Maskil among the Hellenistic Jewish Sages

While the Hebrew word משכיל has multiple meanings, many of the Dead Sea Scrolls suggest that it designates a specific sage and wisdom teacher. This is indicated by diverse rule, wisdom, and liturgical texts that associate the figure with various tasks and portray him as a first-person speaker. Previous studies include insightful analyses of the Maskil as a leader in the sectarian movement. This paper aims at providing a complementary approach and exploring the wider intellectual context of this character beyond those Jews who produced, used, and collected the Qumran corpus. The following questions will be asked: How is the Maskil’s role imagined in the texts from Qumran? How does the figure embody wisdom, i. e., what kinds of exercises does he undertake to attain, perform, and/or retain his wisdom? What does his portrayal look like in comparison with other ancient data on sages? Following a survey of the Qumran corpus, the Maskil accounts are compared with descriptions of Jewish sages in selected sources that originate from the Hellenistic and early Roman era, including Qoheleth, Ben Sira, Wisdom of Solomon, and Philo of Alexandria’s texts. Finally, the evidence for the Maskil is contextualized in relation to the Greek phenomenon of philosophy, which involved the performance of spiritual exercises in the Graeco-Roman period. It will be argued that the Maskil materials are part of the ancient Mediterranean discussion on the search for wisdom and the ideal sage to be emulated.