Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VIII/The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs/Note by the American Editor

Note by the American Editor.

I had prepared annotations for these pages which I find will require more space than this overloaded volume can afford.&#160; Let me indicate some sources of information which the student may find convenient.&#160; Thus, in Liddon&#8217;s Bampton Lecture (4th ed., London, 1869), consult p. 71 for remarks on Philo and Alexandrian Jews; see also p. 91.&#160; Concerning the &#8220;Book of Enoch,&#8221; pp. 7 and 302; see Westcott, Study of the Gospels (London, 1867), p. 109, a reference to the Book of Jubilees, and its lack of reference to Messiah.&#160; See Jewish doctrine of the Messiah, pp. 86, 143, 151; the &#8220;Book of Henoch,&#8221; pp. 69, 93, 101; apocryphal words of Jews, p. 428.&#160; He places the &#8220;Book of Henoch&#8221; earlier than the &#8220;Book of Jubilees,&#8221; and the Twelve Patriarchs after that.&#160; Compare Westcott&#8217;s Historic Faith (London, 1883), a quotation from Goldwin Smith, on &#8220;the blood of Christ,&#8221; note 8, p. 237.

I cannot forbear to note, among useful suggestions in these Testaments, that (on p. 11) of the share of Simeon in the persecution of Joseph.&#160; It explains the real purpose of Joseph in selecting Simeon as the hostage to be left in Egypt (Gen. xlii. 21&#8211;24.)&#160; Joseph heard the mutual reproaches of his brothers, and foresaw that Simeon would be made to suffer as most guilty:&#160; so he was withdrawn.&#160; Again, a like anxiety (Gen. xlv. 2) appears when Simeon was sent back with them to his father.&#160; Other suggestions may be noted as substantially illustrating the sacred narrative.