Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered - The Preterist Archive

(references are to primeval dates, columns and lines):
1:1-3 The author understood Gen. 6:3 to mean that only 120 years remained to antedeluvian man
before the judgement of the flood. Whether the replacement of the Masoretic 'he will judge' with 'he
will live' represents an interpretation or a textual variant is unclear, but the substitution of 'their days'
for 'his days' in Line 2 affects the meaning drastically.
1:10 and following. The author's chronology of the flood (according to the years of Noah's life) is as
follows:
(1) 17.2.600 The flood begins (Line 4; Gen. 7:11).
(2) 26.3.600 The rain ceases to fall 40 days after it began (Lines 6-7; Gen. 7:17). The author counted
17.2.600 as the first day in his calculations.
(3) 14.7.600 The waters begin to recede 150 days after the flood began (Line 8; Gen. 7.24, 8:3). Thus
the author counted the 40 days of Gen. 7:17 as part of the 150 days. Note that the dates given in the
Biblical text work only on the basis of a calendar of 30 days per month; they also allow the
intercalation of two days between 17.2 and 14.7 precisely the calendar of Jubilees and many Qumran
texts.
(4) 17.7.600 The ark comes to rest on the mountains of Ararat on the third day of the waters' recession
(Line 10; Gen. 8:4). The author calculated the two days mentioned in Line 9 by comparing Gen. 7:24,
8:3 and 8:4.
(5) 1.10.600 The tops of the mountains become visible (Line 11; Gen. 8:5).
(6) 10.11.600 Noah opens a window of the ark and sends the raven (Lines 13-14; Gen. 8:6-7).
(7) 17.11.600 Noah sends the dove out for the first time (Lines 14-15). Thus the author understood the
words 'and he sent' of Gen. 8:8 as concealing an unstated lapse of seven days. This is a logical
assumption, since there would be no reason to send the dove and the raven at the same time. Further, a
seven-day lapse is suggested by what follows.
(8) 24.11.600 The dove goes out a second time, and it returns with an olive branch (Lines 15-18a;
Gen. 8:10-11).
(9) 1.12.600 Noah sends the dove out for a third time, and it does not return (Lines 18b-20a; Gen.
8:12).
(10) 1.1.60 1 Noah removes the covering of the ark (Lines 206-2:1; Gen. 8:13). The waters have
completely receded.
(11) 17.2.601 The land is dry, and Noah leaves the ark at the end of precisely one full year (2:1-3; cf.