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4Q184

The Seductress

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Fragment 1

1 [From her mouth] she brings out emptiness, and in […] worthlessness. She seeks errors always, [and with her tongue] she sharpens her words. [With mockery] 2 and scorn she speaks smoothly, to deride altogether with lips of iniquity. Her heart sets up recklessness, and her inward parts are snares [of the pit. Her palms] 3 are defiled with iniquity;⁠ her hands grasp the pit. Her feet go down to do wickedness and to walk in guilt […] 4 foundations of darkness; a multitude of transgressions is in her skirts. … the gloom of night, and her clothing […] 5 Her coverings are the deep darkness of twilight, and her ornaments are plagues of the pit. Her couches, her beds, are beds of Sheol⁠ […] 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 10 into iniquity, and her pathways are the guilt of transgression. Her gates are gates of death; at the entrance of her house she strides. To Sheol 11 all [who go in to her shall not] return, and all who inherit her will go down to the pit. She lies in wait in hidden places … […] 12 all […] In the city squares she veils herself, and in the gates of towns she takes her stand, and there is no one to stop her 13 from … always. Her eyes dart here and there, and she lifts her eyelids wantonly to look at a 14 righteous man and overtake him, and at a mighty man and make him stumble;⁠ to turn the upright from the way, and the righteous chosen ones 15 from keeping the commandment; to make fools of those who are steadfast … with wantonness, and to make those who walk uprightly change the statute; to make 16 the humble rebel against God, and to turn their steps from the ways of righteousness; to bring insolence into their heart, so that they do not tread 17 in the paths of uprightness; to lead a person astray into the ways of the pit, and to seduce with smooth words [all] the sons of man.

Texts in conversation

Compare 1 Enoch 104:2 and 4Q184 1:8

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · Dead Sea Scrolls, Wisdom and Instruction

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Summary

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.

Passages

1 Enoch 104:2

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, do not fear, you righteous, when you see the sinners growing strong and prospering in their ways: do not be companions with them, but stay away from their violence; for you shall become companions of the armies of heaven.
300 BCE – 100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Enoch

4Q184 1:8

Dead Sea Scrolls, Wisdom and Instruction · The Seductress
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
100–60 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in 4Q184

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. ...”
Matthew J. Goff, Discerning Wisdom: The Sapiential Literature of the Dead Sea Scrolls (Leiden: Brill, 2007), 115.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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