WISDOM LITERATURE

William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company

Contents

Chapter One

Introduction

Content

This extraordinary text, noteworthy for the significance of its content, its size, and its influence, contains a combination of instructional material similar to that of the wisdom injunctions found in biblical books such as Proverbs and Ben Sira, and eschatological literature rooted in Hebrew prophecy and best known to us from the book of 1 Enoch. As in the case of Ben Sira, the work as a whole takes the form of instruction from a senior sage to a junior (or juniors) being groomed for some significant educational or leadership role. The implications of the instruction rendered far exceed the consequences for the individual being instructed and rather extend to the entire people with whom these individuals are affiliated. While it is to be assumed that this people is Israel, never is that term used in these extensive fragments, nor is any other formal name employed throughout.

Universal judgment is a theme throughout a number of the fragments. A role for a heavenly host is included in these descriptions as the sons of truth face the consequences of righteous judgment. The hope that an epoch of truth will be realized is also part of this description. Gaining an understanding that this is the nature and lot of humankind is a common task for the junior sage as well as the entire people addressed throughout this composition. Individuals will be judged according to their spirit. The younger sage and presumably those who are judged worthy of participation in the epoch of truth with the heavenly host have had their ear uncovered to understand the "mystery of existence." This mystery was present in the act of creation, is operative at the time of the writer, and is the key to understanding the future of the world and the fate of its inhabitants. Those who understand and accept this mystery of existence walk in perfection, righteousness, and truth. Instructions on how to live are rooted in this worldview and are integral to the understanding to be developed by the "sons of truth." Given the frequent instructions addressed to those in poverty, we can presume that this was the condition of many persons addressed in this work. A good deal of instruction concerning borrowing money, the necessity for speedy repayment, and relationships with the creditor are covered. Instruction for marriage is also found in this text. One section addresses the female members of the intended audience. Instruction regarding the work of craftsmen and farmers also is present in these fragments. Practical advice on harvest as well as obligations concerning the festivals and the injunctions against the mixing of diverse kinds in biblical law are examined. Making restitution for damage done by one's animals is also mentioned. What distinguishes this text is the rationale provided for this instruction in a literary piece in which both present and future receive extensive treatment.

This composition does stand in marked contrast to the semi-autonomous and even personified portrayal of wisdom advanced in Proverbs, particularly in chaps. 1–9. There are no hints within Instruction of the personification of wisdom that enlivens those chapters. While we might appreciate the manner in which the attraction of wisdom and the seduction of its opponent could have formed a significant background for the reader attempting to make a decision related to the wisdom advanced in these works, such an image finds no mention in the text. It is the worldview advocated in the text rather than a female figure known as Wisdom that receives mention here. Wisdom in this literary piece then does not get equated with Torah as in Sirach 24 either, since it has no existence independent of perspectives advanced within the work.

Manuscripts

Prior to its publication in DJD 34 in 1999, this text was named 4QSapiential A. At least eight copies of Instruction, which form the basis of this commentary, can be identified among the Qumran fragments. The text of 1Q26 is found in DJD 1, the remainder in DJD 34, which also includes a reedition of 1Q26. The existence of this fragment from Cave 1 means that its title should be Instruction rather than 4QInstruction, as it is frequently called in the literature discussing this significant work. The largest copy is 4Q418 with about three hundred fragments. It is estimated that 4Q418 in its original form would have been as long as the most lengthy of the presently available texts from Qumran, 11Q19 (Temple)^a. Its length is 8.148 meters (about 26 feet), estimated by Yigael Yadin to have been about 9 meters (29-30 feet) in the original. The most substantial consecutive body of text is 4Q416 2, which has the remains of 4 columns, some of them rather full. Another composition, 4Q414, is found on the verso of 4Q415. The latter was probably written first and then reused. Evidence of other copies is also available.

Additional evidence of Instruction has more recently been presented. One more fragment has been identified by Émile Puech and Annette Steudel. Esther and Hanan Eshel have drawn attention to another fragment, which they have labeled 4Q416 23, found in an American exhibit collection and its catalog.

