(4Q543, 545-548) extracted from 'Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered' by Robert Eisenman and Michael Wise
The Testament of Amram, if indeed we can call it this - Amram per se is mentioned only in Manuscript C - is one of the most splendid apocalyptic and visionary works in the corpus.
In it, many of the themes we have encountered in the works discussed above come together in a fairly rationalized eschatological whole.
These include the usual ‘Light’, ‘Darkness’, ‘Belial’, ‘Righteousness’, ‘Truth’, ‘Lying’ and ‘Watcher’ vocabulary, including the very nice allusions to ‘sons of Righteousness’ - which we have already identified as a variant of the ‘sons of Zadok’ terminology - ‘sons of Light’, ‘sons of Darkness’ and ‘sons of Truth’, again widely disseminated through the whole corpus.
Added to these we have the very interesting allusion in Manuscript B to ‘serpents’ and ‘vipers’ encountered in many texts from Qumran (e.g. CD,v.14), not to mention a well-known parallel imagery in the Gospels (Matt. 3:7, 23:33, etc.).
Though we cannot be sure that the several fragments and manuscripts represented in this reconstruction in fact belong to the same composition, nor that they can be sequentially arranged in the manner shown; there are, in fact, overlaps which seem to indicate multiple copies of a single work and, in any event, they can be grouped typologically together. In addition, because of internal and external similarities, they are probably part of a cycle of literature associated with Moses’ father Amram.
This, in turn, is related to the Testament of Kohath material and the Levi cycle in general.
Manuscript C most fully preserves the beginning of the work, but has little in common with Manuscript B and Manuscript ?, which on the basis of content alone obviously belong together. Manuscript ? is referred to in this way in the literature, no more complete designation having yet been made.
Manuscript C, which includes the names of the principal dramatis personae like Amram, Kohath, Levi, Miriam and Aaron, pretends to be more historical. It and Manuscript E even give some of the ages of these characters, which are widely out of line with any real chronological understanding of the Exodus sojourn. The surviving fragments do not, however, show any knowledge of a relationship between Miriam and Hur, as suggested in Chapter 3, unless Uzziel and Hur can be equated. One should also note the anachronistic reference to Philistines in 2:19, reflected perhaps too in the Era of Light text in Chapter 8.
It is in Manuscript B, however, and the undesignated one succeeding it, that truly splendid material, which can hardly be referred to as testamentary, emerges. This consists again of a visionary recital of the most intense kind, similar to that in Chapters 1 and 2, the Firm Foundation materials above and in Chapter 7. Here, too, several identifications are made. First, in Line 13 of Manuscript B, the Enochic ‘Watchers’ are identified with ‘the serpent’ with ‘the visage of a viper’- evidently the same serpent that is connected to the downfall of man in the Adam and Eve story. We have probably already encountered him, as well, in the Tree of Evil text above.
Three more names are accorded him: ‘Belial’, ‘Prince of Darkness’ and ‘King of Evil'. This latter name, Melchi Jeshua, is to be contrasted with the well-known terminology integrally involved with Jesus’ Messianic and eschatological priesthood, Melchi Zedek / ‘King of Righteousness’, (Heb. 5-7), a subject that has interested scholars heretofore. The latter has two other synonyms, the Archangel Michael, the guardian Angel of Israel, and the Prince of Light (E.3.2).
Tied to these are the other usages, noted above, relating to ‘Righteousness’, ‘Truth’, ‘Light’ and ‘Lightness’, ‘Dark’ and ‘Darkness’, ‘Lying’ and the like. The ‘Way’ terminology, again widespread at Qumran and known to early Christianity, is also strong here. All these allusions have their counterparts in their application to the dramatis personae of interest to the Qumran writers and their historiography.
The text ends with perhaps the most marvelous paean to Light and Dark of any literary work, apart from the Chariots of Glory below and the well known prologue to the Gospel of John.
