Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs
Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs,
an early Jewish work, with some Christian interpolations, reckoned among the Old Testament PseudepigraphaPseudepigrapha[Gr.,=things falsely ascribed], a collection of early Jewish and some Jewish-Christian writings composed between c.200 B.C. and c.A.D. 200, not found in the Bible or rabbinic writings.
..... Click the link for more information. . The work may have been written as early as 1st cent. B.C. It purports to be the final sayings ("Testaments") of the 12 patriarchs, i.e., the 12 sons of Jacob, to their respective families. They each reflect on the meaning of life and the sins which they have committed. Many of the Testaments espouse apocalyptic theology, teaching an ethical dualism similar to the Dead Sea ScrollsDead Sea Scrolls,
ancient leather and papyrus scrolls first discovered in 1947 in caves on the NW shore of the Dead Sea. Most of the documents were written or copied between the 1st cent. B.C. and the first half of the 1st cent. A.D.
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Bibliography
See J. H. Charlesworth, ed., The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha (Vol. I, 1983).