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The Main Issues in the Study of the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

M. De Jonge
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Extract

On the 10th of July 1978 it was 25 years since I had defended my thesis before the Faculty of Theology of the University of Leiden.1 On the 2nd of October of that year the new edition of the Greek text of the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, prepared over a number of years by a small group of people in the same faculty of the same university, came off the press.2 One will understand that the attainment of this milestone gave rise to introspection, retrospection and circumspection. What have I achieved in all those years, what should still be done, why is there still so much difference of opinion among scholars working in the field of the Testaments? Why do I keep returning to them and why do I have the feeling that the more I know the more complications I notice?

Type
Articles
Information
New Testament Studies , Volume 26 , Issue 4 , July 1980 , pp. 508 - 524
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1980

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References

1 The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs. A Study of their Text, Composition and Origin (Assen, 1953; 2 1975).Google Scholar

2 The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs. A Critical Edition of the Greek Text, by de Jonge, M. in cooperation with Hollander, H. W., de Jonge, H.J. and Korteweg, Th. ( = Ps.V.T.Gr. I,2) (Leiden, 1978)Google Scholar. See also the ‘editio minima’ Testamenta XII Patriarcharum, edited according to Cambridge University Library MS Ff 1.24 fols. 203a–261b ( = Ps.V.T.Gr. I) (Leiden, 1964Google Scholar; rev. ed. 1970), and Studies on the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs. Text and Interpretation, ed. de Jonge, M. (St.V.T.Ps. 3) (Leiden, 1975).Google Scholar

3 Edited by Haase, Wolfgang and published by de Gruyter, W., Berlin/New York.Google Scholar

4 See Charlesworth, J. H., ‘Reflections on the SNTS Pseudepigrapha Seminar at Duke on the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs’, N.T.S. 23 (1976–1977), 296–304.Google Scholar

5 ‘New Evidence for the Armenian Version of the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs’, R.B. 84 (1977), 94–107, especially p. 104.Google Scholar

6 ‘Die Textüberlieferung der Testamente der Zwölf Patriarchen’, Z.N.W. 62 (1972), 27–44Google Scholar, reprinted in Studies on the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs (n. 2), ch. ii.

7 Particularly chapters viii, ‘The Greek Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs and the Armenian Version’ and x, ‘Textual criticism and the analysis of the composition of the Testament of Zebulun’ by M. de Jonge and chapter XI, ‘Further observations on the transmission of the text’ by Th. Korteweg.

8 Studies, chapter iii.

9 The Greek Versions of the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs (Oxford, 1908), xxii.Google Scholar

10 ‘The earliest traceable stage…’, Studies, chapter iii, p. 66.Google Scholar

11 See his entire article, particularly the conclusions on p. 79.

12 For details see the new edition, pp. xxx–xxxii.

13 See Studies, chapter x (cf. n. 7), and chapter VIII, also for the opinions of Burchard and Stone.

14 See n. 9.

15 ‘Le Testament de Lévi en Araméen. Fragment de la grotte 4 de Qumrân’, R.B. 62 (1955), 398–406.Google Scholar

16 The latest of which is his ‘Ecrits préesséniens de Qumrân: d'Hénoch à Amram’ in Delcor, M. et al. , Qumrân. Sa piété, sa théologie et son milieu (B.E.Th.L. 46) (Paris–Gembloux/Leuven, 1978), 91–106.Google Scholar

17 See his ‘Ecrits préesséniens’, 97.

18 ‘Ecrits préesséniens’, 97–102.

19 Text in Charles's edition (n. 9), Appendix 1.

20 ‘The meaning of Naphtali's visions’, chapter XVI in Studies in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs.

21 ‘Ecrits préesséniens’, 95.

22 ‘4Q visions de ‘Amram et une citation d'Origène’, R.B. 69 (1972), 77–97.Google Scholar

23 In Travels in the World of the Old Testament. Studies presented to Professor M. A. Beek (Assen, 1974), 132–45Google Scholar. Now chapter XV in Studies; the quotation is found there on p. 258.

