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The Dead Sea Scrolls Community Rule describes humanity in terms of two spirits, one of light and one of darkness. This builds on the dualistic language of 1 Enoch, which connects the sun and moon with blessing for the righteous and darkness for sinners.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
1 Enoch 41:8
Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
8 For the sun often changes for a blessing or a curse, and the path of the moon brings light to the righteous and darkness to the sinners in the name of the Lord, who separated the light from the darkness, divided the spirits of people, and strengthened the spirits of the righteous in the name of His righteousness. 9 No angel can hinder nor any power obstruct; for He appoints a judge for them all and He judges them all before Him.
Date: 300 BCE – 100 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
1QS 3:13
Community Rule
Dead Sea Scrolls, Sectarian and Community Texts
13 For the instructor, to give insight and to teach all the sons of light about the generations of all the sons of man, 14 as to all the kinds of their spirits, with their signs, as to their works in their generations, and as to the visitation of their afflictions together with 15 their ages of peace. From the God of knowledge comes all that is and all that will be. Before they existed he set in place their whole design, 16 and when they come to exist at their appointed times, they fulfill their task according to his glorious design, and nothing can be changed. In his hand 17 are the judgments of all things, and he sustains them in all their needs. He created humankind to rule 18 the world, and he set for it two spirits in which to walk until the appointed time of his visitation. They are the spirits of
Date: 160–100 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... verse 8 links cosmology with anthropology. In addition to the sun and the moon, we hear about blessing and curse, the righteous and sinners, the division of the spirits of humanity, and then again about the spirits of the righteous ... and has divided the spirits of humanity, strengthening the spirits of the righteous while, presumably, leaving the spirits of the sinners to their own devices or those of an evil force that is influencing them. This last point is not explicit, but the passage as a whole is reminiscent of the beginning of the two spirits section in 1QS 3:13-26, not least with its polarity between light and darkness ..."
Nickelsburg, George W. E.
A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch Chapters 37-82
(p. 145) Fortress Press, 2012
* 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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