Column 19

6 … […] … […] … 7 … [… and I built there an altar,] and I called there on the [name of God,] and I said, “You are 8 [my God, the eternal God.”] … […] … until then I had not reached the holy mountain. And I set out 9 to … and I was going to the south … and I went on until I reached Hebron. At [that time] Hebron was built, and I lived 10 [there two years.] And there was a famine in all this land, and I heard that there was grain in Egypt, and I set out 11 to [enter] the land of Egypt […] … [… until I reached] the river Karmon, one of 12 the heads of the river … […] until now we were within our land. And I passed the seven heads of this river, which 13 … […] Now we passed through our land and entered the land of the sons of Ham, the land of Egypt. 14 And I, Abram, dreamed a dream on the night of my entering the land of Egypt, and I saw in my dream, and behold, a cedar tree and a date palm⁠ 15 together had sprouted from [one root.] And people came, seeking to cut down and uproot the cedar and to leave the date palm by itself. 16 But the date palm cried out and said, “Do not cut down the cedar, for the two of us have sprouted from one root.” And the cedar was spared because of the date palm 17 and was not [cut down.] And I awoke in the night from my sleep, and I said to Sarai my wife, “A dream 18 I have dreamed, [and I am] afraid [because of] this dream.” And she said to me, “Tell me your dream, so that I may know it.” And I began to tell her this dream, 19 [and I made known] to [her the meaning of this] dream, [and I said,] “… that they will seek to kill me and to spare you. But this is all the kindness 20 [that you must do for me:] in every place where [we go, say] about me, ‘He is my brother,’ and I will live because of you, and my life will be saved for your sake. 21 [… they will seek] to take you away from me and to kill me.” And Sarai wept at my words that night. 22 […] … […] and Pharaoh Zoan […] Sarai to turn toward Zoan 23 [with me, and she guarded herself] greatly, so that no [one] would see her [for five years.] And at the end of those five years 24 [… there came] three men from the nobles of Egypt [… of] Pharaoh Zoan, about my words and about my wife, and they were giving 25 [me many gifts, and they asked me to make known] goodness and wisdom and truth. And I read before them the [book of] the words of Enoch 26 […] in the famine that […] … and not … to rise until … the words of 27 […] … […] with much food and with drink […] the wine 28 […] … […]

Texts in conversation

Compare 1Q20 19:14 and Genesis Rabbah 41:1

Dead Sea Scrolls, Biblical Retellings · Rabbinic

Summary

The Genesis Apocryphon adds a dream to Abram's entry into Egypt, in which a palm tree pleads for a cedar that men have come to cut down. Rabbinic tradition in Genesis Rabbah similarly interprets the palm and cedar of Psalm 92 as Abram and Sarai.

Passages

1Q20 19:14

Dead Sea Scrolls, Biblical Retellings · Genesis Apocryphon

12 the heads of the river … […] until now we were within our land. And I passed the seven heads of this river, which 13 … […] Now we passed through our land and entered the land of the sons of Ham, the land of Egypt. 14 And I, Abram, dreamed a dream on the night of my entering the land of Egypt, and I saw in my dream, and behold, a cedar tree and a date palm 15 together had sprouted from [one root.] And people came, seeking to cut down and uproot the cedar and to leave the date palm by itself. 16 But the date palm cried out and said, “Do not cut down the cedar, for the two of us have sprouted from one root.” And the cedar was spared because of the date palm 17 and was not [cut down.] And I awoke in the night from my sleep, and I said to Sarai my wife, “A dream

160–60 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1Q20

Genesis Rabbah 41:1

Rabbinic · Aggadah

“The Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his household with great afflictions over the matter of Sarai, Abram’s wife” (Genesis 12:17). “The Lord afflicted Pharaoh…with great afflictions.” It is written: “The righteous man flourishes like a palm tree; [like a cedar in Lebanon he grows tall]” (Psalms 92:13) – just as the palm and cedar have neither curvatures nor protuberances, so, too, the righteous have neither curvatures nor protuberances. Just as the palm tree and cedar, their shade extends far away, so the reward of the righteous extends far away. Just as the palm tree and the cedar, their heart [trunk] goes straight upward, so too the righteous, their heart is straight toward the Holy One blessed be He. That is what is written: “My eyes are always toward the Lord, as He draws my feet out of the net” (Psalms 25:15). Just as the palm tree and the cedar have desire, so too the righteous have desire. What is their desire? It is for the Holy One blessed be He, as it is stated: “I hoped for the Lord” (Psalms 40:2).

500 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Genesis Rabbah

References

“... This dream is unique to the Genesis Apocryphon and serves an important function in the narrative, explaining the somewhat dubious actions of Abram in the Genesis story. The dream also makes Abram a visionary like Noah earlier in the Genesis Apocryphon. [...] The symbolism of the dream itself seems to come from older traditions concerning Abram and Sarai. The cedar tree is meant to be identified with the patriarch Abram, as the earlier cedar was identified with the patriarch Noah (col. 14, line 9). This cedar, however, is in danger. As Marianne Luijken Gevirtz notes, “The motif of a tree being cut down occurs as a metaphor for disaster, destruction and death in the Hebrew Bible” If the cedar is Abram, then the date palm must be Sarai. In fact, the pairing of these two trees, and the understanding that they symbolize Abram and Sarai, seems to be an old exegetical tradition. The pairing of the trees also occurs in Ps 92:12, “The righteous flourish like the palm tree, and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.” Rabbinic exegesis understood the pair to stand for Abram and Sarai (M. Tanh. Lek Lekha 5; Zohar to Genesis 12; Gen. Rab. 40:1). In the case of the Zohar and Genesis Rabbah, the rabbis tie the psalm verse to the episode of Abram and Sarai in Egypt (Gen 12:10-20). That is exactly the point in the Genesis narrative where the author of the Genesis Apocryphon uses the same symbolism in the dream vision. The Genesis Apocryphon and the rabbinic literature stem from two different exegetical traditions; thus the fact that the same tradition appears in both corpora indicates its age. ...”

Sidnie White Crawford, Rewriting Scripture in Second Temple Times (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008), 139–140.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

Column 19

1Q2021 chapters

Compare 1Q20 19:14 and Genesis Rabbah 41:1

Summary

Passages

1Q20 19:14

Genesis Rabbah 41:1

References

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