Pseudepigraphy and First Person Discourse in the Dead Sea Documents : From the Aramaic Texts to Writing of the Yaḥad

This paper examines the significance among the Dead Sea material and other Second Temple literature composed in Hebrew and Greek of several Aramaic documents which were arguably in circulation during the 3rd and the first half of the 2nd century BCE. These works, some of which were not studied in detail until the last fifteen years, have been given the following designations: Visions of Amram (4Q543–548), Aramaic Levi Document (1Q21, 4Q213, 4Q213a, 4Q213b, 4Q214, 4Q214a, 4Q214b), Testament of Jacob (4Q537), the various Enochic books (4Q201–202, 204–206, 4Q207–212, XQpapEn), Book of Giants (1Q23–24, 2Q26, 4Q203, 4Q206a, 4Q530–533, 6Q8), Birth of Noah (1Q20 cols i–v, 4Q212; cf. 4Q534–536), Prayer of Nabonidus (4Q242), Pseudo-Daniel (4Q243–245), Daniel (1Q71–72, 4Q112–116, 6Q7), and Genesis Apocryphon (1Q20). While the diversity of these documents resists the confident assignment of composition to authors belonging to any particular group or movement, several recurring themes and motifs (e.g. interest in relationship between patriarchs and foreign kings; antediluvian, post-diluvian, exodus, and exilic times; demonology; instruction; and cosmological and historical apocalyptic ideas) allow us to ascertain something about developments in religious thought during the century leading up to and during the Maccabean revolt, as well as to inquire into why they were brought to the Qumran caves and what influence they exerted there and elsewhere.