared lest Simeon and Gad
   should run back and slay him.  And when they saw that I also ate not,
   they set me to watch him until he was sold.  And he remained in the pit
   three days and three nights, and so was sold famishing.  And when
   Reuben heard that while he was away Joseph had been sold, he rent his
   clothes about him, and mourned, saying, How shall I look in the face of
   Jacob my father?  And he took the money, and ran after the merchants,
   and found no one; for they had left the main road, and journeyed
   hastily through rugged byways. [133]   And Reuben ate no food on that
   day.  Dan therefore came to him, and said, Weep not, neither grieve;
   for I have found what we can say to our father Jacob.  Let us slay a
   kid of the goats, and dip in it the coat of Joseph; and we will say,
   Look, if this is the coat of thy son:  for they stripped off from
   Joseph the coat of our father when they were about to sell him, and put
   upon him an old garment of a slave.  Now Simeon had the coat, and would
   not give it up, wishing to rend it with his sword; for he was angry
   that Joseph lived, and that he had not slain him.  Then we all rose up
   together against him, and said, If thou give it not up, we will say
   that thou alone didst this wickedness in Israel; and so he gave it up,
   and they did even as Dan had said.

   5.  And now, my children, I bid you to keep the commands of the Lord,
   and to show mercy upon your neighbour, and to have compassion towards
   all, not towards men only, but also towards beasts.  For for this
   thing's sake the Lord blessed me; and when all my brethren were sick I
   escaped without sickness, for the Lord knoweth the purposes of each.
   Have therefore compassion in your hearts, my children, because even as
   a man doeth to his neighbour, even so also will the Lord do to him.
   For the sons of my brethren were sickening, were dying on account of
   Joseph, because they showed not mercy in their hearts; but my sons were
   preserved without sickness, as ye know.  And when I was in Canaan, by
   the sea-coast, I caught spoil of fish for Jacob my father; and when
   many were choked in the sea, I abode unhurt.

   6.  I was the first who made a boat to sail upon the sea, for the Lord
   gave me understanding and wisdom therein; and I let down a rudder
   behind it, and I stretched a sail on an upright mast in the midst; and
   sailing therein along the shores, I caught fish for the house of my
   father until we went into Egypt; and through compassion, I gave of my
   fish to every stranger.  And if any man were a stranger, or sick, or
   aged, I boiled the fish and dressed them well, and offered them to all
   men as every man had need, bringing them together and having compassion
   upon them.  Wherefore also the Lord granted me to take much fish:  for
   he that imparteth unto his neighbour, receiveth manifold more from the
   Lord.  For five years I caught fish, and gave thereof to every man whom
   I saw, and brought sufficient for all the house of my father.  In the
   summer I caught fish, and in the winter I kept sheep with my brethren.

   7.  Now I will declare unto you what I did, I saw a man in distress and
   nakedness in wintertime, and had compassion upon him, and stole away
   [134] a garment secretly from my house, and gave it to him who was in
   distress.  Do you therefore, my children, from that which God bestoweth
   upon you, show compassion and mercy impartially to all men, and give to
   every man with a good heart.  And if ye have not at the time wherewith
   to give to him that asketh you, have compassion for him in bowels of
   mercy.  I know that my hand found not at the time wherewith to give to
   him that asked me, and I walked with him weeping for more than seven
   furlongs, and my bowels yearned towards him unto compassion.

   8.  Have therefore yourselves also, my children, compassion towards
   every man with mercy, that the Lord also may have compassion upon you,
   and have mercy upon you; because also in the last days God sendeth His
   compassion on the earth, and wheresoever He findeth bowels of mercy, He
   dwelleth in him.  For how much compassion a man hath upon his
   neighbours, so much also hath the Lord upon him.  For when we went down
   into Egypt, Joseph bore no malice against us, and when he saw me he was
   filled with compassion.  And looking towards him, do ye also, my
   children, approve yourselves without malice, and love one another; and
   reckon not each one the evil of his brother, for this breaketh unity,
   and divideth all kindred, and troubleth the soul:  for he who beareth
   malice hath not bowels of mercy.

   9.  Mark the waters, that they flow together, and sweep along stones,
   trees, sand; but if they are divided into many streams, the earth
   sucketh them up, and they become of no account.  So also shall ye be if
   ye be divided.  Divide not yourselves into two heads, for everything
   which the Lord made hath but one head; He gave two shoulders, hands,
   feet, but all the members are subject unto the one head.  I have learnt
   by the writing of my fathers, that in the last days ye will depart from
   the Lord, and be divided in Israel, and ye will follow two kings, and
   will work every abomination, and every idol will ye worship, and your
   enemies shall lead you captive, and ye shall dwell among the nations
   with all infirmities and tribulations and anguish of soul.  And after
   these things ye will remember the Lord, and will repent, and He will
   lead you back; for He is merciful and full of compassion, not imputing
   evil to the sons of men, because they are flesh, and the spirits of
   error deceive them in all their doings.  And after these things shall
   the Lord Himself arise to you, [135] the Light of righteousness, and
   healing [136] and compassion shall be upon His wings.  He shall redeem
   all captivity of the sons of men from Beliar, and every spirit of error
   shall be trodden down.  And He shall bring back all the nations to zeal
   for Him, and ye shall see God in the fashion of a man [137] whom the
   Lord shall choose, Jerusalem is His name.  And again with the
   wickedness of your words will ye provoke Him to anger, and ye shall be
   cast away, even unto the time of consummation.

