The Qumran Scrolls: What do they have to say?

The Qumran Scrolls: What do they have to say?

"I repeat that in my opinion you have made the greatest manuscript discovery of modern times…What an incredible find!" -- William Foxwell Albright to John C. Trevor (March 1948)

In 1947 an Arab boy tending his goats would make a discovery that would provide us with what has been called the greatest manuscript treasure ever found. While attempting to retrieve straying goats, he accidentally discovered an ancient cave near the Dead Sea. In it was found a priceless collection of ancient scrolls which soon became known as The Dead Sea Scrolls or The Qumran Texts. Found among these writings were two books that have much to say about what we find in Genesis 6:1-9, and can help us understand what is going on in these strange but important verses.

The young Arab boy named Mohammed Ahmed el-Hamed led two of his cousins[1] to the site of his discovery to search for “treasures” of gold among the broken pots containing the scrolls, but, alas, none was found. Disappointed, they brought some of the old scrolls back to their Bedouin camp. Seeing no real value in the scrolls which were written in the ancient language they called “chicken scratching,” the Bedouins later sold the priceless artifacts to an antiquities dealer for about one hundred dollars![2]

The scrolls discovered by three young Bedouin goat herders in the cliffs overlooking the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea have been called "the greatest archaeological discovery in the twentieth century."[3] The story of how the scrolls finally came to be available to the public is one of intrigue and betrayal but nearly nine years after their discovery, in February of 1955, the Prime Minister of Israel announced that the State of Israel had purchased the scrolls, and all seven were to be housed in a special museum at Hebrew University named the Shrine of the Book, where they can be seen today.

Eventually, over six hundred scrolls and thousands of fragments would be discovered in the 11 caves of the Qumran area. Fragments of every Biblical book except Ester[4] have been found, as well as many other non-Biblical texts.[5]

Archeological evidence indicates that the scrolls originated with a Jewish ascetic community known as the Essenes. This group flourished between 125 BC and AD 68 in the region of Qumran. It is believed that the scrolls had been stored in haste in the caves above Qumran as the community fled the encroaching Roman army, which was in Judea to put down the Jewish Revolt of AD 66-70. Along with the scrolls, storehouses, aqueducts, ritual baths (mikvahs) and an assembly hall were all uncovered at the ruins.

The Essenes, a Jewish sect of Jesus' day described by Josephus and Philo, viewed themselves as the only true elect of Israel -- they alone were faithful to the Law. Their writings provide us with a marvelous background picture of one aspect of the religious world into which Jesus came. Some have suggested that John the Baptist may have spent some time with the Qumran community. This is a possibility since the Gospels tell us that he spent considerable time in the wilderness near the area where the Qumran community is located (Mt 3:1-3; Mk 1:4; Luke 1:80; 3:2-3). Though their messages were different in many respects, John’s message that the “the kingdom of heaven is at hand” was in agreement with what the Qumran community taught. Like many Jews of their day the Essenes were in agreement with the writers of the Gospels that a great prophet, a great priest and a great king would come in fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies. The Essenes however, believed that not one person would fulfill these prophesies but three.

A wide array of ancient literature was discovered along with copies of Biblical texts. Among the scrolls that were found were several that do not form part of our Biblical Canon[6] but that, are, none-the-less, valuable resources shedding light on, otherwise obscure, portions of the Old Testament.

Among these are the books of Enoch[7] and the Genesis Apocryphon both of which are not to be considered divinely inspired but, like other extrabiblical writings, can provide additional insight in to the Old Testament and, for our purposes, the events in Genesis 6.

The book of Enoch was written at least two centuries before the birth of Christ. It was considered scripture by many early Christians.  For example, the early second century "Epistle of Barnabus" makes much use of the book of Enoch.Second and Third Century Christian leaders such as Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Origin and Clement of Alexandria all make use of the book of Enoch. Tertullian (160-230 A.D.) referred to the Book of Enoch as "Holy Scripture." The Ethiopic Church included the book of Enoch to its canon of scripture. It was widely known and read the first three centuries after Christ despite the fact that the book of Enoch was never included in the Jewish or Christian canon eventually passed out of circulation.[8]

There is at least one Biblical reference to Enoch. Jude 1:14-15 quotes directly from the Book of Enoch 1:9: “And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saint, To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”

Enoch can be divided into five major sections:              

