Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs
Anonymous
Book Testament of Levi · Chapter 13
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 now, my children, I command you: Fear the Lord your God with your whole heart, And walk in simplicity according to all His law.
And do ye also teach your children letters, That they may have understanding all their life, Reading unceasingly the law of God.
For every one that knoweth the law of the Lord shall be honoured, And shall not be a stranger whithersoever he goeth.
Yea, many friends shall he gain more than his parents, And many men shall desire to serve him, And to hear the law from his mouth.
Work righteousness, therefore, my children, upon the earth, That ye may have (it) as a treasure in heaven.
And sow good things in your souls, That ye may find them in your life. But if ye sow evil things, Ye shall reap every trouble and affliction.