Three windows into the same book. The ark is three hundred cubits long and thirty cubits tall — the community measured it against their calendar and found confirmation of their solar reckoning. Dan shall judge his people — the pesher saw in that verse the community's own judicial function. The arms of his hands were made strong by the Mighty One of Jacob — and from there, the Stone of Israel, the God of your father who helps you. The blessings overflow their frame.
Commentary on Genesis D (4Q254a) is a Cave 4 Hebrew manuscript, the fourth of four Qumran pesher compositions on Genesis. It was published by John M. Allegro in Qumran Cave 4, I (4Q158–4Q186), DJD V (Oxford: Clarendon, 1968), pp. 84–85. The manuscript preserves material from Genesis 6 (the ark measurements), Genesis 49:16–17 (Dan's blessing), and Genesis 49:24–25 (the blessing of Joseph, ending with Jacob's death). The fragments are lacunose but yield more continuous content than most of the Genesis pesher manuscripts.
Fragment 1 — The Ark of Noah (Genesis 6:15)
The length of the ark: three hundred cubits. Its width: fifty cubits. Its height and its dimensions...
...its upper deck, and you shall make it with three decks...
[Lacuna. The fragment follows Genesis 6:15–16 closely, presenting the ark's dimensions as understood by the community.]
Fragment 2 — The Flood Chronology
On the seventeenth day of the second month...
Noah went out from the ark to the appointed season, day by day...
...and he went out and came out again, and he returned to make known to the generations...
...for the waters rose...
[This fragment parallels the flood chronology of Commentary on Genesis A (4Q252), Columns I–II. The community's solar calendar is the lens through which the flood narrative is interpreted; every significant flood date falls on a Wednesday, the day of the luminaries' creation.]
Fragment 3 — Dan Shall Judge (Genesis 49:16–17)
Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel.
Its interpretation: he who was dwelling as a resident among them.
Dan shall be a serpent in the way, a viper by the path, that bites the horse's heels so that its rider falls backward.
[The pesher application is largely lacunose. The sect's interest in Dan's judicial role connects to the Community Rule's emphasis on communal judgment and the role of judges within the Council of the Community.]
Fragment 5 — The Mighty One of Jacob (Genesis 49:24–25)
...the arms of his hands were made supple by the Mighty One of Jacob — from there, the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel.
By the God of your father who helps you, and by the Almighty who blesses you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that crouches below, blessings of the breast and womb.
The blessings of your father surpassed the blessings of the eternal mountains, the bounty of the everlasting hills; may they be on the head of Joseph...
...and his mother was clothed in crimson...
[Lacuna. The fragment concludes with material from Jacob's blessing of Joseph in Genesis 49:24–26.]
Scholarly Note
Commentary on Genesis D (4Q254a) is notable for its treatment of the ark measurements. The Qumran community's 364-day solar calendar is the primary lens through which the flood narrative is interpreted in all four Genesis commentaries. Commentary on Genesis A (4Q252) demonstrates that all key flood dates fall on Wednesdays — the day the luminaries were created (Genesis 1:14–19). Commentary on Genesis D appears to approach the same material from the perspective of the ark's physical structure, suggesting that the community understood Noah's construction as itself conforming to cosmological principles.
The blessing of Dan as one who judges his people (Genesis 49:16) is applied in the pesher context to communal judicial authority — one of the most important themes in the Qumran Rule literature. The Community Rule (1QS VIII) establishes the Council of the Community as a body with judicial functions, and the pesher on Dan legitimizes this claim through scripture.
The Joseph blessing of Genesis 49:24–25 — with its invocation of the Mighty One of Jacob, the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel — was among the most important messianic proof texts in the Qumran corpus. Commentary on Genesis A (4Q252) Column 6 interprets the scepter of Judah (Genesis 49:10) as the Branch of David; Commentary on Genesis D's treatment of the Joseph blessing may have offered a parallel — or complementary — messianic reading.
Colophon
Translated from Hebrew (4Q254a) for the New Tianmu Anglican Church Good Works Library. Source: Elisha Qimron, The Dead Sea Scrolls: The Hebrew Writings, vol. 1 (2010), Composite Edition (Zenodo, CC BY 4.0), p. 257. Consulted: John M. Allegro, DJD V (1968), pp. 84–85; Florentino García Martínez and Eibert Tigchelaar, Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition (Brill, 1997), vol. I, pp. 504–507. A Good Works Translation by the New Tianmu Anglican Church.
🌲