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Book of Noah

Prior to the Second Century B.C.

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Leonhard Rost writes: "As noted above, a Book of Noah has been included with the Enoch traditions; we shall deal with it first. It is found in 6-11; 39:1-2a; 54:7-55:2; 60; 65:1-69:25; and 106-107, albeit in incomplete and fragmentary form. The beginning, which would introduce the figure of Noah to speak what follows, has been lost. The interpolation of this book took place very early. For example, the list of fallen angels designates Azazel as their leader in chapter 8; chapter 6 records Semyaza in the same role. The most important themes are: the fall of the angels and the details of the angels' pernicious secret arts made known to men at the time of their fall; the threatened Deluge and the vision of a paradisal age of salvation without any messianic figure; and an account of the birth of Noah as being accompanied by miracles. The Book of Noah is mentioned in Jubilees 10:13 and 21:10. It is less likely that these Noah fragments derive from a Book of Lamech, mentioned in a Greek list of apocryphal writings, than from Enoch. The Book of Noah presupposes the existence of an Enoch tradition. It probably came into being in Palestine (specifically, Jerusalem) around the beginning of the second century B.C. before the appearance of the Maccabees." (Judaism Outside the Hebrew Canon, p. 137)

James Charlesworth writes: "During the early parts of the second century B.C. a pseudepigraphon circulated that contained considerable material concerning Noah. The tradition was not merely oral but had been written down, since the author of Jubilees (SPR NH, 10:13; cf. 21:10) and of an interpolation in the Testament of Levi 18:2 (en te graphe tes biblou tou Noe, vs. 57 in Greek MS e; cf. R. H. Charles, The Greek Versions of the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs. Oxford: OUP, 1908 [repr. 1960]; pp. liii-lvii, 252; APOT 2, pp. 364-67) refer to a 'Book of Noah' (J. P. Lewis, no. 448, questions the existence of a book of Noah). The work is now lost except for excerpts preserved in 1 Enoch (viz., 6:1-11:2, 54:7-55:2, 60:1-24, 65:1-69:25, 106:1-107:3) and Jubilees (viz., 7:20-39, 10:1-15, 20:7, 21:10), for 21 fragments preserved in Qumran Cave 1 (1QNoah, cf. DJD 1, pp. 84-86, 152, pl. XVI), and for two large fragments found in Cave 4 that are not yet published (cf. J. Starcky, 'Cave 4 of Qumran,' BA 19 [1956] 94-96). The work disappeared early; Noah's name does not appear in the numerous lists of apocryphal books." (The Pseudepigrapha and Modern Research, pp. 166-167)


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