Testaments of the Patriarchs Collection

In the early Christian era, many Testaments of the Patriarchs circulated in Jewish and Christian communities, and were widely quoted by the earliest Christians. The foremost of the testaments were the Testaments of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, which circulated together. The other major testaments were grouped together as the Testaments of the Twelve, which included the Testaments of Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Joseph, and Benjamin. The Testament of Adam was used by the Sethians and later Sethian Gnostics. While the Testaments of Job and Solomon were used by the Christian Montanist sect, and the Gnostic Valentinian sect in the 2nd century. The Testament of Moses, also known as the Ascension of Moses, appears to have only been used by a Messianic Jewish sect, although it does not appear to have been a precursor to Rabbinical Judaism.

These testaments were widely accepted by the early Christian churches, and most continue to form part of the Armenian Bible. The books were popular in Western Europe during the Middle Ages when they were generally considered authentic ancient Jewish texts. Critical analysis in the 16th century changed the view of Protestants and Catholics, as scholars at the time came to the belief that the texts were written in the early Christian era, likely in Greek. Subsequently, the texts fell out of favor in most parts of Europe. However, Hebrew fragments of the Testaments of the Patriarchs were discovered in the 20th century among the Dead Sea Scrolls, proving some of the texts were originally written in Aramaic and Hebrew. The current academic view is that there were simpler Jewish versions that were then updated in the early Christian era by Greek speakers that added the Christian prophesies.