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Testament of Levi

Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs

About this book
Chapter 4

1 Now, therefore, know that the Lord will execute judgment upon the sons of men. 2 Because when the rocks are being torn apart, And the sun quenched, And the waters dried up, And the fire cowering, And all creation troubled, And the invisible spirits melting away; And Hades takes spoils through the visitations of the Most High, Men will be unbelieving and persist in their iniquity. 3 On this account, they will be judged with punishment. 4 Therefore the Most High has heard your prayer, To separate you from iniquity, and that you should become to Him a son, And a servant, and a minister of His presence.⁠ 5 You will shine the light of knowledge in Jacob, And like the sun you will be to all the seed of Israel. 6 And there will be given to you a blessing, and to all your descendants, Until the Lord visits all the Gentiles in His tender mercies forever. 7 And therefore you have been given counsel and understanding, so that you might instruct your sons about this; Because those who bless Him will be blessed, And those who curse Him will perish.

Texts in conversation

Compare Jubilees 31:14 and Testament of Levi 4:4

Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions · Pseudepigrapha, Testaments

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Summary

In Jubilees, Isaac blesses Levi with a priesthood that lets his descendants approach God like the angels. The Testament of Levi grounds that divine access in an angelic vision that names Levi a minister of God’s presence.

Passages

Jubilees 31:14

Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions
13 And he turned to Levi first, and began to bless him first, and said to him: May the God of all, the very Lord of all the ages, bless you and your children throughout all the ages. 14 And may the Lord give to you and to your descendants greatness and great glory, and cause you and your descendants, from among all flesh, to approach Him to serve in His sanctuary as the angels of the presence and as the holy ones. (Even) as they, the descendants of your sons shall be for glory and greatness and holiness, and may He make them great to all the ages. 15 And they shall be judges and princes, and chiefs of all the descendants of the sons of Jacob; They shall speak the word of the Lord in righteousness, And they shall judge all His judgments in righteousness. And they shall declare My ways to Jacob And My paths to Israel. The blessing of the Lord shall be given in their mouths To bless all the descendants of the beloved.
170–125 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Jubilees

Testament of Levi 4:4

Pseudepigrapha, Testaments · Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs
3 On this account, they will be judged with punishment. 4 Therefore the Most High has heard your prayer, To separate you from iniquity, and that you should become to Him a son, And a servant, and a minister of His presence. 5 You will shine the light of knowledge in Jacob, And like the sun you will be to all the seed of Israel. 6 And there will be given to you a blessing, and to all your descendants, Until the Lord visits all the Gentiles in His tender mercies forever.
100 BCE – 100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Testament of Levi

References

... On these verses, see Rapp, Jakob in Bet-El, 212–22. In his analysis, he is especially concerned to determine the relations between the contents of verses 13-17 and material in the Aramaic Levi Document and the Testament of Levi. He notes (page 221) that Jubilees 31:13-17 and Testament of Levi 2:1–5:8 have a high degree of correspondence, including verbal parallels. The similarities between Jubilees and the Testament of Levi here are closer than with the Aramaic Levi Document. Kugel, however, maintains that there really are no parallels with the section about the first vision in Testament of Levi 2–5 (“Levi’s Elevation,” 42–46)—a proposition difficult to accept, as the commentary will show. ...
James C. VanderKam, Jubilees 2: A Commentary on the Book of Jubilees Chapters 22-50 (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2018), 852.

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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