James and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs.

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James and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs.

Post by Ben C. Smith »

Joseph B. Mayor, on pages cxviii-cxxi of his volume offering the text of, a translation of, and a commentary on the epistle of James, lists many points of contact between James and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs. Not all of them are of equal merit, but some are pretty impressive. The following is a tiny sampling of the items from the list:

Trials and Endurance

Testament of Joseph 2.7: 11 In ten trials He showed me tested, and in all of them I endured; for endurance is a mighty charm, and patience gives many good things. / 11 ἐν δέκα πειρασμοῖς δόκιμόν με ἀνέδειξε, καὶ ἐν πᾶσιν αὐτοῖς ἐμακροθύμησα· ὅτι μέγα φάρμακόν ἐστιν ἡ μακροθυμία, καὶ πολλὰ ἀγαθὰ δίδωσιν ἡ ὑπομονή.

James 1.2-4: 2 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. / 2 πᾶσαν χαρὰν ἡγήσασθε, ἀδελφοί μου, ὅταν πειρασμοῖς περιπέσητε ποικίλοις, 3 γινώσκοντες ὅτι τὸ δοκίμιον ὑμῶν τῆς πίστεως κατεργάζεται ὑπομονήν. 4 ἡ δὲ ὑπομονὴ ἔργον τέλειον ἐχέτω, ἵνα ἦτε τέλειοι καὶ ὁλόκληροι ἐν μηδενὶ λειπόμενοι.

Word(s) of Truth

Testament of Gad 3.1: 1 And now, my children, hearken to the words of truth to work righteousness, and all the Law of the Most High, and not go astray through the spirit of hatred, for it is evil in all the doings of men. / 1 καὶ νῦν ἀκούσατε, τέκνα μου, λόγους ἀληθείας, τοῦ ποιεῖν δικαιοσύνην καὶ πάντα νόμον ὑψίστου, καὶ μὴ πλανᾶσθαι τῷ πνεύματι τοῦ μίσους, ὅτι κακόν ἐστιν ἐπὶ πάσαις πράξεσιν ἀνθρώπων.

James 1.18: 18 In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of firstfruits among His creatures. / 18 βουληθεὶς ἀπεκύησεν ἡμᾶς λόγῳ ἀληθείας εἰς τὸ εἶναι ἡμᾶς ἀπαρχήν τινα τῶν αὐτοῦ κτισμάτων.

Mercy/Compassion

Testament of Zebulon 8.3: 3 For how much compassion a man has upon his neighbors, so much also has the Lord upon him. / 3 ὅσον γὰρ ἄνθρωπος σπλαγχνίζεται εἰς τὸν πλησίον, τοσοῦτον Κύριος εἰς αὐτόν.

James 2.13: 13 For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment. / 13 ἡ γὰρ κρίσις ἀνέλεος τῷ μὴ ποιήσαντι ἔλεος· κατακαυχᾶται ἔλεος κρίσεως.

Blessing and Cursing

Testament of Benjamin 6.5: 5 The good mind does not have two tongues, of blessing and of cursing, of insult and of honor, of sorrow and of joy, of quietness and of trouble, of hypocrisy and of truth, of poverty and of wealth; but it has one disposition, pure and uncorrupt, concerning all men. / 5 Ἡ ἀγαθὴ διάνοια οὐκ ἔχει δύο γλώσσας, εὐλογίας καὶ κατάρας, ὕβρεως καὶ τιμῆς, λύπης καὶ χαρᾶς, ἡσυχίας καὶ ταραχῆς, ὑποκρίσεως καὶ ἀληθείας, πενίας καὶ πλούτου· ἀλλὰ μίαν ἔχει περὶ πάντας εἰλικρινῆ καθαρὰν διάθεσιν.

