Chapter 7 - Hymns and Mysteries
This Chapter contains some of the most splendid and beautiful texts in the whole
corpus. We have grouped them together because of 1) their liturgical quality and
2) because of their relationship to the whole theme of ‘Hidden Mysteries’
referred to in the last texts of Chapter 5, and evoked variously in the Chariots
of Glory, the Hymns of the Poor, and the Sons of Salvation (Yesha’) and the
Mystery of Existence below.
This last text could just as easily have been placed
in Chapter 5 under Admonitions, where it typologically belongs, but because of
its clear affinities in vocabulary and content with these other texts, we place
it here.
The Baptismal Hymns are interesting in themselves, particularly because of the
importance of the subject which they treat. The period of the Dead Sea Scrolls
was apparently a time of extensive development in the area of liturgy, as these
examples and the published Hymns from Cave 1 suggest. This was probably also
true of Rabbinic tradition, which was beginning its development in this period
as well. Certainly, too, the Eighteen Benedictions, referred to above in
connection with the Messiah of Heaven and Earth text, and other elements of
Jewish community worship arose during these years.
Unfortunately the extant
evidence on these matters is slim. For instance, we did not even know whether it
was common in this period to pray together from a set text, that is until the
appearance of these materials from Qumran. Now, however, we can certainly be
sure that it was common to curse together or, at least to expel someone from a
set text recited in unison, as we have seen above and will see again below.
The
‘amen, amen’s attached to this process, as well as to blessing in the texts in
this volume and in Column 2 of the Community Rule, are illustrative in this
regard. In this section the Hymns of the Poor are related both to the already
published Hymns from Cave 1 and their prototype, the Psalms from the Bible. The
Paean to King Jonathan in the last Chapter is another similar genre. The
parchment on which it was found also seems to have contained some additional
Hymns known from the Qumran Psalms Scroll as well as compilations in Syriac.
Nor
are these Hymns to be dissociated from the literature of Admonitions above.
There is at best a fine line between them, and other material, as for instance
in the cryptic Sons of Dawn or the Demons of Death (Beatitudes) texts.
The reference to ‘Miraculous’ or ‘Secret Mysteries’, and the study of the
seemingly forbidden subject of ‘Being’ or ‘Existence’, including the Sons of
Dawn text in cryptic script apparently related to these, relate to a whole genre
of literature of this kind like the Sefer ha-Razim (Book of Mysteries) and other
magical texts from the first few centuries AD with a mystic tendency so frowned
upon by the Rabbis and yet so much related to Kabbalah and the development of
medieval and modern Jewish mysticism.
The materials in this Chapter are a rich
source for studies such as these, as well as for Secret Mysteries, as the
previously published Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice already are. As the examples
in this Chapter illustrate, the sentiments they express are of the most lofty
and sublime nature.
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41. The Chariots Of Glory (4Q286-287) (Plate 21)
We call this text, which contains some of the most beautiful and emotive
vocabulary in the entire
Qumran repertoire, the Chariots of Glory to emphasize its connections with
Ezekiel’s visions and
Merkabah mysticism. It is a work of such dazzling faith and ecstatic vision that
it fairly overwhelms the reader. Of course, it completely gainsays anyone who
would challenge the literary audacity, virtuosity and creativity of those
responsible for the Qumran corpus.
This work, which has obvious affinities with
the already published Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice, found at both Qumran and Masada, is a work of what goes by the name in Judaism and Kabbalah of the
Mysticism of the Heavenly ‘Chariot’ or ‘Throne’ - so cultivated in the Middle
Ages and beyond. If it is not the starting point of this genre, it is certainly
one of the earliest extant exemplars of it.
Not surprisingly, Line 5 of
Manuscript A Fragment 1, as we have arranged the text, also alludes, whether by
accident or design, to the word ‘Splendour’, (Zohar), and a plural variation in
Line 3 earlier, ‘the Splendours of Nobility’. These in turn are obviously to be
equated with ‘all Your Secrets’ in Line 2. The name Zohar, of course, is the
title of the best known work of thirteenth-century medieval Jewish mysticism in
Spain.
In Lines 3-5, these ‘Secrets’ are equated, in an explosion of ecstatic imagery,
with ‘the feet of Your Glory’, ‘the Foundations of fire’, ‘the flames of Your
Lamp’, ‘the fires of Light’ and ‘the Highness of the Beauty of the Fountain’.
This is just a sampling of the vocabulary of this text, one of the most ecstatic
visionary recitals of any period, ancient or modern.
The text also operates within the Hesed / Zedek dichotomy discussed earlier.
These twin concepts, as we have seen, are the equivalent of the two ‘love’
commandments enunciated in the New Testament as the basis of Jesus’ teaching,
namely ‘loving God’ (Hesed) and ‘loving your neighbour’ (Zedek). Early Church
literature also associates them unmistakably with the figure of James.
They are
also the two ‘Ways’ of early Church documents like The Didache and cornerstones
of Kabbalistic thinking. Here the text makes allusions, too, to ‘the sons of
Righteousness’, a usage we have already expounded at length in relation to the
document by that name. We have delineated it as indistinguishable from and a
variation of ‘the sons of Zadok’ terminology so much discussed in relation to
the published corpus. In Lines 7-9 the phrase is used, not surprisingly, in
conjunction with wording like ‘the Pious Ones’ (Hassidim) and ‘the Congregation
of Goodness’ - also ‘the Pious Ones of Truth’, ‘the Eternal Merciful Ones’ and
‘Miraculous Mysteries’.
Calendrical notations, like sabbaths, festivals and jubilees, which Paul in Gal.
4:9-10 refers to as ‘beggarly elements’, are referred to by ecstatic-sounding
titles such as ‘the weeks of Holiness’, ‘monthly flags’, ‘festivals of Glory’
and ‘eternal Jubilees’. This fragment ends in Line 13 with the ‘Light’ and
‘Dark’ imagery familiar in numerous contexts already mentioned, not least of
which is the prologue to the Gospel of John.
A second text, Manuscript B Fragment 1, continues and increases the richness of
this vocabulary with allusions like ‘the doors of their Wonders’, ‘the Angels of
fire’, ‘the Spirits of cloud’, ‘the embroidered Radiance of the Spirits of the
Holy of Holies’, ‘the firmament of the Holy of Holies’, ‘their wondrous
palaces’, ‘the servants of Holiness’ and ‘the Perfection of their works’ (3-10).
The last two of these are of particular interest. The first echoes a phrase in 2
Cor. 11:15 (also echoed in
Rom. 6:22), which we have already noted above and in which Paul complains about
Hebrew
‘archapostles’ who call themselves ‘apostles of Christ’, but whom he rather
calls ‘lying workmen’.
These, like ‘Satan disguising himself as an Angel of
Light’, disguise themselves as ‘servants of Righteousness’. He ends in a parody
of the presumed ‘works Righteousness’ of ‘those proclaiming another Jesus’ of
the kind we have seen above with regard to ‘cursing’, namely their ‘end shall be
according to their works’ (11:16).
The second allusion, ‘the Perfection of their works’ recapitulates one of the
most important doctrines at Qumran, ‘Perfection’. This term is used in the
Damascus Document, viii. 28-30, as it is in 2 Cor. 7:11, in conjunction with
‘Holiness’: ‘Perfect Holiness’ or ‘the Perfection of Holiness’. It is also used,
as in the numerous allusions to ‘Perfection of the Way’ or ‘the Perfect of the
Way’, as a term of self-designation.
As such, it resonates with similar
allusions in Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount. Here, it is combined with the
‘works’ ideology in a new and different way (10).
Manuscript A Fragment 2 should perhaps be referred to as the Ecology Hymn. It is
a veritable Hymn to Nature, one of the most beautiful pieces of nature poetry
found at Qumran. On the whole the Qumran literature we have seen thus far has
been interested either in Eternal Holy Things or worldly problems related to
approaching Eternal Holy Things.
