Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs
Anonymous
Book Testament of Joseph · Chapter 1
About this work
A collection of farewell discourses attributed to the twelve sons of Jacob, combining ethical exhortation, autobiographical retelling, and eschatological material. The transmitted text preserves Jewish traditions alongside Christian material or interpolation, and its compositional history remains debated.
- Author
- Anonymous
- Date
- Second Temple Jewish material; transmitted form includes later Christian elements.
- Origin
- Unknown
- Genre
- Testamentary Literature / Pseudepigrapha
- Textual language
- Greek textual tradition; earlier sources and layers are debated.
- Translator
- R. H. Charles
- Translation / Edition
- R. H. Charles translation, first published 1908.
The copy of the Testament of Joseph. When he was about to die he called his sons and his brethren together, and said to them:--
My brethren and my children, Hearken to Joseph the beloved of Israel; Give ear, my sons, unto your father.
I have seen in my life envy and death, Yet I went not astray, but persevered in the truth of the Lord.
These my brethren hated me, but the Lord loved me: They wished to slay me, but the God of my fathers guarded me:
They let me down into a pit, and the Most High brought me up again. I was sold into slavery, and the Lord of all made me free: I was taken into captivity, and His strong hand succoured me. I was beset with hunger, and the Lord Himself nourished me.
I was alone, and God comforted me: I was sick, and the Lord visited me: I was in prison, and my God showed favour unto me;