Dec. 5] PROCEEDINGS. [1893.
THE HEBREW TEXTOF ONE OF THE TESTAMENTS
OF THE TWELVEPATRIARCHS.By Rev. Dr. M. Gaster.A careful study of the old apocryphal literature has proved
beyonddoubt thatit was of purely Jewish origin,and was written
in Hebrew, or in the Aramaic dialect spoken at that time in
Palestine.
I speak of that literature whicharosein the two centuries before
andone century after Christ. Now preservedin translations, or
entirely lost, that literature underwentin the course of time a
considerablechange. Theless its authority was recognised, the
more easierit was the prey of different sects,which shapedand
changedand distorted it through omissions and interpolations,in
orderto suit the views of the then rulingor disputing sects.
Thisclassof literature is popular literature. It is no man's land.
Whoeverchoosestakespossessionof it, and utilises it the best he
likes. Yet the original cannot be entirely obliterated; it betrays
itselfby peculiarities of language, by references to other works,by
contradictionswhere the hand of the interpolator was not skilful
enough.
By the aid of these points, the fact has now beenestablished
beyonddoubtthatthe Book of Enoch, the Book of Jubilees, and
manyothersimilarwritings,wereoriginallycomposed in Hebrew.
The original seemsto have disappeared,and only translationshave
comedownto us, which are just as often mutilationsof the original.
It would lead me far beyond the scope of the present in
vestigationwereI attempting to show thatnot one single Hebrew
originalhas been lost. Theyhaveonlyundergonea certain trans
formation, carried on on a fixed plan. Not that there was any
premeditation in the way how those texts were treated; circum
stances, acting automatically, have had an uniform result. All
those prophetic portions that bore upon actuality and foretold
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