Library/Old Testament pseudepigrapha

Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs

Each son confesses a vice and recommends a virtue. Levi and Judah are given special futures. Watchers appear in Reuben and Naphtali as a warning about women’s adornment and mixed order — Enoch cited as already-written scripture.

Status: Pseudepigrapha
Date: 2nd century BCE, with later Christian interpolations
Languages: Greek (complete) · Aramaic Levi at Qumran
Setting: Deathbed speeches of Jacob’s twelve sons

What it contains

Twelve farewell speeches
Levi’s priesthood
Judah’s kingship
Watchers as negative example

Why it sits outside most canons

Christian interpolations made it unusable as Jewish scripture; Jewish origin made it unusable as a Gospel. It sat between.

Themes

Virtue
Priesthood
Watchers
Messiah from Levi and Judah

Passages

T. Reuben 5:6–7
Thus they allured the Watchers before the flood; as these continually beheld them, they conceived desire, and changed themselves into the shape of men.