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4Q213b

Aramaic Levi c

About this book

Fragment 1

1 […] I have favored you above all flesh […] 2 [… And those seven departed from me,] and I awoke from my sleep. Then 3 [I said, “This is a vision, and so I am amazed⁠ that I should have any vision at all.”] And I hid this too in my heart, and to no one 4 [did I reveal it. And we went to my father Isaac, and he too blessed me in this way. Then,] when Jacob my father was tithing⁠ 5 [everything that he had, according to his vow, I was first at the head of] the priesthood, and to me, of all his sons, he gave 6 [an offering to God. He clothed me in the garment of the priesthood and consecrated me, and I became a priest of] the eternal God […]

Texts in conversation

Compare 4Q213b 1 4 and Testament of Levi 9:4

Dead Sea Scrolls, Biblical Retellings · Pseudepigrapha, Testaments

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Summary

In 4Q213b from the Dead Sea Scrolls, Levi’s vision is followed by Isaac’s blessing and Jacob’s tithe. The Testament of Levi adds a vision for Jacob, giving the father his own revelation that Levi will serve as priest.

Passages

4Q213b 1 4

Dead Sea Scrolls, Biblical Retellings · Aramaic Levi c
2 [… And those seven departed from me,] and I awoke from my sleep. Then 3 [I said, “This is a vision, and so I am amazed that I should have any vision at all.”] And I hid this too in my heart, and to no one 4 [did I reveal it. And we went to my father Isaac, and he too blessed me in this way. Then,] when Jacob my father was tithing 5 [everything that he had, according to his vow, I was first at the head of] the priesthood, and to me, of all his sons, he gave 6 [an offering to God. He clothed me in the garment of the priesthood and consecrated me, and I became a priest of] the eternal God […]
160–60 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in 4Q213b

Testament of Levi 9:4

Pseudepigrapha, Testaments · Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs
1 And after two days Judah and I went up with our father Jacob to Isaac our grandfather. 2 And my grandfather blessed me according to all the words of the visions I had seen. 3 And he would not come with us to Bethel. 4 And when we came to Bethel, my father saw a vision concerning me, that I should be their priest to God. 5 And he rose early in the morning and paid tithes of everything to the Lord through me.
100 BCE – 100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Testament of Levi

References

“... This word is unexplained in ALD: no vow has been mentioned, at least in the surviving text: see Introduction, pp. 15–16, 40. In TPL 9:3–4 we read “And when we came to Bethel, my father Jacob saw in a vision concerning me that I should be a priest for them to God. And after having risen early in the morning he paid tithes of all to the Lord through me”. Observe that no hint of a vow occurs in TPL either, but there is a vision of Levi’s destined priesthood, as a result of which Jacob pays him tithes. It is not unreasonable to speculate that ALD also origi- nally had a dream vouchsafed to Jacob before this point in the story, and that this was the context of the missing vow. ...”
Jonas C. Greenfield, Michael E. Stone, and Esther Eshel, eds., The Aramaic Levi Document: Edition, Translation, Commentary, SVTP 19 (Leiden: Brill, 2004), 148.

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4Q213b 1 4 and Testament of Levi 9:4

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