Other ancient texts · Read in Jesus' day

Testament of Simeon

The Testament of Simeon is the second of the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, written as the deathbed speech of Jacob's second son. In it he confesses his envy of Joseph and warns his sons against envy and sexual sin. People read it for its teaching on envy and repentance and as a window on Jewish hopes for a priest from Levi and a king from Judah.

  • 2nd century BC, with later Christian additions
  • Greek (possibly Hebrew)
  • Protestant Catholic Orthodox Ethiopian

Should it be in the Bible?

The case for

  1. It preserves an old Jewish tradition of moral teaching drawn from the Genesis stories.

    The evidence

    Its themes come straight from Scripture: the brothers' envy of Joseph (Genesis 37:11), Joseph holding Simeon prisoner (Genesis 42:24), and Jacob's rebuke of Simeon's anger (Genesis 49:5–7). Related patriarchal testament material, such as the Aramaic Levi Document (4Q213–214), turned up among the Dead Sea Scrolls, which shows this kind of writing existed in Jewish circles before Christianity.

  2. Christians valued it and copied it for centuries, and some Bibles included it.

    The evidence

    Origen (Homily on Joshua 15.6) mentions the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs and draws on them. The Testaments appear in some Armenian Bible manuscripts. Robert Grosseteste's Latin translation of 1242 spread them widely in medieval Europe.

  3. Its teaching fits closely with the rest of the Bible's moral and messianic themes.

    The evidence

    Its warning that envy destroys body and soul echoes Proverbs 14:30, and Joseph's forgiveness of his brothers is held up as the model to follow. Its hope for leaders from both Levi and Judah resembles the Dead Sea Scrolls' 'messiahs of Aaron and Israel' and the New Testament picture of Christ as both priest and king.

The case against

  1. No Jewish or Christian community has ever counted it as scripture.

    The evidence

    It is missing from the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint, and every official canon list: Athanasius (367), Hippo and Carthage, and Trent. Later Byzantine lists, such as the List of Sixty Books and the Stichometry of Nicephorus, name the Testaments or 'Patriarchs' among the apocrypha.

  2. It is written under Simeon's name by a much later author, and Christians clearly changed it.

    The evidence

    Passages such as 6:5–7 (God 'taking a body' and eating with people) and 7:2 (a savior who is 'God and man') reflect Christian belief about Jesus and cannot come from the patriarch or a pre-Christian Jewish author. Scholars still argue over whether the book is basically Jewish or basically Christian, so it is hard to tell how much of it is original.

  3. It adds stories that are not in Genesis and cannot be checked.

    The evidence

    It says, for example, that Simeon's right hand withered for seven days as punishment for his anger at Joseph, and it gives long predictions about his tribe's future. No Hebrew or Aramaic text of this testament survives to show that these details are older than the Greek.

Both sides are written as strongly as the honest evidence allows, so you can decide for yourself. Researched by claude-opus-5-5.

When, where and by whom

The book presents itself as Simeon's last words, but no ancient community seriously held that Simeon wrote it. Scholars disagree on its date. R. H. Charles argued for a Jewish work of about 109–107 BC with later Christian additions. Marinus de Jonge argued it is a Christian composition of about AD 200 built on Jewish sources. Many scholars now see a Jewish core from the 2nd–1st century BC that Christians edited, written in Greek, though some think it was first written in Hebrew.

Jesus, the New Testament and this book
  • Stephen's statement that 'the patriarchs, being jealous of Joseph, sold him' (Acts 7:9) shares the book's focus on the brothers' envy. Both build on Genesis 37:11. (likely link)
  • The name 'Beliar' for the evil power appears in the book (fornication brings people near to Beliar) and in 2 Corinthians 6:15. This points to a shared Jewish vocabulary, not one borrowing from the other. (likely link)
  • The teaching that envy and a 'spirit of jealousy' from the prince of deceit lead to murderous hatred is similar to James 3:14–16 and 1 John 3:15. (possible link)
  • The hope for a priest from Levi and a king from Judah, which Christian editors expanded to describe one figure who is 'God and man', overlaps with Hebrews' picture of Jesus as priest and king. (possible link)
How it came down to us

It survives as part of the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs in Greek manuscripts from the 10th century onward, with Cambridge University Library Ff 1.24 among the oldest. Byzantine Christians kept copying it, and there are also Armenian and Slavonic translations and a 13th-century Latin translation by Robert Grosseteste. No Dead Sea Scrolls fragment of the Testament of Simeon itself has been found.

  • Greek manuscripts of the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs (e.g. Cambridge University Library Ff 1.24)
  • Critical edition by M. de Jonge et al., The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs (1978)
  • H. W. Hollander and M. de Jonge, commentary (1985)
  • R. H. Charles, translation and commentary (1908)
  • H. C. Kee, translation in Charlesworth, Old Testament Pseudepigrapha vol. 1
  • Dead Sea Scrolls Aramaic Levi Document (4Q213–214) for comparison
  • Origen, Homily on Joshua 15.6
  • Canon lists: Athanasius' Festal Letter 39, List of Sixty Books, Stichometry of Nicephorus
  • Hebrew Bible and New Testament passages cited (Genesis 37, 42, 49; Acts 7:9; 2 Corinthians 6:15; James 3)

Chapters

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