The library · Edition and sources
Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs
ANF historical edition · Edition commentary
The Testament of Zebulun Concerning Compassion and Mercy. — Translator and historical edition notes
The Ox. ms . reads 150, and refers the event to two years after Joseph’s death. The text of the Cam. ms . gives an impossible result here, as it would make Zebulun twenty-eight years younger than Joseph, who died at the age of 110. According to the Ox. ms. , Reuben (cf. c. 1) and Zebulun would die in the same year, the former at 125, the latter 150. A comparison of Test. Reub ., c. 1 shows the most probable solution to be to give the numerals, ριδ', β' .
The derivation of Zebulun seems to be from זבל , a collateral form of זבר , to give. Hence Leah plays on the double meaning of the former verb, Gen. xxx. 20 .
Cf. the Targum Ps. Jon. on Gen. xxxvii. 28 .
[ Deut. xxv. 7, 8, 9 . See Lardner on the animus of these quotations from Enoch, as it strikes him, vol. ii. p. 350.]
Cam. ms. διὰ τραγλοκολπητῶν ; Ox. ms. διὰ τρωγλοδυτῶν .
[“Finis non determinat probitatem actus.”]
Mal. iv. 2 .
The Ox. ms. reads: “And ye shall return from your land, and ye shall see the Lord in Jerusalem for His name’s sake.” [ Heb. vii. 2 . At least, Salem is His name.]
[Another of those unequivocal passages which refute Lardner’s charge of “Unitarianism” in this book.]
[ Ezek. xlviii. 26, 27 . An important example of Hebrew exposition of this prophet.]
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