the Testament of Twelve Patriarchs: Deathbed Prophecies Sons Jacob

Twelve dying men. Twelve final testimonies. One thread of prophecy running through all of them. As the patriarch Jacob lay dying, his twelve sons gathered around his bed - and in the tradition preserved here, each son later did the same before his own children. He spoke a testament: not a sermon, but a confession, a warning, and a prophecy, delivered by a man with nothing left to protect. Reuben admits the transgression he could never undo. Simeon confesses the hatred that poisoned him from within. Judah lays bare the war between strength of body and weakness of will. Gad describes a resentment that ate at him for eleven months like an acid. And running through all twelve testimonies is something more than confession - a persistent, unmistakable expectation of a coming deliverer, a figure who will be both priest and king, who will open the heavens and raise the dead. >Inside this edition: - The complete text of all twelve testaments - Reuben through Benjamin- Chapter-by-chapter commentary on the historical, moral, and prophetic content of each testament- An appendix cross-referencing messianic prophecies with their New Testament fulfillments- An appendix tracing parallels between the testaments and the teaching of Jesus- A discussion of the testaments' connection to the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran- A survey of scholarly debate on the dating and authorship of the text- A glossary of key terms, figures, and theological concepts- A selected bibliography for further studyComposed in the centuries surrounding the turn of the common era, and later recovered in fragments among the Dead Sea Scrolls, these testaments offer a window into the devotional imagination of Second Temple Judaism - the soil in which the Gospel took root, and the vocabulary of expectation the earliest hearers of the Christian message already carried in their hearts. Twelve men. Twelve deathbeds. Twelve testimonies that still speak.