The evaluation of the fragments for the text of 4Q418 1-2+2a-c is a complicated question. Eibert Tigchelaar has proposed that they form the basis for a separate MS from the remainder of 4Q418, thereby adding to the total number of available MSS. There are paleographic grounds to question the relationship of 4Q418 1-2 to the remainder of 4Q418. They are copied in a discernibly different though contemporary hand. Whether these fragments provide evidence of another copy of Instruction or were a repaired beginning of 4Q418 is an open question, even though I accept the arguments of Daniel J. Harrington and John Strugnell that incline toward the latter (see DJD 34:226-27). Of the utmost importance is the recognition that these fragments do aid our reconstruction of 4Q416 1 (see next paragraph below), but provide no further content for Instruction, whether they belong to 4Q418 or another copy. Note that frags. 3, 4, and 5 are close to frags. 1 and 2 in color and preparation of the surface, but also could belong to frags. 6-303. I have also accepted the use of frags. 2a-c in this reconstruction (DJD 34:83, 225). Note also the utilization of scattered fragments of 4Q418 to aid in the reconstruction of 4Q416 1:9-17.

A systematic reconstruction of a unified text incorporating all of the fragments is not possible. The wide margin on the right-hand side of 4Q416 1 indicates that it was the beginning of the parchment and of this copy of Instruction. An overlap in text with 4Q418 1 lends support to the hypothesis that this column was the beginning of the composition as attested in the extant copies. While in his original reconstruction Torleif Elgvin rejected this proposal, he appears to have changed his stance. The monograph of Tigchelaar, To Increase Learning, needs to be consulted on textual readings on a regular basis along with the DJD 34 publication. The other monographs on this text also contain extensive comments on detailed readings of these fragmentary MSS. Whether they all represent substantially similar texts, or whether some constitute subsequent editions of this work, has not been determined in a reliable manner. The major issue for discussion is whether 4Q417 represents an earlier stage of composition than 4Q416 and 4Q418.

Since 4Q416 1 is the longest copy of consecutive columns available and also marks the beginning of at least one copy of the text, I have chosen to place it at the beginning of the MSS of Instruction discussed in this commentary. The remainder then follow in numerical order according to MS number. This arrangement provides the student of this literary work an opportunity to begin inquiry with a substantive original introduction to the text.

Historical Context and Review of Research

The dates of the MSS provide the terminus ad quem for determining the time of composition of this work. From the perspective of paleographic development, 4Q416 is regarded as the earliest MS, dating from the transitional period between the late Hasmonean and the earliest Herodian type, that is, 50-25 B.C.E. 4Q418 is considered slightly later in that transitional period, 40-20 B.C.E.; 4Q418a may also be from that time, 50-1 B.C.E.; but 4Q415, 4Q417, 4Q418b, and 4Q418c are labeled as representing the early Herodian formal hand (30-1 B.C.E.). The rustic semiformal hand of the early or middle Herodian period of 1Q26 also emerges from the latter dates. 4Q423 is a sample of a middle or late Herodian formal hand, dated between 10 B.C.E. and 50 C.E. These MSS point to the widespread use of the text in the second half of the first century B.C.E., a period of extensive activity at the Qumran site and in the development of Jewish sectarian movements in Judea.

The publishers of the editio princeps propose that the number of available MSS points to the significance of this composition for the inhabitants of the Qumran site. The quantity suggests that it apparently was copied rather frequently, and regarded as "'authoritative' or even perhaps considered 'canonical,'" according to Strugnell and Harrington. However, it "does not reflect a specific or closed community like that of Qumran, nor an earlier quasi-sectarian group." They view it as a bridge document between Proverbs and Ben Sira, thereby making it a third-century B.C.E. text.

While casting it in a considerably different thematic framework, Armin Lange proposes a similar date of composition. On the basis of the use of certain Persian loanwords not found in Biblical Hebrew such as [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] and [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], as well as the Hiphil participle of the root [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (i.e., [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) and the infinitive construction [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], he argues the terminus ad quem for its date of composition is toward the end of the third or the beginning of the second century B.C.E. Since he is working with the thesis of Gerhard von Rad that wisdom is rooted in apocalyptic, he sees the sapientialmotifs of Instruction as "a theology which can no longer be described as wisdom and which is on its way to apocalypticism." In his monograph Tigchelaar builds on a similar approach with slightly different chronological results. He is primarily interested in the variety of issues associated with the reconstruction of the text. Building on similarities between Instruction and the "Treatise on the Two Spirits" in 1QS, also noted by Lange, he argues that the terminus ad quem for its composition is somewhere in the second century B.C.E.

