Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, University of Pennsylvania

A Thrice-Told Hymn: A Response to Eileen Schuller

Author(s): John J. Collins and Devorah Dimant
Source: The Jewish Quarterly Review, New Series, Vol. 85, No. 1/2, Papers on the Dead Sea
Scrolls (Jul. - Oct., 1994), pp. 151-155
Published by: University of Pennsylvania Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1454958
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THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW, LXXXV, No. 1 (July, 1994) 151-155

A THRICE-TOLDHYMN
A Response to Eileen Schuller

JOHN J. COLLINS, University of Chicago

DEVORAH DIMANT, University of Haifa

The ongoing publication of the fragments from Cave 4 is expand-

ing our knowledge of the Qumran corpus in two significant ways,
most obviously by bringing to light material of which we had until
now been unaware, but also by throwing new light on material that
was long familiar. The contribution of the 4Q Hodayot manuscripts
would seem to fall in the second category. As Eileen Schuller sug-
gests, since we now have multiple copies, we can look specifically
both for the recovery of text not preserved in 1QHa, and, where
various manuscripts overlap, for evidence of divergent text, sug-
gesting possible recensional activity reflected in the various manu-
scripts. We would like to focus here on one instance of divergent
but overlapping texts, found in 4Q427 7, 4Q491 11, and 4Q47 lb.
As noted by Schuller, 4Q427 7 is a large fragment which has pre-
served substantial sections of two consecutive columns. Clear over-
laps with other Hodayot passages, from both Cave 1 and Cave 4,
firmly identify this fragment and the entire manuscript as belong-
ing to the Hodayot. As Schuller further noted, however, this frag-
ment stands out in style and subject-matterwithin the corpus of the
Hodayot. The first column of this fragment preserves the end of a
poem written in the first person singular, the speaker of which de-
scribes his exalted rank in heaven among the angels. This personal
poem ends on line thirteen, where a different literary unit is intro-
duced-a liturgical address phrased in the second person plural.
The fragment 4Q491 11 has already been the subject of some
scholarly discussion. The first editor, Maurice Baillet, labelled it
"Canticle of Michael and Canticle of the Just," and placed it among
the fragments of the War Rule.1 Baillet identified the speaker in the
poem as the archangel Michael, although his name is not men-
tioned. This identification was sharply criticized by Morton Smith,
1
M. Baillet, Qumrdn Grotte 4. III (4Q482-4Q520). DJD 7 (Oxford, 1982),
pp. 12-72.

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152 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW

who published his own reconstruction of the fragment.2 Some of

Smith's reconstructions are highly speculative (e.g., at line 8 he
reads "[The status of a holy temple,] not to be violated, has been at-
tributed to me"). He argued convincingly, however, that the poem
constitutes a distinct literary unit since it differs in style and content
from the War Rule, and even from other prayers incorporatedin the
War Rule. He also questioned whether 4Q491 11 and 12 belonged
with the other 4Q491 fragments.3
4Q471b was also assigned to the War Rule by John Strugnell.
Again, the assignation has been questioned, this time by the current
editor Esti Eshel, who considers it an independentcomposition. The
overlaps between this fragment,4Q491 11, and 4Q427 7 corroborate
Smith's conclusion that the poem is an independent composition.
Eileen Schuller has noted the parallels between 4Q491 11 10 and
4Q427 7 9.4 These consist of single words (e.g., z)rnW/)rvrz, "as-
sociate with me";5 the ambiguous Yi, which might be "evil" or
"companion");or short phrases ("will not come," "with the heav-
enly beings"). Similar verbal parallels are noted between the "Can-
ticle of the Just," which follows in 4Q491, and the hymnic passage
which follows in 4Q427. There is surely some relationship between
the two texts. The parallels are closest between the end of the
so-called "Canticle of Michael" (line 11) and 4Q427 7 11-12. The
phrase rxnvnor))m2 ov z) may be regarded as a variant of z)
2wn1Not)x'm ov and both texts refer to gold (T, onm). Yet the two
passages have no full sentence in common, and even the phrases
they share are not distinctive.
4Q47 Ib, however, provides a case for a closer relationship. Frag-
ment 6, line 6 contains the letters ]j,75vi which can be equated with

