The 'Song of Noah' in the Genesis Apocryphon

Matthew Morgenstern

Recently prepared digital images of the Genesis Apocryphon, combined with close study of the original infrared photographs, have facilitated the preparation of a preliminary edition of the unpublished columns of the Genesis Apocryphon. This edition is cu rrently in press, and will provide the basis for a full critical edition of the entire scroll.

To demonstrate the importance of the newly deciphered materials, a transcription of col. vi will be released, and the first five lines discussed in detail. these lines, apparently in poetry, introduce the material narrated in the first person by Noah, an d firmly establish his righteousness.

They contain, moreover, important parallels to the sectarian terminology of right and wrong found in the Rule of the Community (1QS).