Charles on pseudoepigrapha, apocalyptic lit. AI

Perplexity

Summarize Charles' Testaments of the 12 Patriarchs, plus pseudoepigrapha

The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, in Charles’ edition, present the deathbed exhortations of Jacob’s sons as a composite ethical–apocalyptic treatise that blends Jewish moral catechesis with strong Christian redactional layers, while his broader Pseudepigrapha volumes assemble a wide range of Second Temple and later Jewish writings (like Enoch, Jubilees, and the Apocalypses of Baruch and Ezra) that expand biblical narratives, law, and eschatology beyond the Hebrew canon.

Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs: Overall Shape

Charles’ edition gives twelve interconnected “testaments” (Reuben through Benjamin), each framed as a dying patriarch’s confession, ethical instruction, and prophetic vision for his descendants. The corpus is structurally unified by recurring themes of sin and repentance, priestly and royal hope (Levi–Judah), and an eschatological expectation of a coming ideal priest-king and the defeat of Belial and the spirits of deceit.

Main Theological and Ethical Themes

Ethical exhortation: Each testament combines autobiographical sin or virtue with paraenesis on sexual purity, justice, almsgiving, mercy, truthfulness, and inner disposition; some are almost homiletic treatises on a single virtue or vice (e.g., Joseph on chastity, Zebulun on compassion). A dualistic moral psychology is prominent: spirits of truth and of deceit contend in humanity, anticipating later Jewish and Christian “two ways” traditions.

Law, cult, and piety: The Testaments affirm the eternal validity of the law, yet emphasize heartfelt obedience, mercy to the poor, and a quasi-wisdom theology of retribution, which Charles treats as a key witness to “apocalyptic Pharisaism.” Levi especially develops a theology of priesthood, ritual purity, and sacrificial worship, with detailed instructions and visionary legitimation of the Levitical line.

Apocalyptic and messianic expectation: Several testaments (notably Levi, Judah, Benjamin) prophesy a coming priestly figure from Levi and a royal figure from Judah, universal worship of Israel’s God, the destruction of hostile nations, and the final subjugation of evil powers and wicked spirits. This eschatological horizon includes resurrection motifs, vindication of martyrs and the poor, and a transformed creation, making the work a significant bridge between prophetic eschatology and later Christian readings.

Individual Testaments in Charles’ Edition

Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah: The first four focus on sexual sin (Reuben, Simeon), intra-family conflict and envy, and then on priesthood (Levi) and kingship (Judah). Levi receives elaborate heavenly visions, investiture with priestly insignia by angels, and promises of a long-lasting cultic role, while Judah’s testament underlines royal leadership, warfare, and a culminating messianic hope tied to his line.

Issachar, Zebulun, Dan, Naphtali: These middle testaments emphasize work, simplicity, generosity to the poor, and warnings against anger, lying, and idolatry, often by contrast between the patriarch’s own virtue and the future sins of his descendants. Dan and Naphtali especially stress the danger of inner duplicity and falsehood and look ahead to apostasies within Israel that precede restoration.

Gad, Asher, Joseph, Benjamin: The final group focuses on hatred and reconciliation (Gad, Asher), Joseph’s chastity and trust in God amid persecution, and Benjamin’s vision of a righteous one from his seed and the final triumph over Belial. Joseph’s testament in Charles’ text is a sustained meditation on resisting sexual temptation and repaying evil with good, while Benjamin contains some of the clearest messianic and angelological passages. Charles’ Pseudepigrapha: Scope and Types

In The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, Charles gathers a broad corpus beyond the Testaments, dividing between “Apocrypha proper” and a substantial set of pseudepigraphal works. His pseudepigrapha selection, though narrower than later collections (e.g., Charlesworth), still defines a canonical set of Second Temple and later Jewish texts for English readers and foregrounds their theological and historical importance.

Key groups include:

Enochic and related apocalypses: 1 Enoch (Ethiopic), 2 Enoch (Slavonic), and related visionary material on angels, judgment, and cosmology, crucial for understanding apocalyptic roots of Christian eschatology and titles like “Son of Man.”

Rewritten Bible and legal expansions: Works such as Jubilees and other narrative expansions rehearse Genesis–Exodus with calendrical, halakhic, and covenantal glosses, illustrating how Torah was reinterpreted in various Jewish circles. These often provide the backstory for brief allusions in canonical texts (e.g., legends around Moses’ death preserved in the Assumption of Moses).

Later testaments and instructions: Beyond the Twelve Patriarchs, Charles’ corpus (and related Syriac–Arabic catalogues) preserves a wider testamentary literature: testaments of individual figures (e.g., Joseph, Moses, David, Solomon) and “instructions” or “final counsels” to sons, which mirror the ethical and eschatological tone of the patriarchal testaments.

Baruch, Ezra, Daniel traditions: The Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch (2 Baruch), 4 Ezra, and additional Danielic apocalypses extend lament over the destruction of Jerusalem into complex visions of history’s course, resurrection, and the coming age. These works are central for tracing how Jewish thought negotiated catastrophe, divine justice, and hope for a renewed Zion and world.

Charles’ Historical and Scholarly Significance

Charles’ translations, introductions, and notes aimed to situate these writings historically, arguing for them as crucial background to New Testament theology and early Christian self-understanding. Although later scholarship has revised his datings and textual judgments, his editions of the Testaments and the wider pseudepigrapha canonized many of the texts and categories still used in contemporary study of Second Temple Judaism and early Christianity.

Bio of Charles, and background of his theologizing

Robert Henry Charles (1855–1931) was an Irish Anglican biblical scholar renowned for his pioneering editions and translations of Jewish apocalyptic and pseudepigraphal texts. His scholarly career bridged philology, theology, and historical criticism, emphasizing these non-canonical writings as vital for understanding intertestamental Judaism and early Christianity.

Early Life and Education

Born in Cookstown, County Tyrone, Ireland, to a prominent physician father, Charles studied at Belfast Academy, Queen's College Belfast, and Trinity College Dublin, later pursuing advanced work in Germany and Switzerland. Ordained in 1883, he served in London parishes before shifting to full-time scholarship in 1889, earning a D.D. and becoming Professor of Biblical Greek at Trinity College Dublin (1898–1906).

Oxford and Westminster Career

From 1890 to 1913, as a key Oxford figure and Fellow of Merton College, Charles produced landmark editions like The Book of Enoch (1906), The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs (1908), and The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament (1913). Appointed Canon (1913) and Archdeacon (1919) of Westminster Abbey, he balanced pastoral duties with writings on eschatology, divorce, and commentaries on Revelation and Daniel until his death in 1931.

Theological Approach and Legacy

Charles viewed apocalyptic literature as the pinnacle of Jewish religious development, revealing progressive divine revelation toward Christian fulfillment, with themes like resurrection, messianism, and future judgment bridging Old and New Testaments. His "theologizing" was historically rigorous yet confessionally Anglican: he defended the texts' authenticity against Wellhausen-era skepticism, argued for Pharisaic roots in works like the Testaments, and saw eschatology as evolving ethically from prophecy to universal hope. Though later critiqued for over-Christianizing Jewish sources, his editions standardized the pseudepigrapha field.