The Seven Spirits

This excerpt from the second-century CE Testament of Reuben relates the deathbed admonition of Reuben (son of the biblical Jacob) to his children. In it, Reuben discusses the bodily senses and their correspondence to the seven evil spirits of Belial, the prince of evil, also known as Satan. There is some emphasis on lust and the passions of the body, presumably because Reuben was widely known for having had sexual relations with Bilhah, his father’s concubine (see Genesis 35:22).