Published June 27, 2024 | Version v1
Journal article Open

Songs of the Sage (4Q510, 4Q511)

Authors/Creators

  • 1. Baylor University

Contributors

  • 1. Pennsylvania State University

Description

The Songs of the Sage, a collection of hymns attributed to the Maskil (Hebrew word for instructor or sage – in this case referring to a sectarian Jewish leader of the community at Qumran) for the sake of warding or protection of the prayerful against evil, is an exemplar of early Jewish apotropaic prayer. The two known witnesses to the composition, 4Q510 and 4Q511, are dated between 30 BCE and 30 CE. Of the two manuscripts, 4Q510 contains only a few legible lines within its fragments, whereas 4Q511 consists of 226 fragments, yielding the majority of the textual material associated with the Songs. The fragments' composition style, language, and format hint that the Songs were used in group study or performance as part of a communal ritual. Though there is no reference to the specific occasion of the ritual's performance, scholars think that the sectarian community at Qumran may have regularly recited apotropaic prayers, of which the Songs of the Sage is a key example. At least three songs are included within the text (though there are indications of several others), and all contain references to the Maskil. At least three of the Songs feature apotropaic incantations or other phrases used to prevent harm from evil spirits and demons. Throughout the texts, praises and thanksgivings are interwoven along with incantations primarily for the sake of praising the Jewish God, with the secondary feature of serving as magic "words of power" that invoke fear in demons and spirits, providing protection from them. In this way, the Songs differ from the contemporary Jewish magical practices involving addresses to the Jewish God and invocation of his name(s) for divine protection. The Songs share some elements of other apotropaic prayer in Second Temple and rabbinic Judaism – protection from Satan/evil, protection from sin and forgiveness for it, sanctification, and the inspiration of God's knowledge and laws to his followers. Yet they stand apart for the ways they reflects the culture of the Qumran community in their dualistic and apocalyptic framework and references to beliefs and practices characteristic of the sect.

Files

Songs of the Sage (4Q510, 4Q511).pdf

Files (815.9 kB)

Name Size Download all
md5:d2a8a318b6875ee716765cdc976c7589
815.9 kB Preview Download

