Texts in Conversation

In 4Q544 from the Dead Sea Scrolls, opposing angels contend over Amram while he is alive. The Testament of Asher places a similar encounter at death, when a person’s conduct determines whether an evil spirit or an angel of peace receives the soul.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE

4Q544 1:9-14

Visions of Amram
Dead Sea Scrolls, Biblical Retellings
9 all, that I would return to Egypt in peace and see the face of my wife [… and I was looking at the angels whom I saw] 10 in my vision, the vision of the dream. And behold, two were arguing over me and saying [… of his] 11 and they were holding a great dispute over me. And I asked them, “Who are you, that you thus [have power over me?” … And they said to me, “We] 12 [thus] are rulers, and rule over all the sons of Adam.” And they said to me, “Which of us do you [seek to be ruled by?” And behold, I lifted my eyes and saw,] 13 [and one] of them, his appearance was dreadful like a serpent, [and all] his clothing was many-colored, and he was dark with darkness. [His face …] 14 [And the other, I looked,] and behold … […] in his appearance, and his face was smiling, and [he was covered with clothing …]
Date: 160 B.C.E. - 60 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)

Testament of Asher 6:4-6

Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs
Pseudepigrapha, Testaments
4 For the final ends of people reveal their righteousness or unrighteousness, when they meet the angels of the Lord and of Satan. 5 For when the soul departs troubled, it is tormented by the evil spirit that it also served in its lusts and evil deeds. 6 But if a person is peaceful and joyful, he meets the angel of peace, who leads him into eternal life.
Date: 100 B.C.E. - 100 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References

#7358
“... (TAsher 6:4-6 may be early evidence for his tradition, but the earliest indisputable evi- dence is Origen's quotation from an apocryphal text about the death of Abraham: Horn. 35 on Luke.) [...] Clearly what he has identified is one specific form (a subtradition) which the tradition of contests between the devil and the angel took in relation to the fate of the soul at death. He recognizes that Jude 9, which is not about the fate of the soul at death, must represent an adaptation of the tradition for a specific purpose.40 But it is better to see Jude 9 as a specific instance of the general tradition of contests between the devil and the angel, 4QAmram as another specific instance of this general tradition, and Berger's tradition of texts about the fate of the soul at death as a particular form which that tradition took, perhaps at a date later than the time of writing of Jude's source and certainly without any direct relation to Jude's source. ...”
Bauckham, Richard Jude and the Relatives of Jesus in the Early Church (p. 249) T&T Clark International, 2004

* 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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