Texts in Conversation
1 Enoch promises that the righteous will shine like heavenly lights and join the angels. In 4Q184 from the Dead Sea Scrolls, the wicked woman has no place among the shining ones, suggesting that she cannot share their life after death.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
1 Enoch 104:2-6
Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
2 Be hopeful; for previously you were shamed through suffering and affliction; but now you shall shine as the lights of heaven, you shall shine and you shall be seen, and the portals of heaven shall be opened to you. 3 And in your cry, cry for judgment, and it shall appear to you; for all your tribulation shall be visited on the rulers, and on all who helped those who plundered you. 4 Be hopeful, and do not cast away your hopes for you shall have great joy as the angels of heaven. 5 What shall you be obliged to do? You shall not have to hide on the day of the great judgment and you shall not be found as sinners, and the eternal judgment shall be far from you for all the generations of the world. 6 And now, fear not, you righteous, when you see the sinners growing strong and prospering in their ways: do not be companions with them, but keep afar from their violence; for you shall become companions of the hosts of heaven.
4Q184 1:6-9
The Seductress
Dead Sea Scrolls, Wisdom and Instruction
6 depths of the pit. Her lodgings are couches of darkness, and in the dead of night are her dominions. From the foundations of deep darkness 7 she pitches her dwelling, and she resides in the tents of silence, in the midst of everlasting burnings. She has no inheritance among all 8 the lights of brightness. She is the beginning of all the ways of iniquity. Woe, disaster to all who inherit her, and ruin to all 9 who hold on to her. For her ways are ways of death, and her paths are tracks of sin. Her trails lead astray
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Notes and References
“... These expressions do not describe the time of night when the
woman stalks through city streets, as in Prov 7. It is the darkness of
the underworld where she resides. 4Q184 elaborates the claim in
Proverbs that the Strange Woman represents a path to death. The
language of darkness and death is intensified with a more vivid
description of Sheol than in Proverbs. [...] The
affirmation that her domain is amidst the "eternal flames" is
immediately followed by the statement that "none of her inheritance
is among all who shine brightly [...] " (4Q184 1 7-8).
52 This
suggests a form of astral immortality for the righteous after death, in a
manner similar to Dan 12:3 and 1 En. 104:2-6 (cf. 1QM 1:8-9; Matt
25:41).
53
While those who are to enjoy a blessed afterlife are
distinguished from the woman of 4Q184, those who are part of her
allotment suffer punishment after death. ...”
Goff, Matthew J.
Discerning Wisdom: The Sapiential Literature of the Dead Sea Scrolls
(p. 115) Brill, 2007
* 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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