Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs Collection

By Scriptural Research Institute

During the crusades, Latin translations of the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs began to circulate in Western Europe, which were considered to be authentic testaments written by the children of Jacob until the Protestant reformation. During the Protestant reformation the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs were generally been discredited as Christian era forgeries, and stopped being used by Catholics and Protestants. The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs continued to be viewed as authentic in orthodox countries, and were integrated into the Oskan Armenian Orthodox Bible in 1666. Scholarly analysis of the testaments in the 1800s led to the conclusion that the testaments began as Pharisee texts, written in Hebrew, sometime the before 200 AD, when they were expanded by the Christian monks on Mount Athos. Since the discovery of fragments of four of the testaments among the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Pharisee view has been generally discredited. The oldest fragments discovered so far date to between 135 and 37 BC, and are written in Aramaic, which make it unlikely that they were written by a Pharisee. Additionally, the contents of the testaments are no longer viewed as being consistent with the Pharisee's theology, as they include a number of references to Greek gods, making the testaments more likely to be a Sadducee text, or from another Jewish sect.

A number of references within the testaments point to an origin in the Seleucid Empire. The testaments repeatedly reference the Book of Enoch, or the Watchers from the Book of Enoch, as well as the Book of Job, and Satan as an individual instead of a descriptive term, which is consistent with the Book of Job, the likely source is the Tobian Jews (Τουβιανοὺς Ιουδαίους) mentioned in 2nd Maccabees, that lived in Seleucid controlled regions. It is unclear where the Tobian Jews lived, however, according to Eusebius, writing circa 300 AD, in local lore Job lived in the Arabian town of Karnaia. The location of Karnaia is unknown today, however is believed to have once been in what is modern southern Syria, and would have been in the Seleucid Empire when the testaments were likely written. The original work appears to be an anti-Levitical text, which dismissed the Levitical priesthood, and pointed to an alternative priesthood, which is consistent with the division between the priesthood of Ezra and Tobiah referred to in the Septuagint's 1st Ezra.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Scriptural Research Institute
• Release date: Jan 5, 2020
• ISBN: 9781989604915

Book preview

Testament of Reuben - Chapter 1

THE COPY OF THE TESTAMENT of Reuben, including the commands which he gave his sons before he died in the hundred and twenty-fifth year of his life.

Two years after the death of Joseph his brother, when Reuben fell ill, his sons and his grandsons were gathered together to visit him.

He said to them, My children, look I am dying, and am going the way of my fathers.

Seeing Judah there, and Gad, Asher, and his other brothers, he said to them, Lift me that I may tell my brothers and my children what things I have hidden in my heart, for I am dying.

He rose and kissed them, and said to them, "Hear, my brothers and my children, listen to Reuben your father, in the commands which I give to you. I call to witness against you this day the god of the Sky,¹ that you don’t walk in the sins of youth and fornication, which I did and defiled the bed of my father Jacob. I tell you that he hit me with a terrible plague in my loins for seven months, and in my father Jacob had not prayed for me to Iaw,² Iaw would have destroyed me. I was thirty years old when I worked the evil thing before Iaw, and for seven months I was sick to death. After this, I repented with great intent in my soul for seven years before Iaw. I did not drink wine or liquor, and no flesh entered into my mouth or tasty food, but instead, I mourned for my sin, which was greater than had been in Israel."

"Now hear me, my children, what things I saw concerning the seven spirits of deceit when I repented. Seven spirits, therefore, are appointed against man, and they are the leaders in the works of youth. Seven other spirits are given to him at his creation, that through them should be done every work of man.

The first is the spirit of life, with which the constitution of man is created.

The second is the sense of sight, with which arises desire.

The third is the sense of hearing, with which comes teaching.

The fourth is the sense of smell, with which tastes are given to draw air and breath.

The fifth is the power of speech, with which comes knowledge.

The sixth is the sense of taste, with which comes the eating of meats and drinks, and by it, strength is produced, for in food is the foundation of strength.

The seventh is the power of procreation and sexual intercourse, with which through love of pleasure, sins enter in.

