CHAPTER ONE

COMMON WISDOM?: THE WORLDLY AND HEAVENLY WISDOM OF 4QINSTRUCTION

1. INTRODUCTION

4Qlnstruction, which has also been titled "Sapiential Work A" and "Musar Le-Mevin," is the longest wisdom text of the corpus. 1 At least six copies2 of 4Qlnstruction were found at (1Q26, 4Q415-18, 423), all of which are in Herodian script.3 This

1 "Sapiential Work A" was the working title of the document before it was formally published in volume 34 of the Discoveries of the Judean Desert series (henceforth "DJD 34"). "Musar Le-Mevin" (Instruction for a Maven) is the title given to the composition by the editors of DJD 34. See and Daniel J. Harrington, Qumran Cave 4.XXIV: Sapiential Texts, Part 2. 4Qlnstruction (Mtisar Le Mevin): 4Q415.ff. With a re­ edition of JQ26 (DJD 34; Oxford: Clarendon, 1999), 3. Torleif Elgvin is the editor of 4Q423. Since IQ26 is a manuscript of the composition, it has also been referred to as "l/4Qinstruction," "I Q/4Qinstruction," or simply "Instruction." In this study the designa­ tion "4Qinstruction" will be used. 2 It is possible that there are more than six. Elgvin has argued that there are two copies of 4Qinstruction preserved among the approximately 300 fragments that comprise 4Q4 l 8. E.J.C. Tigchelaar has discerned three. In DJD 34 only a small portion of 4Q418 frag­ ments are presented as attesting manuscripts aside from the main 4Q4 l 8 copy. The matter is "purely of codicological interest" and does not affect the interpretation of 4Qinstruction (DJD 34, 227). See Torleif Elgvin, "The Reconstruction of Sapiential Work A," Revue de Qumran 16 (1995): 559-80; E.J.C. Tigchelaar, "Towards a Reconstruction of the Begin­ ning of 4Qinstruction (4Q416 Fragment I and Parallels)," in The Wisdom Texts from Qumran and the Development of Sapiential Thought (ed. C. Hempel, A. Lange, and H. Lichtenberger; BETL 159; Leuven: Leuven University Press/Peeters, 2002), 99-126; idem, To Increase Learning for the Understanding Ones: Reading and Reconstructing the Fragmentary Early Jewish Sapiential Text 4Qlnstruction (STDJ 44; Leiden: Brill, 2001), 15-17. 3 This would, according to Cross's dating of Qumran scripts, date the manuscripts to the late first century BCE. Most copies are in early Herodian (30-1 BCE). Strugnell has dated 4Q4 I 6 to be older than the other Herodian manuscripts by about twenty-five years. See DJD 34, 76. 4Q423 and IQ26 are considered to be in middle Herodian, a script that is dated to 1-30 CE. Several commentators have noted that the late date of the manu­ scripts underscores the significance of the text for the community at Qumran. See DJD 34, 2; John J. Collins, Jewish Wisdom in the Hellenistic Age (OTL; Louisville: Westmin­ ster John Knox, 1997), 117; Torleif Elgvin, "An Analysis of 4Qinstruction" (diss.; He­ brew University of Jerusalem, 1997), I 0. See also , "The Development 2 CHAPTER ONE amount rivals the number of manuscripts of key texts such as the Damas­ cus Document (8) and the War Scroll (7) and suggests that the wisdom text was important for the sectarian community." In 1999, after over forty years of editorial work, 4Qlnstruction was formally published in DJD 34 by John Strugnell and Daniel Harrington.5 of the Jewish Scripts," in The Bible and the Ancient Near East (ed. G.E. Wright; New York: Doubleday, 1961), 133-202. In terms of the manuscripts that comprise 4Qinstruction, note that there has been speculation that 4Q419 is part of the composition. The basis of this claim is that there is material common to 4Q419 8 ii 7 and 4Q416 2 ii 2-3. The relevant part of the latter text reads: "if] he closes his hand, [then the spirit of all] flesh [will be gathered]" (cf. Deut 15:7). Earlier Elgvin considered 4Q419 a 4Qinstruction text but later changed his mind. See his "Admonition Texts from Cave 4," in Methods of Investigation of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Khirbet Qumran Site: Present Realities and Future Prospects (ed. M.O. Wise et al.; Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 722; New York: New York Academy of Sciences, 1994), 180. Daniel Harrington contends that 4Q419 and 4Qinstruction are two separate works. See his Wisdom Texts from Qumran (London: Routledge, 1996), 73. 4Q419 stresses themes such as the Law of Moses, the Aaronic priesthood, and cultic purity. These topics are not prominent in 4Qinstruction. (See section 2 of Chapter 6.) There is no compelling reason to identify 4Q419 as a text of 4Qinstruction. In the official edition of 4Q419, it is not considered part of 4Qinstruction. See Stephen J. Pfann et al., Qumran Cave 4.XXVI: Cryptic Texts and Miscellanea, Part 1 (DJD 36; Oxford: Clarendon, 2000), 320-32. Strugnell and Harrington suggest that 4Q419 quotes 4Qinstruction. See DJD 34, 95. See also Armin Lange, Weisheit und Priidestination: Weisheitliche Urordnung und Priidestination in den Textfanden von Qumran (STDJ 18; Leiden: Brill, 1995), 45. 4 D. Dimant, "The Qumran Manuscripts: Contents and Significance," in Time to Pre­ pare a Way in the Wilderness (ed. D. Dimant and L.H. Schiffman; STDJ 16; Leiden: Brill, 1995), 36-37. 5 The first 4Qinstruction text to be published was I Q26. It appeared in DJD 1. See D. Barthelemy and J.T. Milik, Qumran Cave 1 (DJD I; Oxford: Clarendon, 1955), 101-02. See also Daniel J. Harrington, "The Raz Nihyeh in a Qurnran Wisdom Text (IQ26, 4Q415-418, 423)," Revue de Qumran 17 (1996), 549. Milik identified IQ26 as "un apocryphe" that is evocative of the testament and instruction genres. Strugnell reported in 1956 that four Cave 4 manuscripts had been identified that were similar to I Q26. See his "Le travail d'edition des fragments de Qurnran: Communication de J. Strugnell," Revue Biblique 63 (1956): 64-66. He also mentioned that four or five other sapiential works were found among the Cave 4 material. Over the next few years major fragments such as 4Q416 2, 4Q417 I and 2, and 4Q418 81 were purchased. This helped the editors realize that these and other fragments formed part of a large sapiential composition. By 1959 the fragments of Sapiential Work A had been numbered, transcribed, and entered into the concordance used by the editorial team (DJD 34, xiv). Strugnell's work on 4Qlnstruction accelerated in 1992 when he began his collaboration with Daniel J. Harrington (ibid., xv). Emmanuel Tov helped establish their editorial partnership. See , "Chief Scroll Editor Opens Up: An Interview with ," Biblical Archaeology Review 28 (May/June 2002), 33. Also note that Tigchelaar, To Increase Learning, 5-13, provides an excellent history of the editing of 4Qinstruction. The first full publication of 4Qlnstruction texts occurred in 1992, in the second fascicle of Ben Zion Wacholder and , A Preliminary Edition of the Unpublished Dead Sea Scrolls: The Hebrew and Aramaic Texts from Cave Four (Washington, D.C.: