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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.
According to Jubilees, the Book of Noah contains prescriptions for “the healing of all their illnesses … by means of herbs.” It also contains religious laws, particularly those forbidding the drinking of blood. In addition, according to another textual witness, it contains a testament that justifies the partition of the earth among Noah’s sons.
Most scholars believe that parts of the Book of Noah have been preserved in the Book of Enoch and in the Book of Jubilees. Now, according to Garcia Martínez, a fragmentary text from Qumran makes an additional intriguing contribution to this book.
In the new text, Noah was born with red hair and small marks on his thigh. It then continues:
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“He will acquire wisdom. … Counsel and prudence will be with him, and he will know the secrets of man. And his wisdom will reach all the peoples. And he will know the secrets of all living things. … He is the elect of God.”
It is aggravating to read of García Martínez’s frustration at having to assess the evidence without all the manuscripts of this Dead Sea Scroll text, for some of them remain unpublished—and this was written before photographs of all the scrolls became accessible. “As long as the other manuscripts of the work remain unpublished,” García Martínez tells us, “it will be impossible to ascertain whether this ms. is an actual copy of the lost Book of Noah or a summary of it.” Another of the erudite papers in this book deals with the famous “Son of Man” text with its parallels to the annunciation in Luke’s Gospel. García Martínez notes that publication of this text was assigned to J. T. Milik, who in 1972 gave a lecture at Harvard at which he made public a transcription of the manuscript, but, says García Martínez somewhat ruefully, “the text has not yet seen the light.”
García Martínez summarizes the contents of this Dead Sea Scroll text: Sometime in the future, It says, we will see
“the appearance of a mysterious personage to whom the titles of ‘son of God’ and ‘son of the Most High’ will be given, who will be ‘great on earth’ end whom ‘all will serve.’ His appearance will be followed by tribulations, but these will be transient as a spark and will last only ‘until the people of God arise.’ The result will be the end of the war and an eternal reign during which everybody will be devoted to peace-making.”
A wonderful vision.
These papers are a reminder, however, that it will be several years before scholars are able to absorb into their work the texts of all the still unpublished scrolls.
Qumran and the Apocalyptic: Studies on the Aramaic Texts from Qumran
Florentino García Martínez
(Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1992) 233 pp., G.115 ($66)
