t12papocrypha
Testament of Gad 3
Gad warns his children against the spirit of hatred, naming it as a corrupting force that blinds the soul to every good thing its target does — righteousness, fear of the Lord, and ordered living are all invisible to the one who hates. Gad grounds the warning in his own confession: he himself looked on Joseph through this blinding spirit. The Joseph-of-Egypt master type surfaces here not in triumph but in its shadow side — the hatred that drove the selling of the birthright heir was not passion alone but a spiritual condition that rendered the hater incapable of perceiving Joseph's virtue. El Elyon's law and the hater's vision cannot coexist.
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And now, my children, hearken to the words of truth to work righteousness, and all the law of the Most High, and not go astray through the spirit of hatred, for it is evil in all the doings of men. Whatsoever a man doeth, that doth the hater abhor: though he worketh the law of the Lord, he praiseth him not; though he feareth the Lord, and taketh pleasure in that which is righteous, he loveth him not: he dispraiseth the truth, he envieth him that ordereth his way aright, he delighteth in evil-speaking, he loveth arrogance, for hatred hath blinded his soul; even as I also looked on Joseph.
