The Pesher on Genesis, or Commentaries on Genesis, is part of the collection of the Dead Sea Scrolls found in caves near the archaeological site of Qumran about a mile off the Northwestern shore of the Dead Sea.
[2] 4Q252 or 4QCommentary on Genesis A, as it was called by the final editor George Brooke, is dated using a paleographical method back to the early Herodian era or the latter half of 1st century BCE.
Column I and II lines 1–7 mostly retell and expand slightly the story of Noah and the flood from Genesis 6–9.
[3] 4Q253 (Commentary on Genesis B) consists of three fragments that were found in cave four at the Qumran site.
The first fragment mentions the Ark of the Covenant and may deal with Noah and the flood, but the sense of the comments is far from clear.
Fragment three cannot actually be placed specifically in relation to the Genesis text, however, it speaks of Belial – the traditional name for Satan in Jewish apocalyptic writings.
[6] The fragments are quite small in size and show the very bottom of columns on a commentary of Genesis.
Unfortunately, due to the poor state of the fragments, scholars are unable to determine the size of what the full manuscript would have been.
3 = 3.2 x 3.0 cm The fragments are almost certainly recognized to have been written by the same scribe due to the type of writing – a formal script from the late Hasmonaean to the early Herodian period.
The content of the fragments covers the curse on Canaan, the grandson of Noah from Genesis 9:24–25; the events leading up to the binding of Isaac in Gen. 22:5–7; the blessing of Judah from Gen. 49:8–12; a commentary on the 'two anointed ones' possibly from Zechariah 4:14 or perhaps part of the blessing on Judah in Gen 49:8–12; Jacob's prophecy concerning Issachar and Dan in Gen. 49:15–17; and Jacob's prophecy concerning Joseph from Gen.
Several of the scribe's letters (their formation consistently throughout all the fragments) suggests a transition from the late Hasmonaean to the early Herodian formal hand.
Several fragments contain damage likely caused by worms, and some seem to preserve traces of ink on the reverse as if those scrolls were wound very tightly in years gone by.
[4] The fourth manuscript in this group, also known as 4QCommentary on Genesis D or pGen IVa, is extant in three fragments in a developed Herodian formal hand.
In fragments 1–2 there is a description of the measurements of Noah's ark, partly citing Genesis 6.15 .