A Genesis Apocryphon

de Nahman Avigad, Yigael Yadin

The scroll dealt with in this volume was discovered in a cave near the Dead Sea in 1947. With six other scrolls it was found in what is now known as the first Qumran cave. While the scroll was still in the possession of Mar Athanasius Samuel, Professor Albright, Dr. Trever and other scholars expressed the opinion that it contained the lost Book of Lamech. They reached this conclusion after they succeeded in deciphering the names of Lamech and his wife, Bat-Enosh, on fragments which had become detached from the scroll. Scholars adopted this title and the scroll is referred to as the Book of Lamech in most publications dealing with the Dead Sea Scrolls. However, when we succeeded in opening it, we realized that Lamech is dealt with in only part of the book, and that the rest of it retells stories from Genesis in the manner of a number of apocryphal books. The chapters which are extant are concerned with Lamech, Enoch, Noah, Abram. Accordingly, we decided to name the work A Genesis Apocryphon. - Preface.