Texts in Conversation
1 Enoch and the Thanksgiving Hymns from the Dead Sea Scrolls use the title “Lord of Spirits” for God that highlights rule over heaven. Its use in both shows the development of a common theological vocabulary in early Jewish tradition.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
1 Enoch 39:9
Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
8 There I longed to dwell, and my spirit yearned for that dwelling place; and there my portion has been from before, for so it has been established for me before the Lord of Spirits. 9 In those days I praised and exalted the name of the Lord of Spirits with blessings and praises, because He has destined me for blessing and glory according to the good pleasure of the Lord of Spirits. 10 For a long time my eyes gazed on that place, and I blessed Him and praised Him, saying: 'Blessed is He, and may He be blessed from the beginning and forever. 11 Before Him there is no ceasing. He knows, before the world was created, what is forever and what will be from generation to generation.
Date: 300 BCE – 100 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
1QHa 18:10
The Thanksgiving Hymns
Dead Sea Scrolls, Prayers, Hymns, and Liturgy
7 you make known to him. And I am dust and ashes. What can I plan unless you desire it? And what can I think 8 without your will? How can I be strong unless you make me stand? And how can I understand unless you have formed it 9 for me? And what can I say unless you open my mouth? And how can I answer unless you give me insight? 10 Behold, you are prince of gods and king of the glorious ones, and lord of every spirit and ruler over every work. 11 And apart from you nothing is done, and nothing is known without your will. And there is none besides you, 12 and none with you in strength, and none to match your glory, and your might is beyond price. And who 13 among all your great wonderful works has the strength to stand before your glory?
Date: 150–100 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... 'Lord of Spirits' is the most frequent title for God in the Parables [of Enoch], where it occurs 102 times... the expression occurs, finally, in a string of titles in one of the Qumran hodayot. That this connotation governs the formula 'Lord of Spirits' in the Parables is clear from 1 Enoch 39:12, where the Trisagion is paraphrased ..."
George W. E. Nickelsburg, A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch Chapters 37-82 (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2012), 91.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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