Noah's Sacrifice and the Relation between Jubilees and the Genesis Apocryphon.

The similarities between the Genesis Apocryphon and Jubilees have been noted since the former's publication. Although distinct texts, both share a range of interpretative traditions in their retellings of the stories in Genesis, which suggests a genetic relationship between the two. One such shared...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Journal of Biblical Literature Vol. 144; no. 3; pp. 495 - 513
Autor principal: Mali, Hillel
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Society of Biblical Literature 2025
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
Descripción
Sumario:The similarities between the Genesis Apocryphon and Jubilees have been noted since the former's publication. Although distinct texts, both share a range of interpretative traditions in their retellings of the stories in Genesis, which suggests a genetic relationship between the two. One such shared tradition is the reworking of Noah's sacrifices after leaving the ark, expanding the terse biblical account (Gen 8:20–22) into a detailed cultic treatise, adapted to Sinaitic law. Recently, new photographs of the Genesis Apocryphon have improved legibility and opened up new readings that shed light on the question of the genetic relationship between the texts in the passage concerning Noah's sacrifices. In this article I present the new reading and translation of the relevant passage in the Apocryphon; assess its similarities to and differences from the parallel in Jubilees; explain why, in this particular case, Jubilees must be considered an adaptation of the Apocryphon; and, finally, demonstrate how reading each passage in light of its parallel highlights the theological motivations and literary thrust of each composition: the Apocryphon embeds the entire catalog of offerings in Noah's archetypical sacrifice, whereas Jubilees focuses on the similarity between the covenant of Noah and the covenant of Abraham.