In this little fragment, we have one of the
first expressions of a sensitivity to nature hitherto missing from the
literature. Here the ‘hills’, ‘valleys’ and ‘streams’, ‘the land of beauty’,
‘the depths of forests’, ‘the wilderness of the desert’, ‘its wilds’ and ‘deep
wells’, ‘the highland woods and the cedars of Lebanon’ are praised together with
‘all their produce’ - in a manner one felt had to be present at Qumran, but up
to now was not.
We have entitled Fragment 3.2 ‘The Community Council Curses
Belial’. It is an almost perfect excommunication text of the kind at the end of
the Damascus Document encountered in Chapter 6. Though that text was assigned,
as we have seen, to ‘the priest commanding over the Many’ (presumably the high
priest designate of the Community) and possibly the Mebakker / Bishop, this text
is actually assigned to the Community Council.
Once again the homogeneity of the
literature at Qumran is demonstrated, i.e. this must be the very same Community
Council so lovingly detailed in the Community Rule and other texts. It is to be
recited by the Community Council in unison, but this Council according to other
work is commanded by the Mebakker. If the latter is to be equated with ‘the
priest commanding the Many’, then once again all our allusions have come full
circle. Like the last column of the Damascus Document, the vehemence and
militancy of this text is quite startling.
These are no peaceful Essenes, nor do
the practitioners of this kind of hatred love their enemies; rather in the style
of 1QS,ix.21-2 and CD,vi.l4-15, they hate ‘the sons of the Pit’. There is the
usual vocabulary of ‘Belial’ and ‘the sons of Belial’, ‘cursing’, ‘Darkness’,
‘the Pit’, ‘Evil’, all punctuated, as in 1QS,ii, by repetitions of ‘Amen, Amen’.
In addition one gets new formulations, like ‘the Angel of the Pit’, ‘the Spirit
of Destruction’, ‘the abominations of Sheol’.
An allusion to mastemato also
occurs in 3.2.2, here descriptive of Belial, further confirming the basic
circularity of these references to Satan, Belial and Mastemoth. Nor is there any
sense of forgiveness here, but rather ‘the fury of God’s wrath’ will last
forever (3.2.10).
Throughout the document as we have reconstructed it, one encounters additional
familiar vocabulary
like ‘the Way’ imagery, ‘Glory’, ‘the Holy Names’, ‘the Glorious Names of God’,
‘mighty works’,
‘healing’ and ‘miraculous works’. These last are particularly interesting where
the history of Christianity
is concerned. But in addition, one has the paraphernalia of Jewish mysticism:
‘wondrous Palaces’, ‘their
Secrets’, ‘secret Truth’, ‘Treasure house of Understanding’, and ‘Miraculous
Mysteries’.
There are also ‘the Fountain of Understanding’ and ‘the Fountain of
Discovery’, which have interesting reverberations with allusions in medieval
Jewish poetry, as well as with the title of a treatise, the Fons Vitae (The
Living Fountain) by its most celebrated practitioner, the famous
eleventh-century Judeo-Arabic mystic poet of Spain, Solomon Ibn Gabirol.
We have already seen a variation of this imagery in the Demons of Death
(Beatitudes) in Chapter 5. This ‘Living Fountain’ imagery will recur later in
this Chapter in further hymns, this time ‘to the Poor’, terminology also
important for early Christian history in Palestine. It will be developed to its
fullest degree in the Children of Salvation (Yerha’) and the Mystery of
Existence, with which we close this Chapter.
The use of the word ‘Glory’ in texts such as these is not only interesting
because of parallel New Testament usages, but also because of allusions like
those in Josephus’ description of the beginnings of the Zealot movement. He
describes two Rabbis in the disturbance of 4 BC, just preceding the death of
Herod, who encourage their followers to strike a blow against Rome and the
Herodian family by pulling down the Roman eagle Herod had erected in defiance of
all tradition over the entrance to the Temple. They do so in terms of the glory
and immortality such zealous acts will gain for their practitioners (War 1.650).
Finally the first line of this manuscript begins with allusions to ‘the
footstools of the feet of your Glory’ from Gen. 49:10. The reader will recall
this as the Shiloh Prophecy. It was subjected to exegesis in the Genesis
Florilegium in Chapter 3, which interpreted the ‘Shiloh’ in terms of ‘the
Messiah of Righteousness who would arise at the end of days’. Between these same
‘feet’ (those of ‘the Shiloh’) is the Mehokkek or ‘Law-giver’, not to mention
‘the Sceptre’, which were also interpreted in this context.
This
‘footstools’/’feet’ imagery is carried further in A. 1.1 to ‘standing’ and
‘walkway’ allusions. The image of ‘standing’ to great heights is known in
Pseudo-clementine tradition - those fourth-century Jewish Christian novellas.
One of these, called the Recognitions (in which a figure meant to represent Paul
attacks James in the Temple) describes someone it calls ‘the Standing One’, a
great redeemer figure which ‘stands’ to a fantastic height.
But the one surviving line from Manuscript A Fragment 3, which refers to ‘the
Holy Spirit settling upon His Messiah’ has truly remarkable implications,
particularly in the setting of the text’s rapturous imagery previously. By
quoting Isa. 11:2, ‘the Spirit of the Lord would settle on him’, which it
rephrases slightly, it recalls the Messianic Leader (Nasi) text from Chapter 1
which quoted Isa. 11:1. The rephrasing, however slight, is worth noting.
‘Him’
is now transmuted into ‘His Messiah’. But this was the term we encountered in
the first line of the first text from Chapter 1, the Messiah of Heaven and
Earth. Lest anyone doubted it, Isa. 11:2’s ‘the Spirit of the Lord’ now becomes
the more imposing ‘the Holy Spirit’. A text of this kind, paralleling the
scriptural presentation of Jesus’ baptism in the Gospels and related discussions
in Hebrews, while at the same time binding all these texts together into a
homogeneous whole, reconfirms the basically single, Davidic Messiah ideology at
Qumran.
It also once more confirms - if such confirmation were by now necessary
- the total Messianic thrust of the entire corpus.
Translation
Foundations of Fire
Manuscript A
Fragment 1
(1) the seat of Your Honor and the footstools of the
feet of Your Glory, in the Heights of Your standing and the ru[ng] (2) of Your
Holiness and the chariots of Your Glory with their [mu]ltitudes and
wheel-angels, and all [Your] Secrets, (3) Foundations of fire, flames of Your
lamp, Splendors of honor, fi[re]s of lights and miraculous brilliances, (4)
[hon]or and virtue and highness of Glory, holy Secret and pla[ce of Splendor and
the highness of the beauty of the Fountain], (5) [majes]ty and the
gathering-place of power, honor, praise and mighty wonders and healing[s], (6)
and miraculous works, Secret Wisdom and image of Knowledge and Fountain of
Understanding, Fountain of Discovery (7) and counsel of Holiness and Secret
Truth, treasurehouse of Understanding from the sons of Righteousness, and
dwelling places of Upright[ness...] (8) Pious O[nes] and congregation of
Goodness and Pious Ones of Truth and Eternal Merciful Ones and miraculous
Myst[eries] (9) when th[ey app]ear, and weeks of Holiness in their rightful
order and monthly flags... (10) in their seasons and festivals of Glory in
[their] times... (11) and sabbaths of the earth in their divi[sions and
appointed] times of jub[ilee...] (12) [and] Eternal [Jub]ilees... (13)
[Li]ght and Dark[ness...]
Ecology Hymn
Fragment 2
(1) (Let us praise)... the land and all who [dwe]ll... who
inhabit it, earth and all the[ir] equipment (2) [and al]1 its subsistance...
