The apocryphal work known as the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs professes to be, as its name implies, the utterances of the dying patriarchs, the sons of Jacob. In these, they give some account of their lives, embodying particulars not found in the scriptural account, and build thereupon various moral precepts for the guidance of their descendants. The book partakes also of the nature of an Apocalypse: The patriarchs see in the future their children doing wickedly, stained with the sins of every nation, and thus they foretell the troubles impending on their race. Still at last, God will put an end to their woe, and comfort is found in the promise of a Messiah.

There can be little or no doubt that the author was a Jew, who, having been converted to Christianity, sought to win over his countrymen to the same faith, and thus employed the names of the patriarchs as a vehicle for conveying instruction to their descendants, as winning by this means for his teaching at any rate a prima facie welcome in the eyes of the Jewish people.

It does not seem hard to settle approximately the limits of time within which the book was probably written. It cannot be placed very late in the second century, seeing that it is almost certainly quoted by Tertullian, and that Origen cites the Testaments by name, apparently indeed holding it in considerable respect. We can, however, approximate much more nearly than this, for the allusions to the destruction of Jerusalem assign to the Testaments a date subsequent to that event. This will harmonize perfectly with what is the natural inference from several passages—namely, that the Gentiles now were a majority in the Church—as well as with the presence of the many formula to express the incarnation, and with the apparent collection of the books of the New Testament into a volume.