'ושאלו להון ספרא וחכמתא וקושטא': לימוד והעברת ידע במגילה החיצונית לבראשית ובספרות קרובה

Authors of several Jewish texts dating from the third century BCE portray Enoch and Abraham as cultural heroes. The present article examines knowledge and its transmission in the Genesis Apocryphon in relation to Enoch, Noah, and Abraham. Throughout this text, the term רז is used with respect to positive and negative secret knowledge and its transmission. These insights are compared with similar references in Second Temple period Jewish texts such as Pseudo-Eupolemus, Jubilees and Josephus. By correlating these shared conceptions, I trace some parallels to Hellenistic conceptions of cultural heroes and suggest some possible lines of development across time and cultures. A close look at column 1 and at column 19 line 26 of the Genesis Apocryphon in the course of this comparison suggests new readings and interpretations.