And “Vision of Meditation”: Reflections on 4Qinstruction and 1 Corinthians

“SPIRITUAL PEOPLE,” “FLESHLY SPIRIT,” AND “VISION OF MEDITATION”: REFLECTIONS ON 4QINSTRUCTION AND 1 CORINTHIANS

Eibert Tigchelaar Florida State University

The most famous section of the Qumran sapiential text4QInstruction is undoubtedly 4Q417 1 i 13–18, the unit which, for the sake of conve- nience, has sometimes been referred to as the Vision of Hagu pericope. The most thorough and helpful, but often terse discussion of this pericope is still that of the editors, John Strugnell and Daniel Harrington, in their official edition of 4QInstruction.1 However, both before and after their edition, the pericope has been the subject of many longer studies,2

1 John Strugnell, Daniel J. Harrington, S.J., and Torleif Elgvin, Qumran Cave 4 XXIV. Sapiential Texts, Part 2: 4QInstruction (Mûsār lĕ Mēvîn): 4Q415ff. with a Re-edition of 1Q26 (DJD 34; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1999), 9 (general analysis), 154 (transcription), 155 (notes on reading), 156 (translation), 163–66 (comments). Henceforth: DJD 34. 2 Substantial treatments are, in chronological order: Armin Lange, Weisheit und Prädestination: Weisheitliche Urordnung und Prädestination in den Textfunden von Qumran (STDJ 18; Leiden: Brill, 1995), 45–92, esp. 50–53, 80–90; Daniel J. Harrington, S.J., Wisdom Texts From Qumran (London: Routledge, 1996), 52–56; Torleif Elgvin, “The Mystery to Come: Early Essene Theology of Revelation,” inQumran between the Old and the New Testaments (ed. Frederick H. Cryer and Thomas L. Thompson; JSOTSup 290; Copenhagen International Seminar 6; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1998), 113–150 at 139–47; idem, “An Analysis of 4QInstruction” (Ph.D. diss., Hebrew University Jerusalem, 1998), 85–94; John J. Collins, “In the Likeness of the Holy Ones: The Creation of Humankind in a Wisdom Text from Qumran,” in The Provo International Conference on the Dead Sea Scrolls: Technological Innovations, New Texts, and Reformulated Issues (ed. Donald W. Parry and Eugene Ulrich; STDJ 30; Leiden: Brill, 1999), 609–18; Crispin H.T. Fletcher-Louis, All the Glory of Adam: Liturgical Anthropology in the Dead Sea Scrolls (STDJ 42; Brill: Leiden, 2002), 113–18; John J. Collins, “The Mysteries of God. Creation and Eschatology in 4QInstruction and the Wisdom of Solomon,” in Wisdom and Apocalypticism in the Dead Sea Scrolls and in the Biblical Tradition (ed. F. García Martínez; BETL 168; Leuven: Peeters, 2003), 287–305; reprinted in idem, Jewish Cult and Hellenistic Culture: Essays on the Jewish Encounter with Hellenism and Roman Rule (JSJSup 100; Leiden: Brill, 2005), 159–80; Matthew J. Goff, The Worldly and Heavenly Wisdom of 4QInstruction(STDJ 50; Brill: Leiden, 2003), 80–126; Cana Werman, “What is the Book of Hagu?” in Sapiential Perspec- tives: Wisdom Literature in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls (ed. John J. Collins, Gregory E. Sterling, and Ruth A. Clements; STDJ 51; Leiden: Brill, 2004), 125–40; Benjamin G. Wold, Women, Men and Angels: The Qumran Wisdom Document Musar le Mevin and its Allusions to Genesis Creation Traditions (WUNT 201; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 104 eibert tigchelaar and shorter discussions and/or translations.3 In this article, I first will present the Hebrew text and a translation which reflects the majority understanding of the text. I then will comment on some interpreta- tions of this passage, and consider the possibility of an alternative

