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Testament of Asher

Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs

About this book
Chapter 6

1 So you also, my children, pay attention to the commandments of the Lord, following the truth with integrity. 2 For the two-faced are guilty of a double sin: they both do the evil thing and take pleasure in those who do it, following the example of the spirits of dishonesty and fighting against mankind. 3 So keep the law of the Lord, my children, and do not treat evil as if it were good; instead look to what is truly good and keep it in all the commandments of the Lord, making it your way of life and finding your rest in it. 4 For the final ends of people reveal their righteousness or unrighteousness, when they meet the angels of the Lord and of Satan.⁠ 5 For when the soul departs troubled, it is tormented by the evil spirit that it also served in its lusts and evil deeds. 6 But if a person is peaceful and joyful, he meets the angel of peace, who leads him into eternal life.⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare 4Q544 1:10 and Testament of Asher 6:4

Dead Sea Scrolls, Biblical Retellings · Pseudepigrapha, Testaments

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Summary

In 4Q544 from the Dead Sea Scrolls, opposing angels contend over Amram while he is alive. The Testament of Asher places a similar encounter at death, when a person’s conduct determines whether an evil spirit or an angel of peace receives the soul.

Passages

4Q544 1:10

Dead Sea Scrolls, Biblical Retellings · Visions of Amram
9 all, that I would return to Egypt in peace and see the face of my wife [… and I was looking at the angels whom I saw] 10 in my vision, the vision of the dream. And behold, two were arguing over me and saying [… of his] 11 and they were holding a great dispute over me. And I asked them, “Who are you, that you thus [have power over me?” … And they said to me, “We] 12 [thus] are rulers, and rule over all the sons of Adam.” And they said to me, “Which of us do you [seek to be ruled by?” And behold, I lifted my eyes and saw,] 13 [and one] of them, his appearance was dreadful like a serpent, [and all] his clothing was many-colored, and he was dark with darkness. [His face …] 14 [And the other, I looked,] and behold … […] in his appearance, and his face was smiling, and [he was covered with clothing …]
160–60 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in 4Q544

Testament of Asher 6:4

Pseudepigrapha, Testaments · Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs
4 For the final ends of people reveal their righteousness or unrighteousness, when they meet the angels of the Lord and of Satan. 5 For when the soul departs troubled, it is tormented by the evil spirit that it also served in its lusts and evil deeds. 6 But if a person is peaceful and joyful, he meets the angel of peace, who leads him into eternal life.
100 BCE – 100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Testament of Asher

References

“... (TAsher 6:4-6 may be early evidence for his tradition, but the earliest indisputable evi- dence is Origen's quotation from an apocryphal text about the death of Abraham: Horn. 35 on Luke.) [...] Clearly what he has identified is one specific form (a subtradition) which the tradition of contests between the devil and the angel took in relation to the fate of the soul at death. He recognizes that Jude 9, which is not about the fate of the soul at death, must represent an adaptation of the tradition for a specific purpose. But it is better to see Jude 9 as a specific instance of the general tradition of contests between the devil and the angel, 4QAmram as another specific instance of this general tradition, and Berger's tradition of texts about the fate of the soul at death as a particular form which that tradition took, perhaps at a date later than the time of writing of Jude's source and certainly without any direct relation to Jude's source. ...”
Richard Bauckham, Jude and the Relatives of Jesus in the Early Church (London: T&T Clark International, 2004), 249.

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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4Q544 1:10 and Testament of Asher 6:4

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