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The Testament of Abraham is a pseudepigraphic text of the Old Testament. Probably composed in the 1st or 2nd century CE, it is of Jewish origin and is usually considered to be part of the apocalyptic literature. It is regarded as scripture by Beta Israel Ethiopian Jews, but not by any other Jewish or Christian groups. It is often treated as one of a trio of very similar works, the other two of which are the Testament of Isaac and Testament of Jacob, though there is no reason to assume that they were originally a single work. All three works are based on the Blessing of Jacob, found in the Bible, in their style. ==Manuscript tradition== The Greek text of the ''Testament of Abraham'' is preserved in two quite different recensions: * the ''long recension'', which has a more developed, detailed and linear story, survives in about thirty manuscripts, among which the more important are A,〔Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Grec 770, ff.225v-241r, dated 1315〕 E〔Vienna, Theol Grec 333 (ex 337), ff. 34r-57r, 11th century〕 and B.〔Jerusalem, Armenian Patriarchate, Holy Sepulcher No. 66, ff. 128v-144v, 15th century〕 * the ''short recension'', where the episodes are sometime abrupt and not logically connected but with probably an earlier wording, has survived in about nine manuscripts, among which the more important are A〔Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Grec 1613, ff.87v-96r, 15th century〕 and E〔Milano, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Grec 405 (G 63 sup), ff. 164r-171r, 11th century〕 (manuscript E of the short recension is notable because of the presence of many semitisms). There is no consensus among scholars as to which recension is nearer the original, or whether we shall suppose one or more original texts. The early scholars, as James,〔 but also recently Ludlow,〔Jared W. Ludlow, ''Abraham Meets Death: Narrative Humor in the Testament of Abraham'' ISBN 0-8264-6204-9 (2002), pag 186〕 working mainly on the narrative viewpoint, support the priority of the long recension. This view has been challenged for example by Turner,〔N. Turner ''The Testament of Abraham: Problems in Biblical Greek'' NTS 1 (1954/55) 219-23〕 who studied the text from a linguistic point of view, and mainly by Schmidt,〔F. Schmidt ''Le Testament grec d'Abraham, introducion, edition critique des deux recensions grecques, traduction'' TSAJ 11, Tubingen, 1986〕 who worked deeply on manuscript E of the short recension, which was not available to the early editors. The text is preserved also in Slavonic,〔Tichonrawow, ''Pamjatniki otretschennoi russkoi Literaturi'', 1863, i. 79-90.〕 Romanian,〔Moses Gaster, ''Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology'', 1887, 1X. 195-226.〕 Ethiopic (Falasha), Coptic Bohairic and Arabic. These versions, apart one Romanian recension, follow the content of the Greek short recension. The Greek Text was first edited, with an English translation and introduction, by M. R. James〔M. R. James ''The Testament of Abraham, the Greek Text now first edited with an Introduction and Notes. With an appendix containing extracts from the Arabic Version of the Testaments of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, by Barnes'' in "Text and Studies", 2.2, Cambridge 1892〕 in 1892. The Greek text was also early edited by Vassiliev〔Vassiliev, in ''Anecdota Graeco-Byzantina'', 1893, i. 292-308, based on manuscript E of the long recension.〕 in 1893. in Luc. xxxv. With the exception of x.xi. the work is really a legend and not an apocalypse. To the above conclusions Schürer,〔Emil Schürer ''Geschichte des jd. Volkes'', 3rd ed., iii. 252〕 takes objection, and denies the reference in Origen, asserting that there are no grounds for the assumption of a partial Jewish origin. Kohler〔Kohler, in ''Jewish Quarterly Review'', 1895, V. 581606〕 on the other hand has given adequate grounds for regarding this apocryph as in the main an independent work of Jewish origin subsequently enlarged by a few Christian additions, and it is Kohler's stance that most scholars follow today. The Testament of Abraham was likely written originally in Greek, by someone living in Egypt at the time. This is due to the fact that the vocabulary found in the text is quite similar to the vocabulary used in the later books of the Septuagint, which were being written at that time, in addition to other books, such as 3 Maccabees, that we know were written around that time in Egypt. In addition, there are aspects of the story that seem to reflect aspects of Egyptian life, such as the three judgments which mirror the three levels of Egyptian government. Unfortunately these reasons for the place of origin being Egypt are only supported by the long recension of the Testament of Abraham.〔James H. Charlesworth “The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Volume 1” ISBN 0-385-09630-5 (1983) p.875〕 The short recension therefore has no definite place or date of origin. While it would be logical to assume that it had its origins in the same place and time as the long recension, as there is no concrete evidence, any Jewish cultural center could therefore be a possibility for its origin. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Testament of Abraham」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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