[and al]1 hills, valleys and all streams, land of beau[ty...] (3) [Let us]
praise the dept[hs] of forests and the wildernesses of Hor[eb...] (4) and its
wilds and foundations of..., islands and... (5) [the]ir fruits, highland
woods and all the cedars of Leba[non...] (6) [new] wine and oil and all the
produce of... (7) and all the offerings of the land in (the) tw[elve] months... (8) Your word. Amen. Amen. (9)... and fortress and water, deep wells... (10) every stream, de[ep] rivers... (11) water... (12) [al]1 their
Secrets...
Eternal Knowledge
Fragment 3
Column 1
(1)... the lands (2)... their young men (3)... and
all their companions in praises of (4)... and praises of Truth in the times
of fe[stival] (5)... Your... and the bearer of Your Kingdom in the midst
of Peo[ples] (6)... Angels of purity with all Eternal Knowledge, to... (7)
[to bles]s Your glorious Name for[ever.] Amen. Amen. (8)... continue to
praise the God of... [al]1 His Truth...
The Community Council Curses Belial
Fragment 3
Column 2
(1) The Community Council shall say together in unison,
‘Amen. Amen.’ Then [they] shall curse Belial (2) and all his guilty lot, and
they shall answer and say, ‘Cursed be [Be]lial in his devilish (Mastematic)
scheme, (3) and damned be he in his guilty rule. Cursed be all the spir[its of]
his Mot in their Evil scheme. (4) And may they be damned in the schemes of their
[un]clean pollution.
Surely [they are the to]t of Darkness. Their punishment (5) will be the eternal
Pit. Amen. Amen. And cursed be the Evi[1] One [in all] of his dominions, and
damned be (6) all the sons of Bel[ial] in all their times of service until their
consummation [forever. Amen. Amen.’] (7) And [they are to repeat and say,
‘Cursed be you, Angel of the Pit and Spir[it of Destruction in al[1] the schemes
of [your] gu[ilty] inclination, (8) [and in all the abominable [purposes] and
counsel of [your] Wick[edness. And damned be you in [your] [sinful] d[omi]n[ion]
(9) [and in your wicked and guilty rule,] together with all the abom[inations of
She]ol and [the reproach of the P]it, (10) [and with the humiliations of
destruction, with [no remnant and no forgiveness, in the fury of [God’s] wrath
[for]ever [and ever.] Amen. A[men.] (11) [And cursed be al]1 who perform their
[Evil schemes,] who establish your Evil purposes [in their hearts against] (12)
Go[d’s Covenant,] so as to [reject the words of those who see] his [Tru]th, and
exchange the Judge[ments of the Torah...]
The Splendour of the Spirits
Manuscript B
Fragment 1
(1)... as the[ir] teachers... (2) their...
their honor... (3) their Glory, the doors of their wonders... (4) the
Angels of fire and the Spirits of cloud... (5) [the] embroidered [Splen]dor
of the Spirits of the Holy of Hol[ies...] (6) and firmaments of the Holy [of
Holies...] (7) months with all [their] festivals... (8) the Glorious Name
of Yo[ur] God... (9) and all the servants of Ho[liness...] (10) in the
Perfection of th[eir] works... (11) in [their] wond[rous] Temples... (12)
[a]ll [their] servant[s...] (13) Your Holiness in the habitat[ion of...]
Fragment 2
(1)... them, and they shall bless Your Holy Name with blessing[s... (2) and they shall bless] You, all creatures of flesh in unison, whom [You]
have creat[ed... (3) beasts and birds and reptiles and the fish of the seas,
and all... (4) [Y]ou have created them all anew... Fragment 3 (13)...
The Holy Spirit [sett]led upon His Messiah...
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42. Baptismal Hymn (4Q414)
On the heels of this text, we come upon a series of fragments relating to
baptism. By baptism, of course, the reader should realize that the proponents of
this literature did not necessarily mean anything different from traditional
Jewish ritual immersion. The terminologies are synonymous, though the emphasis
on baptismal procedures at Qumran is extraordinary.
This can be seen not only in
texts such as the one represented by these fragments and the well-known
Community Rule,iii,1-4, which in describing baptism makes reference to ‘the Holy
Spirit’, but also the sheer number of ritual immersion facilities at the actual
ruins of Qumran - if these can be safely associated with the movement
responsible for this literature.
Once again, one is confronted with the vocabulary of ‘Glory’, this time in terms
of ‘a law of Glory’ (4.3), as well as, if our reconstruction is correct, ‘the
purity of Righteousness’ or ‘Justification’ (4.4). There is reference to ‘making
atonement for us’, being ‘cleansed from pollution’ as one ‘enters the water’,
and the usual ‘Laws of your Holiness’ and ‘Truth of Your Covenant’.
There is
also an interesting allusion to a ‘Jewish woman’, which parallels the reference
to ‘a Jewish man’ in the calendrical texts, and shows the extent to which the
usage ‘Jew’ had already taken hold in Palestine in the first century BC and the
first century AD.
Translation
Fragment 1
Column 1
(1)... in the word (2)... those purified for the
appointed time (3)... of You and to atone for us (4)...those who are pure
before You (5)... his time, in everything (6)... to be cleansed during (7)... You have made us
Column 2
(1) Your... for the Laws of Holine[ss...] (2) on the first [and] third and se[venth (days)...] (3) in
the Tr[u]th of You[r] Covenant... (4) to be cleansed from the pollution of... (5) and after he enters the water... (6) he will answer and say, Blessed
are Y[ou...] (7) for from the declaration of Your mouth... (8) men of...
Fragment 2
(1) his... in the day... (2)... will bless... (3) Israel
who... (4) before You from all... (5) Your Holiness... (6) you have abandoned...
Fragment 3
(1) s[ou]l...(2) that... (3) for You as a p[use] people...
(4) also, I am... (5) the day when... (6) in the appointed times of
purification... (7) of the Community...(8) in the purity of [I]srael, for... (9) [and] they [will] dwell... (10) And it will come to pass in the day... (11) a Jewish woman...
Fragment 4
(1) for You have made... (2) Your... to be purified befo[re...] (3) for Him, a Law of Glory... (4) and to be in the purity of
Ri[ghteousness...] (5) and w[ash]ing in water, and he will be... (6) You
will... And after he returns... (7) purifying his people with cleansing
water... (8) the second one in his place will sta[nd...] (9) Your
purification] in the Glory of ... (10)... in the da[y...]
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43. Hymns Of The Poor (4Q434, 436)
These texts are appropriately titled. It is important to see the extent to which
the terminology Ebionim (‘the Poor’) and its synonyms penetrated Qumran
literature. Early commentators were aware of the significance of this usage,
though later ones have been mostly insensitive to it. The use of this
terminology, and its ideological parallels, ‘Am (‘Meek’) and Dal
(‘Downtrodden’), as interchangeable terms of self-designation at Qumran, is of
the utmost importance.
There are even examples in crucial contexts of the
published corpus of an allusion like ‘the Poor in Spirit’, known from Matthew’s
Sermon on the Mount in both the War Scroll, xi.10 and the Community Rule, iv.3.
It is clear from the Pauline corpus that in some sense the community following
the leadership of James the just (known in the literature as ‘the brother of
Jesus’, whatever is meant by that designation) - the socalled Jerusalem Church
or Jerusalem Community - were called ‘the Poor’ (Gal. 2:10; also Jas. 2:3-5).
Remembering ‘the Poor’, meaning in some sense bringing a proper amount of
monetary contributions back to Jerusalem, is all Paul is willing to say in
Galatians above about the conditions laid down on his activities by his
ideological opposite James.
As tradition proceeds, it becomes clear that the Ebionim (the so-called
Ebionites) or ‘the Poor’ is the name by which the community descending from
James’ Jerusalem Community in Palestine goes. In all likelihood, it descends
from the one we are studying in these materials as well. This movement, called
by some ‘Jewish Christianity’ - the appellation is defective, but we have no
other - honoured the person and teaching of this James, otherwise known as ‘the
Righteous’ or ‘Just One’.
