Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs

The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs are a pseudepigraphe font. It is intended as a farewell speeches of the twelve sons of Jacob, which are considered the fathers of the tribes of Israel. In its final form it is Christian and probably date to the third century.

Sources and tradition

The Patriarch wills are only preserved in medieval manuscripts. The best text quality nor provide for the Greek manuscripts, but are measured by the research differently. Critical text editions are available from Charles and de Jonge (see below).

In addition to the Greek tradition, there are translations into Armenian, Slavonic and Modern Greek. These versions are now generally regarded as a dependent of the Greek tradition sidelines, have only limited value for the reconstruction of any original text.

Assumptions of a Semitic (ie here: Aramaic or Hebrew ) Originals have in science can not prevail, even if it can not be excluded. Usually you go but from a Greek base font, which was attributed to the Hellenistic Judaism.

Nevertheless, there are a Hebrew Testament of Naphtali, the Midrash Wayissa'u and passages in the Book of Jubilees, which show a connection with the Patriarch wills. However, they are not to be evaluated as a template.

The situation is different with the Aramaic Levi Document, were found by the fragments in the Cairo Geniza and at Qumran. Parts of it can be found literally in part to the Patriarch wills again. However, is not to determine the extent to which the Aramaic Levi document itself already a "testament " was, or whether it was only in part used by the authors of the Patriarch wills.

Formation

On the Origin, there are some scientific dispute. In the late 19th and early 20th century continued from RH Charles by the theory that it was in Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs to an originally Jewish scripture from the Maccabean period, the later Christian additions ( interpolations ) has been revised. Authority behind this theory is the Armenian version, which is far less Christian passages than the Greek witnesses.

From the mid- 20th century this view was increasingly challenged. In his dissertation of 1953 M. de Jonge published his thesis that there is no reason Scripture, but the Patriarch wills were caused by a Christian editorial Jewish material. This argument should be the proof of the thesis are that the high priority that was given to the Armenian text testimonies, was not entitled.

Although this is acknowledged by other researchers, they do not share his conclusions drawn from them. From Hultgård, Becker and last Ulrichsen new attempts have been made to defend the interpolation theory and reconstruct a Jewish elementary writing solely on the basis of the Greek witnesses. Here in addition to text-critical especially literary-critical arguments are out in the field, who had been brought to a snap interpolation theory independently of Charles.

However, this method has been called into question, not least because of the very different base fonts that were reconstructed by them. So it was only a matter of time that a draft was submitted to a synchronous interpretation of the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, where the juxtaposition of Jewish and Christian passages is considered not as a result of interpolation or editors, but as intended unit. Accordingly, the patriarch wills would be a Jewish Christian writing that consciously tried to connect Jewish and Christian together.

Form and content

The TestXII are typical farewell speeches, as they are known from the biblical literature. You begin with a description of that patriarch in the hour of their death their relatives gather around to give them a final warning still on the way, and close according to the message of the death and a short note about their funeral.

Typically, the speech of the ancestors begins with a review of his life. Here you can see a typical for the pseudepigraphe literature tends to fill the gaps within the biblical narrative substance. So Ruben the story unfolds with Bilhah his father 's concubine; Levi calls details from the Dina / Shechem episode, and again the focus is on the story of Joseph, which is treated intensively, especially of Joseph himself, and out of Zebulun. Readers are told unknown details, but also feelings and motives of the characters that do not occur in the biblical account.

These biographical notes are taken as an opportunity to move into serious moral exhortation. Either in the admonition to do better than their own fathers and their vices to be avoided ( eg fornication with Ruben or envy from Simeon ), or in the encouragement to live up to their virtues ( simplicity at Issachar or the goodness of Joseph ).

In these exhortations follow promises for the future: threats of disaster and exile, the descendants should not hold on to the words of their ancestors, and promises of a return to the land, closeness to God, when they may turn back and follow the words of their fathers. These passages show sometimes apocalyptic features, because visions are portrayed or the salvation is presented as a victory over Beliar and his spirits.

Especially in the Zukunftsweissagungen also meet Christian elements. Both the passages as to the guilt of the offspring, as well as promises of future salvation are always so acute that they can actually be interpreted only in Jesus Christ. To what extent these elements represent secondary additions, is controversial.

Theology

Ethics

The ethics of Patriarch wills is not significantly different from what is already known from the Hellenistic Judaism or early Christianity. Virtue and decency are the focus of admonitions, envy and fornication are reprehensible. About this generalities but also are a few anomalies to determine:

Play a major role pity and compassion. The capacity for empathy is an important indicator of moral action. Mercilessness have let the brothers Joseph are guilty of this but his brothers mercy because he felt sorry for them, and forgave them their fault.

This is related to the emphasis on love ( agape ) in the context of ethical exhortations. How else only a few Jewish writings that time met the double love commandment to love the call, God and man. Whether the Patriarch wills thus becoming a key witness that there has been this topos before Jesus, even on the answer to the question of the genesis depends.

Eschatology

In the eschatology of a final grant of God is announced by the court. It is striking that the necessary reversal is not so much a religious revival that thus the faith or the church would be renewed ( as called for in other Jewish reform movements), but that a purely moral conversion is in the foreground. In the final version of the promise of salvation of Israel and the nations is equally, some scholars consider this Heilsunviversalismus but already for Christian.

With safety as a Christian, the statement must be considered, that God will appear at the end of time as man himself and in lowliness and humility visited his people and accompanied. Here is meant recognizable Jesus Christ.

The situation is different with the announcement of a savior from Levi and Judah. This well initially very human figure is only in a few passages related to Jesus in the Christian way. Priesterkönigliche rescuer figures, can be found either as a representation of an ideal two -trailer combination of two Messiahs (eg from Aaron and Israel in the Qumran writings ) or as a figure in the reports from Priesterkönigtum of the Maccabees and eventually in appealing to Melchizedek as idealized priest-king of the patristic period.

Christian theology

Interpreted on the Christian level is striking that not a replacement of Israel by the Gentiles is mentioned, but that both recipients of God's saving action remain. Fittingly, just where Israel's guilt for the death of Jesus is mentioned, the patriarchs are declared innocent of this act. So the blame and responsibility is not attributed to the collective people, but a specific group of a specific generation. The destruction of the temple God has punished in the sight of the Patriarch testaments to right these culprits, and now the time for God's favor to his people is imminent.

Also the idea that in the human form of Jesus Christ God himself visited his people, is quite unusual for at least the 3rd century, as representatives of such notions of Tertullian and Hippolytus as " Patripassiani / Theopaschiten " were convicted. In fact, in a place of wills, where alluded to the death of Jesus, literally the " suffering of the Most High " is mentioned.

The genealogical derivation of Jesus out of the tribes of Levi and Judah is highly unusual for Christian writers. While the Davidic sonship of Jesus for the Christian tradition represented a fixed size, we read of a Levitical descent of Jesus in the Christian sources known nothing. If a priesterkönigliche dignity of Jesus should be said, this was done with recourse to Psalm 110 in view of the figure of Melchizedek - for example, the book of Hebrews. There, the Levitical priesthood is presented as a kind of detour while the Priesterkönigtum Melchisedec constitutes the actually true High Priesthood from prehistoric times to the end time. Jesus Christ now genealogically to connect just with the tribe of Levi, and so double back tie to the Jewish people and their history of salvation is completely unusual for the 3rd century.

These features make at least for the Christian final form a Jewish-Christian authorship plausible.