James 3.8-10: 8 But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; 10 from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way. / 8 τὴν δὲ γλῶσσαν οὐδεὶς δαμάσαι δύναται ἀνθρώπων, ἀκατάστατον κακόν, μεστὴ ἰοῦ θανατηφόρου. 9 ἐν αὐτῇ εὐλογοῦμεν τὸν κύριον καὶ πατέρα καὶ ἐν αὐτῇ καταρώμεθα τοὺς ἀνθρώπους τοὺς καθ᾽ ὁμοίωσιν θεοῦ γεγονότας· 10 ἐκ τοῦ αὐτοῦ στόματος ἐξέρχεται εὐλογία καὶ κατάρα. οὐ χρή, ἀδελφοί μου, ταῦτα οὕτως γίνεσθαι.

Envy

Testament of Simeon 3.2-3: 2 For envy rules over the whole mind of a man, and suffers him neither to eat, nor to drink, nor to do any good thing; 3 it ever suggests to him to destroy him whom he envies; and he who is envied ever flourishes, but he who envies fades away. / 2 Καὶ γὰρ ὁ φθόνος κυριεύει πάσης τῆς διανοίας τοῦ ἀνθρώπου καὶ οὐκ ἀφίησιν αὐτὸν οὔτε φαγεῖν, οὔτε πιεῖν, οὔτε ποιῆσαί τι ἀγαθόν· 3 πάντοτε ὑποβάλλει ἀνελεῖν τὸν φθονούμενον· καὶ ὁ μὲν φθονούμενος πάντοτε ἀνθεῖ, ὁ δὲ φθονῶν μαραίνεται.

James 4.2: 2 You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. / 2 ἐπιθυμεῖτε καὶ οὐκ ἔχετε, φονεύετε καὶ ζηλοῦτε καὶ οὐ δύνασθε ἐπιτυχεῖν, μάχεσθε καὶ πολεμεῖτε, οὐκ ἔχετε διὰ τὸ μὴ αἰτεῖσθαι ὑμᾶς.

The Devil Will Flee

Testament of Nephtali 8.4: 8 If you work that which is good, my children, both men and angels will bless you; and God will be glorified through you among the Gentiles, and the devil will flee from you, and the wild beasts will fear you, and the angels will cleave to you. / 8 ἐὰν ἐργάσησθε τὸ καλόν, τέκνα μου, εὐλογήσουσιν ὑμᾶς καὶ οἱ ἄνθρωποι καὶ οἱ ἄγγελοι· καὶ Θεὸς δοξασθήσεται δι' ὑμῶν ἐν τοῖς ἔθνεσι, καὶ ὁ διάβολος φεύξεται ἀφ' ὑμῶν, καὶ τὰ θηρία φοβηθήσονται ὑμᾶς, καὶ οἱ ἄγγελοι ἀνθέξονται ὑμῶν.

James 4.7: 7 Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. / ὑποτάγητε οὖν τῷ θεῷ· ἀντίστητε δὲ τῷ διαβόλῳ, καὶ φεύξεται ἀφ᾽ ὑμῶν.

Draw Near to God

Testament of Dan 6.2: 7 And draw near to God and to the angel who intercedes for you, for He is a mediator between God and man for the peace of Israel. He shall stand up against the kingdom of the enemy. / 7 ἐγγίζετε δὲ τῷ Θεῷ καὶ τῷ ἀγγέλῳ τῷ παραιτουμένῳ ὑμᾶς· ὅτι οὗτός ἐστι μεσίτης Θεοῦ καὶ ἀνθρώπων ἐπὶ τῆς εἰρήνης Ἰσραήλ. κατέναντι τῆς βασιλείας τοῦ ἐχθροῦ στήσεται.

James 4.8: 8 Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you doubleminded. / 8 ἐγγίσατε τῷ θεῷ καὶ ἐγγιεῖ ὑμῖν. καθαρίσατε χεῖρας, ἁμαρτωλοί, καὶ ἁγνίσατε καρδίας, δίψυχοι.