By the fourth century, the high Church historian
Eusebius, previously Bishop of Caesarea, is willing to tell us about these Ebionites. Of Palestinian origin and one of the people primarily responsible for
the Christian takeover in Rome, he clearly regards the Ebionites he describes as
sectarian - sectarian, of course, in contradistinction to that form of Pauline
Christianity that he helped promote in Constantine’s time.
He tells us in Ecclesiastical History, 3.27 that they were ‘called Ebionites by
the ancients (i.e. a long
time before his own era) because of the low and mean opinions they held about
Christ’. By this
statement he means that the Ebionites do not regard Jesus as divine. He does so,
using the ‘Wicked
Demon’, ‘Devil’ and ‘net’ language that is so much a cornerstone of the
presentation of the charges in
the Damascus Document against them. Knowing that Ebionite means ‘Poor Man in
Hebrew’, he
jokingly contends that they received this epithet because of ‘the poverty of
intellect they exhibited’, i.e. in following such a primitive Christology.
He knows that they considered Christ born by ‘natural’ means, ‘a plain and
ordinary man, who was justified by his advances in Righteousness only... They
also insisted on the complete observance of the Law, nor did they think one
could be saved only by faith in Christ and a corresponding life.’ Rather ‘they
evinced great zeal to observe the literal sense of the Law... They observed
the Sabbath and other ceremonies just like Jews.’ Paul they considered ‘an
apostate from the Law’ (italics ours).
This description of the Ebionites is
crucial to our understanding of these texts and the widespread use of the ‘Poor’
terminology at Qumran. Though there is more material from other sources about
these Ebionites, they are certainly the community that held the memory of James
in the highest regard, whereas Paul they considered ‘the Enemy’ or Anti-Christ
(compare this with the terminology Mastema we are encountering in these texts).
Such a stance is not unparalleled in crucial passages from the letter in James’
name in the New Testament.
We have already shown that this letter, in responding
to some adversary who believes that Abraham was justified only by faith, states
that by making himself ‘a friend of man’, this adversary has turned himself into
‘the Enemy of God’. This ‘Enemy’ terminology is also known in Matt. 13:25-40’s
‘parable of the tares’, perhaps the only anti-Pauline parable in the Gospels,
where an ‘Enemy’ sows the ‘tares’ among the good seed. At the ‘harvest’ these
will be uprooted and thrown into ‘the burning’.
The use of Ebionim as a term of self-designation at Qumran is widespread, most
notably in the pesharim, but also, as we have seen, in the interpretation of the
Star Prophecy in Column xi of the War Scroll. Here it is stated that by ‘the
hand of the Poor Ones whom You have redeemed by Your Power and the peace of Your
Mighty Wonders... by the hand of the Poor Ones and those bent in the dust,
You will deliver the Enemies of all the lands and humble the mighty of the
Peoples to bring upon their heads the reward of the Wicked and justify the
judgement of Your Truth on all the sons of men...’ There is no need to quote
further.
The terminology is also used in crucial constructions in the Habakkuk Pesher,
though it does not appear in the underlying text at all. However its variation,
‘Ant (‘Meek’) does, but not until Hab. 3:14. Regardless of this, for the pesher,
the Ebionim are the rank and file of the Community led by the Teacher of
Righteousness, whose fate they share (xii.6ff).
Where scriptural exegesis at
Qumran generally is concerned, this is one of the terms from Psalms and Prophets
looked for by the exegetes. In the Qumran Hymns, v.23 the term Ebionei-Hesed
(‘the Poor Ones of Piety’) occurs as a particularly telling form of self
designation. It combines, as we can see, two important Qumran terminologies: the
Ebionim and the Hassidim.
Found in five identifiable copies, the Hymns of the Poor are delicate poetic
creations of considerable beauty. Stylistically, they are similar to the Hymns
from Cave 1. They derive their name from the widespread use of the term Ebionim
and its variants ‘Anavim and Dal, ‘the Meek’ and ‘the Downtrodden’ throughout.
The familiar vocabulary of ‘Knowledge’, ‘Glory’, ‘Piety’, ‘the judgements of the
Way’, ‘the Ways of Truth’, ‘the Way of His heart’, ‘zeal’, ‘anger’, ‘Light’,
‘Darkness’, ‘Gentiles’ and ‘Violent Ones’ again appears.
The interchangeability of the usages ‘the Poor’, ‘the Meek’ and ‘the
Downtrodden’ is paralleled in the
published Hymns from Cave 1 by the use of nephesh Ebion (‘soul of the Poor One’
- also used here in Line 2.1.1), and nephesh—‘Ani (‘soul of the Meek’), used
repeatedly throughout. A parallel, Nephesh- Zaddik (‘soul of the Righteous
One’), is to be found in a context of some import at the end of Column i of the
Cairo recension of the Damascus Document.
Evoking another familiar phrase, ‘the
Way of His heart’, used in these Hymns to the Poor as well, the passage
describes a particularly violent attack on ‘the soul of the Righteous One’
(presumably the Righteous Teacher) and some of his colleagues. These it refers
to also as ‘walkers in Perfection’.
Line 4 of Fragment 1 of the present text actually uses an allusion hinted at in
compilations of Messianic proof texts like the published Messianic Florilegium:
‘tinzor Toratecha’ (‘to keep Your Torah’). The use of this expression as a
synonym for the Shomrei ha-Brit (‘the Keepers of the Covenant’), the definition
in the Community Rule, v.2 and v.9 of ‘the sons of Zadok’, once more confirms
the basic circularity of all these usages. It is but a short step from here to
the ‘Nazoraean’ terminology often used as a synonym for Jewish Christians in
other sources, and perhaps the root of Matt. 2:23’s tantalizing ‘Nazarene’
epithet.
From 2.1.5-9, one is completely in the context and atmosphere of the Habakkuk
Pesher, xii, where the Wicked Priest ‘plotted to destroy the Poor Ones’.
Beginning with the allusion to ‘circumcizing the foreskin of their hearts’ (4)
which the Habakkuk Pesher, xi. 13 applies in a negative manner to disqualify the
Wicked Priest presumably from Temple service, it is quite clear that a judgement
of sorts, similar to that being evoked in the Habakkuk Pesher, v, viii, and xii
is being described.
The ‘Violent Ones’, prominent in both the Habakkuk and the
Ps. 37 Peshers are alluded to (5). In the last-mentioned text, they are referred
to as ‘the Violent Ones of the Gentiles’- and take ‘vengeance’ on the Wicked
Priest for what he did to the Righteous Teacher, i.e. ‘swallowed him’ or
‘destroyed him’. In Hymns of the Poor, Line 6, this allusion and one to the
‘Wicked’ that precedes it are followed immediately by a reference to divine
‘wrath’ and ‘hot anger’.
These are used repeatedly by the Habakkuk Pesher in the
same context and with the same sense. Not only do they describe how the Wicked
Priest pursued the Righteous Teacher to ‘swallow’ or ‘consume’ him (xi. 4-5) -
in return for which he too would be ultimately swallowed or consumed (xi.14-15),
but they also describe this vengeance as the vengeance of God. The parallels are
so exact that it is quite clear the two texts are using the same vocabulary and
concepts, to discuss the same events.
They are also quite possibly by the .came
author. The link between them is that close. Because of their mutual regard for
their subject, ‘the Poor’, both of them could be described as ‘Hymns to the
Poor’, though the Habakkuk Pesher is much more than this.
In Lines 1 and 8 of 2.1, the same word, hizillhizilam (‘He saved’ / ‘He saved
them’) is also being used that the Habakkuk Pesher uses to describe how ‘the
Righteous’ are saved from ‘the House of judgement’ or the ‘Last judgement’
(viii. 2 and xii. 14). The latter’s eschatological exegesis of the all-important
Hab. 2:4, that ‘the Righteous shall live by his faith’, hinges on the condition
that those to whom it applies be both ‘Torah-Doers’ and ‘Jews’ (viii.l-2). Hab.
