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I.—The Testament of Reuben Concerning Thoughts.

1.  The copy of the Testament of Reuben, what things he charged his sons before he died in the hundred and twenty-fifth year of his life.  When he was sick two years after the death of Joseph, his sons and his sons’ sons were gathered together to visit him.  And he said to them, My children, I am dying, and go the way of my fathers.  And when he saw there Judah and Gad and Asher, his brethren, he said to them, Raise me up, my brethren, that I may tell to my brethren and to my children what things I have hidden in my heart, for from henceforth my strength faileth me.  And he arose and kissed them, and said, weeping:  Hear, my brethren, give ear to Reuben your father, what things I command you.  And, behold, I call to witness against you this day the God of heaven, that ye walk not in the ignorance of youth and fornication wherein I ran greedily, and I defiled the bed of Jacob my father.  For I tell you that He smote me with a sore plague in my loins for seven months; and had not Jacob our father prayed for me to the Lord, surely the Lord would have destroyed me.  For I was thirty years old when I did this evil in the sight of the Lord, and for seven months I was sick even unto death; and I repented for seven years in the set purpose of my soul before the Lord.  Wine and strong drink I drank not, and flesh entered not into my mouth, and I tasted not pleasant food,³⁹

39 There seems a reminiscence here of the words of Dan. x. 3, LXX.  [For proofs of penitence, see p. 11, note 3, infra.]

2.  And now hear me, my children, what things I saw in my repentance concerning the seven spirits of error.  Seven spirits are given against man from Beliar, and they are chief of the works of youth; and seven spirits are given to him at his creation, that in them should be done every work of man.⁴⁰

40 For this use of πνεύματα as applied to the senses, we may cite Plutarch (De placitis philosophorum, iv. 21), who, speaking with reference to the Stoic philosophy, says, ἡ μὲν ὅρασις ἐστὶ πνεῦμα διατεινον ἀπὸ τοῦ ἡγεμονικοῦ μέχρις ὀφθαλμῶν.

3.  Besides all these, there is an eighth (8) spirit of sleep, with which is created entrancement of man’s nature, and the image of death.  With these spirits are mingled the spirits of error.  The first (1), the spirit of fornication, dwelleth in the nature and in the senses; the second (2) spirit of insatiateness in the belly; the third (3) spirit of fighting in the liver and the gall.  The fourth (4) is the spirit of fawning and trickery, that through over-officiousness a man may be fair in seeming.  The fifth (5) is the spirit of arrogance, that a man may be stirred up and become high-minded.  The sixth (6) is the spirit of lying, in perdition and in jealousy to feign words, and to conceal⁴¹

41 This clause is only found in Cd. Oxon.; it seems demanded by the following ἀπό

And now, children, love the truth, and it shall preserve you.  I counsel you, hear ye Reuben your father.  Pay no heed to the sight of a woman, nor yet associate privately with a female under the authority of a husband, nor meddle with affairs of womankind.  For had I not seen Bilhah bathing in a covered place, I had not fallen into this great iniquity.⁴²

42 Cf. Gen. xxxv. 22.  The Gader mentioned below is the Edar of ver. 21, the Hebrew ע  being reproduced, as often, by γ.

43 [This section is censured by Lardner as unsuitable to dying admonitions.  He forgets Oriental simplicity.]

4.  Pay no heed, therefore, to the beauty of women, and muse not upon their doings; but walk in singleness of heart in the fear of the Lord, and be labouring in works, and roaming in study and among your flocks, until the Lord give to you a wife whom He will, that ye suffer not as I did.  Until my father’s death I had not boldness to look stedfastly into the face of Jacob, or to speak to any of my brethren, because of my reproach; and even until now my conscience afflicteth me by reason of my sin.  And my father comforted me; for he prayed for me unto the Lord, that the anger of the Lord might pass away from me, even as the Lord showed me.  From henceforth, then, I was protected, and I sinned not.  Therefore, my children, observe all things whatsoever I command you, and ye shall not sin.  For fornication is the destruction of the soul, separating it from God, and bringing it near to idols, because it deceiveth the mind and understanding, and bringeth down young men into hell before their time.  For many hath fornication destroyed; because, though a man be old or noble, it maketh him a reproach and a laughing-stock with Beliar and the sons of men.  For in that Joseph kept himself from every woman, and purged his thoughts from all fornication, he found favour before the Lord and men.  For the Egyptian woman did many things unto him, and called for magicians, and offered him love potions, and the purpose of his soul admitted no evil desire.  Therefore the God of my fathers delivered him from every visible and hidden death.  For if fornication overcome not the mind, neither shall Beliar overcome you.

5.  Hurtful are women, my children; because, since they have no power or strength over the man, they act subtilly through outward guise how they may draw him to themselves; and whom they cannot overcome by strength, him they overcome by craft.  For moreover the angel of God told me concerning them, and taught me that women are overcome by the spirit of fornication more than men, and they devise in their heart against men; and by means of their adornment they deceive first their minds, and instil the poison by the glance of their eye, and then they take them captive by their doings, for a woman cannot overcome a man by force.

Therefore flee fornication, my children, and command your wives and your daughters that they adorn not their heads and their faces; because every woman who acteth deceitfully in these things hath been reserved to everlasting punishment.  For thus they allured the Watchers⁴⁴

44 This name, occurring once again in the Testaments (Naph. 3), is one frequently found applied to the angels as the custodians of the world and of men.  Thus, in the Chaldee of Daniel (iv. 10, 14, 20: 13, 17, 23, Eng. Ver.), we find the expression ריע, which Aquila and Symmachus render ἐγρήγορος.  The corresponding Ethiopic term is of frequent occurrence in the book of Enoch, not only of the fallen angels (e.g., x. 9, 15, xvi. 1, etc.), but of the good (xii. 2, 3, etc., ed. Dillmann).  See also Gesenius, Thesaurus, s.v. ריע.

45 [Gen. vi. 4; Revised margin, 1 Cor. xi. 10; Jude 6, 7.]

6.  Beware, therefore, of fornication; and if you wish to be pure in your mind, guard your senses against every woman.  And command them likewise not to company with men, that they also be pure in their mind.  For constant meetings, even though the ungodly deed be not wrought, are to them an irremediable disease, and to us an everlasting reproach of Beliar; for fornication hath neither understanding nor godliness in itself, and all jealousy dwelleth in the desire thereof.  Therefore ye will be jealous against the sons of Levi, and will seek to be exalted over them; but ye shall not be able, for God will work their avenging, and ye shall die by an evil death.  For to Levi the Lord gave the sovereignty, and to Judah,⁴⁶

46 [See Lardner on this root idea of our author, vol. ii. p. 353; but he is wrong as to Levi and Mary.  Also Joseph, sec. 19, note 2, infra.]

47 The reading of Cd. Oxon., μετ᾽ αὐτόν, is doubtless to be preferred.

7.  And Reuben died after that he had given command to his sons; and they placed him in a coffin until they bore him up from Egypt, and buried him in Hebron in the double⁴⁸

48 i.e., Machpelah, which in Hebrew means double, and is so rendered by the LXX., e.g., Gen. xxiii. 9.

E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH