Trever Fragment,” Separated from the Fourth Scroll and Was Photographed by Trever

CHAPTER TWO TEXT, TRANSLATION, AND NOTES 2.1. Introduction to The Present Edition “a small leather fragment with disintegrated script,” later called the “Trever fragment,” separated from the Fourth Scroll and was photographed by Trever. This 2.1.1. History and Previous Editions fragment provided the first hints that the scroll was written in Aramaic, rather than Hebrew.5 Another Of the cache of scrolls discovered in Qumran Cave small piece of the scroll’s outer layer was soon after 1 the Genesis Apocryphon was the most badly dam- removed by Trever, but no positive identification of aged.1 Because of this, the publication history of the its contents could be made.6 The three Hebrew scrolls scroll is lengthy and interesting, and deserves brief were identified over the following weeks, but the summary here. The following survey covers only major leather of the Fourth Scroll was so brittle and bonded developments in the publication of the Aramaic text together that a decision was made to suspend further (i.e. transcription), and does not deal with the numer- study until it could be unrolled by experts under the ous translations available. Minor contributions, such proper conditions. as new readings suggested in book reviews or articles, Due to the tension in war-ravaged Jerusalem, the will be mentioned only where appropriate.2 scrolls were temporarily moved by Mar Samuel to a bank vault in Beirut, and, in early 1949, arrived in 2.1.1.1. Pre-publication History New Jersey in Samuel’s own possession. In April of The Genesis Apocryphon was among the initial that year, a much larger leaf from the outside of the cache of seven scrolls discovered by a member of scroll was removed by Trever, revealing enough text the Ta’amireh Bedouin tribe near the Dead Sea. It (26 partial lines) for him to conclude that it contained was one of the four manuscripts purchased from the the previously lost “Book of Lamech,” a title adopted Bedouin by Mar Athanasius Yeshue Samuel, the Syr- in most early publications dealing with the Dead Sea ian Metropolitan of Jerusalem, for approximately two Scrolls.7 This leaf (later designated col. 2) and its hundred and fifty U.S. dollars.3 transcription were supposed to be published in the In late February, 1948, the Metropolitan’s scrolls Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, but were wrapped in an Arabic newspaper, placed in a never were. leather briefcase, and brought by a Syrian Orthodox In the January 30, 1950 issue of Time Magazine it monk and his brother from St. Mark’s Monastery, in was announced that the Fourth Scroll, “whose cracked the Armenian Quarter of the Old City, to the Ameri- leather surface looks like a dried cigar,” would travel can School of Oriental Research, outside Herod’s to the Fogg Museum of Art at Harvard University in Gate.4 Here they were inspected and photographed order to be opened and read. The magazine quipped by John Trever and William Brownlee, who first rec- that the scroll would be “on the operating table” for six ognized the significance of the find. Around this time months, but these plans also never materialized. Due to ongoing intrigue over the provenance and owner- 1 For an early description consult J. C. Trever, “Preliminary ship of the scrolls, the Fogg Museum made financial Observations on the Jerusalem Scrolls,” BASOR 111 (1948): 3–16 demands deemed unacceptable by Mar Samuel. [esp. 14–15]. 2 Many such contributions, however, are referenced in the notes On June 1, 1954, frustrated by the growing contro- accompanying the text. versy surrounding the scrolls and the dire plight of his 3 A lively autobiographical account of the purchase and resale parishioners in Jerusalem, Mar Samuel finally placed of the four scrolls to the State of Israel may be found in A. Y. Samuel, Treasure of Qumran: My Story of the Dead Sea Scrolls (Lon- don: Hodder and Stoughton, 1968), 141–201. The other three scrolls were sold to E. L. Sukenik of the Hebrew University of 5 For more information on the fragment see J. C. Trever, The Jerusalem. Dead Sea Scrolls: A Personal Account (2nd ed.; Grand Rapids: Eerd- 4 The school is still under the auspices of the American Schools mans, 1977), 26, 43, 52, 57, 65. of Oriental Research (ASOR), but is now named the Albright 6 Trever, “Preliminary Observations,” 14–16. Institute of Archeological Research. The Albright Institute is, 7 Trever, “Identification of the Aramaic Fourth Scroll,” 8–10. appropriately, where the present text was prepared. He notes, however, that Noah is “the real hero of the story.” 