Legend of the Sons of Jacob

The “Legend of the Sons of Jacob” (Aggadah bi-vene Ya‘akov) was originally part of a medieval Hebrew elaboration of the late-antique work known as The Testament of Naphtali. The medieval version, which survives in a few manuscripts, formed part of a group of Hebrew and Greek texts about the biblical figure of Naphtali, the earliest of which survives among the Dead Sea Scrolls. The medieval Hebrew version also overlaps with the Greater Midrash on Genesis (Bereshit rabbati) of Moses ha-Darshan of Narbonne, who drew on the Apocrypha and the group of texts known today as the Pseudepigrapha, which seem to have circulated in his Christian milieu. In this excerpt, Naphtali tells his father, Jacob, of a dream he has had.