Prentice Hall: Mathematics, Course 2, Teacher's Edition

R. Charles

PRENTICE/HALL

Prentice Hall Algebra 1 Honors (Honors Gold Series)

Pearson

An excerpt from the INTRODUCTION - General Character of the Book:  The book purports to give the last words, at the approach of death, of each of the twelve patriarchs to his sons. It is evident that the general idea of the book is based upon Jacob's last words to his sons as recorded in Gen. xlix. 1-27. Just as Jacob portrays the character of his sons and declares to them what shall befall them, so in our book each of the patriarchs is represented as describing, in some sense, his own character and as foretelling what shall come to pass among his posterity in the last times. From this latter point of view the book partakes of the character of a prophetic-apocalyptic work. In six of the testaments, those of Reuben, Simeon, Judah, Dan, Naphthali and Joseph, there is a certain correspondence between our book and Gen. xlix. regarding the characters of the patriarchs; as for the remaining six patriarchs no such correspondence exists. Speaking generally, though there are considerable modifications of this in some of the testaments, each testament contains the three following component parts:   (a) An autobiographical sketch in which the patriarch's special vice or virtue is described. In some cases the biblical story forms the basis for this; in others the Bible is not followed. But in each case the autobiographical details are enlarged by many haggadic embellishments.   (b) A warning to avoid the special sin, or an exhortation to cultivate the special virtue, which each patriarch has declared to be specially characteristic of him.  (c) A prophecy concerning the patriarch's posterity in the last times; in nearly each case the patriarchs foretell a falling-away of their descendants which will result in misfortune coming upon them; this takes the form, as a rule, of captivity among the Gentiles.  In some of the testaments sections of special content are introduced which have nothing at all to do "with the three main topics just enumerated. These sections have an interest of their own; but it may well be doubted whether they formed part of the original work. They are as follows:  The seven spirits of deceit (Reuben ii. i-iii. 8).  The vision of the heavens (Levi ii. i-v. 7).  The vision of the seven men in white raiment (Levi viii. 1-18).  A Messianic hymn (Levi xviii. 2-14).  The spirits that wait upon man (Judah xx. 1-5).  The constitution of man (Naphthali ii. 1-10).  The vision on the mount of Ohves (Naphthali v. 1-8).  The vision of the wrecked ship (Naphthah vi. 1-9).  The two ways (Asher i. 3-vi. 6).  Joseph's vision (Joseph xix. 1-12).  The good inclination (Benjamin vi. 1-7). The sword of Behar (Bejamin vii. 1-5).  These offer much that is of great interest, and should be specially studied.  The original language of the book was, in all probability, Hebrew (rather than Aramaic); but the earliest form at present known to be in existence is a Greek translation of this.

Testaments Of The Twelve Patriarchs

W. Oesterley

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From the General Introduction. § I. Short Account of the Book.  In Gen. v. 34 it is said of Enoch that he walked with God. This expression was taken in later times to mean not only that he led a godly life, but also that he was the recipient of superhuman knowledge. It was not unnatural, therefore, that an Apocalyptic literature began to circulate under his name in the centuries when such literature was rife. In the present book, translated from the Ethiopic, we have large fragments of such a literature, proceeding from a variety of authors. Additional portions of this literature may be discovered in the coming years. Only recently two Slavonic MSS., which belong to this literature, but are quite independent of the present book, have been printed in Russia. The present book from the Ethiopic belongs to the second and first centuries B.C. All the writers of the New Testament were familiar with it, and were more or less influenced by it in thought and diction1. It is quoted as a genuine production of Enoch by S. Jude, and as Scripture by S. Barnabas. The authors of the Book of Jubilees, the Apocalypse of Baruch and IV Ezra, laid it under contribution. With the earlier Fathers and Apologists it had all the weight of a canonical book, but towards the close of the third and the beginning of the fourth centuries, it began to be discredited, and finally fell under the ban of the Church. Almost the latest reference to it in the Early Church is made by George Syncellus in his Chronography about 800 A. D., who has preserved for us some long passages in Greek. The book was then lost sight of till 1773, when an Ethiopic version of it was found in Abyssinia by Bruce. This traveller brought home three copies of it, two old MSS. and a transcript from one of them. From one of these Laurence made the first modern translation of Enoch in 1821....

Book Of Enoch

August Dillmann

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