1. The Book of Watchers (1 Enoch 1-36)
2. The Book of Parables (1 Enoch 37-71) (Also called the Similitudes of Enoch)
3. The Book of the Heavenly Luminaries (1 Enoch 72-82) (Usually abbreviated to The Book of Luminaries. Also called the Astronomical Book)
4. The Dream Visions (1 Enoch 83-90) (Also called the Book of Dreams)
5. The Epistle of Enoch (1 Enoch 91-108)

Most of what follows is from an article titled, Who Were the "Sons of God" and the "Giants" in Genesis 6:1-4? by John Bockman. This article was found at http://www.struggler.org/Giants.html on 22 April, 2011.

Mr. Bockman attributes the following segment to a section in the book named The Book of the Watchers:

It happened that when in those days the sons of men increased, pretty and attractive daughters were born to them. The Watchers, sons of the sky, saw them and lusted for them and said to each other: Let's go and pick out women from among the daughters of men and sire for ourselves sons. However, Shemihazah, who was their chief, said to them: I am afraid you do not want to carry out this deed and I alone will be guilty of great sin. They replied and all said to him: We all take an oath and all swear under oath to each other not to go back on this venture until we have performed this deed...

(The text then lists the twelve other angels by name.)

They and their chiefs all took for themselves women, choosing from among all, and they began to penetrate them and be defiled by them and teach them sorcery, incantations, and the cutting of roots and to explain herbs. They became pregnant by them and gave birth to giants, some three thousand cubits tall [a cubit is about 1 1/2 feet], who were born upon the earth in keeping with their infancy and grew at a rate of their growth and consumed the work of all the sons of men, without the men being able to supply them.

(People became increasingly depraved through the black arts taught them. Raphael, Michael, Sariel, and Gabriel see this and report to God.)

And to Gabriel the Lord said: Go to [them] and exterminate the sons of the Watchers from among the sons of men; involving them in a war of attrition for there will not be long days for them. Absolutely no request in their favor will be granted to their fathers; for they hope to live an everlasting life or that each one of them will live five hundred years. And to Michael the Lord said: Go, Michael, and tell Shemihazah and all his friends who coupled with women...that their sons will expire and they will see the extermination of their loved ones; chain them up for seventy generations in the valleys of the earth until the great day of their judgment...

Also among the Qumran writings was one known as the Genesis Apocryphon. At first this was thought to be the long lost Book of Lamech. Although the scroll consisted of a speech by Lamech and a story about some of the patriarchs from Enoch to Abraham; it was not that book.

In the Genesis Apocryphon, Lamech becomes suspicious of his wife, for reasons now lost, that his own son Noah is the product of a supernatural union:

Then I, Lamech, was frightened and turned to Bitenosh, my wife, and said: Swear to me by the Most High, by the Great Lord, by the King of the Universe, ...the sons of heaven, that you will in truth let me know everything, if you will in truth and without lies let me know whether this... Swear to me by the King of all the Universe that you are speaking to me frankly and without lies. Then Bitenosh, my bride, spoke to me very harshly. She wept and said: Oh my brother and lord! Remember my pleasure, the time of love... I shall tell you everything accurately. I swear to you by the Great Holy One, by the King of the heavens, that this seed comes from you, that this pregnancy comes from you, that the planting of this fruit comes from you, and not from any foreigner or watcher or son of heaven. Then I, Lamech, ran to my father, Methuselah, and told him everything, so that he would go and ask Enoch, his father, and would know everything for certain from him, since he (Enoch) is liked and well liked. (This having been done, Enoch responds:) Go tell Lamech, your son...

At this point the text of the Genesis Apocryphon ends, but it is safe to assume that Lamech was reassured Noah was his son. This means that the sons of Noah were not descended from any "sons of God" or "Watchers." The Qumran scrolls establish beyond the shadow of a doubt that the Second Temple era Jews espoused the first theory in the above-mentioned footnote, and not to the second theory expounded on by St. Ephraim the Syrian.

Again, we do not considered the books of Enoch and the Genesis Apocryphon inspired, but they do shed light on the ancient Jewsish understood of Genesis 6. Their understanding of Jewish Scripture was the accepted interpretation until many years later in the second century AD when theologians such as Julius Africanus[9] suggested that the “sons of God” were Sethites.[10]

Allen