22 chapter two an advertisement in the Wall Street Journal.8 The now whose wife also took the earliest photographs of the famous first lines read: “Miscellaneous For Sale: the manuscript as it was being opened. Biberkraut did a four dead sea scrolls.” All four scrolls were soon masterful job, facilitating an initial publication by Avi- purchased by the fledgling State of Israel and brought gad and Yadin in 1956. In their preface, the authors to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem through the specified that this was a “preliminary survey, dealing arrangement of Yigael Yadin and under the guise of mainly with the last three columns which are very well a Chemical Bank and Trust Company official. The preserved.”15 Elsewhere, they mentioned an upcoming cost was $250,000.9 Thus, the Genesis Apocryphon, final publication,16 which never came to fruition. yet unrolled, had travelled twice across the Atlantic Avigad and Yadin’s edition includes plates, tran- Ocean only to finally rest approximately 14 miles from scription, and translation (Hebrew and English) of the site of its discovery.10 cols. 2 and 19–22. Diacritical marks of either a single or double dash over the letter indicate uncertainty 2.1.1.2. Milik (Mil)—1955 in readings. Their transcription was meticulously executed, and has stood up surprisingly well against In time more fragments were excavated from the cave subsequent re-readings and advances in photographic that produced the first seven scrolls.11 These were technology. The major limitation of this edition, of published by Oxford University as the first volume course, was that it presented only 5 of the 22 extant in a series dedicated to the Dead Sea Scrolls and columns.17 Brief descriptions of the unpublished col- other finds from the Judean Desert.12 Included in this umns were, nonetheless, provided, and at times these volume were eight small fragments, belonging to the included excerpts of easily readable text. A major fourth scroll, which were bought from a Bethlehem contribution of Avigad and Yadin was their observa- antiquities dealer nicknamed Kando and edited by tion that the material concerning Lamech constitutes J. T. Milik.13 Milik named the work represented by but a small part of the narrative, and that the scroll these fragments Apocalypse de Lamech, based upon included stories about a number of the patriarchs of Trever’s identification, and gave it the publication Genesis, stretching from Enoch to Abram. In addi- number 20, which eventuated in the entire Genesis tion, several intriguing parallels with the books of 1 Apocryphon being designated 1Q20 by Fitzmyer.14 Enoch and Jubilees were identified. All of this, along Milik was only moderately successful in reading with its obvious dependence on the biblical book of these badly deteriorated fragments, but his effort did Genesis, led Avigad and Yadin to rename the text A add some meagre information to the content of the in Modern מגילה חיצונית לבראשית) Genesis Apocryphon scroll. Hebrew). Several valuable corrections or alternate readings were provided by Kutscher (Kut)18 and H. 2.1.1.3. Avigad and Yadin (AY)—1956 Ginsberg (Gin)19 in response to this edition, and it Once at the Hebrew University, the task of unroll- was at this time that a definite article was added to ing the Fourth Scroll was entrusted to J. Biberkraut, the scroll’s title. In 1984, Yadin unexpectedly died of a heart attack, leaving the work of final publication to Avigad 8 This is according to Mar Samuel (Treaure of Qumran, 173–201). alone. Shortly thereafter (1988), Avigad handed over A less flattering account is given in Avigad and Yadin, A Genesis Apocryphon, 7. the responsibility for publication of the unpublished 9 Ironically, $150,000 of this amount was donated by the columns to the Israeli scholars Jonas Greenfield and Jewish philanthropist D. Samuel Gottesman, who held family Elisha Qimron. connections to the ASOR, Jerusalem, where the scrolls were first inspected by Trever and Burrows (personal communication with Dr. S. Gitin). 2.1.1.4. Fitzmyer—1966 10 The scroll is currently stored in the vault at the Shrine of the Book (at the Israel Museum) in Jerusalem. In 1966, Joseph Fitzmyer published a commentary 11 See O. R. Sellers, “Excavation of the ‘Manuscript’ Cave at ‘Ain Fashkha,” BASOR 114 (1949): 5–9. on the Genesis Apocryphon, focusing largely on the 12 Barthélemy and Milik, Qumran Cave 1 (DJD I; Oxford: Clarendon, 1955). 13 Ibid., 4. It is unclear whether the Bedouin returned to the 15 Avigad and Yadin, A Genesis Apocryphon, 8. cave and excavated the fragments, or whether they had simply 16 Ibid., 13. fallen off the scroll while in Kando’s possession (Kando was one 17 There are now thought to be 23 columns (cf. below). of Mar Samuel’s parishioners, and had initially served as mediator 18 Kutscher, “The Language of the ‘Genesis Apocryphon.’” between the Metropolitan and the Bedouin). 19 H. L. Ginsberg, “Notes on Some Old Aramaic Texts,” JNES 14 Ibid., 86–87.

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