Levi is one of the most interesting of the Testaments for the study of the New Testament. While there are ethical elements, the Testament begins by informing the reader Levi was healthy when he gathered his sons and he told them of what would happen “until the day of judgment” (1:1-2). While Levi was tending flocks, a “spirit of understanding” came upon him, the heavens were opened and he came up into a second heaven and was told he would see great mysteries. Like the Enochian literature, Levi is given insight into the heavens (Chapter 3).
The lowest heaven is dark because of injustice. In the second there are armies ready for the great Day of Judgment. The “holy ones” and the archangels are prepared to take vengeance on the spirits of error Beliar. The archangels make sacrifices to propitiate God for the “sins of ignorance” committed by the saints (3:6). He sees “thrones and authorities” (3:7, cf. Col 1:16). The whole of creation trembles before the Lord: the abysses, the earth, and the heavens (3:9-10, cf. Paul’s description of creation in as three-tiered in Phil 2:10-11, “every knee on earth, under earth, and in heaven”). Chapter 4 describes the coming judgment (verse 1) but promises the reader he will be delivered to become an “anointed priest” (verse 2). The nation is to become a son, but a Christian interpolation has added that this son would be “impaled,” a reference to the crucifixion. (Kee calls this the one of the “clearest instances of a Christian interpolation.” OTP 1:789)…
Source: Ethics in the Testament of Levi
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