Dec.5] PROCEEDINGS. [1893.corruptin the Testament of Levi (ch.viii): " And theysaidto me,
I^evi,thy seed shallbe divided intothreebranches,for a sign of the
gloryof the Lord who is to come, and he that hathbeen faithful
shallbe first ; no portion shallbe greater thanhis. Thesecond
shallbe in the priesthood.* Thethird—a new nameshallbe called
overhim,becausehe shall ariseas king fromJudah."
Thesetwo passagesbecomeperfectly clearin the light of the
HebrewMidrash, (PalestinianTargumto Genesis xlix,3, Genesis
Rabba, ch. xcviii, and Midrash Aggadat Bereshit, ch. lxxxii):
" BecauseReubenhad committed that sin (with Bilhah),the three
crowns(whichwereto adorn him)weretakenfrom himandgiven
to his brothers. Thecrownof the firstborn was given to Joseph
(as he got two portions); that of priesthood to Levi, andthat of
sovereigntyto Judah."
Withbut slight alterationwe can emend the text of the Testa
ments,andtheywill then givea good sense.
In like manner I could add numberless parallels from the
Hebrew literature to the most essential portions of the XII
Testaments. Aftertheseremarksand proofs therecan be no doubt
as to the sources of the XII Testaments,andas to their primitive
unitywiththe Book of Jubilees.
It is no less easyto show thatfar from beingwrittenoriginally
in Greek, the Testaments, as we possess them,are an incorrect and
faultytranslationfromthe Hebrew.
In order to prove this statement,I point out a few of such
mistaken translations. The translator must have been only in
differently acquainted with Hebrew, in order to commit such
blundersas the following : Simeon, ch. vi, "and saveby HimAdam;"
coi aw^wu iv ainw tov Acafi,which must have read in Hebrew
01Ntil h»2 W1 D"TNn^D , "and he will save all the children
of man," or Levi, ch. iii : " the ignorances of the righteous," raU
ayvot'at?rCbv biKxiwv,musthavereadin Hebrew, Q^pTSHfTliliy.
" the sins or the transgressions of the righteous." Levi, ch. viii :
"for by their mouth shall the holy place be guarded," in the
originalstood undoubtedly Oi~P0~.y,the usual biblicalexpression
for "according to the command," or "by orderof." Levi,ch. ii :
"And Korah was born in my thirty-first year, towardsthe east."
The last words have absolutely no sense. In Hebrew stood
* The Slavonictranslationhas here, " learning."
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