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

JOHN R. LEVISON 193
The burden of proof now rests upon scholars who identify the spirit of
truth, from 1QS 3–4, with the holy spirit of the Qumran Hymns.
CONCLUSION
An extravagant amount of attention has been paid during the first halfcentury
of scholarship to the question of the two spirits in Qumran theology.
This level of interest is hardly inappropriate in light of the
importance of 1QS 3–4 for ascertaining conceptions of the spirit, perceptions
of predestination, and descriptions of dualism in formative
Judaism and nascent Christianity. Despite the erudition displayed in
these studies, the first 50 years of research have yielded a bewildering
lack of consensus concerning the two significant issues which have been
the foci of this essay.
There exists still meager consensus concerning the fundamental questions
that attend this pivotal passage in the scrolls. The question of
Iranian influence continues to be debated, though with less intensity than
in earlier years. Recently, M. Philolenko has resurrected the argument for
Iranian influence in a study that argues not only for Iranian influence in
general but for Zurvanite influence in particular. According to
Philolenko, a Zurvanite origin of this teaching, as well as parallel conceptions
in the Visions of Amram, is evident in the combination of
dualism with a threefold schema of history—past, present, and eschatological
future. Zurvanite conceptions are evident as well in the mélange
of good and evil, light and darkness within human beings, that is, in the
varying levels at which truth and perversity exist in humans. Belief in this
mélange is discernible as well in the Horoscopes that have been preserved
among the Dead Sea Scrolls. Although Philolenko does not, in my opinion,
introduce new evidence into the debate, he does provide a characteristically
competent and reliable discussion of the question of Iranian
influence. More salutary about this study perhaps is the thoroughness
with which he traces the alleged influence of Qumran dualism in other
Jewish and Christian texts, including 2 Baruch (according to a citation of
Cyprian), Philo Judaeus, the Fourth Gospel, Lactantias, and others. 57
57. Marc Philolenko, “La doctrine qoumrânienne des deux Esprits: Ses origines
iraniennes et ses prolongements dans le judaïsme essénien et le christianisme antique,”
in Apocalyptique Iranienne et Dualisme Qoumrânien (ed. G. Widengren, A. Hultgard, and
M. Philolenko; Recherches Intertestamentaires 2; Paris: Andrien Maisonneuve, 1995),
163–211.