2:4, with Gen. 15:6 concerning Abraham’s faith is, as we have seen, the key
scriptural foundation piece of Paul’s absolutely fundamental presentations in
Rom. 1:17 and Gal. 3:11.
In the Hymns of the Poor, the Poor are ‘saved’ because of their ‘Piety’, and
God’s ‘Mercy’, and because
they ‘walked in the Way of His heart’. In Line 4 of 2. 1, this proposition is
put as follows: ‘He saved
them because of his Piety (here clearly ‘Grace’) and directed their foot to the
Way.’ This exactly parallels the exegesis of Hab. 2:4 in the Habakkuk Pesher:
‘He saved them... because of their ‘aural (‘suffering works’) and their faith
in the Righteous Teacher.’
Both are eschatological, the second demonstrably so.
The Habakkuk Pesher also makes this clear by the reference in the previous
exegesis to Hab. 2:3: ‘If it tarries, wait for it’, which it applies to what is
known in early Christianity as ‘the delay of the Parousia’, i.e. the delay of
the ‘End Time’.
One should also note the xenophobia inherent in Lines 7-10, and the references
again paralleling the Habakkuk Pesher, to ‘peoples’, ‘Gentiles’ and the fiery
‘zeal’ with which God would judge them, i.e. God is as ‘zealous’ as these
presumable ‘Zealots’. This is continued into Fragment 3, where, amid the
language of ‘works’, ‘atonement’, ‘Piety’ and ‘Glory’, it is confirmed that God
would comfort Jerusalem. Here the nationalist sentiments of the literature are
once more completely apparent.
Throughout the judgement material in Fragment 2,
it is made clear that it is from foreign ‘nations’ and ‘peoples’ that God would
save ‘the Poor’, as ‘He sets His Angel round about the sons of Israel’ (12).
There are splendid poetic allusions here too, such as, being ‘hidden in the
shadow of His wings’ from Psalms or those who ‘walk in the Way of His heart’
singing ‘like flutes’ (7 and 10). In the end, just as in the case of Jerusalem,
they would be comforted.
Line 2.6 reverses the Gospels’ ‘bride and bridegroom’ imagery. Whereas in the
Gospels this imagery usually ends up in the disqualification of both Israel and
the Law, here it is used to bless ‘the Torah and ‘the book of Your Laws’ (3.12).
Here, too, that ‘Throne’ imagery, so much a part of Merkahah Mysticism and later
medieval Jewish poetry, is once again evoked (3.7). As with the War Scroll from
Cave 1, there can be no doubting the militancy of these Hymns, nor their
nationalism, their zeal for the Law and their xenophobia, which it is possible
to think of as becoming inverted in Gentile Christianity as it has come down to
us.
Translation
Fragment 1
(1)... Understanding to strengthen the downcast heart, and to
triumph over the spirit in it; to comfort the Downtrodden in the time of their
distress, and as for the hands of the fallen, (2) to hold them up so they can
make vessels of Knowledge, to give Knowledge to the Wise, to increase the
learning of the Upright, so as to comprehend (3) Your wonders that You performed
in former days, in previous generations, the Eternal Insight that (4) You
[established] before (establishing) me. And You kept your Law before me, and
Your Covenant You confirmed for me, strengthening (it) upon [my] heart. (5)... to walk in Your Ways. You commanded my heart, and instructed my conscience not
to forget Your Laws. (6)... You have... Your Law and opened my conscience,
and strengthened me to pursue the Ways of (7) [Truth...] Your... You made
my mouth like a sharp sword and opened my tongue to words of Holiness. You have
put (8)... instruction. Let them not meditate upon the doings of man, whose
lips are in the Pit. You strengthened my legs, (9)... And by Your hand you
strengthened (me) with days. You sent me in... (10) (a heart of stone?) You
[re]moved from me and put a pure heart in its place, remov[ing] evil inclination
Fragment 2
Column 1
(1) Bless the Lord, 0 my soul, because of all His wonders
forever. Blessed be His name, for He saved the soul of the Poor One (Ebion ).
(2) He has not despised the Meek (‘Ani), nor has he forgotten the distress of
the Downtrodden (Dal). (On the contrary), He opened His eyes to the Downtrodden,
and, inclining His ears, hearkened to (3) the cry of orphans. In His abundant
Mercy He comforted the Meek, and opened their eyes to behold His ways, and their
ears, to hear (4) His teaching.
And He circumcised the foreskin of their hearts, and saved them because of his
Grace, and He directed
their foot to the Way. He did not abandon them in their great distress, nor (5)
give them into the hand
of Violent Ones, nor judge them with the Wicked, nor kindle his wrath against
them, nor destroy them
(6) in His anger, though the wrath of His hot anger did not abate at all. But He
did not judge them in
fiery zeal; (7) (rather) He judged them in the abundance of His Mercy. The
Judgements of His eye were to test them. In the greatness of His Mercy, He
brought them (from) among the Gentiles; from the hands of (8) Man He saved them.
He did not judge them in the multitude of the nations, nor scatter them among
the Peoples. (Rather), He hid them in the shadow of His wings, (9) and made the
dark places Light before them, and the crooked places straight, and He revealed
to them abundant Peace and Truth. He made (10) their Spirit by measure, and
meted out their words by weight, causing them to sing like flutes. He gave them
a heart of rejoicing, and they walked in the Way of His heart. (11) But also, in
the way of His heart He led them, because they... , their Spirit at rest, and
raised up a testi[mony...] He commanded a plague to..., (12) And He set
his Angel around the s[ons of Israel lest they be destroyed [in the land of]
(13) their enemies... His wrath, to bring His anger... on them... (14)
He hated... His Glory to...
Column 2
(1) in Evil... distress... (2) their works... for
them against the sons of Man, and You saved them for Your own sake... (3) And
they aggravated their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, but they
atoned for it in... (4) Judgements, and to the Way that... (5) again,
because... their... in...
Fragment 3
(1) Your... to be comforted on account of her mourning; her
affliction He... (2) nations [He will destroy, and peoples cut off, and the
Wicked... He fashioned (3) the works of Heaven and earth, and they met, and
His Glory filled... their [Tr]uth (4) will make atonement. Goodness will
multiply, and the Goodness of the... will comfort them .... to eat (5) its
fruit and its Goodness. (6) Like a man whose mother comforts him, so will He
comfort them in Jerusal[em... Like a bridegroom] over the bride, over her (7)
. . and He will put... and He will lift a]p His Throne forever and ever. And
His Glory... and all the Gentiles (8)... and there will be... desire
(9)... forever the radiance of... I shall bless (10) [the Name]...
blessed be the Name of the Most High... (11)... Your Piety (or ‘Grace’)
upon him (12)... for the sake of the Torah You established (13)... the
book of Your Laws...
Back to Contents
44. The Children Of Salvation (Yesha’) And The Mystery Of Existence (4Q416, 418)
(Plate 22)
If we are justified in grouping all these fragments together, this is
one of the longest extant manuscripts in the unpublished corpus. Strictly
speaking, the work as a whole has the character of an admonition and belongs in
Chapter 5, but because of its eschatological thrust, mysticism, emphasis on the
Mysteries of God and parallels with the preceding works and Hymns from Cave 1,
we have chosen to place it here.
Again we are in the vocabulary of ‘Knowledge’, ‘Goodness’, ‘Faithfulness’, ‘the
Glory of the Holy Ones’, ‘the God of Truth’, ‘Righteousness’, ‘works’,
‘Judgement’, ‘the Lords of Evil’, ‘Lying’, ‘Unfaithfulness’, etc. As in the case
of the Chariots of Glory above, which it very much resembles, we have separated
out the various fragments and given each a subtitle drawn from the most striking
and beautiful of these allusions.
As in the case of the Hymns of the Poor, here
and there it is possible to question the sequence or whether all fragments
actually belong together; however manuscript overlaps do seem to assure the
sequence of most of the fragments.
