Bitenosh’s Orgasm, Galen’s Two Seeds and Conception Theory in the Hebrew Bible

In the Genesis Apocryphon, Lamech worries that his son is illegitimate and accordingly confronts his wife about her fidelity. Bitenosh answers these accusations with a surprising response: she asks her husband to recall the sexual pleasure that she experienced during their intercourse. Scholars have clarified this rhetorical strategy by connecting the episode to Greco-Roman theories of embryogenesis, in which a woman’s pleasure during intercourse was taken to indicate conception. While this provides a convincing explanation for Bitenosh’s argumentation, in this essay I argue that rather than deriving these ideas from the Greco-Roman world, the conception theory which informed the Genesis Apocryphon is in fact consistent with notions that can already be found in the Hebrew Bible and the wider ancient Near East. By exploring the concept of conception in biblical and ancient Near Eastern texts, I uncover a belief in the necessity for female pleasure during intercourse as well as the existence of female “seed.” These ancient authors were able to develop and promote significant reflections upon medical issues such as conception, and this is recalled in Bitenosh’s speech. This essay therefore has significant implications for understanding concepts of sex and conception in the Genesis Apocryphon, as well as in the Hebrew Bible and the wider ancient Near East more generally.

Greek Gospels and Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls: Compositional, Conceptual, and Cultural Intersections

The Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls expanded the scope of authoritative and parascriptural traditions that reimagine the lives and times of ancestral figures. In several cases, these Aramaic writings include birth notices or narratives. The Genesis Apocryphon and Aramaic Levi Document portray the patriarchs receiving divine revelations regarding the genealogy and destiny of their progeny. Parents in both texts respond with awe yet keep the knowledge to themselves, reflecting on it in their “heart.” This article brings the revelatory tradition and terminology of the Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls to bear on Mary’s responses to claims of Jesus’ messianic potential (Luke 2:19) and otherworldly paternity (Luke 2:51). The study underscores the importance of the Qumran Aramaic texts for evaluating Lukan special material and points to the relevance of these writings for recovering the Second Temple contexts of the thought, practice, and literature of the early Jesus movement. The focused case study concludes with methodological recommendations for renewed joint research on Qumran and emerging Christianity. The prescribed approach strives to avoid both “parallel-o-mania” and “parallel-o-phobia” by accounting for the complex compositional, conceptual, and cultural dynamics of both collections.

“She is My Sister”: Sarai as Lady Wisdom in the Genesis Apocryphon

The Aramaic text from Qumran known to scholars as the Genesis Apocryphon (1Q20) stands out as one the earliest and most innovative examples of the retelling of Abram and Sarai’s sojourn in Egypt (Gen 12:10-20). To be sure, the terse nature of the Genesis account invited creative storytellers to fill in the gaps, but brevity yielded only half the impetus. Ancient storytellers were no less bothered by the inglorious portrayal of Abram and Sarai, for which there is no shortage of attempts to rescue their reputations. The Apocryphon shares several of the same recharacterization strategies as other ancient retellings, but it is nevertheless unique in its engagement with the tradition of personified wisdom. This article imagines the composer of the Apocryphon’s sojourn account in dialogue with ancient Jewish wisdom traditions and discerns an effort to redeem Sarai’s reputation from Genesis 12 by recasting her as an embodiment of Lady Wisdom.

From Shalem to Jerusalem

This chapter presents evidence that demonstrates, in a manner similar to Moriah detailed in the previous chapter, that the city of Shalem was relocated in a two-step redactional process. First, Shalem was moved from being “a city of Shechem” (Gen. 33:18) to being located in an unknown region. In Jer. 41:5, a reference to Shalem was replaced outright with a reference to Shiloh so as to obscure its mention, but not before the LXX preserved the original reference to Shalem. Later, Shalem was associated explicitly with Jerusalem, using texts from the Second Temple period like Jubilees, the Genesis Apocryphon, and the works of Josephus. The location of the Valley of Shaveh was also relocated from the Dead Sea to Jerusalem to correspond to the relocation of Shalem to Jerusalem.

A Wandering Aramean in Pharaoh’s Court: The Literary Relationship Between Abram’s Sojourn in Egypt in 1QapGen 19-20 and Jewish Fictional Literature

The Abram in Egypt episode in the Genesis Apocryphon has been the subject of several studies which have focused upon its status as an example of “rewritten scripture” and its reclamation of the character of Abram from Genesis 12:10-20. This article attempts to assess not only the redemption of Abram’s character in the Genesis Apocryphon, but also the reconfiguration of the entire Abram in Egypt episode through the use of several literary techniques and tropes common to ancient Jewish fictional literature. This study argues that by remaking the entire episode of Abram’s sojourn in Egypt, the author of the Apocryphon not only transforms Abram into a Jewish hero in the midst of a foreign empire, but also creates a more attractive and meaningful narrative appealing to the literary predilections and tastes of a Hellenistic Jewish audience.