Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs

Testaments attributed to Jacob's twelve sons, combining ethical instruction and prophecy.

Historical English Source Edition

The reader presents the historical English source wording below.

works, of which the Testaments are the fourth, written on folios 2030 -2620. It belongs to the tenth century. It is written in double columns, twenty lines inacolumn. The initials and titles are in red, except the first, which is in gold. It was from this MS. that Grosseteste’s Latin Version was made.

(c) Vatican Library, Cod. Graec. 731. This is a small octavo MS. written on paper, with twenty-two or twenty-three lines on each page. Besides the Testaments it contains extracts from the Fathers. The Testaments are given on folios 076-1678. The script of the latter belongs probably to the thirteenth century. ‘This is the most important of all the MSS.

(4) Vatican Library, Gk. 1238. This is a vellum MS. in three volumes of the LX X belonging to the thirteenth century. On the close of the LXX follows the Testament of Job, folios 340a-3494, and on 350-380 of our present text. There are from 33-39 lines in each page. Strangely enough, above the general title of the Testaments, Διαθῆκαι τῶν «8 πατριαρχῶν υἱῶν Ἰακώβ, appear the words Λεπτῆς Γενέσεως, which is one of the titles of the Book of Jubilees. That there was a close relation between these books we know independently. ec

(e) Mount Athos MS. This MS. is written in two columns of forty lines each in a good hand of the tenth century. The Testaments are given on folios 1076-2200. This MS. is of great interest, as it contains three large additions to the text: the first before καὶ ἐπὶ πύργους in T. Lev. ii. 3, consisting of a prayer of Jacob; the second after the word ἡμερῶν in T. Lev. xviii. 2, and the third after τῆς γῆν in Τ. Ash. vii. 2. The third consists of two and two-third columns of certain Christian disquisitions on love and the Trinity. The second is the remarkable Greek fragment, which I have printed in Appendix 111 in my edition of the Text, and which we show elsewhere to be a translation from a Hebrew work, which was probably an original source of the Testaments.

(J) Paris MS. 038. This is a beautifully written MS. of the tenth century. The Testaments are given on the first seventy-two folios. Each page contains twenty-three lines. On folio τα there is a list of Old Testament names, including the twelve patriarchs, with their meanings. The Testaments proper begin on 14. It is characteristic of this MS. that after the title of each Testament it adds the meaning of the proper name, and also that, at the conclusion of each Testament, it adds the number of years that the patriarch lived. In the latter feature it is followed by the first Slavonic Recension (S'). After the Testaments follow the Testament of Job and other writings.

(g) MS. 411 in the Library of the Monastery of St. John the Evangelist in Patmos. It is a quarto MS. written on parchment, and assigned by H. C. Coxe to the sixteenth century.

(4) Mount Sinai MS. No. 547 in the Library of St. Catherine. See Gardthausen, Cat. Codd. Graec. Sinaiticorum, p. 132. This MS., 14°5 by 10°35 cm., was written in the seventeenth century. It contains seventeen lines on each page. It is incomplete and comes to an end with T. Jos. xv. 7. This MS. has the following peculiar introduction : Ἰωάννου τοῦ ποτε ἑβραίου εἴδησις τῶν διαθηκῶν τῶν ιβ’ υἱῶν τοῦ πατριάρχου 10863 μεταφρασθεῖσα ἀπὸ Ἰονδαικοῦ διαλέκτου eis Ἑλληνικήν. The statement is true, but where the scribe got it we cannot determine.

(2) Mount Sinai MS. This MS. was discovered accidentally in the Convent Library in the spring of 1906 by Mrs. Gibson. This MS. was written not earlier than the seventeenth century. It con- tains 21-23 lines on each page. It has the same peculiar introduction as 4. See preceding MS.

There are many MSS. of this version. The first five are designated by the symbols attached to them in the Venice edition of the text by the Mechitarist Fathers. The rest owe their designa- tion to the present editor. When cited they appear as A®, A”, &c.

ΑΝ. Mechitarist Library of St. Lazzaro, Venice, No. 345. This MS., five by seven inches, was written in the year 1220 on paper. It belongs to the first recension of the text.