Additional details

References

  • Tigchelaar, Eibert J. C.. "Evil Spirits in the Dead Sea Scrolls: A Brief Survey and Some Perspectives". In Dualismus, Dämonologie Und Diabolische Figuren: Religionshistorische Beobachtungen Und Theologische Reflexionen, edited by J. Frey and E. Popkes, 125–35. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2018.
  • Nitzan, Bilhah. Qumran Prayer and Religious Poetry. Translated by J. Chipman. Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah. Leiden: Brill, 1994.
  • Nitzan, Bilhah. "Hymns from Qumran: 4Q510–511". In The Dead Sea Scrolls: Forty Years of Research, edited by D. Dimant and U. Rappaport, 53–63. Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah. Leiden; Jerusalem: Brill; Magnes Press, the Hebrew University, Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi, 1992.
  • Newsom, Carol A.. "The Sage in the Literature of Qumran: The Functions of the Maśkil". In The Sage in Israel and the Ancient Near East, edited by J. G. Gammie and L. G. Perdue, 373–82. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1990.
  • Newsom, Carol A.. "Sectually Explicit Literature from Qumran". In The Hebrew Bible and Its Interpreters, edited by B. Halpern, W. H. Propp, and D. N. Freedman, 167–87. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1990.
  • Newman, Judith H.. Before the Bible: The Liturgical Body and the Formation of Scriptures in Early Judaism.. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018.
  • Angel, Joseph L.. "Songs of the Sage". In Prayer in the Ancient World, edited by K. Daniel Falk and Rodney A. Werline, Vol. 1. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2024.
  • Nebe, Wilhelm G.. "Der Buchstabenname Yod Als Ersatz Des Tetragramms in 4Q511, Fragm. 10, Zeile 12?". Revue De Qumran 12, no. 2 (1986): 283–84.
  • Mizrahi, Noam, and Hector Patmore. "Three Philological Notes on Demonological Terminology in the Songs of the Sage (4Q510 1 4–6)". Revue De Qumran 31, no. 2 (2019): 239–50.
  • Maier, Johann. "Songs of the Sage". In Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls, 2:889–90, 2000.
  • Lange, Armin. "The Essene Position on Divination and Magic". In Legal Texts and Legal Issues: Proceedings of the Second Meeting of the International Organization for Qumran Studies, Cambridge 1995, edited by Moshe Bernstein, Florentino García Martínez, and John Kampen, 23:377–433. Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah. Leiden: Brill, 1997.
  • Lange, Armin. Weisheit Und Prädestination: Weisheitliche Urordnung Und Prädestination in Den Textfunden Von Qumran. Vol. 18. Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah. Leiden: Brill, 1995.
  • Krause, Andrew R.. "Spirits of Controversy in My Bodily Structures: Spatiality of Body and Community in Qumran Apotropaic Prayers". In Dead Sea Scrolls, Revise and Repeat: New Methods and Perspectives, edited by Carmen Palmer, Andrew R. Krause, Eileen Schuller, and John Screnock, 52:251–75. Atlanta, GA: SBL Press, 2020.
  • Krause, Andrew R.. "Protected Sects: The Apotropaic Performance and Function of 4qincantation and 4qsongs of the Maskil and Their Relevance for the Study of the Hodayot". Journal of Ancient Judaism 5, no. 1 (2014): 25–39.
  • Kister, Menahem. "Demons, Theology and Abraham's Covenant (CD 16:4–6 and Related Texts)". In The Dead Sea Scrolls at Fifty: Proceedings of the 1997 Society of Biblical Literature Qumran Section Meetings, edited by Robert A. Kugler and Eileen Schuller, 167–84. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1999.
  • Hawley, Robert. "On Maśkîl in the Judean Desert Documents". Henoch 28, no. 2 (2006): 43–77.
  • Flusser, David. "Qumran and Jewish 'apotropaic' Prayers". Israel Exploration Journal 16 (1966): 194–205.
  • Eshel, Esther. "Apotropaic Prayers in the Second Temple Period". In Liturgical Perspectives: Prayer and Poetry in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls, edited by Esther G. Chazon, Ruth Clements, and Avital Pinnick, 48:69–88. Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah. Leiden: Brill, 2003.
  • Chazon, Esther. "444. 4qincantation". In Qumran Cave 4.XX: Poetical and Liturgical Texts, Part 2, edited by E. Schuller, E. Chazon, T. Elgvin, E. Eshel, D.K. Falk, B. Nitzan, and E. Qimron, 29:367–78. Discoveries in the Judaean Desert (DJD). Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998.
  • Bohak, Gideon. Ancient Jewish Magic: A History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
  • Baillet, Maurice. "510. Cantiques Du Sage (premier Exemplaire: Shiraa) and 511. Cantiques Du Sage (second Exemplaire: Shirb)". In Qumrân Grotte 4.III (4Q482–4Q520), 7:215–62. Discoveries in the Judaean Desert. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982.
  • Angel, Joseph L.. "A Newly Discovered Interpretation of Isaiah 40:12–13 in the Songs of the Sage". In Hā-'îsh Mōshe: Studies in Scriptural Interpretation in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Related Literature in Honor of Moshe J. Bernstein, edited by Binyamin Y. Goldstein, Michael Segal, and George J. Brooke, 122:28–39. Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah. Leiden: Brill, 2018.
  • Angel, Joseph L.. "Reading the Songs of the Sage in Sequence: Preliminary Observations and Questions". In Functions of Psalms and Prayers in the Late Second Temple Period, edited by John Barton, Ronald Hendel, Reinhard G. Kratz, and Markus Witte, 486:185–211. Beihefte Zur Zeitschrift Für Die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2017.
  • Angel, Joseph L.. "The Material Reconstruction of 4qsongs of the Sageb (4Q511)". Revue De Qumran 27, no. 1 (2015): 25–82.
  • Angel, Joseph L.. "Maskil, Community, and Religious Experience in the Songs of the Sage (4Q510–511)". Dead Sea Discoveries 19, no. 1 (2012): 1–27.
  • Alexander, Philip S.. "The Demonology of the Dead Sea Scrolls". In The Dead Sea Scrolls After Fifty Years: A Comprehensive Assessment, edited by Peter Flint and James C. VanderKam, 2:331–53. Leiden: Brill, 1999.
  • Alexander, Philip S.. "'wrestling Against Wickedness in High Places': Magic in the Worldview of the Qumran Community". In The Scrolls and the Scriptures: Qumran Fifty Years After, edited by Stanley E. Porter and Craig A. Evans, 26:318–7. Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha Supplement Series. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1997.