Texts in Conversation
In Genesis, God goes down to learn about Sodom’s sin. In 4Q180 from the Dead Sea Scrolls, a fragment associated with this scene says God knew people’s thoughts before creating them, qualifying the image of God learning something new.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Genesis 18:21
Hebrew Bible
20 So the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so blatant 21 that I must go down and see if they are as wicked as the outcry suggests. If not, I want to know.” 22 The two men turned and headed toward Sodom, but Abraham was still standing before the Lord.
4Q180 2–4 ii 10
The Ages of the Creation
Dead Sea Scrolls, Biblical Interpretation
5 […] he will stand … […] their sin … […] 6 … […] … now, and I will … […] 7 … all … […] 8 … […] … […] 9 speaking […] and I will see, for everything […] 10 … […] before he created them he knew [their] thoughts […]
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Notes and References
“... 4Q180 continues with the quotation of the next problematic verse. The
text of MT might seem to say that the Lord does not yet know how serious
things are in Sodom, which would be in conflict with the idea of God's all-
encompassing knowledge. If 4Q180 frag. 4 belongs at the bottom of the
column, than the quotation is followed by an explanation stating that God
knew all things before he created them. Since the text is damaged, we can-
not know how the author solved the problem. We only know he tackled it
somehow. ...”
Tigchelaar, Eibert
"Sodom and Gomorrah in the Dead Sea Scrolls" in Noort, Ed, and Eibert Tigchelaar (eds.) Sodom’s Sin: Genesis 18-19 and Its Interpretations
(p. 57) Brill, 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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