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

354 THE MOSES AT QUMRAN
several psalms to answer the crucial question whether the Righteous
Teacher is the Author of the Thanksgiving Hymns. 15 Jeremias’ careful study
leads him to the dependable judgment that some of the hymns (including
1QH 15.6–25) could reasonably be assigned to the Righteous Teacher. 16
Therefore we can approach our chosen text (1QH 15.19–22a) with adequate
confidence that it comes from the pen of the Righteous Teacher.
1.3 Other Leadership Imagery in the Thanksgiving Hymns (Hodayot a )
Probably the most common leadership metaphor in (but not unique to)
the Thanksgiving Hymns (Hodayot a ) is that of the servant (db(). Most often
one finds the use of “your servant” (Kdb(). 17 Thus, for example, one
reads:
[…You have cleansed] your servant from all his offences [by the abundance
of] your mercy. (4.11b)
[I thank you because] you have spread out [your] holy spirit over your servant.…(4.26)
And I, your servant, you have graced me with a spirit of knowledge.…(6.25b)
18
A few other metaphors and similes are also used to speak of the leader of
the Qumran community. One such term is “a banner.” Thus we read: “But
you have made me a banner for the chosen of righteousness, and a knowledgeable
interpreter of wonderful mysteries” (10.13). Of course the function
of the Righteous Teacher as the mediator or revealer of the l) yzr
(“mysteries of God”) is an important feature at Qumran—something that
15. Ibid., 168–267.
16. Ibid., 180–92. The other texts he looks at are 1QH 2.1–19; 2.31–39; 4.5–5.4;
5.5–19; 5.20–7.5; 8.4–40 (here I refer to the columns using Sukenik’s numbers). See
also Menahem Mansoor (The Thanksgiving Hymns: Translated and Annotated with an
Introduction [STDJ 3; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1961], 45–49) who prefers to leave
the issue of authorship as an open question. Cf. the overly cautious treatment of this
matter by Svend Holm-Nielsen, in that, though he is willing to state that “[i]t is even
more natural in this psalm [15.6–25] than in psalm 10 [5.20–7.5] to take the author to
be some leading person within the community,” he still demurs that such a reading
“is not an unavoidable conclusion” (Hodayot, Psalms from Qumran [ATDan 2; Aarhus:
Universitetsforlaget, 1960], 137).
17. For the usage of words in the DSS, we consulted, the Graphic Concordance to the
Dead Sea Scrolls (ed. James H. Charlesworth et al.; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck;
Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1991).
18. Unless indicated otherwise, the author has rendered all translations.