the-bible-and-the-dead-sea-scrolls

JOHN R. LEVISON 177
the dualism of the two original spirits of truth and evil, from Iranian
[Zoroastrian] religion, which was adopted in 1QS 4.20ff. is combined
with the Old Testament conceptions of the ‘new spirit,’ of the ‘holy spirit,’
of the ‘steadfast spirit’ which God will place in the heart of the pious”
(Ezek 36:25–27; Ps 51:10, 12–14, 19). 20
In the end, Kuhn’s inability to adduce Zoroastrian parallels to explain
the presence of an anthropological dualism (the struggle within) in 1QS
3–4 exposes a gap in the hypothesis of Zoroastrian influence. How taut
are the parallels if Zoroastrianism cannot adequately explain the anthropological
dimension of 1QS 3–4? 21
The Two Spirits and Internal Considerations
Into this breach, nearly a decade later, strategically stepped P. Wernberg-
Møller, 22 who, “on purely internal grounds” (as opposed to citing external
parallels) attempted to redress the balance by contending that the two
spirits in 1QS 3–4 are to be understood as two dispositions within all
human beings, as the precursor of the rabbinic concept of the two impulses:
It may thus be doubted whether we have a parallel at all here to the concept
in the Gathas of the two sharply separated divisions of mankind. The sons
of righteousness are, in a way, regarded as a section within the larger whole,
the sons of perversion, and as belonging to them. This feeling of solidarity
with the rest of mankind is something very characteristic of the anthropology
20. Kuhn, “Sektenschrift,” 301-2n4. Hans Wildberger (“Der Dualismus in den
Qumranschriften,” Asiatische Studien 8 [1954]: 163–77) attempted to strengthen the
hypothesis of Zoroastrian influence by identifying the “spirit of impurity” with Belial.
He went on, on the basis of 1QS 10.21 (“Belial I will not keep in my heart”) to locate
the spirit of impurity or Belial both in the cosmos and “in the heart” of the children
of darkness.
21. Some scholars have refined the Zoroastrian hypothesis by pinpointing a particular
form of Zoroastrianism known as Zurvanism. See, for example, Jacques
Duchesne-Guillemin, “Le Zervanisme et les manuscrits de la Mer Morte,” Indo-Iranian
Journal 1 (1957): 96–99; James H. Charlesworth, “A Critical Comparison of the
Dualism of 1QS III 13–IV 26, and the ‘Dualism’ Contained in the Fourth Gospel,”
NTS 15 (1968): 400–401.
22. Independently of Wernberg-Møller, Marco Treves contended (“The Two Spirits
of the Rule of the Community,” RevQ 3 [1961]: 449–52) that the two spirits are not
angels because: the reference is to “all varieties” and not two spirits in 1QS 14; the
allotment of spirits to the single angel of darkness suggests that angels and spirits are
not synonyms (1QS 3.24); the spirit is sprinkled (1QS 4.21) and angels are not; in the
Hebrew scriptures, angels do not dwell in human hearts (1QS 4.23).