I arrived at Mayor's list via a footnote on page 20 of the commentary on James by J. H. Ropes while researching something completely unrelated; Ropes gives his own sampling from Mayor's list, and most (all but one, I think) of the above items overlap with it. Mayor's list caught my attention because of a diagram I have been mulling over from Beyond the Essene Hypothesis: The Parting of the Ways Between Qumran and Enochic Judaism, by Gabriele Boccaccini:

Qumran Chain (Gabriele Boccaccini, BtEH, Figure 1).png
Qumran Chain (Gabriele Boccaccini, BtEH, Figure 1).png (47.15 KiB) Viewed 7495 times

The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs bear much in common both with Christian texts and with the books of Enoch and related Jewish texts; to put them in context like this diagram does is helpful, even if oversimplified for the sake of presentation.

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Re: James and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs.

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The other figure I have been mulling over from that same book by Gabriele Boccaccini is the following:

Middle Judaisms (Gabriele Boccaccini, BtEH, Figure 2).png
Middle Judaisms (Gabriele Boccaccini, BtEH, Figure 2).png (53.43 KiB) Viewed 7494 times

While I do not at all deny that there is a strong Enochic/Essene influence upon Christianity, I do think that the single line of connection between Christianity and only one predecessor, Essenism, is too simplistic. There are also Pharisaic influences, Hellenistic influences, Samaritan influences, and influences from what Josephus calls "the Fourth Philosophy," whose adherents may have been called Galileans. I have suggested before that the Pillars described in Galatians (James, Cephas, and John) may have been a sort of coalition, a uniting of different movements under a single banner.

YMMV.
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Re: James and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs.

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I think people overdo the "influences" argument. If Jesus was a historical person he belonged to a sect and that sect defined the Jesus movement. If Jesus never existed then Paul or Mark wrote to appeal to a segment of the Israelite population.
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Re: James and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs.

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Secret Alias wrote: Sun Sep 27, 2020 1:50 pm If Jesus was a historical person he belonged to a sect and that sect defined the Jesus movement.
Are you talking about a Q community, or about the church of God of the Pillars, or something else?
If Jesus never existed then Paul or Mark wrote to appeal to a segment of the Israelite population.
What do you mean by “Israelite population”? Would that include, eg, Judaeans and proselyte Jews in Rome (cf. Acts 2:11)?

Ever since I read Shlomo Sand’s The Invention of the Jewish People, I’ve been skeptical, or maybe confused, about who or what or where is a “Ioudaios” in Hellenistic times. I recently picked up EP Sanders’ much lionized Paul and Palestinian Judaism, and I read far enough to realize that there is little or nothing definitively “Palestinian” about the texts he wants to study. It’s little more than shorthand for “not Alexandrian Judaism, so that I don’t have to read Philo” and “not the Odes of Solomon because I don’t know what to make of those either.”
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Re: James and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs.

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Irish1975 wrote: Sun Sep 27, 2020 3:52 pmI recently picked up EP Sanders’ much lionized Paul and Palestinian Judaism, and I read far enough to realize that there is little or nothing definitively “Palestinian” about the texts he wants to study.
Which of the texts he lists would you count as Palestinian, and which would you not?
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Re: James and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs.

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I don’t know. I just didn’t have full confidence in Sanders’ assurance that all this Jewish material is from the heartland, necessarily. I feel like I don’t know much about the specific geographical origins of most Jewish literature from the 200 BCE—200 CE era. Qumran is an obvious exception. Maybe some of these texts give us the info directly and I just haven’t read it or didn’t notice it.

Judaism is pretty spread out after the exile in Babylon, it seems. From the Persian and Hellenistic periods into the Roman period, Jews are spreading North and East and into Alexandria, and eventually deep into Asia Minor, and Italy. We could talk about Palestine or Judaea in terms of political boundaries, but it seems like the cultural boundaries are murkier and much farther out from Jerusalem. At the very least it seems arbitrary to call the Judaism of Alexandrian Jews “Hellenistic,” as Sanders seems to do, when Alexandria was closer to Jerusalem than a lot of other places.
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Re: James and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs.

