Reinterpretation of Scripture in Hymn to the Creator

Psalms Scroll 11QPs a (=11Q5) is the largest of all extant Psalms manuscripts found at Qumran. It is made up of forty-nine compositions, seven of which are not found in the MT collection. While four of these extra compositions are attested elsewhere in ancient literature, three are unique to 11QPs a . They are known as Plea for Deliverance, Apostrophe to Zion and Hymn to the Creator. In this paper, we argue that the composer of Hymn to the Creator copies the structure of a biblical hymn and cites biblical hymnic verses.
|However, he reworks his biblical source material in a way that eliminates a theological motif present in the biblical contexts of the passages he cites. Through omission, source substitution, and re-contextualization, the composer of Hymn to the Creator eliminates all traces of the biblical portrait of an animate nature. Vitality applies only to God and his angels.