Are the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs in the Bible?
No. They appear in no Jewish or Christian canon, including the Ethiopian canon that preserves 1 Enoch and Jubilees. They are Second Temple era Jewish literature with later Christian editing.
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The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs — Free PDF Study Guide
A clear, honest introduction to the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs — twelve deathbed speeches placed in the mouths of the sons of Jacob. Each patriarch reviews his own life, names the sin that shaped it, and warns his children away from it. Written in the centuries between the Testaments and preserved by Christian scribes, they are among the most quotable moral writings of Second Temple Judaism. This free guide gives their background, contents, Christian layers, and canonical status.
An original Bible Sundays study companion. The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs are not Scripture and are in no Bible. They are studied here as Second Temple Jewish literature — read them alongside Genesis 34–50 in the King James Version.
What you get
Twelve deathbed speeches — one confessed sin and one virtue for each patriarch
Reuben on lust, Simeon on envy, Judah on wine and money, Joseph on chastity
The Aramaic Levi Document and the Qumran fragments behind the collection
The Christian interpolations and how scholars identify them
Where the language runs close to the Sermon on the Mount and to Paul
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What are the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs?
They are twelve short books, each presented as the last words of one of Jacob's sons to his children, modelled on Jacob's own blessing in Genesis 49 and on the farewell speech form used by Moses in Deuteronomy. The pattern is consistent: the patriarch recalls his life, confesses the failure that defined it, draws out the moral lesson, and closes with a prophecy about the future of his tribe. Reuben speaks on lust and the seven spirits of error; Simeon on envy; Levi on the priesthood; Judah on courage, and then on wine and greed; Issachar on simplicity; Zebulun on compassion; Dan on anger and lying; Naphtali on the order of nature; Gad on hatred; Asher on the two faces of the soul; Joseph on chastity and patient endurance; Benjamin on the pure mind.
Date, sources, and the Qumran connection
The collection as it stands is a Greek work of the second century BC to the second century AD, but it did not appear from nowhere. Fragments of an Aramaic Levi Document were found in the Cairo Geniza and among the Dead Sea Scrolls, and a Hebrew Testament of Naphtali also turned up at Qumran, showing that testamentary literature about Jacob's sons circulated in Jewish circles well before the Christian era. Scholars divide over whether the Testaments are a Jewish work later edited by Christians or a Christian composition using older Jewish sources. The Christian layer is not hidden: several passages name the Saviour who will come from Levi and Judah in terms no pre-Christian Jewish writer would use, and they are usually detachable from the surrounding moral teaching.
Why they are worth reading
For anyone studying the world of the New Testament, the Testaments are unusually valuable. The ethical vocabulary is startlingly close to the Gospels and epistles: love of God and neighbour paired as a summary of the law, the two spirits or two ways set before every soul, exhortations to forgive from the heart, warnings against anger as the root of murder, the imagery of spiritual armour. None of this proves borrowing in either direction; what it shows is the moral world in which Jesus taught and Paul wrote — and how much of the New Testament's ethical language would have sounded native to a devout Jew of the period. The Testaments also enrich the reading of Genesis, since they take the sparse notices about Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah and press them into sustained moral reflection.
Why they are not Scripture
They are pseudonymous — no one in antiquity seriously believed Reuben or Gad wrote a Greek treatise — and they are late, composed more than a millennium after the men they name. No Jewish canon includes them, and no Christian canon, East or West, has ever received them; even the Ethiopian church, which keeps 1 Enoch and Jubilees, does not include the Testaments. They were preserved by Christian scribes because they were edifying, and they were read in the Middle Ages after Robert Grosseteste translated them into Latin in 1242 believing them to be genuine Jewish prophecy of Christ. Read them for what they are: serious, sometimes beautiful moral teaching from the world between the Testaments, to be measured against the King James Bible rather than added to it.
Frequently asked questions
Who wrote the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs?
Unknown. They are pseudonymous works attributed to Jacob's twelve sons but composed in Greek far later, drawing on older Aramaic and Hebrew testament traditions found at Qumran.
Which patriarch's testament is most important?
The Testament of Levi, because of its priestly and messianic material and because an older Aramaic Levi Document lies behind it, and the Testament of Judah, for its treatment of kingship, wine, and money.
Are the Testaments Jewish or Christian?
Both, in layers. The core moral material is Jewish; a number of passages are unmistakably Christian additions naming the Saviour from Levi and Judah. Scholars disagree about how large each layer is.
Do the Testaments quote the New Testament?
They share striking ethical language with it — the double love command, the two ways, spiritual armour — but the relationship is debated and runs in more than one direction. The Christian interpolations, of course, presuppose Christian faith.
What does Genesis actually say about Jacob's sons?
Genesis 29–50 gives their births, Reuben's sin (35:22), Simeon and Levi at Shechem (34), Judah and Tamar (38), the Joseph narrative (37–50), and Jacob's blessing over all twelve (49). The Testaments expand these notices into moral discourses.
Were the Testaments found among the Dead Sea Scrolls?
Related material was. An Aramaic Levi Document and a Hebrew Testament of Naphtali were found at Qumran, but the complete Greek collection of twelve testaments was not.
Can I print or share this study guide?
Yes. This guide is an original Bible Sundays work, free to print, copy, and share for personal, ministry, or classroom use. No email or sign-up required.
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Biblical names and their meanings
Every name below appears in the King James Bible. Each page gives the meaning, the verse it appears in, and who carried it in Scripture.
- ChristianFollower of Christ
- ChristianFollower of Christ
- DanielGod is my judge
- DavidBeloved
- DeborahBee
- EdenDelight or paradise
- EdenDelight; Paradise
- EdenDelight; Place of pleasure
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