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Also, if I recall correctly, comparisons of James 1:22, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” and some of the Testaments of the 12 Patriarchs.
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Re: James and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs.

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Irish1975 wrote: Sun Sep 27, 2020 7:10 pm I don’t know. I just didn’t have full confidence in Sanders’ assurance that all this Jewish material is from the heartland, necessarily. I feel like I don’t know much about the specific geographical origins of most Jewish literature from the 200 BCE—200 CE era. Qumran is an obvious exception. Maybe some of these texts give us the info directly and I just haven’t read it or didn’t notice it.
His three categories are (A) the Tannaim, (B) the Dead Sea scrolls, and (C) a selection of Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, a selection consisting of the Wisdom of Sirach, 1 Enoch, Jubilees, the Psalms of Solomon, and 4 Ezra.

I imagine he settles on this list because (A) there is a broad consensus that all of these texts were composed in Palestine, with the possible exception of 4 Ezra, the provenance of which may be more controversial, but Palestine is not unlikely, and (B) there is also a broad consensus that they were originally composed either in Hebrew or possibly (in some cases) in Aramaic. (Consensus is not proof; I am just speculating as to why Sanders might have chosen these particular texts to represent Palestinian Judaism.)

Interestingly, a number of the texts in categories B and C are interconnected. Jubilees quotes from 1 Enoch; the Dead Sea scrolls include fragments of the Wisdom of Sirach, 1 Enoch, and Jubilees. 4 Ezra uses 1 Enoch and Jubilees, at least. These interconnections sort of turn Sanders' list into two distinct collections ([A] the Tannaim, collected in the Mishnah, and [B] the group of texts either found at Qumran or, in the case of 4 Ezra, dependent upon them, since 4 Ezra postdates the destruction of the Qumran complex) plus one possible stray (the Psalms of Solomon, unless this one connects in some way to one of these two groups that is not coming to mind).
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Re: James and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs.

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Ben C. Smith wrote: Mon Sep 28, 2020 4:35 am I imagine he settles on this list because (A) there is a broad consensus that all of these texts were composed in Palestine, with the possible exception of 4 Ezra, the provenance of which may be more controversial, but Palestine is not unlikely, and (B) there is also a broad consensus that they were originally composed either in Hebrew or possibly (in some cases) in Aramaic. (Consensus is not proof; I am just speculating as to why Sanders might have chosen these particular texts to represent Palestinian Judaism.)
Is the term “Palestinian” supposed to be a geographical boundary? cultural? linguistic? If he’s talking about the wider world ofJudaism in the East, it seems arbitrary to exclude Alexandria as “Hellenistic.”
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Re: James and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs.

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Irish1975 wrote: Mon Sep 28, 2020 8:17 am
Ben C. Smith wrote: Mon Sep 28, 2020 4:35 am I imagine he settles on this list because (A) there is a broad consensus that all of these texts were composed in Palestine, with the possible exception of 4 Ezra, the provenance of which may be more controversial, but Palestine is not unlikely, and (B) there is also a broad consensus that they were originally composed either in Hebrew or possibly (in some cases) in Aramaic. (Consensus is not proof; I am just speculating as to why Sanders might have chosen these particular texts to represent Palestinian Judaism.)
Is the term “Palestinian” supposed to be a geographical boundary? cultural? linguistic?
Primarily geographical, to judge from various statements in the book. He paraphrases his subject as "Judaism in Palestine" and characterizes his texts as "material of Palestinian provenance."
If he’s talking about the wider world ofJudaism in the East, it seems arbitrary to exclude Alexandria as “Hellenistic.”
He does not seem to be talking about Syria or Mesopotamia or other Eastern areas. Just Palestine.
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