Scroll Insights on Noah and the Son of Man

Qumran and the Apocalyptic: Studies on the Aramaic Texts from Qumran

Florentino García Martínez (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1992) 233 pp., G.115 ($66)

This book collects seven papers by the distinguished Dead Sea Scroll scholar who heads the Qumran Institute at the University of Gröningen in the Netherlands. The papers, previously published in Spanish, are not only translated but updated and revised.

One of them deals with the lost Book of Noah, which the author believes was in the library at Qumran, extant in at least fragmentary condition. It is known as 4QMess ar, which means that it was found in Cave 4 and is a messianic text in Aramaic. It was so named because the original editor thought that it preserved a horoscope of the Messiah. In fact, according to most scholars, it refers not to the Messiah, but to Noah. Even the original editor (Jean Starcky) belatedly came to this conclusion.

In the Book of Enoch, Enoch, the eldest son of Cain, reveals his wisdom to Methuselah, who is instructed to pass it on to future generations (1 Enoch 82:1–2). In the apocryphal Book of Jubilees, Methuselah transmits this wisdom to Lamech, who then gives it to Noah. Noah thus becomes the repository of all antediluvian wisdom. Jubilees says, “Noah wrote everything in a book” (Jubilees 10:13; see also Jubilees 21:10). The Book of Noah is also referred to in some manuscripts of the Testament of Levi, a part of the Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs.