Testament of Asher

 

The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs 

These are biographies of the Heads of the Twelve Tribes of Israel written between 107 and 137 B.C. They are a forceful exposition written by a Pharisee about the intellectual Giants in those days. 

Each is here made to tell his life story. When he is on his deathbed he calls all his children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren about him and proceeds without reservation to lay bare his experiences for the moral guidance of his children. If he fell into sin he tells all about it and then counsels them not to err as he did. If he was virtuous, he shows what rewards were his. 

The instances of the influence of these writings on the New Testament are notable in the Sermon of the Mount which reflects the spirit and even uses phrases from these Testaments. St. Paul appears to have bor-rowed so freely that it seems as though he must have carried a copy of the Testaments on his travels. 

Thus, the reader has before him in these pages what is at once striking for its blunt primitive style and valuable as some of the actual source books of the Bible.