Some of the most interesting imagery revolves around the use of the term
‘Fountain’ already
encountered above ‘the Eternal Fountain/the Fountain of Living Waters’ and ‘the
Eternal Secrets’, the
‘obscure Mysteries’ - even ‘the Mystery of Being’ or ‘the Mystery of Existence’.
There can be no mistaking that some of these same images are also being evoked
in medieval Jewish mystical texts.
The famous philosophical treatise by the
celebrated Avicebron (the eleventh-century Jewish mystic poet Ibn Gabirol
mentioned above) is, as we have seen, given this title. His poems are even more
redolent with this kind of imagery - the most famous of these, The Crown of the
Kingdom, repeatedly evokes ‘Angels’, ‘the Throne’, ‘Secrets’, ‘Mysteries’,
‘Mighty Wonders’, ‘storehouses’, ‘Righteousness’, ‘the Kingdom’, etc.
The sense
of the Mystery of Existence text also has overtones with the quasimagical
treatise of the early centuries AD, the Book of the Mysteries (Sefer Ha-Razim),
though its vocabulary is less magical.
We also encounter allusions to the ‘Eternal Planting’ (1.13), which one finds in
crucial passages of the Damascus Document, the Community Rule and Hymns. In this
regard, one should see the key allusion in CD,i.7 to ‘the root of Planting from
Aaron and Israel’. In 1QH,vi.15 and viii.6-10, this is combined with ‘Branch’
and ‘Fountain’ imagery. In 1QS,xi, it is tied to the imagery of ‘the Fountain of
Righteousness’, ‘Perfection of the Way’, ‘justification’ and the Community
Council joining ‘the sons of Heaven’ as a ‘Building of Holiness’.
One should
compare this ‘building’ imagery with Paul’s description of himself as the
‘architect’ in 1 Cor. 3:6-17. Using ‘planting’ and ‘husbandry’ imagery here too,
he describes his community as ‘the building of God’.
In Line 1 of Fragment 1 of this text, as we have reconstructed it, the
addressees are instructed, as per Community Rule and Damascus Document
parameters, ‘to separate themselves’. They are compared to ‘a Fountain’ or ‘an
Eternal Fountain’ (1. 13), and Paul’s spiritualized ‘Temple’ imagery that the
Community Rule applies, as noted above, to the Community Council, is exemplified
in the reference to the hearer here as ‘a Holy of Holies’ (1.4).
The addressees
are also, it would appear, here and later, given the power of intercession: ‘He
has given you authority’ (1.15; also 10.13 ‘He has given you authority over an
inheritance of Glory’).
Perhaps most interestingly, directly after the command in Line 8 to ‘love Him’,
God’s ‘eternal Hesed’ (‘Piety’) is called down upon all ‘the Keepers’ (1.8). We
have elsewhere identified this ‘Piety’ commandment - loving God - as the first
of the two ‘love’ commandments. With regard to it, one should also see James.
1:12 discussing to ‘the Crown of Life which the Lord has promised those who love
him’, directly followed in the next Chapter by citation of the ‘Righteousness’
commandment, ‘love your neighbour as yourself (2:8).
This ‘the Keeper’ theme too
- here ‘the Keepers of His word’ - should by now be familiar. It is also, as we
have seen, a theme in the early passages in the Letter of James, where much of
the language of this treatise can be paralleled, and in the definition in the
Community Rule of ‘the sons of Zadok’, i.e. ‘the Keepers of the Covenant’. It is
paralleled, too, in the Hymns of the Poor above, by a variant related to the
terminology ‘Nazoraean’ / ‘Nazarene’.
The ‘Fountain’ imagery continues into
Fragment 2, and after a reference to ‘the Righteous’ in Fragment 3, Fragment 4
launches into another splendid description of the Last Judgement. Using ‘Light’
imagery and ‘walking in Eternal Light’ to describe the lot of the ‘seekers after
Truth’ - also called ‘the Elect of Truth’ paralleling similar descriptions of
‘the sons of Zadok’ in the Damascus Document - the most splendid imagery of ‘the
Foundations of the Universe shouting out judgement’ is used. This powerful
allusion is followed by reference to ‘the Secret of the Pillars’.
Imagery of
this kind not only calls to mind characterization of ‘the Zaddik’ in Zohar, 59b
on Noah, as ‘the Foundation of the universe’, but also Paul’s reference to the
central leadership triad, including James the just, as ‘these Pillars’ in Gal.
2:9. The play on the Sod / Yesod, i.e. ‘Secrets’/’Foundations’, imagery here is
also present, for example, in Ibn Gabirol’s eleventh century The Crown of the
Kingdom mentioned above (lines 14, 112, 164 and 170). We have been following
this language throughout the Qumran corpus. In later fragments, many of these
themes are reiterated, and the text now shifts to an emphasis on understanding
‘all Mysteries’, with particular interest in ‘the Mystery of Being’/’the Mystery
of Existence’.
It is noteworthy that these kinds of inquiries seem to have, at
least in theory, been proscribed in Talmudic Judaism. Not only do we have here
references to ‘the scales of Righteousness’, ‘Lying’, ‘swallowing’, and ‘Ways’,
but in Fragment 7.3 the ubiquitous ‘amal (‘suffering works’) language appears
again. This is to be found, as we have seen, in Isa. 53, and used in the
Habakkuk Pesher to delineate how one is ‘saved’.
In Fragment 9, the most surprising allusion occurs in relation to being
‘Righteous’ and ‘works’, and that is the expression Yesha’ (‘Salvation’). It
first appears in a construct Yesha’ ma’saiv (‘the Salvation of His works’) in
Line 8 in relation to ‘not removing the Law of God from your heart’ (note once
again the ubiquitous ‘heart’ usage here).
Then in Line 11, following another
reference to ‘amal - this time expressed as a verb (10) - one comes upon the
construct ‘the children of Yesha” or ‘the children of Salvation’. The text then
goes on to speak of ‘inheriting Glory’ and ‘everlasting joy’. The use of the
noun ‘Yesha’ or the verbal noun ‘Yeshu’ ato’ (‘His Salvation’) is fairly
widespread at Qumran and much underrated.
One finds expressions such as these in
two important contexts in the Damascus Document: viii.43 relating to ‘God
Fearers’ - ‘until God reveals Righteousness and Salvation to those who fear His
Name’- and viii. 57, relating to ‘not rejecting the Laws of Righteousness’,
‘listening to the voice of the Teacher of Righteousness’ and ‘being forgiven’
‘and they would .see His Salvation’ (italics ours).
The verb ‘see’ here is of
prime importance. These terms also crop up in several interesting contexts in
the War Scroll (xiii, xiv and xviii) and another equally Messianic section
preceding the ‘Planting’ section in the Qumran Hymns (vii. 19).
Some would feel that such a concept was really quite new for the people of the
ancient world; nor had the Greeks yet personified it in various deities. The
personification of this concept in the Gospel presentation of Messianic events
in Palestine in the first century can in this light be considered a most
revolutionary development and one that has not ceased exercising its influence
on mankind even now. In Fragment 9.2/ 10.1, the theme of ‘keeping’ is applied to
that of ‘Mysteries’ in conjunction with the parallel one of ‘not forsaking the
Law’ (8).
This theme of ‘Mysteries’ is pursued to the end, particularly the
single mystery, ‘the Mystery of Existence’, amid continued allusion to
‘justifying by Your judgement’ - found throughout the Qumran corpus ‘zeal’ and a
new usage, ‘poverty’, another obvious variation of the ‘Poor’ theme, as opposed
to ‘Riches’, in connection with which the ‘swallowing’ imagery is used again
(10.9).
The expression Ebion / ‘the Poor One’ is actually used on a number of
occasions, linking up with the previous work again, and leading to the final
message: ‘walking in Righteousness’, ‘lying down in Truth’, and ‘inheriting
eternal bliss’.
