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Testament of Asher

Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs

About this book
Chapter 1

1 A record of what Asher told his sons in the hundred and twenty-fifth year of his life. 2 While he was still in good health, he said to them: Listen, children of Asher, to your father, and I will declare to you all that is upright in the sight of the Lord. 3 God has given two ways to humanity, two inclinations, two kinds of action, two ways of acting, and two outcomes.⁠ 4 So all things come in pairs, one set against the other. 5 For there are two ways, of good and of evil, and with them are the two inclinations within us that tell them apart. 6 So if the soul takes pleasure in the good inclination, all its actions are righteous, and if it sins, it repents at once. 7 For with its thoughts set on righteousness and casting away wickedness, it immediately overthrows the evil and uproots the sin. 8 But if it leans toward the evil inclination, all its actions are wicked; it drives away the good, clings to the evil, and is ruled by Beliar. Even when it does something good, Beliar twists it into evil. 9 For whenever it begins to do good, Beliar forces the outcome of the action into evil for him, since the storehouse of his inclination is filled with an evil spirit.

Texts in conversation

Compare Testament of Asher 1:3 and Didache 1:1

Pseudepigrapha, Testaments · Early Christian

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Summary

In the Testament of Asher, a Jewish work in the voice of Jacob's son, Asher describes two ways of good and evil with two inclinations inside each person. The Didache, an early church manual, also begins with two ways, but without inner inclinations.

Passages

Testament of Asher 1:3

Pseudepigrapha, Testaments · Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs
3 God has given two ways to humanity, two inclinations, two kinds of action, two ways of acting, and two outcomes. 4 So all things come in pairs, one set against the other. 5 For there are two ways, of good and of evil, and with them are the two inclinations within us that tell them apart. 6 So if the soul takes pleasure in the good inclination, all its actions are righteous, and if it sins, it repents at once. 7 For with its thoughts set on righteousness and casting away wickedness, it immediately overthrows the evil and uproots the sin. 8 But if it leans toward the evil inclination, all its actions are wicked; it drives away the good, clings to the evil, and is ruled by Beliar. Even when it does something good, Beliar twists it into evil. 9 For whenever it begins to do good, Beliar forces the outcome of the action into evil for him, since the storehouse of his inclination is filled with an evil spirit.
100 BCE – 100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Testament of Asher

Didache 1:1

Early Christian
1 There are two Ways: one of Life and one of Death, and there is a significant difference between the two Ways. 2 The way of life is as follows: First, you should love the God who created you; secondly, love your neighbor as yourself. Treat others as you would want to be treated. 3 Now, the teaching behind these words is this: Bless those who curse you, pray for your enemies, and fast for those who persecute you. What credit is it to you if you love only those who love you back? Don't even the non-believers do the same? Instead, love those who hate you, and you will have no enemies.
90–120 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Didache

References

“... Furthermore, it is important to remember here that the two-ways tradition was regularly used in connection with apocalyptic imagery of the end. In the Epistle of Barnabas the section on the two ways is followed by a conclusion that evokes the resurrection, the retribution, the day of judgment, the nearness of the Lord, and his reward (Barn. 21). Both the Didache and the Testament of Asher begin with the two ways and end by evoking apocalyptic images of the end. According to T. Ash. 1:3–4: “God has granted two ways to the sons of men, two mind-sets, two lines of action, two models, and two goals. Accordingly, everything is in pairs, the one against the other.” [...] John S. Kloppenborg points out that the Didache “has eliminated both angels and eschatology” (the dualistic schema) from the two ways (“The Transformation of Moral Exhortation in Didache 1–5,” in The Didache in Context: Essays on Its Text, History, and Transmission [ed. Clayton N. Jefford; Leiden: Brill, 1995], 97). The difference between the two ways in the Didache and Barnabas is “the lack of apocalyptic appeals” and “the marked shift to the authority of the Torah” (109). We have to ask whether there really is a connection between these two shifts. The Didache nevertheless ends with warnings about the coming of the world deceiver and the division of people into two categories, those who will perish and those who will be saved. Kloppenborg’s view that an ethical strategy and an apocalyptic horizon are mutually exclusive (101) is not convincing. In the Didache as we now have it, they seem to support each other. ...”
Paul B. Decock, “Hostility against the Wealth of Babylon: Revelation 17:1-19:10,” in Animosity, the Bible, and Us: Some European, North American, and South African Perspectives, ed. John T. Fitzgerald, Fika J. van Rensburg, and Herrie F. van Rooy, GPBS 12 (Atlanta: SBL, 2009), 277.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Testament of Asher 1:3 and Didache 1:1

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