Aramaic Poetry in Qumran

The often fragmentary Aramaic texts preserved by the Qumran community represent a large collection of well edited texts whose publications have triggered numerous contributions that have brought a significantly clearer understanding of them. Little attention however has been devoted to the poetic structure of these Aramaic texts much less on Aramaic literature as a whole. This study presents a model for the analysis of Aramaic poetry as well as a detailed poetic discussion of six Aramaic texts within the Qumran collection. These texts are: 1) 4Q246 The Son of God text; 2) 4QLevia a portion of the wisdom poem in the Aramaic Levi Document; 3) 4Q534 The Elect of God text; 4) 4Q542 The Testament of Qahat; 5) 4Q541 two fragments from the Apocryphon of Levi; 6) 1QapGen the beauty of Sarai in the Genesis Apocryphon.