2005), 124–49; Matthew Goff, Discerning Wisdom: The Sapiential Literature of the Dead Sea Scrolls (VTSup 116; Leiden: Brill, 2007), 29–36; Grant Macaskill, Revealed Wisdom and Inaugurated Eschatology in Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity (JSJSup 115; Leiden: Brill, 2007), 77–83; Jean-Sébastien Rey, 4QInstruction: sagesse et eschatologie (STDJ 81; Leiden: Brill, 2009), 277–306, esp. 278–83, 292–303; Matthew Goff, “Gen- esis 1–3 and Conceptions of Humankind in 4QInstruction, Philo and Paul,” in Early Christian Literature and Intertextuality (ed. C. Evans and H.D. Zacharias; London: T&T Clark, 2009), 114–25; idem, “Adam, the Angels and Eternal Life: Genesis 1–3 in the Wisdom of Solomon and 4QInstruction,” in The Book of Wisdom and Jewish Hellenistic Philosophy (ed. Géza G. Xeravits; Leiden: Brill, forthcoming). 3 Shorter discussions and/or translations and/or transcriptions of the pericope, or parts of it, can be found in: Ben Zion Wacholder, “Introduction,” in A Preliminary Edition of the Unpublished Dead Sea Scrolls. The Hebrew and Aramaic Texts from Cave Four. Fascicle Two (ed. Ben Zion Wacholder and Martin G. Abegg; Washing- ton, D.C.: Biblical Archaeology Society, 1992), xi–xvi, at xiii; ibid., 66 (transcription); F. García Martínez and A.S. van der Woude, De Rollen van de Dode Zee. Ingeleid en in het Nederlands vertaald. Deel 1 (Kampen: Kok, 1994), 413 [transl. van der Woude]; Florentino García Martínez, The Dead Sea Scrolls Translated. The Qumran Texts in English (Leiden: Brill, 1994), 387; Johann Maier, Die Qumran-Essener: Die Texte von Toten Meer. Band II (Uni-Taschenbücher 1863; München: Reinhardt, 1995), 440–41; André Caquot, “Les textes de sagesse de Qoumrân (Aperçu préliminaire),” RHPhR 76 (1996): 1–34, at 16–19; Michael Wise, Martin Abegg, and Edward Cook, The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1996), 381 (p. 484 in the revised 2005 edition) [transl. Cook]; Geza Vermes, The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1997), 409; Florentino García Martínez and Eibert J.C. Tigchelaar, The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition. Vol. 2, 4Q274–11Q31 1 (Leiden: Brill, 1998; 2d ed. 2000), 858–59; Jörg Frey, “Die paulinische Antithese von Fleisch und Geist und die palästinisch-jüdische Weisheitstradition,” ZNW 51 (1999): 45–77, esp. 62–63, 65; Torleif Elgvin, “Wisdom With and Without Apocalyptic,” in Sapiential, Liturgical and Poetical Texts from Qumran: Proceedings of the Third Meeting of the International Organization for Qumran Studies Oslo 1998 (ed. Daniel K. Falk, Florentino García Martínez, and Eileen M. Schuller; STDJ 35; Leiden: Brill, 2000), 15–38, at 25–26; Jörg Frey, “The Notion of ‘Flesh’ in 4QInstruction and the Background of Pauline Usage,” in Falk et al., eds., Sapiential, Liturgical and Poetical Texts, 197–226, at 217–19; Eibert J.C. Tigchelaar, To Increase Learning for the Understanding Ones: Reading and Reconstructing the Fragmentary Early Jewish Sapiential Text 4QInstruc- tion (STDJ 44; Leiden: Brill, 2001), 52–54; George Brooke, “Biblical Interpretation in the Wisdom Texts from Qumran,” in The Wisdom Texts from Qumran and the Development of Sapiential Thought(ed. C. Hempel, A. Lange, and H. Lichtenberger; BETL 159; Leuven: Peeters, 2002), 201–20, at 212–14; Jörg Frey, “Flesh and Spirit in Palestinian Jewish Sapiential Tradition and in the Qumran Texts: An Inquiry into the Background of Paulinian Usage,” in Hempel et al., eds., The Wisdom Texts from Qumran, 367–404, at 392–96; Claude Coulot, “L’image de Dieu dans les écrits de sagesse 1Q26, 4Q415–418, 4Q423,” in Wisdom and Apocalypticism in the Dead Sea Scrolls and in the Biblical Tradition (ed. F. García Martínez; BETL 168; Leuven: Peeters, 2003), 171–81, at 173–75; Émile Puech, “Apports des textes apocalyptiques et sapientiels de Qumrân