Texts in Conversation
In the Community Rule from the Dead Sea Scrolls, the vices of the evil spirit include greed, pride, lying and hypocrisy. In the Didache, an early church manual, the way of death is a similar list of sins which is significantly expanded.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
1QS 4:9
Community Rule
Dead Sea Scrolls, Sectarian and Community Texts
9 But to the spirit of iniquity belong greed and slackness of hands in the service of righteousness, wickedness and falsehood, pride and haughtiness of heart, lying and deceit, cruelty 10 and great hypocrisy, a short temper and great folly and insolent zeal, works of abomination in a spirit of fornication, and ways of impurity in the service of uncleanness, 11 and a tongue of blasphemies, blindness of eyes and dullness of ear, stiffness of neck and heaviness of heart, to walk in all the ways of darkness and evil cunning. And the visitation of
Didache 5:1
Early Christian
1 The Way of Death includes wickedness, cursing, murder, adultery, lust, sexual immorality, theft, idol worship, witchcraft, charms, robbery, false witness, hypocrisy, deceit, fraud, pride, malice, stubbornness, greed, vulgar language, jealousy, rudeness, arrogance, boasting. 2 It includes persecuting the good, hating the truth, loving lies, ignoring the rewards of righteousness, not adhering to goodness or fair judgment, staying awake for wickedness instead of good, being distant from meekness and patience, loving worthless things, seeking rewards, being unmerciful to the poor, ignoring the overworked, denying the Creator, murdering children, corrupting what God has made, turning away those in need, oppressing the troubled, favoring the rich, unjustly judging the poor, and living in complete sin. My children, may you be delivered from all these.
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Notes and References
“... Now, if we compare the two catalogues of virtues and vices in these documents more closely, it is obvious that the Way of Death in GTW 5:1 equals the mere list of vices or sins in 1QS 4:9-11. GTW and 1QS both essentially offer a similar account of the Way of Death. On the other hand, the Way of Life in the Greek Two Ways has been greatly expanded to include a great deal of ethical instructions in 1:2-3; 2:2-4:14. Relying on the present form of 1QS, it is reasonable to hypothesize that most of these moral directives did not form part of the Way of Life in the pre-Essene source. ...”
Sandt, Hubertus W., and David Flusser
The Didache: Its Jewish Sources and Its Place in Early Judaism and Christianity
(p. 154) Royal Van Gorcum, 2002
* 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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