Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered - The Preterist Archive

Chapter 7 - Hymns and Mysteries
This Chapter contains some of the most splendid and beautiful texts in the whole corpus. We have
grouped them together because of 1) their liturgical quality and 2) because of their relationship to the
whole theme of 'Hidden Mysteries' referred to in the last texts of Chapter 5, and evoked variously in
the Chariots of Glory, the Hymns of the Poor, and the Sons of Salvation (Yesha') and the Mystery of
Existence below. This last text could just as easily have been placed in Chapter 5 under Admonitions,
where it typologically belongs, but because of its clear affinities in vocabulary and content with these
other texts, we place it here.
The Baptismal Hymns are interesting in themselves, particularly because of the importance of the
subject which they treat. The period of the Dead Sea Scrolls was apparently a time of extensive
development in the area of liturgy, as these examples and the published Hymns from Cave 1 suggest.
This was probably also true of Rabbinic tradition, which was beginning its development in this period
as well. Certainly, too, the Eighteen Benedictions, referred to above in connection with the Messiah of
Heaven and Earth text, and other elements of Jewish community worship arose during these years.
Unfortunately the extant evidence on these matters is slim. For instance, we did not even know
whether it was common in this period to pray together from a set text, that is until the appearance of
these materials from Qumran. Now, however, we can certainly be sure that it was common to curse
together or, at least to expel someone from a set text recited in unison, as we have seen above and will
see again below. The 'amen, amen's attached to this process, as well as to blessing in the texts in this
volume and in Column 2 of the Community Rule, are illustrative in this regard.
In this section the Hymns of the Poor are related both to the already published Hymns from Cave 1 and
their prototype, the Psalms from the Bible. The Paean to King Jonathan in the last Chapter is another
similar genre. The parchment on which it was found also seems to have contained some additional
Hymns known from the Qumran Psalms Scroll as well as compilations in Syriac. Nor are these Hymns
to be dissociated from the literature of Admonitions above. There is at best a fine line between them,
and other material, as for instance in the cryptic Sons of Dawn or the Demons of Death (Beatitudes)
texts.
The reference to 'Miraculous' or 'Secret Mysteries', and the study of the seemingly forbidden subject of
'Being' or 'Existence', including the Sons of Dawn text in cryptic script apparently related to these,
relate to a whole genre of literature of this kind like the Sefer ha-Razim (Book of Mysteries) and other
magical texts from the first few centuries AD with a mystic tendency so frowned upon by the Rabbis
and yet so much related to Kabbalah and the development of medieval and modern Jewish mysticism.
The materials in this Chapter are a rich source for studies such as these, as well as for Secret
Mysteries, as the previously published Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice already are. As the examples in
this Chapter illustrate, the sentiments they express are of the most lofty and sublime nature.
41. The Chariots Of Glory (4Q286-287) (Plate 21)
We call this text, which contains some of the most beautiful and emotive vocabulary in the entire
Qumran repertoire, the Chariots of Glory to emphasize its connections with Ezekiel's visions and