An Essene Literary Adaptation: Canticles of the maskil (4Q510; 4Q511)

Two other manuscripts from Cave 4, 4Q510 and 4Q511, attest to the diversity of literary genres circulating in Judaism about these topics. Both manuscripts preserve remains of a collection of canticles in Hebrew recited by a maskil, a “sage” or more precisely a “teacher”, an “instructor” who is a specialist in the knowledge of Torah.^{[268] [269] Its modern editors named the document Canticles of the Sage.35 The teacher speaks in the first person and he exalts the power of God over evil forces in a hymnal genre in 4Q510 1:4-7:}

ninni ban ’DNba ’nn bio ]bn]nbi nnsb in-Nsn mn yaw bow oni HXO nn mpnb DINnS pns D’yisni [...D’O]1 D’nN n’b’b D'N“O· D’-ITOO npwi [n]bwa ppn Dnnn Dnnb Dwbi

I, the teacher, declare the splendour of his glory in order to fear and terri[fy] all the spirits of angels of destruction, spirits of the bas­tards, demons, Lilith, those who scream and [the inhabitants of the desert...] and those who suddenly strike to lead astray the spirit of understanding and to make leave their hearts.

The canticles seem to be composed by members of the Essene movement because they present Essene considerations^[270] For example, the sense of liv­ing during a period dominated by evil is frequently conveyed by the Essene documents^[271] The “teacher” must instruct the members of the community and he must be the spiritual rampart of the “righteous ones” (D’p’TS) according to 4Q510 1:8. God will destroy evil after a “judgment of vengeance” (map! DDW) (4Q511 35:1). The teacher clearly takes the role of intermediary. However, he does not act for a single person, unlike the texts seen before, but for the mem­bers of the community. Therefore, the document seems to be a collective or sectarian adaptation of circulating patterns and ideas.

In this document, the distinction between the literary genre of hymn and that of incantation is thin. Other Essene documents present the same empha­sis on impiety which characterizes the perception of the contemporary period according to the members.^[272] The presentation and use of incantations against demons seem to bejustified by the dualistic worldview. The incantations of the teacher celebrating the divine glory are a means to eliminate the evil forces on earth. Once again, we see a correlation between illness on the one hand and sin and impurity on the other.