מונחים בעלי משמעות אידאולוגית בחיבור 'מוסר למבין' מקומראן, והשלכותיהם על האחדות הרעיונית של החיבור

The sapiential text 4QInstruction (Musar LaMevin) is a composite work, consisting of theological discourses and sapiential admonitions for everyday life, addressed to a student or a son. Preserved in seven copies at Qumran, this indicates its importance for the Qumranites, even though it exhibits no distinctive sectarian terminology or content. No sectarian organizational institutions are mentioned; on the contrary, the admonitions deal with financial and agricultural matters of individuals, family affairs, and relationships between the individual and the authorities – all subjects of conventional wisdom literature. The discourses deal with the importance of studying the mysteries of wisdom, and with the eschatological judgment, but are lacking in dualistic theological terms. Nevertheless, there is clear evidence for its author/authors' apocalyptic outlook, who call upon the addressee to relate to רז נהיה ("the mystery that is to be"), in both the theological discourses and in the admonitions for everyday life. In and of itself, however, this term provides insufficient clues for clarifying the issue of ideological and literary unity of this work. In order to clarify whether 4QInstruction is a coherent work, composed by an author or authors belonging to a specific theological school, or rather an accidental collection of sapiential discourses and admonitions, it is necessary to examine the usage and meaning of additional terms that appear in this work. Such terms as נחלה (inheritance) and verbs stemming from גורל, נחל (lot), from קדש (holy), and from כבד (honor) and its opposites – חרפה (shame) and בוז (contempt), may be ideologically motivated. These words appear in both the discourses and the admonitions of 4QInstruction, and are used in biblical and postbiblical sapiential works, apocryphal works, and sectarian texts in variegated contexts and meanings. Comparison of the meaning and usage of these words, in both the genres of 4QInstruction and as compared to other sapiential texts, may shed light upon the ideological and literary unity of 4QInstruction and possibly provide clues as to its author/s.