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

Sin
JOHN R. LEVISON 187
According to the Spirit-teaching, the spirit that God inbreathed into each
individual can be tainted by sin. Based upon the conviction of Lev 11:43,
that one’s life or nephesh can be defiled by breach of the levitical laws, the
author of the Damascus Document similarly warns in CD 12.11 against the
defilement of one’s life or “spirit” and against the defilement of one’s
“holy spirit” in CD 5.11–12 and 7.3–4. Integral to this warning is the
member’s ability to choose, to resist defilement of one’s spirit by stringent
adherence to community rules. This emphasis upon individual
choice and sin is absent from the Spirits-teaching, according to which the
ways of two groups of people are predetermined by their respective origins,
either from a well of darkness or a spring of light (1QS 3.18–19).
The decision concerning which group to join is not a human one but a
divine one.
A further conviction divides the Spirit-teaching from the Spirits-teaching.
The basic distinction between good and evil is depicted in the former
by the contrast between spirit and flesh and in the latter by the
contrast of two spirit worlds. We have seen above that the hymn writer
describes himself both as “a creature of clay” and “a mistaken spirit.” He
has, according to 1QH 4.25, “a spirit of flesh.” In 1QS 3–4, in contrast,
the world is divided between spirits of deceit and truth, the prince of
light and the angel of darkness, angels and demons, two ways with their
respective effects and actions (4.2–16). There is here no conception of an
individual spirit created good but gone bad, a spirit breathed from above
but buried now under the impulse of the flesh. There is, in short, no
need for purification in the here and now, although this is precisely the
need that preoccupies the Qumran hymn writer.
Purification
We have seen that the proponents of the Spirit-teaching could describe
themselves as both creatures of clay and mistaken spirits. We have seen
that the human spirit could, from this perspective, be defiled by disobedience.
Of such human beings it must be said, “Born of a woman, how
can he dwell before you, he whose kneading (is) from dust and whose
corpse (is) food for maggots? He is (but) a discharge, (mere) pinched-off
clay whose urge is for the dust. What can clay and that which is shaped
(by) hand dispute; and what counsel does it comprehend?” (1QS
11.21–22). This is only part of the picture; it could also be said: