The Genesis Apocryphon is the name given to one of the seven large Dead Sea Scrolls found in the first Qumran cave in 1947. The Syrian archbishop of Jerusalem obtained this scroll along with three others. However, they could not unroll it or photograph it because it was in poor condition. Unlike other scrolls, it had not been stored in a jar of clay. Some small pieces broke off, and certain words on them suggested it might be an apocryphal Aramaic work related to the patriarch Enoch. Other fragments mentioned Lamech, but researchers waited to identify the scroll until they could learn more.
Later, experts were able to unroll it. The scroll was damaged and incomplete. The beginning and end were missing. The inner part was best preserved, but there was damage to the writing because of the ink it had been written with. The scroll discusses Enoch, Lamech, and other people from the book of Genesis. It is an Aramaic version of the parts of Genesis that tell the story of the patriarchs. However, this version includes legends and other content in a memoir style that are not found in the Hebrew Bible. This style of writing was popular among devout Jews at the start of the Christian era. As a result, scholars have dated the original to the first century BC. The copy found at Qumran was probably made between 50 BC and AD 70.
The scroll’s style makes it hard to classify. Some scholars call it a targum (a paraphrase or expanded commentary on Scripture) because it freely adds material not found in the Hebrew Bible. Others call it a midrash (a teaching story or sermon-like interpretation). It contains features of both. It can best be described as a creative retelling of parts of Genesis that adds details such as a description of Sarah’s beauty, Abraham’s dreams, and stories about plagues and travels.
The Aramaic Apocryphon is older than the version used in Palestine during the time of Christ. It contains some Hebrew influences but is mostly written in good Aramaic, mostly similar to biblical Aramaic. The scroll's language is more recent than old Aramaic (from the tenth to eighth centuries BC) or official Aramaic (from the Assyrian and Persian periods), as certain grammar forms indicate. Most scholars consider this language middle Aramaic and date it between the Aramaic of Daniel and later western Aramaic.
Most scholars date Daniel to the second century BC, but this needs to be modified. On the one hand, the fact that practically all the books of the Hebrew Old Testament were discovered at Qumran shows they were written and accepted at an earlier date. Moreover, the Aramaic of Daniel is earlier than that of the Apocryphon and fits the period when official Aramaic was the main form of that language. In other words, the Genesis Apocryphon does not provide valid reasons to date the Aramaic of Daniel or Ezra later than the sixth to fifth centuries BC.