THE TESTAMENT OF THE TWELVE PATRIARCHS, The Sons of Jacob. Translated out of Greek into Latin by Robert Grotshead

(ANGLO-JUDAICA)

Jane Ilive

London

1731

Allegorical illustration on title. Replete with woocut illustrations

The Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs purports to transmit the final testaments of the twelve sons of Jacob before their passing. It is the consensus of contemporary scholarly opinion that this pseudepigraphic work was once a Jewish text culled from early Midrashim; any Christological references found therein are later interpolations. Prof. David Flusser writes that the Testaments of the Patriarchs were translated from a Greek manuscript into Latin by Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln, circa 1175-1253. In 1581 this Latin version was translated into English by A. Gilby. Prof. Louis Ginzberg made extensive use of The Testament in his Legends of the Jews. See EJ, Vol. XIII, cols. 184-86