18/01/2012 YP|reader checked
Translation and commentary of five texts from Qumran :
|1) Two curses on the wicked and their angelic prince called Melkiresha (4Q280) or Belial (4Q286, 7,II). These are variants of the curses which belong to the ceremony of entrance to the covenant according to 1QS 2,4-17.
|2) Two blessings. The one (4Q286, 1,II) goes up from man to God in order to celebrate his throne and attributes in a style similar to the « Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice ». It is an enlargement of the blessing which is prescribed in 1QS 1,21-22. The other one (11Q14) goes down from God to the faithful by the mediation of a priest. His position is as the one described in 1QM 15,2s, and the person who says the blessings has the features of Melkisedeq.
|3) A hymn of self-celebration which occurs partially in the variants of 1QH, but which applies here to the priest who officiates in 1QM 15. The « deification » he boasts of does not exclude his human nature.