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GENESIS APOCRYPHON

(1QapGen ar)

A collection of apocryphal stories about the biblical patriarchs, among the first Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in Qumran Cave 1. This 22-column Aramaic document lacks both its beginning and end, and several of the surviving columns are either illegible or so fragmentary that reading them is impossible. While the text exhibits no uniquely Qumranic ideas, it still may have originated at Qumran in the 1st century b.c.e. As an apparent retelling and expansion of Genesis, it resembles 1 Enoch, Jubilees, and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs.

The first extant story (cols. 2-5) is a version of the story of Noah’s birth in 1 En. 106-7. Noah’s extraordinary appearance causes his father Lamech to worry that Bitenosh had copulated with angelic beings. The text certainly also included the Flood story, but it is fragmentary at this point.

Cols. 19-22 paraphrase Gen. 12:8–15:4 and incorporate several additions to the biblical narrative. For example, Abraham has a dream that forewarns him of the Egyptians’ plot to kill him and take Sarah for Pharaoh. The text also adds a description of Sarah’s beauty. The account ends in the middle of the story of God’s covenant with Abraham.

Bibliography. J. A. Fitzmyer, The Genesis Apocryphon of Qumran Cave I, 2nd ed. BibOr 18A (Rome, 1971); G. W. E. Nickelsburg, “The Bible Rewritten and Expanded,” in Jewish Writings of the Second Temple Period, ed. M. E. Stone. CRINT 2 (Philadelphia, 1984): 89-156.

Rodney A. Werline

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

GENESIS APOCRYPHON

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)