Therefore it is the last in order of creation, and the first in that of youth, because it is filled with ignorance, and leads the youth as a blind man to a pit, and as a beast to a precipice. Besides all these, there is an eighth spirit of sleep, with which is brought the trance of nature, and death. With these spirits are mingled the spirits of error.

First, the spirit of fornication is seated in nature and the senses.

The second, the spirit of gluttony in the belly.

The third, the spirit of fighting, in the liver and gall.

The fourth is the spirit of obsequiousness and chicanery, that through officious attention one may be fair in seeming.

The fifth is the spirit of pride, that one may be boastful and arrogant.

The sixth is the spirit of lying in perdition and jealousy to practice deceits and keep secrets from families and friends.

The seventh is the spirit of injustice with which are thefts and acts of rapacity, that a man may fulfill the desire of his heart, for injustice works together with the other spirits by the taking of gifts.

With all these, the spirit of sleep is joined which is that of error and fantasy. So perishes 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. Now, my children, love the truth, and it will preserve you, hear you the words of Reuben your father.

Ignore the beauty of women.

Don’t associate with another man’s wife.

Don’t have business with women.

If had I not seen Bilhah bathing in a sheltered place, I would have not fallen into this great iniquity. For my mind taking in the thought of the woman’s nakedness, did not allow me to sleep until I had worked the abominable thing. For while Jacob our father had gone to Isaac his father, when we were in Eder, near to Ephrath in Bethlehem, Bilhah became drunk and was asleep uncovered in her chamber. Having therefore gone in and seen her nakedness, I worked the impiety without her perceiving it, and leaving her sleeping departed. Immediately an angel of God told my father about my impiety, and he came and mourned for me, and did not touch her again."

Testament of Reuben - Chapter 2

THEREFORE MY CHILDREN ignore the beauty of women, and don’t think about them, but walk in purity of heart, and the fear of Iaw, and expend labor on good works, and in study, and with your flocks, until Iaw gives you a wife, which he will. Don’t do as I did. For until my father’s death I didn’t have the courage to look in his face or to speak to any of my brothers, because of the shame. Even until now, my conscience causes me anguish on account of my impiety. Yet my father comforted me much, and prayed for me to Iaw, that the anger of Iaw might pass from me, as Iaw did. From that time until now, I have been on my guard and have not sinned.

"Therefore, my children, I say to you, observe all things whatever I command you, and you will not sin. The sin of fornication is a trap to the soul, separating it from God, and bringing it near to idols, because it deceives the mind and understanding, and leads down young men into Hades³ before their time. Fornication has destroyed many, because, whether a man is old or noble, rich or poor, he brings shame on himself among the sons of men and derision with Belial."⁴

You heard regarding Joseph, how he guarded himself against women, and purged his thoughts from all fornication, and found favor in the sight of God and men. For the Egyptian woman did many things to him, and summoned magicians, and offered him love potions, but he allowed evil desire to enter his soul. Therefore, the god of your fathers delivered him from every evil and hidden death, For if fornication does not possess your mind, neither can Belial possess you."

Women are evil, my children, and since they have no power or strength over man, they use wiles by outward attractions, that they may draw him to themselves. Those who they cannot bewitch by outward attractions, they conquer him through depict. Moreover, concerning them, the angel of Iaw told me and taught me, that women are overcome by the spirit of fornication more often than men, and in their heart, they plot against men, and through their adornments, they deceive first their minds, and by the glance of the eye instill the poison, and then through the physical act they take them captive.

A woman cannot rape a man openly, but through a prostitute’s appearance, she beguiles him. Therefore, flee from fornication my children, and command your wives and your daughters, that they don’t adorn their heads and faces to deceive the mind, because every woman who uses these wiles, will be eternally punished.

"They allured the Watchers⁵ who were before the flood, for as these continually saw them, they lusted after them, and they conceived the act in their mind, and they changed themselves into the shape of men and appeared to them when they were with their husbands. The women lusting in their minds after their forms, gave birth to giants, for the Watchers appeared to them reaching even to the sky."

"Therefore, beware of fornication, and if you wish to be pure in mind, guard your senses against every woman. Command the women likewise not to associate with men, that