686 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
will become a besetting sin among bis posterity, and (5) com¬ 
forts tbe despairing with a prophecy of Christ. 
The Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs is an excellent piece 
of work. The characters of the patriarchs are kept consistent 
throughout. Their feelings and emotions are entered into with 
considerable sympathy. Particularly is this true with regard 
to the characters of Judah and Joseph. The story of Poti- 
phar’s Wife is told with great skill. In every case the writer 
has shown care and tact in following closely the biblical narra¬ 
tive, and has made each character consistent with its biblical 
prototype. 
For the purpose immediately in hand it may be noted that in 
these testaments every one of the testators tells of some event of 
his past life, and that in as many as seven cases there is an ac¬ 
count of some event in the testator’s life which is not called for 
by the confession which each makes. 
The vogue of writing apocryphal literature was a very strong 
one during the early centuries of our era. The Testament was 
too good a form to neglect, and so various Bible characters be¬ 
sides the twelve patriachs had testaments made for them. 
Among these is The Testament of Joh. 1 The date of this docu¬ 
ment is uncertain. It is apparently Jewish in origin, and it 
may antedate the birth of Christ. It is certainly as old as 476 
A. D., for in that year it was condemned as apocryphal. 2 The 
body of the testament is made up of an account of Job’s life 
which he is represented as delivering to his sons. A trace of 
the confession is seen, but the autobiographical element is pre¬ 
dominant. 
In a testament written in the same manner and put into the 
mouth of Solomon the autobiographical element excludes all 
others. 3 This document is an account, as told by Solomon, of 
how a demon hindered the building of the tmple, and how Solo- 
1 Angelo Mai, Scriptorum Yeturum, Rome, 1883, VII, 180; see also, 
J. Migne, Dictionnaire des Apocryphes , Paris, 1858, II, 403; M. R. 
James, Texts and Studies, Cambridge; Apocrypha Anecdota, Cam¬ 
bridge, 1893; and Kohler in Koliut Memorial Volume , 1897, p. 264. 
2 Decreta Gelasii papae , collect, concil. Mancii, T. VIII, col. 169. 
s Zeit fiir die hist. Theolopie, 1844, XIV, iii, 9-6. 
