dssdead-sea-scrolls
G — Biblically Based Apocryphal Works
Part 7
A fragmentary pesher-style text from the Dead Sea Scrolls divides human history into seventy weeks of years, with the first ten spanning Noah to Abraham and the birth of Isaac. The reckoning is anchored in heavenly tablets on which God engraved the sequence of ages before creation — a pre-temporal determination of all events. The second coherent unit revisits the Watcher narrative of Genesis 6 and Enoch: Azazel and the fallen angels transgress with the daughters of men, produce giants, and introduce inherited iniquity, with judgment reserved for both the angels and the corrupted congregation.
1
A badly worn manuscript from Cave has been published under this title by J. M. Allegro. Its decipherment and interpretation have been further improved by J. Strugnell and J. T. Milik. The only section yielding coherent sense deals with the myth of the fallen angels and the daughters of men, which is based on Genesis vi, 1-4, and fully developed in Enoch. If Milik's reconstruction is correct, the work presents human history as divided into seventy weeks of years, the first ten of which cover the period from Noah to Abraham. The manuscript is claimed by Strugnell to belong to the first century CE. For the editio princeps, see J. M. Allegro and A. A. Anderson, DJD, V, 77-9; cf. J. Strugnell, RQ 252-4;J. T. Milik, JJS, 110-24.
2
Interpretation concerning the ages made by God, all the ages for the accomplishment of all the events, past and future. Before ever He created them, He determined the works of.. age by age. And it was engraved on heavenly tablets.. the ages of their domination. This is the order of the creation of man from Noah to Abraham, until he begot Isaac; ten weeks. And the interpretation concerns Azazel and the angels who came to the daughters of men; and they bore to them giants. And concerning Azazel.. and iniquity, and to cause them all to inherit wickedness.. judgements and judgement of the congregation.
