Dec.5] SOCIETVOF BIBLICAL ARCHEOLOGY. [1893.the fulfilment of certain eventswhichwerebeliedby the future,
droppedout, and were soonlost. Theydiscreditedthemselves,and
the peoplediscardedthem. On the other hand,all that which was of
a legendary, historicalcharacter,or of a poetical and visionary, were
preserved. They still exist, and I trust to be able to finish, one
day, my book, "On the Hebrew Fragments of the Apocryphal
Literature."
One of those ancientbookswhichsharedthe same fate with the
Books of Enoch and Jubilees, is now that knownunderthe title
of, "The Testaments of the XII Patriarchs." From the first
publication by Grabe down to Sinker, who published the Greek
text with critical notesandintroduction,many werethe opinions
concerningthe date of the composition and the probable author.
Sinkersummarisesthoseopinions,*and I can do no better than
reproducethemherein a more conciseform.
" Grabe, the first who treated at length of the Testaments, thought
that the writing in question was the work of a Jew shortly beforethe
Christianera, and to account for the presence of passages whichno
Jewcould possiblyhavewritten,he had recourse to the theory of
interpolation. Thisopinion,however, has found but little favour,
and critics have generallyagreedto the conclusions of Nitzsch,
who definitelyattributed the work to a Judaeo-Christian writer,
although admitting a grave objection to this hypothesis to exist
in the language usedwithreference to St. Paul andthe Gentil
Christians."
" A new theory was first advanced witha view of obviating th
objectionby Ritschl (1850),who,for the reason abovealludedto,
maintainedthe author to have beena Christian of Pauline ten
dencies. In the following year this theory was attacked by Kayser,
who upheld the old view, and got rid of the difficulty arisingfrom
the liberal views of the writer by supposing interpolations, more
especiallyin the famous passagealludingto St. Paul."
" Shortly afterappearedthe essay of Vorstman, whichadvocated
Ritschl'sview,and attacked Kayser'sargumentsseriatim; maintain
ing strongly the authenticitly of the supposed interpolation, as
affordingone of the strongest argumentsfor the Pauline originof
the document. Strangelyenough,withina month of the publication
of Vorstman's essay,a second editionof Ritschl's workappeared,
* R. Sinker, " TestamenlaXIIPatriarcharum; " Cambridge, 1869,p. 18 ft
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