Florida State University Libraries Faculty Publications Department of Religion 2005 Discerning Trajectories: 4QInstruction and the Sapiential Background of the Sayings Source Matthew J. Goff Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] JBL 124/4 (2005) 657-673 DISCERNING TRAJECTORIES: 4QINSTRUCTION AND THE SAPIENTIAL BACKGROUND OF THE SAYINGSSOURCE Q MATTHEWJ. GOFF [email protected] Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306 4QInstruction (1Q26, 4Q415-18, 423) is the largest wisdom text of the Dead Sea Scrolls.' There has been relativelylittle examinationof this composi- tion in relation to the Synoptic Gospels.2Two dominant issues in the study of Q This is a revised version of a paper presented at the annual meeting of the Catholic Biblical Association in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 2004. I thank Gregory Sterling, Frederick Murphy, and the other members of the Historical Jesus and His Earliest Interpreters Task Force for their feedback. I am also grateful to Clare K. Rothschild for her valuable comments on an earlier draft, and to the Faculty Development Committee of Georgia Southern Universityfor its financialsupport. 1 John Strugnell and Daniel J. Harrington, Qumran Cave 4.XXIV: Sapiential Texts, Part 2, 4QInstruction (Misdr L Mavin):4Q415ff. With a re-edition oflQ26 (DJD 34; Oxford:Clarendon, 1999) (henceforth DJD 34); Matthew J. Goff, The Worldlyand Heavenly Wisdom of4QInstruction (STDJ 50; Leiden: Brill, 2003); Eibert J. C. Tigchelaar, To Increase Learningfor the Understand- ing Ones: Reading and Reconstructingthe Fragmentary Early Jewish Sapiential Text 4QInstruc- tion (STDJ 44; Leiden: Brill, 2001); Torleif Elgvin, "An Analysis of 4QInstruction" (Ph.D. diss., Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1997). 2 For studies of 4QInstruction vis-a-vis the Gospels, see John Kampen, "Aspectsof Wisdom in the Gospel of Matthew in Light of the New Qumran Evidence," in Sapiential, Liturgical and Poetical Textsfrom Qumran: Proceedings of the Third Meeting of the International Organization for Qumran Studies, Oslo 1998 (ed. D. Falk et al.; STDJ 35; Leiden: Brill, 2000), 227-39. There has been substantial work comparing the Qumran wisdom text 4QBeatitudes to the Sermon on the Mount. See James H. Charlesworth, "The Qumran Beatitudes (4Q525) and the New Testament (Mt 5:3-11, Lk 6:20-26)," RHPR 80 (2000): 13-35; Joseph A. Fitzmyer, "A Palestinian Collection of Beatitudes,"in The Four Gospels 1992: Festschrift Frans Neirjnck (ed. F. van Segbroeck et al.; BETL 100; Louvain:Peeters/Louvain University Press, 1992), 509-15; Emile Puech, "4Q525 et les p6ricopes des B6atitudes en Ben Sira et Matthieu,"RB 98 (1991): 80-106; Jean-Marievan Cangh, "B6atitudesde Qumran et beatitudes avangaliques:Antariorita de Matthieu sur Luc?"in Wisdom and Apocalypticism in the Dead Sea Scrolls and in the Biblical Tradition (ed. F. Garcia Martinez; BETL 168; Leuven: Peeters-Leuven University Press, 2003), 413-25; George J. Brooke, The Dead Sea Scrolls and the New Testament (Minneapolis:Fortress, 2005). 657 658 Journal of Biblical Literature are its relationshipto the wisdom tradition and the extent to which Q itself can be understood as sapiential. In his book The Formation of Q, John Kloppen- borg discusses approximatelyninety ancient collections of sayings, including material from Egypt, Mesopotamia, Israel, and Greece, situating Q in a broad international sapiential context.3 This book was published in 1987, when 4QInstruction was not available.4 In this article I will argue that 4QInstruction does not represent the redac- tion of distinct sapiential and apocalyptic layers. The document incorporates ideas that are alien to traditionalwisdom, such as heavenly revelation, elect sta- tus, theophanic judgment, and an interest in the angelic world. 4QInstructionis a sapiential text with an apocalypticworldview. The issue of wisdom in relation to apocalypticismin 4QInstruction has implications for the study of Q. There have been numerous studies on the relationship between these two traditions in the sayings gospel.5 Some scholars have emphasized its sapiential character.6 Others have downplayed the characterizationof Q as apocalyptic,and classify- ing the work as sapientialhas also been questioned.74QInstruction lends support 3 John S. Kloppenborg, The Formation of Q: Trajectories in Ancient Wisdom Collections (1987; repr., Harrisburg,PA: Trinity Press International, 1999), 263-316, 329-41. See also John S. Kloppenborg Verbin, Excavating Q: The History and Setting of the Sayings Gospel (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2000); James M. Robinson et al., eds., The Critical Edition of Q (Leuven: Peeters; Minneapolis:Fortress, 2000). 4 In Kloppenborg'smore recent Excavating Q, he observes that 4QInstructioncan be used to exemplify some of the issues involved in the composition of Q (p. 130), but does not pursue this line of research. 