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

HENRY W. MORISADA RIETZ 217
Undergirding the thought of the Wicked and Holy is a strong predestinarian
thought which characterizes many of the community’s other writings,
such as the Rule of the Community and the Thanksgiving Hymns; 51
From the God of knowledge (comes) all that is and (all) that shall be. 52 And
before their coming into being 53 (God) has established all their design(s).
And when they come into being for their fixed times 54 according to his
(God’s) glorious design they fulfill their deeds
Mtb#xm lwk Nykh Mtwyh ynplw hyyhnw hywh lwk tw(dh l)m
Mtlw(p w)lmy wdwbk tb#xmk Mtwdw(tl Mtwyhbw
(Rule of the Community [1QS 3.15b–16a]). 55
And before creating them, you knew all their works forever […]
]d( ymlw(l Mhy#(m lwk ht(dy Mt)rb Mr+bw
(Thanksgiving Hymns [1QH 9.7b–8a]). 56
Although fragmentary, the Wicked and Holy provides significant insight into
the conceptions of time attested among the members of the Qumran. Prominent
in this document is the idea that the events of history are predetermined
by God. Related to the idea of predestination is the periodization
large right margin, which may indicate the beginning of the manuscript (“Notes en
marge du volume V,” 254; cf. Allegro and Anderson, Qumran Cave 4.I (4Q158–4Q186)
[DJD 5], pl. 18). 4Q180 frag. 1 preserves a large top margin indicating that line 1 represents
the first line of the column (cf. ibid., [DJD 5], pl. 27).
51. See Nötscher, Zur theologischen Terminologie der Qumran Texte, 173–82; Armin
Lange, Weisheit und Prädestination: Weisheitliche Urordnung und Prädestination in den
Textfunden von Qumran (STDJ 18; Leiden: Brill, 1995) and “Wisdom and
Predestination in the Dead Sea Scrolls,” DSD 2 (1995): 340–54.
52. For discussion of the Niph(al participle of hyh, see William H. Brownlee, The
Dead Sea Manual of Discipline: Translation and Notes (BASORSup 10–12; New Haven,
1951), 9n1, and Brownlee, “Appendix H: The Niph)al Participle of the Verb hyh,” in
The Dead Sea Manual of Discipline, 54–55.
53. For the construction ynpl followed by an infinitive construction indicating the
time “before,” cf., e.g., Gen 13:10, 1 Sam 9:15.
54. While in Biblical Hebrew hdw(t is derived from dw( meaning “testimony”
(see Isa 8:16, 20) or “custom” (Ruth 4:7), in Qumran Hebrew hdw(t seems to be
semantically related to d(y and has the following meanings: “fixed time,” “assembly,”
and “destination” (Qimron, Hebrew of the Dead Sea Scrolls [HSS 29; Atlanta: Scholars
Press, 1986], 115; cf. Bruno W. Dombrowski, “The Meaning of the Qumran Terms
T)wdh and Mdh,” RevQ 7 [1971]: 567–74; Newsom, Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice, 161).
For examples of hdw(t meaning “fixed time,” cf. 1QS 1.9, 3.10; 1QM 2.8, 14.13;
Mas1k 1.3 (Angelic Liturgy; and parallel in 4Q402 frag. 4, lines 12–13).
55. Cf. 1QS 11.11. My translation leaves ambiguous whether the clause wdwbk tb#xmk
modifies the preceding or succeeding phrase; probably it modifies both.
56. 1QH 9.7b–8 = Sukenik’s 1.7b–8a (E. L. Sukenik, The Dead Sea Scrolls of the
Hebrew University, Jerusalem: Magnes, 1955).