Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs
Anonymous
Book Testament of Naphtali · Chapter 6
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 again, after seven days, I saw our father Jacob standing by the sea of Jamnia, and we were with him.
And behold, there came a ship sailing by, without sailors or pilot; and there was written upon the ship, The Ship of Jacob.
And our father said to us: Come, let us embark on our ship.
And when he had gone on board, there arose a vehement storm, and a mighty tempest of wind; and our father, who was holding the helm, departed from us.
And we, being tossed with the tempest, were borne along over the sea; and the ship was filled with water, (and was) pounded by mighty waves, until it was broken up.
And Joseph fled away upon a little boat, and we were all divided upon nine planks, and Levi and Judah were together.
And we were all scattered unto the ends of the earth.