The Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls: The ... - josephprestonkirk

170 IMPACT OF QUMRAN TEXTS ON PAULINE THEOLOGY
spirits in 1QS 3.13–4.26. Divine purpose is mentioned in 1QH a 7.33–34
(15.20–21 Sukenik): “that [all] know your glory and your great power.”
Explanations
1 Thessalonians 5:9 is found in the context of 5:4–9 (see B 2, above),
which has the closest Pauline parallels with the Qumran writings (besides
2 Cor 6:14–7:1, which seems to be an addition after Paul). This text and
the above-cited “community song” of 1QH a 15, paralleled by 4QH b , have
several features in common (all the above-mentioned Hodayot b texts
belong to “community songs”):
1. The concern of both texts is predestination, partly double predestination.
2. Both texts use the verb “to place” (tiqe/nai; My#).
3. Both texts speak of predestination in a negative way with “not.”
4. Both texts refer to the members of the community, either with “us” (Paul)
or with “me” (Qumran).
5. Both texts speak not only in a negative way of the goal of predestination,
but also positively: in Paul it is “salvation” (swthri/a); in the Qumran
texts it is “mercies” and “acts of forgiveness.”
6. The verb “to call” (kalou~n), although missing in 1 Thess 5:4–9 (but see
5:24), occurs in Rom 8:30 and in line 1 of the quoted 4Q Hod b text
()rq).
In Rom 9:22–23 and 1QH a 7.33–34 (15.20–21 Sukenik) the same
nouns are used for the purpose of God’s predestination: “power” and
“glory”; even the verbs are similar: “to make known” (Paul), “to know”
(Qumran).
In a narrow sense, “predestination” concerns individuals who all may
belong to one group and who are destined by God for salvation, while
others or all others are destined for damnation, and this happens at least
before birth (CD 2.7: “from long before”; Rom 8:29–30 and 9:23
“beforehand”). In the Qumran texts and in the Pauline letters, we find
this type of predestination. There are hardly any full parallels to this in
the Hebrew Bible, in early Judaism, or in the pagan world of that time.
Nevertheless, the main Pauline texts of predestination, Rom 8:28–30 and
9:20–29, hardly show a convincing relationship to the Qumran texts. 50
50. For further study of predestination in the Qumran texts, especially see David
Flusser, “The Dead Sea Sect and Pre-Pauline Christianity,” (first in 1958, later) in
Judaism and the Origins of Christianity (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1988), 23–74, esp. 28–30;
Eugene H. Merrill, Qumran and Predestination: A Theological Study of the Thanksgiving
Hymns (STDJ 8; Leiden: Brill, 1975); Günter Röhser, Prädestination und Verstockung:
Untersuchungen zur frühjüdischen, paulinischen und johanneischen Theologie (Texte und