While developing in detail the connections with the sectarian creations in the Qumran corpus, Elgvin argues for a presectarian provenance for Instruction, positing a date of composition in the mid-second century B.C.E. His argument for the author's use of 1 Enoch, particularly the Epistle of Enoch (1 Enoch 91–107), leads him to posit a date for the authorship of the discourses of Instruction in the middle of the second century B.C.E., hence the date of the work as a whole. While the proposed dating is in line with proposals advanced by others, the dependence on 1 Enoch is more difficult to substantiate. The similarities are much more likely to emerge out of a common tradition-historical milieu. Noteworthy throughout this portion of his study (as well as elsewhere in his publications) is the focus in his comparative literary evaluation on the apocalyptic and sectarian traditions rather than on wisdom literature. He posits two literary stages, the first of which is composed of traditional sapiential material. A later portion is a proto-Essene layer, which is composed of apocalyptic thought. Conclusions on the historical setting for the document's authorship are drawn on the basis of its place within those traditions. In a more recent publication he posits the origin of the literary work to the first quarter of the second century B.C.E., but also is open to a late-third-century possibility.

Daryl Jefferies views Instruction as a sectarian composition. Working from a form-critical analysis of the admonitions, he finds that the traditional wisdom forms known from the HB and Ben Sira are present, but then are directed toward sectarian ends. However, he differentiates it from those works most commonly accepted as a product of the Qumran community. Thus he argues it is "extra-Qumranic," perhaps applied to those who lived in the camps throughout Israel. From such a perspective, he prefers a mid-second-century date for its creation (150-100 B.C.E.).

After a rather comprehensive summary of the available research, Matthew Goff arrives at a date similar to many of those already mentioned. He points to the lack of any hints of the Maccabean crisis or other evidence of the type of eschatological urgency that emerged as a more prominent element in Jewish life after the events of the reign of Antiochus IV Epiphanes (175-164 B.C.E.); however, he does not regard that as definitive evidence of dating. He does consider this work as prior to the sectarian literature, while recognizing that there is continuing debate about these issues. He concludes that several factors argue for an early-second-century B.C.E. date; however, the evidence is not definitive: "A safe conclusion is that Instruction was written in the second century B.C.E." He explicitly pays attention to the relationship of wisdom and apocalyptic in the work. This is also the interest of Benjamin Wold. He argues that the creation "represents a single genre that combines elements of wisdom with themes associated with apocalyptic literature." With this argument he places his viewpoint closer to that of Strugnell and Harrington, portraying it as a particular expression within the development of wisdom literature. Recent monographs have incorporated and built on the perspectives developed by Goff.

Among the most recent studies, Samuel Adams does not find that the text reflects different layers, but rather an attempt to "associate righteous behavior with access to the heavenly realm and wickedness with eternal punishment." In contrast to traditional wisdom teaching, worldly success does not come to virtuous individuals. The addressee must rather learn and adopt a particular view of the universe in order to be saved from destruction. In its outlook it has a good deal of similarity with the Epistle of Enoch. He adopts Goff's view that this work reflects a group setting in which there is evidence of a membership of subsistence and moderate means. For its date of creation, it follows the Epistle of Enoch and Daniel, but precedes the Hodayot and the "Treatise on the Two Spirits," hence late second century B.C.E.

For Grant Macaskill the eschatological viewpoint developed in Instruction is neither entirely future nor entirely realized, but rather inaugurated. While not discussing the date of composition, his handling of the concepts and literary developments is consistent with the many scholars who have advocated a second-century B.C.E. date. This is associated with an idea of revealed wisdom, in this case related to the mystery of existence (see "Key Terms" below for a discussion of this expression). This wisdom is inaugurated in the sense that it is the province of and related to existence within an eschatological community described and anticipated within the text. Here the cosmological discourse serves a paranetic function. The righteous person is to emulate the heavenly bodies by carrying out one's own allotted position in life and performing the associated tasks, as is true for the heavenly bodies. This is the way to be eliminated from the coming judgment or to be judged favorably. But this orientation is rooted in creation, not simply in projections of the future. It is based in the structure and order of the universe.

It is my belief that we need to resist the temptation to limit the creativity of those associated with the developing literary traditions within Israel to the second century B.C.E., hence a late-third or early-second-century B.C.E. date is quite possible. In addition to the significant number of copies of Instruction found in the Qumran corpus, we also see that two of the copies of this work were rolled up in the less usual way with the beginning of the text on the inside of the scroll. This feature points to its active use at the time of the abandonment of the site. Also significant is the presence of a copy in Cave 1, where apparently the most significant texts related to sectarian existence were stored. The argument for this document's influence can be demonstrated both for a number of the more recently published wisdom texts and for the sectarian texts familiar to us over a longer period of time. The composition with the greatest similarities to Instruction in literary styles, themes, and vocabulary is Mysteries. All the evidence points to Instruction as an early and significant work in a particular trajectory of wisdom literature in Second Temple Judaism.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from WISDOM LITERATUREby John Kampen Copyright © 2011 by John Kampen. Excerpted by permission of William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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