THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
Guidi, II testo copto del Test, di Abramo (Rome, 1900). (26) There is a Testament of Jacob named in the Decretum Gelasii, and a Testament of Isaac and Jacob is known. The Proseuche Ioseph, Prayer or Blessing of Joseph, containing some 1,100 stichoi, spoken of by Origen and Michael Glykas, is possibly the same as the " words of Joseph the upright " of the Ascension of Isaiah, iv. 22, to which some see reference in Ecclus. xlix. 12. (27) The Testament of Moses named by Nicephorus, Pseudo-Athanasius, and elsewhere may be the same as Jubilees (no. 33 below); though if the number of stichoi is correctly given as 1,100, this supposition can hardly be sustained. (28) A Testament of Ezekiel appears in the Martyrdom of Isaiah (no. 34 below). (29) For the Testament of Adam and Noah see no. 39 below. (30) In the Acts of the Council of Nicsea appears a Book of the Mystic Words of Moses, of which nothing further is known. (31) On the Book of Eldad and Modad cf. G. Beer in Monatschrift fiir Wissenscfiaft des Jvdenthums, 1857, pp. 346 sqq. It is named in the Shepherd of Hermas, Vision, ii. 3. (32) On the Testament of Job, related to the Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs, cf . James, Apocrypha Anecdota, v. 1, in TS, 1897, pp. Ixx. sqq., 103 sqq., and Conybeare in JQR, 1900, pp. Ill sqq.
IV. Historical Pseudepigrapha: These are the product for the most part of the Hellenistic Jews who busied themselves in the second and first centuries before Christ in narrating and adorning the Biblical stories as a part of their propaganda.
33. Jubilees: For the patriarchal history Epiphanius, many of the Byzantine writers, and others relied upon a book cited as Jubilees, Little Genesis, and under like titles. Either a like work, or one excerpted from this, was known as the Apocalypse of Moses, the Life of Adam, the Testament of Moses, or Book of the Daughters of Adam. In the thirteenth century it was lost to knowledge, and reappeared in the middle of the last century in an Ethiopic " Book of Jubilees," published first by Dillmann from two manuscripts in 1859, by Schodde in translation (Oberlin, 1888), by Charles from four manuscripts in 1895, in translation in 1902 from further material, and by Littmann in 1900 (in Kautzsch, Apokryphen) . Ceriani discovered fragments of a Latin translation containing about onethird of the matter in the Ethiopic text in a manuscript in the Ambrosian library in Milan, which he published in 1861; Ronsch edited them in 1874 and Charles in 1895. There are indications of a Syriac translation, though whether of excerpts or of the whole is not decided. The Ethiopic text goes back to a Greek version, which is derived from a Hebrew, as is shown by the traces of plays on words which require for explanation a Hebrew (not an Aramaic) original (cf. iv. 15, 28). Tendencies to a use of New Hebrew are shown in the use of Mastema for Satan (e.g., in x. 8). On the whole, the Ethiopic text is reliable and in good condition, though gaps, probably having a purpose or " tendency," are indicated. The contents run parallel to Biblical history from the creation to the institution of the Passover (Gen. i.-Ex. xii.). A very definite chronology is involved, the whole period from the
creation till the entrance into Canaan being arranged in fifty jubilee periods of forty-nine years each (2,450 years). Each event is located with reference to this chronological scheme. The text of Genesis is employed in the manner of midrash, the narrative embellished, the text itself sometimes suppressed or altered to fit the needs of the author. The spirit of the priestly writer is intensified. Thus the Sabbath was not an institution begun at creation, but was observed by God and the archangels; circumcision was not begun with Abraham, the angels employed it; the entire Mosaic law is but the replica of an eternal exemplar. Even the tabernacle existed in heaven. Similarly, the weaknesses of the patriarchs are glossed, and what to the advanced sense seemed bad theology underwent change. Abraham's statement about Sarah is suppressed, the temptation of Abraham proceeded not from God but from Mastema (Satan), and Jacob was never tricky nor unrighteous. The advantages accruing to the chosen people are set in high lights. The isolation of Israel from the heathen is emphasized— the heathen are the inheritance of Israel, and whoever gives his daughter to a Gentile gives her to Moloch. Jubilees assumes to be derived from Moses, an esoteric work, which includes esoteric material communicated by the patriarchs from Enoch by way of Methusaleh, Lamech, Noah, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. So that it may be described as a haggadic-halachic supplement to the Torah from a Levitical-apologetic standpoint. The background of Jubilees is a period when the religious and national peculiarities of Israel were in danger of extinction from foreign culture — i.e., between 200-160 b.c. It reflects the emphasis laid upon the Sabbath and circumcision through the attempts of Antiochus Epiphanes to abolish those institutions. Of like purport is the stress laid upon avoidance of marriage with Gentiles and even of eating with them; and also the suggestion of abstention from the games of the stadium. The victorious career of the Maccabees lies behind the history as reflected in the victory of Jacob and his sons over the Amorites (xxix. 10-11, xxxiv. 1 sqq.), and the victories of John Hyrcanus over the Edomites also are past, while Herod has not yet come to the throne. The high-priestly functions assumed by the Maccabean house are present realities, regarded as legitimate permanencies. The author appears as a Pharisee of the straitest sect, yet as an ardent believer in the Maccabean leadership. The time of the composition therefore seems to be the middle period of the reign of John Hyrcanus. The program of the author seems to be a sanctioning of the Pharisaic idea of government by and through the Maccabeans. While the period of the reign of Alexandra, which has been proposed, would in some respects fit the circumstances, there is no hint of the breach between the Pharisees and the Maccabees which immediately preceded that reign. There is little to support the supposition that the author has used the visions of the Ethiopic Enoch and that therefore a time in the reign of Herod is to be assigned for the composition of Jubilees.
34. The Martyrdom of Isaiah. Origen frequently mentions an apocryphal Jewish writing in which