5 For overviews, see Kloppenborg, Excavating Q, 379-98; Christopher M. Tuckett, Q and the History of Early Christianity: Studies on Q (Edinburgh:T&T Clark;Peabody, MA: Hendrick- son, 1996), 326-29. See also John J. Collins, "Wisdom, Apocalypticism,and Generic Compatibil- ity," in Seers, Sibyls and Sages in Hellenistic-Roman Judaism (JSJSup 54; Leiden: Brill, 1997), 385-404; Adela YarbroCollins, "The Son of Man Sayings in the Sayings Source,"in To Touch the Text:Biblical and Related Studies in Honor of Joseph A. Fitzmyer, S.J. (ed. M. P. Horgan and P. J. Kobelski;New York:Crossroad, 1989), 369-89. 6 Ronald A. Piper, Wisdom in the Q-Tradition:The Aphoristic Teaching of Jesus (SNTSMS 61; Cambridge:Cambridge UniversityPress, 1989). See also Helmut Koester, "One Jesus and Four Primitive Gospels,"in Trajectoriesthrough Early Christianity (ed. J. M. Robinson and H. Koester; Philadelphia:Fortress, 1971), 158-204. 7For the former view, see Arland D. Jacobson,"Apocalyptic and the Synoptic SayingsSource Q," in The Four Gospels 1992, 403-19; Richard A. Horsely, "Logoi Propheton: Reflections on the Genre of Q," in The Future of Early Christianity: Essays in Honor of Helmut Koester (ed. B. A. Pearson; Minneapolis: Fortress, 1991), 195-209; Bernard B. Scott, "Jesusas Sage: An Innovating Voice in Common Wisdom,"in The Sage in Israel and the Ancient Near East (ed. J. G. Gammie and L. G. Perdue; Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1990), 399-415, esp. 400. Note also John S. Klop- penborg, "SymbolicEschatology and the Apocalypticismof Q," HTR 80 (1987): 287-306. For the latter view, consult Dieter Zeller, "Eine weisheitliche Grundschriftin der Logienquelle?" in The Four Gospels 1992, 389-401. MigakuSato argued that Q is best characterizedas a prophetic, rather than a sapiential, work. See his Q und Prophetie: Studien zur Gattungs- und Traditionsgeschichte der Quelle Q (WUNT 2/29; Ttibingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1988); idem, "Wisdom Statements in the Goff. 4QInstruction and the Sayings Source Q 659 to the opinion that Q contains sapientialmaterial with perspectives not found in traditionalwisdom. These ideas include rewards and punishments after death and an expectation of imminent punishment. 4QInstruction bolsters the view that it is not necessary to separate sapiential and apocalypticmaterial in Q. The sayings source can be understood as developing trends in Jewish wisdom that are found in 4QInstruction. This Qumran wisdom text should be taken into considerationwhen assessing the sapiential backgroundof Q.8 I. Trajectoriesof Wisdom A common starting point for understanding the relationship between Q and Jewish wisdom is James M. Robinson's article "LOGOI SOPHON."9 He postulated the existence of a genre of "the words of the wise," a designation for collections of sapiential sayings. The origins of the genre are rooted in biblical collections of wisdom sayings such as Prov 22:17-24:22 (LXX 22:17, X6yot ao~6cv)and older proverb assemblages from the ancient Near East, including Amenemope and Ahikar.10The genre is defined by the association of didactic material with named sages. The best example of this is the Gospel of Thomas, and Q also attests a quotation formula (9:58). Attributionof sayings to specific figures is also evident, Robinson argued, in earlier stages in the development of this genre. In the Testamentsof the Twelve Patriarchs the incipit often attrib- utes logoi to a specific patriarch(e.g., T Dan 1:1). 1 Enoch may be introduced as the "wordsof the blessing of Enoch" (1:1; cf. Jub. 21:10).11Robinson also has Sphere of Prophecy," in The Gospel Behind the Gospels: Current Studies on Q (ed. R. A. Piper; NovTSup 75; Leiden: Brill, 1995), 139-58; Stephen J. Patterson, "Wisdomin Q and Thomas,"in In Search of Wisdom:Essays in MemoryofJohn G. Gammie (ed. L. G. Perdue et al.; Louisville:West- minster John Knox, 1993), 187-221. 8 Q has also been examined in relation to Greek sapiential literature, including gnomologia and chriae collections. See Kloppenborg, Formation of Q, 263, 322-25; Alan Kirk, The Composi- tion of the Sayings Source: Genre, Synchrony, and Wisdom Redaction in Q (NovTSup 91; Leiden: Brill, 1998); idem, "Some Compositional Conventions of Hellenistic Wisdom Texts and the Juxta- position of 4:1-13; 6:20b-49; and 7:1-10 in Q,"JBL 116 (1997): 235-57. 9 James M. Robinson, "LOGOI SOPHON: On the Gattung of Q," in The Future of Our Reli- gious Past: Essays in Honour of Rudolf Bultmann (ed. J. M. Robinson; London: SCM, 1971), 84-130. This essay is a substantialrevision of his "AOFOIZOc4QN: Zur Gattung der Spruchquelle Q," in Zeit und Geschichte: Dankesgabe an Rudolf Bultmann (ed. E. Dinkler; Tiibingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1964), 77-96. See also Robinson, Critical Edition of Q, lix-lxvi; H. Koester, "GNOMAI DIAPHOROI: The Origin and Nature of Diversification in the History of Early Christianity,"in Trajectoriesthrough Early Christianity, 114-57. 10Robinson, "LOGOI SOPHON," 126-27. 11Ibid., 124. Some manuscriptsread "Theword of the blessing of Enoch." See George W. E. Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch: A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch, Chapters 1-36, 81-108 (Herme- neia; Minneapolis:Fortress, 2001), 135. 660 Journal of Biblical Literature claimed that the genre exhibits a "gnosticizing tendency" in which a sage who is associated with sayings over time becomes identified with Wisdom itself.12 The work of John G.