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TESTAMENTS OF THE THREE PATRIARCHS

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Originally appearing in Volume V26, Page 666 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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TESTAMENTS OF THE THREE PATRIARCHS . This apocryphal See also:

work of the See also:Hebrew Scriptures was first published by M. R. See also:James (The Testament of See also:Abraham, the See also:Greek See also:Text now first edited with an Introduction and Notes. With an appendix containing extracts from the Arabic Version of the Testaments of Abraham, See also:Isaac and See also:Jacob, by See also:Barnes, Texts and Studies, ii. 2: See also:Cambridge). The Greek testament of Abraham is preserved in two recensions from six and three See also:MSS. respectively. This testament is also edited by Vassiliev in his Anecdota Graeco-Byzantina, 1893, i. 292–308 from a See also:Vienna MS. already used by James. According to James, it was written in See also:Egypt in the 2nd See also:century A.D., and was translated subsequently into See also:Slavonic (Tichonrawow, Pamjatniki otretschennoi russkoi Literaturi, 1863, i. 79–90), Rumanian (Gaster, Proceedings of the Society of Biblical See also:Archaeology, 1887, ix. 195–226), Ethiopic and Arabic.

This testament deals with Abraham's reluctance to See also:

die and the means by which his See also:death was brought about. As regards its origin James writes (op. cit., p. 55): " The Testament was originally put together in the second century by a Jewish See also:Christian: for the narrative portions he employed existing Jewish legends, and for the apocalyptic, he See also:drew largely on his See also:imagination." He holds that the See also:book is referred to by See also:Origen, Hem. in Luc. See also:xxxv. With the exception of x.–xi. the work is really a See also:legend and not an See also:apocalypse. To the above conclusions Schiirer, Gesch. See also:des jiid. Volkes, 3rd ed., iii. 252, takes objection. He denies the reference in Origen, and asserts that there are no grounds for the See also:assumption of a partial Jewish origin. But the See also:present writer cannot agree with See also:Schurer in these criticisms, but is convinced that a large See also:body of Jewish tradition lies behind the book. Indeed, Kohler (Jewish Quarterly See also:Review, 1895, v. 581–6o6) has given adequate grounds for regarding this apocryph as in the See also:main an See also:independent work of Jewish origin subsequently enlarged by a few Christian additions. An See also:English See also:translation of James's texts will be found in the Ante-Nicene Christian Library (See also:Clark, 1897), pp.

185-201. The testaments of Isaac and Jacob are in See also:

part still preserved in Arabic and Ethiopic (see James, op. cit., 140—161). (R. H.

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