Maskil, Community, and Religious Experience in the Songs of the Sage (4Q510–511) 1

Abstract

The present study seeks to illuminate how the recitation of the prophylactic magical hymns known as 4QSongs of the Sage engendered religious experience for worshipers. Previous research on this composition has focused on locating it within the broader streams of early Jewish magical and apocalyptic tradition, but little attention has been paid to the apotropaic function of the Songs within the larger religious experiential framework implied by the text. This study argues that despite the lack of concrete information pertaining to ritual praxis, the language of the Songs reveals that participation in the ritual was designed to bring worshipers to understand themselves as realizing essential Qumranite ideals such as perfect purity and supernal knowledge, and to experience communion with the angels in the image of "the eternal sanctuary." It is suggested that the protection from the demons offered by the Songs is not so much the result of "magic" as it is a natural outcome of the perceived attainment of these ideals.

Practicing Safe Sects: Apostasy and Apotropaism in the Damascus Document and Paul

“…Several scholars have demonstrated that the covenant community, demonology, and apotropaism at Qumran are interrelated at a number of liturgical, rhetorical, and practical levels. Joseph Angel (2012: 1–27), for example, argues that apotropaism in Songs of the Sage (4Q510–4Q511) works because of the community’s transformed mind, formed through recitation and hearing the songs. Likewise, Andrew Krause (2014: 25–39) suggests that 4QIncantation (4Q444) and Songs of the Sage should be connected with God’s election of his people among other tactics.…”