He will know the three books, and wisdom shall be his. He will be different from all the sons of men who came before him.
The Birth of Noah (4Q534, 4Q535, and 4Q536) is an Aramaic nativity oracle preserved across three highly fragmentary manuscripts from Cave 4. Together they announce the birth of the child Noah — his luminous appearance, his exceptional wisdom, his knowledge of three books, and his designation as elect of God.
The text belongs to a broader Qumran birth-of-Noah tradition. The Genesis Apocryphon (1QapGen 2:1–18), separately translated in this collection, provides the narrative frame: Lamech sees his newborn son blazing with light and fears the child is not his own, going to Bitenosh, then to Methuselah, who travels to consult Enoch. First Enoch 106–107 preserves a parallel account in Ethiopic. The present text gives the oracle form rather than the family narrative — the child's destiny announced in the idiom of a prophetic horoscope, not the father's anxiety dramatized.
4Q534 was originally designated 4QMessAram (Messianic Aramaic) by early researchers who took the "elect of God" passage as a description of a future messiah. Puech's critical edition (DJD XXXI, 2001) established the Birth of Noah identification on the basis of its overlap with 4Q535–536 and the parallel tradition in 1 Enoch 106. The election vocabulary — "elect of God," "illumined with light," "wisdom greater than all the sons of men" — mirrors the idiom of the sectarian corpus without resolving the theological identification. The three books the child will know are commonly understood as texts from the Enochic literary tradition.
I. The Birth Oracle
4Q534, Fragment 1, Column i
[...] a child will be born [in the year ...]. He will know wisdom and understanding [...]. The three books he will know [...], and teaching will come to him from the Most High [...].
He will be different from all the sons of men who came before him [...]. His wisdom will be great [...]. He will perceive the hidden things and the revealed things [...], and the knowledge of the Most High will rest upon him [...].
[...] and all the peoples [...] from him [...].
II. The Elect One
4Q534, Fragment 1, Column ii
[...] the elect of God is he [...]. He will be illumined with light [...]. His knowledge will be with the Watchers of heaven [...], and his counsel will stand forever [...].
[...] the Most High has set him apart [...], and he will give light to all the sons of his generation [...].
III. The Child's Countenance
4Q536, Fragment 1
[...] his countenance like the sun [...], luminous [...]. The children of the earth will be stirred when they see him [...].
[...] marks upon him [...]. The Most High has appointed him [...], and his name will endure in all generations [...].
IV. Further Fragments
4Q535; 4Q536, Fragment 2
The remaining fragments of 4Q535 and the second fragment of 4Q536 are too lacunose for continuous translation. Scattered vocabulary preserved: wisdom (ḥokmāh), holy (qaddīsh), sons of men (bnē anāsh), light (nehōrā). For the full Aramaic see Puech, DJD XXXI.
Colophon
Birth of Noah (4Q534, 4Q535, 4Q536). Translated from the Aramaic. Critical edition: Émile Puech, Qumrân Grotte 4 XXII: Textes Araméens, Première Partie (DJD XXXI; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2001), pp. 115–162. Also in Florentino García Martínez and Eibert J.C. Tigchelaar, Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition (Leiden: Brill, 1997–98), vol. 1, pp. 1064–1071. Narrative parallel: Genesis Apocryphon (1QapGen 2:1–18). Ethiopic parallel: 1 Enoch 106–107.
4Q534 Fragment 1 is the most coherent surviving text. 4Q535 is too fragmentary for continuous translation. 4Q536 Fragment 1 adds the physical description. The "elect of God" phrase (col. ii) is the most discussed passage in the corpus of this text; it parallels election language in the Community Rule, Thanksgiving Hymns, and Teacher of Righteousness pesharim. All lacunae are marked; no text has been supplied into gaps.
New Tianmu Anglican Church Good Works Translation, from the Aramaic. March 2026.
🌲
Source Text
4Q534 (4QNoah ar a) — Fragment 1, Column i
[...]
ילוד ילד [...]
[...] חכמה ובינה [...]
[...] תלת ספרין [...]
[...] מן כל בני אנשא [...]
[...] חכמה רבה [...]
[...]
4Q534 (4QNoah ar a) — Fragment 1, Column ii
[...]
[...] בחיר אל [...]
[...] נהורא [...]
[...] חכמה עם עירין [...]
[...]
4Q536 (4QNoah ar c) — Fragment 1
[...]
[...] כשמשא [...]
[...] נהורא [...]
[...] בני ארעא [...]
[...]
4Q535 (4QNoah ar b) — Scattered Fragments
Too fragmentary for transcription. Attested vocabulary: חכמה (wisdom), קדיש (holy), בני אנש (sons of men), נהורא (light). For the full diplomatic transcription with paleographic apparatus see Puech, DJD XXXI, pp. 115–162.
Source Colophon
Aramaic transcription after Émile Puech, DJD XXXI (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2001), pp. 115–162, and García Martínez & Tigchelaar, DSSE vol. 1 (1997–98). The manuscripts are heavily lacunose throughout. Only key attested Aramaic phrases are given above with lacuna markers; no Aramaic has been supplied for gaps. For the complete diplomatic transcription with photograph plates and critical apparatus, see Puech DJD XXXI.
🌲