Texts in conversation

Compare 4Q213a 1 17 and 11Q5 19:15

Dead Sea Scrolls, Biblical Retellings · Dead Sea Scrolls, Prayers, Hymns, and Liturgy

Summary

In 4Q213a from the Dead Sea Scrolls, Levi prays that no satan rule over him. The Psalms Scroll, 11Q5, uses the same plea in a prayer for deliverance and adds protection from an unclean spirit and an evil inclination.

Passages

4Q213a 1 17

Dead Sea Scrolls, Biblical Retellings · Aramaic Levi b

10 […] I said, “My Lord, you 11 [… you] alone know 12 […] the ways of truth. Put far 13 […] evil, and fornication drive away 14 […] wisdom and knowledge and strength 15 […] to find your mercy before you 16 […] what is beautiful and what is good before you. 17 [… and] do not let any satan rule over me 18 [… upon] me, my Lord, and bring me near to be yours.”

160–60 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in 4Q213a

11Q5 19:15

Dead Sea Scrolls, Prayers, Hymns, and Liturgy · The Great Psalms Scroll

12 love your name, and in your shadow I take refuge. When I remember your strength my heart 13 is firm, and on your kindnesses I lean. Forgive my sin, O LORD, 14 and purify me from my iniquity. Grant me a spirit of faithfulness and knowledge; let me not stumble 15 in wrongdoing. Let no satan rule over me, nor an unclean spirit; let neither pain nor an evil 16 inclination take hold of my bones. For you, O LORD, are my praise, and for you I wait 17 all the day. Let my brothers rejoice with me, and my father’s house, who are astonished at your favor

50 BCE – 50 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 11Q5

References

“... It is possible, therefore, that both texts, rather than being directly interdependent in one direction or another, draw on a “common interpretation” of Psalm 119.44 This view, if correct, (a) underscores that the writers of these texts and of the underlying tradition were personifying traditional references to evil; and (b) suggests that such a reinterpretation of biblical prayer was more gen- erally widespread than the evidence preserved in 4Q213a and 11Q5 alone. Lange, however, has argued against a dependence of either text on Psalm 119 and, instead, reasons as follows for a literary dependence between the two documents: (1) it is unlikely that both 4Q213a and 11Q5 column xix would have indepen- dently substituted the term “iniquity” of the Psalm with “Satan”; and (2) both texts exhibit “extensive parallels in demonic thought”. ...”

Loren T. Stuckenbruck, The Myth of Rebellious Angels: Studies in Second Temple Judaism and New Testament Texts (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2014), 204.

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

Fragment 1

4Q213a6 chapters

Compare 4Q213a 1 17 and 11Q5 19:15

Summary

Passages

4Q213a 1 17

11Q5 19:15

References

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