SECTION

2

Testaments and Related Texts

Readers of the Hebrew Bible are familiar with the last words of figures like Jacob (Gen. 49) and Moses (Deut. 33–34).1 In these scenes a revered figure, typically a father or leader, delivers a discourse to his sons, his people, or his successor in anticipation of his imminent death. This setting has evolved into a specific category of literature known as a testament. Testaments typically present the discourse of the main figure in the first person, followed by an account of his death in the third person. Testaments can also occur as segments of larger Jewish works that themselves belong to another genre.2 At least part of their importance lies in the notion that a person nearing death is likely to convey ideas of utmost importance to their progeny, whether information received on an otherworldly journey, ethical teachings, or the distribution of inheritance.3 A history of scholarship is outlined by Anitra Bingham Kolenkow,4 who observes that the considerable work done on the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs lends particular insight. Though the provenance of the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs is disputed, the twelve distinct testaments contained therein, as well as the presence of the word “testament” in its title, furnish readers with substantial material for identifying testamentary characteristics. The genre seems to have emerged in the Hellenistic era5 and, following its Old Testament pattern, exhibits some defining characteristics. In addition to the discourse delivered in anticipation of imminent death, the testament typically begins by describing in the third person the situation in which the discourse is delivered, and it ends with an account of the speaker’s death.6 One finds a generally consistent pattern in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs of three common elements: first, a historical narrative retrospectively accounting for the patriarch’s life; second, a moral or ethical exhortation to the figure’s progeny; and third, a prediction of the future in Deuteronomistic fashion in which a pattern of sin-exile-restoration is evident.7 These patterns may be exhibited to varying extents in other testaments. For instance, the Testament of Moses is nearly all prediction, with little exhortation and no historical retrospection. By contrast, one finds primarily retrospection on the life of Job in the Testament of Job, only brief exhortation, and no prediction.8 The testament genre, then, is best identified in terms of its central figure nearing death with ancillary features varying from one text to another.9 This allows for some flexibility in identifying works belonging to this category, though our usual parameters of being demonstrably Jewish and dating from the Second Temple period remain. Among the challenges in the study of testaments is that, of the six or seven that survive from antiquity, all contain substantial Jewish material, but only a few are Jewish in their present form.10 These are limited to the Testament of Moses, the Testament of Job, the Visions of Amram, Aramaic Levi Document, and Testament of Qahat. This means that our analyses of respective testaments must pay careful attention to their provenance, but because these texts can be so disconnected and fragmentary, they sometimes fall outside the strict parameters of Second Temple Jewish pseudepigrapha. Still, they illustrate some important aspects of the literature and so are included here.

 

1. Cf. the words of Joshua (Josh. 23–24), Samuel (1 Sam. 12), and David (1 Kings 2:1–9; 1 Chron. 28–29).

2. J. Collins (Apocalyptic Imagination, 158) notes Tob. 14; 1 Macc. 2:49–70; Jub. 21, 36; LAB 19, 23–24, 33; 2 En. 39–55; 2 Bar. 43–47.

3. See Kolenkow, “Literary Genre ‘Testament,’” 259.

4. Kolenkow, “Literary Genre ‘Testament,’” 259–62.

5. J. Collins, “Testaments,” 325.

6. J. Collins, “Testaments,” 325.

7. J. Collins, “Testaments,” 325. Such restrictions lead Collins (“Testaments,” 326) to allow for only the Testament of Moses, the Testament of Job, the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, and potentially the Visions of Amram to fit within this genre.

8. J. Collins, “Testaments,” 325–26.

9. So also Hillel, “Testaments.”

10. J. Collins, Apocalyptic Imagination, 158.