Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered - The Preterist Archive

analysis of the scheme of this calendar in this text, see the notes at the end of this Chapter. For more
on the calendar as it related to courses in the Temple, and other matters of Temple service, see further
discussions in Chapter 4.
In the next story from the Noah cycle, the author shows again that his intention is to explain an
inherent contradiction in the narrative as it has come down to us, namely why God cursed Canaan, son
of Ham, when it was Ham who had actually 'uncovered his father's nakedness' (Gen. 9:2 6). Though
any reasonable person would notice this problem, normative tradition usually does not. Showing that
the author both knows the traditional text and is intent on rationalizing certain obvious problems in it,
Column 2.7 explains, somewhat triumphantly, that since God had already blessed Noah's sons, He
could hardly retract that blessing. Despite its facileness, it is an explanation, and shows that people of
this school of thought in the Qumran period (as opposed to some others) were already doing
elementary text criticism, a fact which also stands out in the reconstruction of the flood narrative
preceding it.
This is again clear in the treatment of the next episode about Abraham; we are dealing with one
interesting problem after another in the traditional Genesis text. Column 2.8 shows that the author
knows that Abraham will receive a name change in Gen. 17:5. But in 9ff. it switches back to the
earlier name Abram as it moves on to the story it is really interested in, Sodom and Gomorrah. In the
process, it confronts another problem that seems to have puzzled many commentators, such as Philo
in de migratione Abrahami 177 and the author of the Book of Acts 7:4, i.e. the apparent implication in
Gen. 12:4 that Abraham left Haran after the death of his father.
Gen. 11:32 had already put Terah's age at the time of his death at 2 05. In 11:2 6 it specified his age at
the time of 'Abram's' birth as 70. Some traditions - most notably the version of the Pentateuch
possessed by the Samaritans and one Septuagint manuscript obviously related to it - add the number 7
5 after these two passages to denote Terah's age at the time of his death - thereby adding to the
conundrum.
Our text is trying to clarify this problem. In the process it rejects the position of Philo and Acts above,
that since Gen. 12:4 is placed after Gen. 11:32, it likewise has to be thought of as recording an event
that happened chronologically after it. Rather, it adds its own more precise, numerical specifications,
as it did in the flood narrative preceding it, definitively clarifying this problem in the traditional text.
Column 2.8 adds the key piece of numerical data not found in the Bible, that Terah was 1 40 years of
age when he migrated to Haran, i.e. that he had lived 7 0 more years in Ur before migrating to Haran.
In another mathematical rationalization not found in the Bible, the text now deduces Abram's age at
the time of Terah's migration as also being 7 0 (Line 9), to it also fills an important lacuna in
Abraham's biographical chronology. It then moves on to add another five years to Abram's age (and
by implication Terah's too) to make up the total of 75, his age in Gen. 12:5 when he departed for
Canaan. Finally, by implication granting the traditional number 7 0 for Terah's age at the time of
Abram's birth, it affixes some last numerological data, i.e. Terah lived 65 years in Haran after Abram's
departure, thereby making up the total of 205 the author started with (2.10). That his concerns are
mathematical could not be more apparent.