   10.  And now, my children, grieve not that I am dying, nor be troubled
   in that I am passing away from you.  For I shall arise once more in the
   midst of you, as a ruler in the midst of his sons; and I will rejoice
   in the midst of my tribe, as many as have kept the law of the Lord, and
   the commandments of Zebulun their father. [138]   But upon the ungodly
   shall the Lord bring everlasting fire, and will destroy them throughout
   all generations.  I am hastening away unto my rest, as did my fathers;
   but do ye fear the Lord your God with all your strength all the days of
   your life.  And when he had said these things he fell calmly asleep,
   and his sons laid him in a coffin; and afterwards they carried him up
   to Hebron, and buried him with his fathers.
     __________________________________________________________________

   [129] The Ox. ms. reads 150, and refers the event to two years after
   Joseph's death.  The text of the Cam. ms. gives an impossible result
   here, as it would make Zebulun twenty-eight years younger than Joseph,
   who died at the age of 110.  According to the Ox. ms., Reuben (cf. c.
   1) and Zebulun would die in the same year, the former at 125, the
   latter 150.  A comparison of Test. Reub., c. 1 shows the most probable
   solution to be to give the numerals, rid', b'.

   [130] The derivation of Zebulun seems to be from L+B+Z+, a collateral
   form of D+B+Z+, to give.  Hence Leah plays on the double meaning of the
   former verb, Gen. xxx. 20.

   [131] Cf. the Targum Ps. Jon. on Gen. xxxvii. 28.

   [132] [Deut. xxv. 7, 8, 9.  See Lardner on the animus of these
   quotations from Enoch, as it strikes him, vol. ii. p. 350.]

   [133] Cam. ms. dia traglokolpeton ; Ox. ms. dia trogloduton.

   [134] ["Finis non determinat probitatem actus."]

   [135] Mal. iv. 2.

   [136] The Ox. ms. reads:  "And ye shall return from your land, and ye
   shall see the Lord in Jerusalem for His name's sake."  [Heb. vii. 2.
   At least, Salem is His name.]

   [137] [Another of those unequivocal passages which refute Lardner's
   charge of "Unitarianism" in this book.]

   [138] [Ezek. xlviii. 26, 27.  An important example of Hebrew exposition
   of this prophet.]
     __________________________________________________________________

   VII.--The Testament of Dan Concerning Anger and Lying.

   1.  The record of the words of Dan, which he spake to his sons in his
   last days.  In the hundred and twenty-fifth year of his life he called
   together his family, and said:  Hearken to my words, ye sons of Dan;
   give heed to the words of the mouth of your father.  I have proved in
   my heart, and in my whole life, that truth with just dealing is good
   and well-pleasing to God, and that lying and anger are evil, because
   they teach man all wickedness.  I confess this day to you, my children,
   that in my heart I rejoiced concerning the death of Joseph, a true and
   good man; and I rejoiced at the selling of Joseph, because his father
   loved him more than us.  For the spirit of jealousy and of vainglory
   said to me, Thou also art his son.  And one of the spirits of Beliar
   wrought with me, saying, Take this sword, and with it slay Joseph; so
   shall thy father love thee when he is slain.  This is the spirit of
   anger that counselled me, that even as a leopard devoureth a kid, so
   should I devour Joseph.  But the God of Jacob our father gave him not
   over into my hands that I should find him alone, nor suffered me to
   work this iniquity, that two tribes should be destroyed in Israel.
   [139]

   2.  And now, my children, I am dying, and I tell you of a truth, that
   unless ye keep yourselves from the spirit of lying and of anger, and
   love truth and long-suffering, ye shall perish.  There is blindness in
   anger, my children, and no wrathful man regardeth any person with
   truth:  for though it be a father or a mother, he behaveth towards them
   as enemies; though it be a brother, he knoweth him not; though it be a
   prophet of the Lord, he disobeyeth him; though a righteous man, he
   regardeth him not; a friend he doth not acknowledge.  For the spirit of
   anger encompasseth him with the nets of deceit, and blindeth his
   natural eyes, and through lying darkeneth his mind, and giveth him a
   sight of his own making.  And wherewith encompasseth he his eyes?  In
   hatred of heart; and he giveth him a heart of his own against his
   brother unto envy.

   3.  My children, mischievous is anger, for it becometh as a soul to the
   soul itself; and the body of the angry man it maketh its own, and over
   his soul it getteth the mastery, and it bestoweth upon the body its own
   power, that it may work all iniquity; and whenever the soul doeth
   aught, it justifieth what has been done, since it seeth not.  Therefore
   he who is wrathful, if he be a mighty man, hath a treble might in his
   anger; one by the might and aid of his servants, and a second by his
   wrath, whereb