Tobit and the Genesis Apocryphon: Toward a Family Portrait

Abstract

The Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls provide a unique window into Second Temple Jewish literature and scriptural interpretation that is only beginning to gain sustained scholarly attention. A major question regarding these texts, and addressed preliminarily in this essay, is the extent to which they may constitute a coherent corpus of related works. Tobit and the Genesis Apocryphon are two Aramaic compositions that have benefited from extensive individual analysis but have not been studied alongside each other. A close, comparative reading of both texts reveals a surprising correspondence in their topics of interest, scriptural source material, literary techniques, narrative structures, and idiom. These similarities suggest a close family resemblance between Tobit and the Apocryphon , which were likely written in the same or associated scribal circles during the early Hellenistic period. The relationship between these two texts makes a case for similar comparisons of other Aramaic scrolls and suggests a more tightly formed constellation of affiliated texts than has been previously recognized.