# Virtue, Vice and the Two Spirits

Source: https://enocharchive.com/themes/virtue-and-vice (Enoch Archive).

The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs turn the lives of Jacob's sons into moral case studies. Each patriarch, on his deathbed, names the vice that ruled him or the virtue that kept him: Reuben speaks of fornication, Simeon of envy, Judah of wine and the love of money, Dan of anger, Gad of hatred; Issachar commends singleness of heart, Zebulun compassion, Joseph chastity and Benjamin a good mind.

Behind the advice stands a picture of two powers at work in a person. Reuben lists the spirits of deceit that Beliar sends against the young, and Asher describes two ways set before the children of men, with two inclinations in the breast that choose between them. A person belongs to the Lord or to Beliar according to which he follows.

The Kebra Nagast strikes the same note when it traces the first murder to the envy Satan stirred in Cain. Across these books sin is a spirit that takes hold and virtue is something practised daily, and both are passed from parents to children as an inheritance.

**category:** Moral