GENESIS, 4Q7

The Book of Genesis survives in 22 ancient scrolls, with 21 discovered in caves near Qumran. The fragments displayed here contain Genesis’s opening chapter—the famous creation story where God made the heavens and earth over six days before resting on the seventh. This seven-day pattern became foundational for our weekly calendar and the tradition of Sabbath rest.

What makes this particular scroll remarkable is how closely it matches the Masoretic text—the standard Hebrew Bible we know today. This is noteworthy because most biblical texts from Qumran show at least some differences from later versions. The significance of Genesis is clear from the sheer number of copies found, along with various manuscripts containing interpretations and commentaries on this crucial biblical book.

These ancient fragments appear quite dark and challenging to read due to their age and the coarse parchment they’re written on. However, modern technology has come to the rescue—multispectral imaging and infrared photography have revealed the text much more clearly, allowing scholars to study these precious remnants of our earliest biblical manuscripts.

Fragment 1

Detail Translation

1 ^{Genesis 1:1} In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. [² And] the earth [was]

2 formless and void; and darkness was upon the fac[e of the dee]p; And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

3 ³ And God said, “Let there be light,” [ and there was light. ⁴And] God saw the light was good

4 and God separated the light [from darkness]. ⁵ And God called the light daytime and the darkness

5 he cal{led nl}ght. And there was evening [and there was morning,] one day.

6 ⁶ And God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide [the waters from the waters.” ⁷ And]

7 God [made] the firmament and divided the waters which were under the firmam[ent from the waters]

8 which were above the firmament. And it was so.⁸And God called the firmament heav[en. And there was evening and] there was morning, a second day.

[xxx] = restoration of missing text based on other versions of the same text or scholarly research

LORD = the Tetragrammaton, the four-letter name of God in the Hebrew Bible