Dec.5] SOCIETYOF BIBLICAL ARCHEOLOGY. [1893.
further in the commentary of Bahya (1291)to Exodus. This
chronologyis to be found alsoin the very mucholderSederOlam
Zutta, andcan be traced very far back to the Hellenistic writer,
Demetrius,quotedby Alexander Polyhistor.*
Bahyamentionsalsothe wars of the children of Jacob withthe
Emoritekings;t and a long list of parallels is given by Zunz and
Jellinek.f
A fragment of Levi's Apocalypticvision, andhis selection for
the priesthood, has been preserved to us by R. Salomo Itzhaki
(d. 1 105) in his commentary to Gen. xxix, 34; I translate here the
short passage: "There is an Aggadic Midrashin Deuteronomy
major, that Godsent the angel Gabriel and brought Levi up
to Him, andHe gave hima name, and the twenty-four giftsof the
priesthood; and because He accompanied himwithgifts, therefore
was he called Levi(companion)." CompareTestamentLevi,ch. i-v
andch. viii. Theselection of Levi for the priesthood is explained
in the Book of Jubilees (ch.xxxii,v. 3),§ by a peculiar counting,in
consequenceof which Leviwas the Tenth, whomhe had promised to
offerto the Lord. "And in those daysRachelbecamepregnant
withher son Benjamin, andJacobcountedhis sons fromhim on
upwards,andthe portion of the Lord fell upon Levi,andhis father
clothedhim with the garments of the priesthood, and filledhis hands."
An absolutely identicalcalculationwe find in the Palestinian Targum
to Gen. xxxii, 25 ; in the chapters of R. Eliezer, ch. xxxvii, in the
MidrashTanhuma ad loc.,\ andin fragments of the Jelamdenu
publishedby Jellinek.lf
In the Testament of Reuben we find, ch. vi, the following mean
ingless sentence: " For to Levi the Lordgavethe sovereignty,
andto Judah andto me also with them,and to Dan and Joseph
that we should be for rulers." A statement which is utterly
irreconcilablewiththe clear wordsof the Bible, whereinReubenis
deprivedof his sovereignty.
In connection withthis passagestandsanotherno less hopelessly
* J. Freudenthal, " HellenistischeStudien;" Breslau, 1874,p. 51-53.
+ Ed. Venice, 1 544,/. 48 a.
X Zunz, " GottesdienstlicheVortraege," p. 153, and Jellinek, Bet ha-Midrash,
III, p. ix-x ; xiii-xiv.
§ Cf. Kiinsch, "DasBuchd. Jubilaeen," p. 298, 300,etc.
II Cf. Zunr, " Literaturgeschichted. Synagogalen Possie,"p. 24.
f Lx., vi, p. So, ad Leviticus, xxvii,32.
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