Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered - The Preterist Archive

Merkabah mysticism. It is a work of such dazzling faith and ecstatic vision that it fairly overwhelms
the reader. Of course, it completely gainsays anyone who would challenge the literary audacity,
virtuosity and creativity of those responsible for the Qumran corpus.
This work, which has obvious affinities with the already published Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice,
found at both Qumran and Masada, is a work of what goes by the name in Judaism and Kabbalah of
the Mysticism of the Heavenly 'Chariot' or 'Throne' - so cultivated in the Middle Ages and beyond. If it
is not the starting point of this genre, it is certainly one of the earliest extant exemplars of it. Not
surprisingly, Line 5 of Manuscript A Fragment 1, as we have arranged the text, also alludes, whether
by accident or design, to the word 'Splendour', (Zohar), and a plural variation in Line 3 earlier, 'the
Splendours of Nobility'. These in turn are obviously to be equated with 'all Your Secrets' in Line 2.
The name Zohar, of course, is the title of the best known work of thirteenth-century medieval Jewish
mysticism in Spain.
In Lines 3-5, these 'Secrets' are equated, in an explosion of ecstatic imagery, with 'the feet of Your
Glory', 'the Foundations of fire', 'the flames of Your Lamp', 'the fires of Light' and 'the Highness of the
Beauty of the Fountain'. This is just a sampling of the vocabulary of this text, one of the most ecstatic
visionary recitals of any period, ancient or modern.
The text also operates within the Hesed / Zedek dichotomy discussed earlier. These twin concepts, as
we have seen, are the equivalent of the two 'love' commandments enunciated in the New Testament as
the basis of Jesus' teaching, namely 'loving God' (Hesed) and 'loving your neighbour' (Zedek). Early
Church literature also associates them unmistakably with the figure of James. They are also the two
'Ways' of early Church documents like The Didache and cornerstones of Kabbalistic thinking.
Here the text makes allusions, too, to 'the sons of Righteousness', a usage we have already expounded
at length in relation to the document by that name. We have delineated it as indistinguishable from and
a variation of 'the sons of Zadok' terminology so much discussed in relation to the published corpus. In
Lines 7-9 the phrase is used, not surprisingly, in conjunction with wording like 'the Pious Ones'
(Hassidim) and 'the Congregation of Goodness' - also 'the Pious Ones of Truth', 'the Eternal Merciful
Ones' and 'Miraculous Mysteries'.
Calendrical notations, like sabbaths, festivals and jubilees, which Paul in Gal. 4:9-10 refers to as
'beggarly elements', are referred to by ecstatic-sounding titles such as 'the weeks of Holiness', 'monthly
flags', 'festivals of Glory' and 'eternal Jubilees'. This fragment ends in Line 13 with the 'Light' and
'Dark' imagery familiar in numerous contexts already mentioned, not least of which is the prologue to
the Gospel of John.
A second text, Manuscript B Fragment 1, continues and increases the richness of this vocabulary with
allusions like 'the doors of their Wonders', 'the Angels of fire', 'the Spirits of cloud', 'the embroidered
Radiance of the Spirits of the Holy of Holies', 'the firmament of the Holy of Holies', 'their wondrous
palaces', 'the servants of Holiness' and 'the Perfection of their works' (3-10).
The last two of these are of particular interest. The first echoes a phrase in 2 Cor. 11:15 (also echoed in
Rom. 6:22), which we have already noted above and in which Paul complains about Hebrew