Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs
Anonymous
Book Testament of Judah · Chapter 24
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.
And after these things shall a star arise to you from Jacob in peace, And a man shall arise [from my seed], like the sun of righteousness, walking with the sons of men in meekness and righteousness; And no sin shall be found in him.
And the heavens shall be open unto him, To pour out the spirit, (even) the blessing of the Holy Father; And He shall pour out the spirit of grace upon you;
And ye shall be unto Him sons in truth, And ye shall walk in His commandments first and last.
Then shall the sceptre of my kingdom shine forth;
And from your root shall arise a stem; And from it shall grow a rod of righteousness to the Gentiles, To judge and to save all that call upon the Lord.