TESTAMENTS, PATRIARCHAL 294 TESTIMONY OF DISOWNMENt
taininir the true text in several passages, but in many |ilacc's alterin;;' (inisseteste's Latin version, wliicli wit- nesscil tci tlio true rcadiii;::. to suit (irabe's incorrect text. Fabricius also |nibli>hc(l a second etlilion in I72--'. on tbe wboli' less accurate tliau iiis tirst. Afterwards the text and notes as give'i i" <jrabe's second edition were re- printed, with but few additions, by (ialland,in his Bihli- otluai Vfhrum Patriun (Venice, 1705), i, 193 sq. In list;;) Hubert Sinker piiblislied an accurate transcript of" the Canibridgc M.S., careriilly collated with the Oxford, to winch he added, in l)S7i), a collation made from two other MSS., viz. a Koman MS. in the Vatican Library (Cod. (iran-. 7ol), and a I'atinos M.S. in the library of ilie Monastery of St. .lohn the Evangelist (Cod. 411).
IX. I 'erxions. — As already indicated, there existed ver- Nions in ditt'erent languages before the (ireelv text was pid)lisheil. The editions of the Latin version are nu- merous. Thai whicli is ])resuniali!y the I'diiio princcps bears neither date, jirinter's name, nor place of jirinting. Tlie title is 'J'estanie\t<i diiodevim \ Patriurcharii \ Fili- onnti Jacob. \ e Grtco in Lntiiiu \ versa Roberto \ Lin- voniemi \ Episcopo \ inierpre'Je. From this w\is taken the edition printed at Hagenau in loo2 by John Se- cerius, at tlie instance of Menrad JMolther. The work of Jidianus romerius Coiilra Jitdaos is pnblislied in the same volume. liesides the separate editions, the Ttglanitula is published in the Bibliutheca Pa/ru/n.
In English there exist at least three independent translations— one from the Latin, the others frcjm the (ireek. Tlie translation from the Latin first appearetl in lu77, and was often reprinted, especially in the 17th century. Tlie tirst edition is of great rarity, and there exists no copy of it even iii the British Museum. The second ediii<in, of 1581, of wliich there is a copy in the British ^Museinn, has tlie following title-page:
"The Tesfamentes of the Twehie | Patriarches, the Soiuies of Jacob: tran-|slaled out of Greeke into Lntiue by Robert | Gro^lhed, soinelinie Bishop of Liucolne, | ;inrt oat of liys copy into French and | Dutch by others: Now (!ng-;li^hed byA. G. 1 To the credit whereof an auncient Greeke copye | written in p;iichnient, is kept in the Vni-| nersily Library of Cunilirid<ie. [ At London | Primed l)y John "D:iye, dwelling ouer Aldersgate. 15S1. | Cuiu priui- legio KegiiE | Maieslalis."
There are about forty other English editions printed after the year 1581. A translation was made directly from the (ireek (of Grabe and Fabricius) bj- Whis- lon in his Collection of Authentic Records belongine/ to the Old and New Testament (Loud. 1727), i, 294 sq. In Clark's .lH/c-.V«,rne Chrislian Library (vol. xxii), Mr. Sinker pid)lished a translation from his edition of the (ireek text. It may be mentioned here that the JMug- gletonians (q. v.) in F^ngland receive the Testaments of the XII Patriarchs as inspired, together with the Old and New Tests., the book of ImiocIi, and the works of Kccvc and Muggleton. F'rom the English a Welsh ver- sion was publislied at Carnarvon (1822), Testament y deiiddey Pulrieirch, sef Meibion Jacob. . . .
There are at least two translations in French, both taken from the Latin. One was published in 1548 at i'aris, another in 1713. The latter was also republished in "SlfJinc's Kncyclopedie Theolor/ique, yoLxxin (JJict.des A/iocryp/ies, vol. i), coll. 854 sq.
In (ierman}' the Testaments have evidentlv been verv popular, as may be inferred from tbe mniiber of etiitions that have apjieared. The oldest (ierman translation is the one published in 1559 at Basel: Das Testament der zirolf Patriarchen der Siinen Jacobs; the latest, the one published at Tiibingen in 1857, .-iechte apocryphische liiicher der Ileiligen Scltrift . . . (ii) Das T.d.zwolf Pa- triarchen.
The Dutch and Flemish editions are also verv nu- merous. There are two editions without any date, but which must have appeared before 1544, since an edition was published in that same year. Altogether there exist about fourteen editions in Dutch and Flem- ish, the last published in 1679.
The Testaments was translated into Danish bv Hans
Mogcnsson, and four editions of his translation were published, the tirst in 1580, the last in 1701.
In the Icelandic there exist some MS. translations; but wliether one or the other has ever been printed we are at a loss to state.
The Bohemian version can claim to be the first of the translations from the Latin, having (jeen made long be- fore the invention of printing. It is referred to by 'I'homas Siitny about the year 137G. There exists a MS. at I>reslau, in the library of the Dotninicans at St. Adalbert, dated 1491, and another in the inii versify library at I'rague (xvii, B. 15, No. (>) dated 14(55. The oldest printed translation bears the date 1545. Only two copies, each of a different edition, are extant — one in the library of the National Museum at Prague, aiul the other in the university library there.
An Armenian version exists in IMS., dated 837, i. e.- A.D. 13.S.S, ill the library of the !Alecbitarists at Vienna, which appears not to have been printeil.
X. Literatui-e. — Besides Grabe, see Vorstman, Disqui- sitio de Testumentorum XII Patriarcharum Orit/ine et Pi-eiio (Rotterdam, 1857) ; 'Silzfich, Coimnentatio Critica de Testameiitis XII Patriarcharnin, Libra V. T. Pseude- piyrnpho (Wittenb. 1810); liitschl, Die Entstehuny der altkathtdischen Kirche (Bonn, 1850); Kayser, in Kcnss inul Cunitz's Beitrdye zn den theol. Wissenschaften (.lena, 1851), p. 107-140; Wieseler, Z'lc 70 Wochen und die ()3 Jahricochen des Propheten Daniel (Ciott. 1839) ; Langen, Das Judenthuni in Pidastina zur Zeit Christi (Freiburg, ISGt!), p. 140 sq. ; (ieiger, Jiidische Zeitschrift fur Wissenschaft und Leben (Bresl. 1869), p. 116 sq.; Warlicld, The Apoloyetical ]'ahie of the Testaments of the XII Patriarchs, in the (N. Y.) Presbyterian Rcviev, Jan. 1880. p. ,57 sq. ; but, above all, Siidser, Testamenta XII Pdlriarchariiin (('amb. and Lond. 1869j; and his Appendix (ibid. 1879).' (B. P.)