2 "Ascent to the Heavens and Deification in 4QMa,"in Archaeology and History

in the Dead Sea Scrolls. The New York University Conference in Memory of Yigael
Yadin,ed. L. H. Schiffman (Sheffield, 1990), pp. 181-188.
3 "Two Ascended to Heaven," in Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls, ed. J. H. Charles-
worth (New York, 1992), p. 295. The relationship between the 4Q491 fragments has
also been questioned by Martin Abegg.
4 "A Hymn from a Cave Four Hodayot Manuscript: 4Q427 7 i+ 11," JBL 112
(1993): 605-628.
5 E. Qimron argues in an article to be published in the Jonas GreenfieldFestschrift,
entitled "A Word Concerning Divine Providence: 4Q413," that this word should be
derived from the root riywith the meaning "connect."See furtherH. Yalon, TheDead
Sea Scrolls: Philological Essays (Jerusalem, 1967), p. 86 [Hebrew].

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 A THRICE-TOLD
HYMN-COLLINS 153

the phrase twrrt7 Vi, evil or "friend to the holy ones," in 4Q427
7 i 10.6 Lines 7 and 8 contain words that appear in 4Q427 7 i 11
(nnr'twe) and 12 (Ti-). It seems reasonable to infer that the end of
4Q47 lb frag. 6 overlaps with the beginning of 4Q427 7 col. i. The
overlap may clarify the ambiguous o)vrrt,7 vi. In 4Q471b the pre-
ceding words are 15wn 'r" (beloved of the king). This suggests
strongly that the ambiguous phrase in 4Q427 7 should be translated
"friend, or companion, to the holy ones."
4Q471b also contains a distinctive parallel to 4Q491 11. 4Q471
frag. 6, line 5 reads "who will restrain my lips" (the lacuna can be
restored to correspondto 4Q49 111, "who will restrainthe utterance
of my lips"). 4Q471 frag. 6, line 3 reads nnini nrnm. 4Q491 11 9
reads nnmn ?) vinirm.In this case, however, we must recognize
variants. 4Q491 11 has no counterpart for 4Q471 frag. 6, line 4,
oft-iz )nn )n. Without pressing the details of a reconstruction, we
would suggest that 4Q471 frag. 6 and 4Q427 7 are copies of the
same text, which have only minor variants in the few overlapping
lines. 4Q491 11 has more substantial variants, but still represents
the same text in so far as the correspondences with the other two
texts outweigh the differences. The verbal correspondencesbetween
4Q49 111 and 4Q47 lb are too close for these to be merely variations
on a common theme. It seems, however, that the passages in both
4Q491 11 13 and 4Q427 7 13, which use direct imperatives to bid
the righteous to praise God, are formally distinct from what pre-
cedes them and should be regardedas separatecompositions. While
there are verbal parallels between 4Q491 11 and 4Q427 7 in these
imperatival sections, the correspondences are not so close as to sug-
gest that we are dealing with variants of the same text.
The most intriguing aspect of 4Q491 11, however, is not paral-
leled in either 4Q427 7 or 4Q47 lb. This is the mention of "a mighty
throne in the congregation of the gods" and the claim to have "taken
a seat" in the heavens, presumably on this throne. We cannot be
sure whether these boasts were also part of 4Q427 and 4Q471, but
the question in 4Q471b, "who is like me among the gods?" implies

6 B. Z. Wacholder and M. Abegg, A Preliminary Edition of the Unpublished

Dead Sea Scrolls. The Hebrew and Aramaic Textsfrom Cave Four. Fascicle Two
(Washington, D.C.: Biblical Archaeology Society, 1992), p. 296, and R. H. Eisen-
man and J. M. Robinson, A Facsimile Edition of the Dead Sea Scrolls (Washington,
D.C.: Biblical Archaeology Society, 1991), vol. 2, plate 1057.