24 See his ‘Ecrits préesséniens’, passim.

25 L'Eschatologie des Testaments des Douze Patriarches. 1. Interprétation des textes (Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, Hist. Relig. 6) (Uppsala, 1977), 26–31.Google Scholar

26 See note i. T. Levi is discussed there on pp. 38–52.

27 See note 25.

28 In his History and Romance in Graeco-Oriental Literature (Oxford, 1938), 44–95.Google Scholar

29 See my dissertation, pp. 117–18 and p. 163, n. 5.

30 Seé Kee, H. C., ‘The Ethical Dimension of the Testaments of the XII as a Clue to Provenance’, N.T.S. 24 (1977–1978), 259–71.Google Scholar

31 For this and other aspects of scholarly research on the Testaments see Dixon Slingerland, H., The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs. A critical history of research (S.B.L. Mon. Ser. 21) (Missoula, 1977)Google Scholar; but see my review in J.S.J. 9 (1978), 108–11.Google Scholar

32 See pp. 83–9.

33 ‘Die paränetischen Formen der “Testamente der Zwölf Patriarchen” und ihr Nachwirken in der frühchristlichen Mahnung. Eine formgeschichtliche Untersuchung.’ Diss. Masch. Berlin, 1955.Google Scholar

34 In his article ‘The Ethical Character of the Patriarch Joseph’, in Nickelsburg, G. W. E. Jr (ed.), Studies on the Testament of Joseph (S.B.L. Septuagint and cognate Studies 5) (Missoula, 1975), 47–104, esp. pp. 47–60.Google Scholar

35 Das Bundesformular (W.M.A.N.T. 4) (Neukirchen, 1969), particularly pp. 142–70.Google Scholar

36 ‘The Genre Testament and Forecasts of the Future in the Hellenistic Milieu’, J.S.J. 6 (1975), 57–71Google Scholar and ‘The Genre Testament and the Testament of Abraham’ in Nickelsburg, G. W. E. Jr, Studies on the Testament of Abraham (S.B.L. Septuagint and cognate Studies 6) (Missoula, 1976), 139–52.Google Scholar

37 Los Discursos de Adiós de Gn a Jn 13–17 (Barcelona, 1976).Google Scholar

38 See the article by H. C. Kee mentioned in note 30 and the contribution by Harm W. Hollander mentioned in note 34, as well as a forthcoming study by Hollander on the ethics of the Testaments.

39 Chapter XVII, ‘Testament Issachar als “typisches Testament”. Einige Bemerkungen zu zwei neuen Uebersetzungen der Testamente der Zwölf Patriarchen.’ Here I deal with the translations of Otzen, B. in De Gammeltestamentlige Pseudepigrafer 7 (København, 1974), 677–789Google Scholar and of Becker, J. in Jüdische Schriften aus hellenistisch-römischer Zeit, 3, I (Gütersloh, 1974), 17–163Google Scholar; also with Becker's, J. influential monograph, Untersuchungen zur Entstehungsgeschichte der Testamente der Zwölf Patriarchen (A.G.J.U. 8) (Leiden, 1970).Google Scholar

40 See pp. 89–96.

41 See note 39.

42 See note 25.

43 On this see also H. D. Slingerland's survey of research, mentioned in note 31, pp. 108–12.

44 On the expression θεòς εΙς ἄνδρα ùποκρινóμενος see de Jonge, M. in Studies, 243–4.Google Scholar

45 See his contribution ‘Ein Interpolator interpretiert. Zu der christlichen Bearbeitung der Testamente der Zwölf Patriarchen’, 30–61, in Burchard-J., C.Thomas, Jervell-Joh., Studien zu den Testamenten der zwölf Patriarchen (B.Z.N.W. 36) (Berlin, 1969).Google Scholar