'Each to His Own Inheritance': Geography as an Evaluative Tool in the Genesis Apocryphon

The Genesis Apocryphon has often been compared with the Book of Jubilees; especially the parallel accounts of Noah’s oversight of the earth’s post-flood distribution between his sons and grandsons (1QapGenar 16–17//Jub. 8:8–9:15). A close exa mination of the Genesis Apocryphon demonstrates that, while this comparison is valid, the two works are more different than scholars have typically assumed. Not only is the treatment of Noah’s special role and the earth’s proper division more widespread and prominent in the Apocryphon than in Jubilees, but the most directly corresponding passage exhibits a different arrangement. This may suggest a common cartographic source, and attests to a more robust interest in such geographic matters on the part of the Apocryphon. While both authors clearly drew on similar traditions, it is suggested that the author of the Genesis Apocryphon was more occupied with the right of Israel to the Promised Land than the author of Jubilees.