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154 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW

a level of exaltation that is unparalleled in the Hodayot. We may

tentatively suggest that this question, which has no parallel in
4Q491 11, may be a secondary expansion, an exuberant gloss by a
scribe who was inspired by the thought of a heavenly throne. In that
case, 4Q491 11 would be the earlier form of the text.
Schuller appears to group this hymn with the so-called "Hymns
of the Community," as distinct from the "Hymns of the Teacher."
In fact, she suggests that 4QHa,in which 4Q427 7 is found, contains
only "Hymns of the Community."It is difficult, however, to envis-
age the hymn we have been discussing as a "hymn of the commu-
nity." The speaker surely qualifies as "eine deutlich erkennbare
Personlichkeit,"7one of the criteria for distinguishing the Teacher
hymns. Although the theme of fellowship with the angels is typical
of the Hymns of the Community, the vocabulary of this hymn
matches the profile of neither the Hymns of the Community nor the
Hymns of the Teacher as distinguished by Jeremias. It seems, then,
that Schuller is on firmerground when she notes the numberof lexi-
cal items that appearin this hymn but nowhere else in the Hodayot,
and suggests that the hymn in 4Q427 incorporates, in a somewhat
reworked manner, material from a hymn which originated indepen-
dently of the rest of the Hodayot. In that case, however, we should
probably abandon the hypothesis that 4QHa contained only Hymns
of the Community.
The hymn in 4Q491 is exceptional, in so far as it appears to
claim that the speaker has already been enthroned in heaven. This
claim exceeds anything found in the so-called Teacher hymns in
the Hodayot. Our hymn also differs from the Hodayot in tone.
While the author boasts of his ability to bear griefs, he does not
complain about persecution, and there is no sense that he needed to
be rescued. There is still no consensus, however, on the identity of
the speaker. On the one hand, Dimant is sympathetic to Baillet's
identification of the figure as an angel. She points to the presence
of a number of terms found only in the Songs of Sabbath Sacrifice,
e.g., the use of 1nn r) (sons of the King) and the locution onD
vrzDNr (gold of Ophir). On the other hand, Collins agrees with Smith
that an angel would not need to claim that he was reckoned among
the tm'N, and that this is ratherthe speech of an exalted human be-
ing. He has argued elsewhere that the "throne in heaven" was not

7 G. Jeremias, Der Lehrer der Gerechtigkeit (G6ttingen, 1963), p. 171.

8 Ibid., pp. 172-173.

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 A THRICE-TOLD HYMN-COLLINS 155

envisaged as the lot of every member of the community, but indi-

cates an exalted teacher (the best parallel is provided by Moses in
the Exagoge of Ezekiel the Tragedian).9 He suggests that the im-
plied speaker is the eschatological teacher, probably to be iden-
tified with the eschatological High Priest. Such an identification
would accord well with the setting in the War Scroll proposed by
Baillet, since in that context the High Priest is said to read aloud
"the prayer in time of war" and also "all their hymns" (1QM 15:4),
but it does not require such a setting.
It seems clear, in any case, that this hymn is exceptional in the
corpus of Hodayot. Consequently, we may question the adequacy
of the traditional division between Hymns of the Teacher and
Hymns of the Community.
But this hymn also raises questions about the relations between
the different literary corpora found at Qumran. While the ascrip-
tion of 4Q491 11 and 41471b to the War Rule has been ques-
tioned, the War Rule certainly contains liturgical material that
could also be used in other settings, and our hymn stands apart
from the rest of the Hodayot. There was some fluidity between the
literary corpora and genres found in the Scrolls. The relations and
variations between these fragments show once again the need to
study individual documents in the light of the library as a whole.

9 J. J. Collins, "A Throne in the Heavens. Apotheosis in pre-ChristianJudaism,"

in Death, Ecstasy and Otherworldly Journeys, ed. J.J. Collins and M. Fishbane
(Albany, N.Y., 1995). 4Q521 says that God will glorify the pious (o"r'tn) on the
throne of his kingdom, but there is no suggestion that one of them has already been
enthroned.See E. Puech, "Une apocalypse messianique (4Q521),"RQ 15 (1992): 485.

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