From the PREFACE. The many laborious years of study of the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs see at last their close in the present volume. The labour involved has been very great, at times indeed oppressive, but it has not been without its own compensations; for the toil has been frequently lightened by the joys of discovery, and the task of research has been often one of sheer delight. The pleasures of foxhunting are not to be compared with those of the student in full quest of some truth, some new fact showing itself for the first time within his intellectual horizon. But to return. Many of the problems arising from our text had hitherto been wholly unattempted, or else had been wrongly solved in the past--in large part owing in earlier years to the lack of documentary authorities, and in later years to the large demand on the scholar's time that the mastery of these would have entailed.

The intention of Ancient Texts and Translations (ATT) is to make available a variety of ancient documents and document collections to a broad range of readers. The series will include reprints of long out-of- print volumes, revisions of earlier editions, and completely new volumes. The understanding of ancient societies depends upon our close reading of the documents, however fragmentary, that have survived. --K. C. Hanson Series Editor