Texts in Conversation
The Dead Sea Scrolls Community Rule commands members to love the sons of light and hate the sons of darkness who follow Belial. Paul echoes this in 2 Corinthians, asking what fellowship light has with darkness or Christ with Beliar.
Share:
2500 BCE
1000+ CE
1QS
Community Rule
Dead Sea Scrolls
2 He will admit into the Covenant of Grace all those who have freely devoted themselves to the observance of God’s precepts, that they may be joined to the counsel of God and may live perfectly before Him in accordance with all that has been revealed concerning their appointed times, and that they may love all the sons of light, each according to his lot in God’s design, and hate all the sons of darkness, each according to his guilt in God’s vengeance. 3 All those who freely devote themselves to His truth will bring all their knowledge, powers and possessions into the Community of God, that they may purify their knowledge in the truth of God’s precepts and order their powers according to His ways of perfection and all their possessions according to His righteous counsel. They will not depart from any command of God concerning their times; they will be neither early nor late for any of their appointed times, they will stray neither to the right nor to the left of any of His true precepts. All those who embrace the Community Rule will enter into the Covenant before God to obey all His commandments so that they may not abandon Him during the dominion of Belial because of fear or terror or affliction.
Date: 160 B.C.E. - 100 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
2 Corinthians 6:14
New Testament
13 Now as a fair exchange—I speak as to my children—open wide your hearts to us also. 14 Do not become partners with those who do not believe, for what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship does light have with darkness? 15 And what agreement does Christ have with Beliar? Or what does a believer share in common with an unbeliever? 16 And what mutual agreement does the temple of God have with idols? For we are the temple of the living God, just as God said, “I will live in them and will walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.”
Search:
Notes and References
“... The dominantly ethical character of the cosmic dualism of Qumran is manifest in the contrast of uprightness and iniquity which is often associated with that of light and darkness. This we find also in the 2 Corinthians passage, where the two pairs are juxtaposed. It is interesting to compare with this the following Qumran texts: ‘All iniquity and [wick]edness you will destroy forever and your uprightness will be manifested to the sight of all whom you have made’ (1QH 14:16). Again, ‘Then iniquity shall depart before uprightness, as darkness departs before the light’ (1Q27 1 i 5–6). Here the two pairs are linked. See further Damascus Document 20:20–21. The last couple in the Pauline text is Christ and Beliar. Christ, of course, does not appear in the Qumran texts, and his appearance in the 2 Corinthians passage is clear proof of the Christian reworking of the Qumran material. But Belial frequently is opposed to God as the leader of the hostile lot. At the end of the eschatological war described in the War Scroll the priests, levites and all the elders of the community ‘shall bless in their places the God of Israel and all his faithful works and the indignation which he has directed against Belial and all the spirits of his lot’ ...”
Fitzmyer, Joseph A.
Essays on the Semitic Background of the New Testament
(p. 211) Scholars Press, 1971
* 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.
Your Feedback:
Leave a Comment
Anonymous comments are welcome. All comments are subject to moderation.