Translation
The Eternal Planting
Fragment 1
(1) Open your lips (as) a Fountain to bless the Holy Ones. O ye,
bring forth praise as an
Eternal Fountain... For He has separated you from all (2) bodily spirit. O
ye, separate yourself from all that He hates, and keep yourself apart from all
Abominations of... He made all (flesh), (3) and caused every man to inherit
his portion. He set you apart-and your portion-among the sons of Adam... He
gave you authority. O ye, (4) this was how He glorified it when you sanctified
yourself to Him, when He made you a Holy of Holies... for all... (5) He
decided your fate and greatly increased your Glory, and made you as a firstborn
for Himself among...(6) ‘and I will give you My Goodness.’ O ye, is not His
Goodness yours? So always walk in His Faithfulness in all of (7) your works. O
ye, seek His judgements from every hand, and the abundance of... (8) love
Him, for with everlasting Piety (Hesed) and mercies on all the Keepers of His
word, and... (9) O ye, He has [op]ened up insight for you, and given you
authority over His storehouse, and the accurate value for a measure (ephah) He
has determined... (10) they... you. It is in your power to turn aside
wrath from the Men of His Favor, and to appoint... (11) with you, before you
take your portion from the hands of the Glory of His Holy Ones, and in...
(12) He opened... and all who are called by His Holy Name... (13) with all
the Er[as of] His sub[lime] radiance for an Eter[nal] Planting... (14) all
those who inherit the land will conduct themselves, for in... (15) O ye,
because of the Wisdom of your hands, He has given you authority, and [your]
Knowledge... (16) a storehouse (?) for all humanity. From there you will
designate your unclean food, and... (17) Seek understanding with all (your)
might, and from every hand, take increased insight... (18) Bring forth what
you lack for all those seeking after (their own) desire(s). Then you will
understand... (19) You will be filled and satiated with abundant Goodness,
and by the skill of your hands... (20) Because God has apportioned the
inheritance of eve[ry living being,] and all those wise of heart have considered...
The Fountain of Living Water
Fragment 2
(1)... farmers, until all... (2) bring in your baskets, and
your storehouses, all... (3) and the plain, season by season seek them out,
and do not cease... (4) all of them seek in their season(s), and according to
Wis[dom,] a man... (5) like a Fountain of Living Water which all me[n...]
(6) and it is a hybrid like a mule, or like clo[thing made of two materials...] (7) in cattle and in... and also, your produce will be... (8) your
Riches with your flesh...
All the Eras of Eternity
Fragment 3
(1)... concerning... all... (2) together with him... all
who... (3) and they feared the deep, and... (4) And every sacrifice are
you to offer them perpetually, and the peace (offering)... (5) in all the
Eras of Eternity, because He is (the) God of Truth... (6) making the
Righteous discern Good from Evil... (7) because it is the inclination of the
flesh, and those who understand...
The Foundations of the Universe Shout out judgement
Fragment 4
(1)... your breath (2)... and you will understand... death
with (3)... Shall they not
walk in Truth? (4)... and all their joys with Knowledge. O ye foolish of
heart, what is Goodness
without (5) [...And how] can there be peacefulness without destruction? And
how can there be
judgement without establishing it, and how the dead will groan on account of
al[1...] (6) you... you
were created, but your backsliding leads to eternal damnation, because you walk... (7) The dark
places will be made Light because of Your abundance, and Eternal Being (shall be
the lot of) the
Seekers of Truth and the Witnesses of Yo[ur] Judgements. (8) All the foolish of
heart will be
destroyed, and the sons of Wickedness will be found no more, and all those
seekers after Evil will be ab[ashed...] (9) The Foundations of the Universe
will shout out Your Judgement, and all the... will thunder... all the
lovers of... (10) You will be the Elect of Truth, and pursuers after [insight
with] Judg[ment...] those who are watchful... (11) according to all
Knowledge. How can you say, ‘We have worked for insight and stayed awake
pursuing Knowledge of... in all... (12) But He has not tired during all
the years of Eternity. Does He not delight in Truth forever?... Knowledge
ministers unto Him, and [all the Angels of] (13) Heaven-whose inheritance is
eternal life-would they ever say, ‘We have grown weary in the ministries of
Truth, and tir[ed in...] (14) for all ages do they not walk in Eternal Light?... again, and abundant radiance dwells with them. You... (15) in the
firmaments of... the Foundation (possibly ‘Secret’) of the Pillars, all...
0 ye, in...
Eternal Glory
Fragment 5
(1) [...No]t one from all of their host will rest... (2) in
Truth from the hand of all the storehouses of men... (3) Truth, and the
measure of Righteousness He meted out to all... (4) [...dis]tributing them
in Truth. He put them in place, and sought out their pleasures... (5) and a
shelter for all, nor shall they exist without His favor and... (6) Judgement
to visit repentance upon the Lords of Evil and the visitation of... (7) and
to shut before the Evil Ones, and to lift up the head of the Downtrodden...
(8) in Eternal Glory and peace everlasting, and the Spirit of Life to sepa[rate...] (9) all the sons of Eve, and with the power of God and the abundance of
His Glory, with His Goodness... (10) and in His Faithfulness, they shall
prostrate themselves continually all the day and praise His Name, and... (11)
O ye, walk in Truth with all the [See]kers... (12) For His storehouse is
under your authority, and whoever seeks his own aim (must do so) from your
basket, and (to) them... (13) And if He does not stretch out His hand for
your needs, then will His storehouse (provide) this need... (14)... and he
shall not provide for his own wishes, for He shall not... (15) your hand. He
will increase you[r] cattle abundantly... (16) forever...
The Scales of Righteousness
Fragment 6
(1)... your Fountain. Nor will you find what you lack, and your
soul will languish for want of all Goodness, even unto death...(2) [...
will be trou]bled all the day, and your soul will yearn to come into her
(Wisdom’s?) gates, and a grave (?) and clo[thing...] (3) your... And it
will be as food to eat and fuel for the flame against... (4) For by your
conduct you have troubled those who se[ek] pleasure and also... (5) for you... because God made the pleasures of (His) storehouse, and meted them out in
Truth... (6) [Fo]r in the scales of Righteousness He weighed out all their
understanding, and in Truth...
The Angels of God’s Holiness
Fragment 7
(3)... its Ways are carved in suffering. You calm... (4) and
there will be Lying in the heart of all the sons [of Adam...] ‘He will trust
in all of My Ways... (5) Knowledge. They have not earnestly sought Under[standing, nor Knowledge] chosen. Does not God [give Knowledge of... (6)
on Truth, to discern all [Mysteries, and Under]standing did He apportion to
those who inherited Truth. (7)... Lying. In Tr[uth... all His works. Is
not peace and tranquility... (8) [Do you not k]now?
Have you not heard? Surely the Angels of Go[d]’s Holiness are in Heaven...
(9) Truth. And they
pursue all the roots of Understanding, and diligently... (10) [according to]
their Knowledge, one man
will be glorified over another, and according to his insight will his honor be
magnified... (11) For a man murmurs because he is lazy, and if a son of Adam
is silent, is it not (because)... (12) And they will inherit an Eternal
possession. Have you not seen .?
The Mystery of Existence
Fragment 8
(1)... to the fearful. You shall teach the first... (2) in
former [times], why it existed and what existed in... (3) why they were...
existence in... (4) [day and] night meditate on the Mystery of Existence... (5) [al]l their Ways, with the commands... (6) concerning the Knowledge of
the Secret of Truth... (7) suffering and dominion... (8) [to] walk in the
inclination of [His] Un[derstanding...] (9) walk...
The Salvation (Yesha') of His Works
Fragment 9
Column 1
(1) [...the] time, lest he hear you. And while he is
alive, speak to him, lest he... (2) without appropriate reproof for his sake.
Is it not bound up... (3) Furthermore, his Spirit will not be swallowed (i.e.
