Download Category: Heraldry

Chapter 1

1 The copy of the Testament of Joseph. When he was about to die he called his sons and his brethren together, and said to them:–

2 My brethren and my children, Hearken to Joseph the beloved of Israel; Give ear, my sons, unto your father.

3 I have seen in my life envy and death, Yet I went not astray, but persevered in the truth of the Lord.

4 These my brethren hated me, but the Lord loved me: They wished to slay me, but the God of my fathers guarded me: They let me down into a pit, and the Most High brought me up again.

5 I was sold into slavery, and the Lord of all made me free: I was taken into captivity, and His strong hand succoured me. I was beset with hunger, and the Lord Himself nourished me.

6 I was alone, and God comforted me: I was sick, and the Lord visited me: I was in prison, and my God showed favour unto me; In bonds, and He released me;

7 Slandered, and He pleaded my cause; Bitterly spoken against by the Egyptians, and He delivered me; Envied by my fellow-slaves, and He exalted me.

Chapter 1

1 The copy of the words of Issachar. For he called his sons and said to them: Hearken, my children, to Issachar your father; Give ear to the words of him who is beloved of the Lord.

2, 3 I was born the fifth son to Jacob, by way of hire for the mandrakes. For Reuben my brother

4 brought in mandrakes from the field, and Rachel met him and took them. And Reuben wept, and

5 at his voice Leah my mother came forth. Now these (mandrakes) were
sweet-smelling apples

6 which were produced in the land of Haran below a ravine of water. And Rachel said: I will not give them to thee, but they shall be to me instead of children. For the Lord hath despised me,

7 and I have not borne children to Jacob. Now there were two apples; and Leah said to Rachel:

8 Let it suffice thee that thou hast taken my husband: wilt thou take these also? And Rachel said

9 to her: Thou shalt have Jacob this night for the mandrakes of thy son. And Leah said to her:

10 Jacob is mine, for I am the wife of his youth. But Rachel said: Boast not, and vaunt not thyself; for he espoused me before thee, and for my sake he served our father fourteen years.

Chapter 1

1 The copy of the testament of Gad, what things he spake unto his sons, in the hundred and twenty

2 fifth year of his life, saying unto them: Hearken, my children, I was the ninth son born to Jacob,

3 and I was valiant in keeping the flocks. Accordingly I guarded at night
the flock; and whenever the lion came, or the wolf, or any wild beast against the fold, I pursued it, and overtaking (it)

4 I seized its foot with my hand and hurled it about a stone’s throw, and so killed it. Now Joseph my brother was feeding the flock with us for upwards of thirty days, and being young, he fell sick

5 by reason of the heat. And he returned to Hebron to our father, who made him lie down near him,

6 because he loved him greatly. And Joseph told our father that the sons of Zilpah and Bilhah were slaying the best of the flock and eating them against the judgement of Reuben and Judah.

7 For he saw that I had delivered a lamb out of the mouth of a bear, and put the bear to death; but

8 had slain the lamb, being grieved concerning it that it could not live, and that we had eaten it. And

Chapter 1

1 The copy of the words of Dan, which he spake to his sons in his last days, in the hundred and

2 twenty-fifth year of his life. For he called together his family, and said: Hearken to my words, ye

3 sons of Dan; and give heed to the words of your father. I have proved in my heart, and in my whole life, that truth with just dealing is good and well pleasing to God, and that lying and anger

4 are evil, because they teach man all wickedness. I confess, therefore, this day to you, my children,

5 that in my heart I resolved on the death of Joseph my brother, the true and good man. [And

6 I rejoiced that he was sold, because his father loved him more than us.] For the spirit of jealousy

7 and vainglory said to me: Thou thyself also art his son. And one of the
spirits of Beliar stirred me up, saying: Take this sword, and with it slay Joseph: so shall thy father love thee when he is dead.

8 Now this is the spirit of anger that persuaded me to crush Joseph as a leopard crusheth a kid.

9 But the God of my fathers did not suffer him to fall into my hands, so that I should find him alone and slay him, and cause a second tribe to be destroyed in Israel.

Chapter 1

1 The copy of the words of Benjamin, which he commanded his sons to observe, after he had lived

2 a hundred and twenty-five years. And he kissed them, and said: As Isaac
was born to Abraham

3 in his old age, so also was I to Jacob. And since Rachel my mother died in giving me birth, I had

4 no milk; therefore I was suckled by Bilhah her handmaid. For Rachel remained barren for twelve years after she had borne Joseph; and she prayed the Lord with fasting twelve days, and she

5 conceived and bare me. For my father loved Rachel dearly, and prayed that he might see two

6 sons born from her. Therefore was I called Benjamin, that is, a son of days.

Chapter 2

1 And when I went into Egypt, to Joseph, and my brother recognized me,
he said unto me:

2 What did they tell my father when they sold me? And I said unto him, They dabbled thy coat with blood and sent it, and said: Know whether this be thy son’s coat.

Chapter 1

1 The copy of the Testament of Asher, what things he spake to his sons in the hundred and

2 twenty-fifth year of his life. For while he was still in health, he said to them: Hearken, ye children of Asher, to your father, and I will declare to
you all that is upright in the sight of the Lord.

3 Two ways hath God given to the sons of men, and two inclinations, and two kinds of action, and

4 two modes (of action), and two issues. Therefore all things are by twos, one over against the

5 other. For there are two ways of good and evil, and with these are the two inclinations in our

6 breasts discriminating them. Therefore if the soul take pleasure in the good (inclination), all its

7 actions are in righteousness; and if it sin it straightway repenteth. For, having its thoughts set upon righteousness, and casting away wickedness,
it straightway overthroweth the evil, and uprooteth

8 the sin. But if it incline to the evil inclination, all its actions are in wickedness, and it driveth away the good, and cleaveth to the evil, and is ruled by Beliar; even though it work what is good,

OUR ONGOING SERIES OF BIBLE STUDIES, which started several years ago with the Call of The Almighty God to Abram in Ur of the Chaldees, has taken us through successive Scripture passages following the tribal history of God’s people as Abraham’s son, Isaac, and Isaac’s son, Jacob (re-named Israel), became Patriarchs of the tribal nation of Israel. They moved down into Egypt, then suffered bondage there, from which The Almighty God drew them forth with great wealth, through the miracles of The Exodus. They have, more recently, formed a tribal encampment under the guidance of The Almighty God Himself, and under the supervision of God’s Prophet, Moses.

Several weeks ago, we were discussing the various symbols on the tribal banners, validated prophetically by Jacob, and I made some further references to the matter of the Union Jack, which now represents a gathering in today’s world of a number of the descendants of those ancient Israelites of the wilderness encampments described in the Bible.

We, of the British-Israel-World Federation hold that the main bodies of the modern-day descendants of those Israelite clans now form the generally Anglo-Celto-Saxon and kindred peoples of today. These are seen primarily in the British, and their relatives in Holland, Scandinavia, France, those mainly of northern and-western Europe, and those descended of them in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the U.S.A. and other areas now similarly inhabited.

We do not forget the fact that many also of their relatives were left in significant pockets along the braided migratory routes by which these peoples moved from their Assyrian captivity and deportation to their homes in these new areas. Thus some peoples of Russian and Ukrainian background, and of Polish, Germanic, Italian, north Spanish and Portuguese, those of Switzerland, and others of central Europe, are by no means excluded from the list.