‘consumed’), because in silence... (4) [and] quickly take his reproof to
heart, and be not proud because of your transgressions... (5) He is
Righteous, like you, because he is a prince among... (6) He will do. For how
is He unique? In all His work, He is without... (7) Do not consider the Evil
Man as a co-worker, nor anyone who hates... (8) the Salvation (Yesha’) of His
works, together with His command; therefore know how to conduct yourself with
Him... (9) Do not remove [the Law of God] from your heart, and don’t go very
far along by yourself... (10) For what is smaller than a man without means?
Also, do not rejoice when you should be mourning, lest you suffer in your life... (11) existence; therefore, take from the children of Salvation (Yesha’), and
know who will inherit Glory, for it is necessary for Him, not... (12) And
instead of their mourning, (yours will be) everlasting joy, and the troublemaker
will be placed at your disposal, and there will not [be...] (13) To all your
young girls, spea[k] your judgements like a Righteous ruler, do not... (14)
and do not take your sins lightly. Then the radiance of... will be...
Judgement... (15) will He take, and then God will see, and His anger will be
assuaged and He will give help against [your] sins, according to... (16) will
not stand up all of its days. He will justify by His judgement, and without
forgiving your... (17) Poor One. O ye, if you lack food, your need and your
surplus... (18) You should leave as sustenance for His flocks according to
His will, and [fr]om it, take what is coming to you, but do not add there[to...] (19) And if you lack, do not... Riches from your needs, for [His]
storehouse will not be lacking. [And upon] (20) His word everything is founded,
so a[at] what He gives you, but do not add to... (21) your life... If you
borrow Riches from men to fill your needs, do not... (22) day and night, and
do not for the peace of your soul... He will cause you to return to... Do
not lie (23) to him. Why should you bear (the) sin? Also, from reproach... to
his neighbor. (24)... and he will close up his hand when you are in need.
According to Wisdo[m...] (25) and if affliction befalls you, and... (26) He
will reveal... (27) He will not make atonement with... (28) a[gain].
Furthermore...
Your Holy Spirit
Fragment 9
Column 2
Fragment 10
Column 1
(1) He opened His Mercies... all the
needs of His
storehouse, and gave sustenance (2) to every living thing. There is none...
[If he] closes his hand, and
the Spi[rit of all] (3) flesh is withdrawn, you shall not... in it, and
[with] his reproa[ch] will your face
be covered, but by your arbitration (4) [he will go forth] from prison, like... And if he receives a loan, he [repays] (it) quickly in full. O ye, recompense
him, for your purse (5) of treasures belongs to the one you are obliged to,
(even if only) for the sake of your neighbors. You will... all of your life
with him. (Therefore), quickly return (him) whatever (6) belongs to him;
otherwise he will take your purse. In your affairs, do not compromise your
Spirit. Do not exchange your Holy Spirit for any Riches, (7) because no price is
worth [your soul.] Willingly seek the face of him who has authority over your
storehouse, and in his own tongue (8) [speak with him.] In that way will you
find satisfaction... Do not forsake your Laws, and keep (secret) your
Mysteries. (9)... If He assigns His service to you... (don’t allow) sleep
(to enter) your eyes until you have done it (10) [all... d]o not add. If
th[ey] are needy... and do not be generous to him. Also, Riches without (11)... your [eye] shall see because of the abundant zeal of (12)... By His
will, devote yourself to His service, and the Wisdom of His storehouse (13)... you will advise him, and become for him a firstborn son, and he shall love you
as a man loves his only child. (14) Because you... [O y]e, do not rely on
that... and do not stay awake at night because of your money, (15) [and
during the night], continue su[ffer]ing because of it. Furthermore, do not
demean your soul on account of someone who is not worth it, but rather be (16)
to him... Do not strike someone who does not have your strength, lest you
stumble and greatly humiliate yourself. (17)... your soul with the Goodness
of Riches. You will be tilling the wind, and will serve your lord in vain; so,
(18) do not sell your Glory for money, and do not transfer it as your
inheritance, lest your bodily heirs be impoverished. Do not promise them (19)... If there are no cups, do not drink wine, and if there is no food, do not
request delicacies. O ye, (20) [...If you] lack bread, do not glory in your
poverty. You are needy... (21) [Do not] plunder to stay alive, and also, do
not water down (the contents of) a vessel... [yo]ur Laws...
All the Ways of Truth
Fragment 10
Column 2
(3) So remember that you are needy... what you want (4)
you shall not find.
In your unfaithfulness, you will... He has appointed for you. (5) Do not
reach your hand out for it,
lest you be burned, [and] your body be consumed in His fire like... Thus He
repaid him. (6) But there
will be joy for you if you purify yourself of it. Also, do not take Riches from
a man you do not know,
(7) lest it only add to your poverty. If (God) has ordained that you should die
in [you]r poverty, so He
has appointed it; but do not corrupt your Spirit (8) because of it. Then you
shall lie down with the
Truth, and your sinlessness will He clearly proclai[m to th]em (the recording
Angels). As your destiny,
you will inherit (9) [Eternal] bliss. [For] though you are Poor, do not long for
anything except your
own portion; and do not be swallowed up by desire, lest you backslide (10)
because of it. And if He
restores you, conduct yourself honorably. And inquire among His chidren about
the Mystery of
Existence; then you will gain Knowledge of (11) His inheritance and walk in
Righteousness, for He
will... Do not... in all your Ways. Do homage to those who give you Glory,
(12) and praise His
Name continually, because out of poverty has He lifted your head, seating you
among nobles. (13) He
has given you authority over an inheritance of Glory, so seek His favor
continuously. Though you are
Poor, do not say, ‘I am penniless, so I cannot (14) seek out Knowledge.’
(Rather,) bend your back to all discipline, and through al[l Wisdo]m, purify your heart, and in the abundance of
your (15) intellectual
potential, investigate the Mystery of Existence. And ponder all the Ways of
Truth, and consider all the
roots of Evil. (16) Then you will know what is bitter for a man, and what is
sweet for a person. Honor
your father in your poverty (17) and your mother by your behavior. For a man’s
father is like his arms,
and his mother is like his legs. Surely (18) they have guided you like a hand,
and just as He has given
them authority over you and appointed (them) over (your) Spirit, so should you
serve them. And just
as (19) He has opened your ears to the Mystery of Existence, (thus) should you
honor them, for the sake of your own honor. Just as... revere them, (20) for
the sake of your own life and to lengthen your days. Even though you are in
poverty... (21) unlawfully. If you take a wife in your poverty, take her from
among the daughter[s of...] (22) from the Mystery of Existence. In your
companionship, go forward together. With the helpmate of your flesh...
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Notes
(41) The Chariots of Glory (4Q286-287)
Previous Discussions: J. T. Milik, MS, 130-5; P. Kobelski, Mechizedek and
Melchiresha (Washington, DC: Catholic Biblical Association of America, 1981)
42-8.
Photographs: PAM 43.311, 43.312, 43.313 (Manuscript A) and 43.314
(Manuscript B), ER 1346, 1347, 1348 and 1349.
(42) Baptismal Hymn (4Q414)
Previous Discussions: None.
Photograph Numbers: PAM 43.482, ER 1432.
(43) Hymns of the Poor (4Q434, 436)
Previous Discussions: None.
Photographs: PAM 42.859, 43.513 and 43.528, ER 1048,
1463 and 1478
(44) The Children of Salvation (Yesha’) and the Mystery of
Existence (4Q416, 418)
Previous Discussions: None.
Photographs: PAM 42.758,
43.479, 43.480, 43.481, 43.483, 43.589, 43.511 and 43.512, ER 1006, 1429, 1430,
1431, 1433, 1536, 1461 and 1462. The order of the fragments is certain because
of overlapping manuscripts. Fragments 1-3 represent portions from 42.758 and
43.479; Fragment 4 comes from 43.580; Fragments 5-6 appear on 43.481; Fragments
7-8 appear on 43.483; Fragment 9 appears on 43.589; Fragment 10 Column 1 on
43.511 and Column 2 on 43.512.
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