The Eschatology of the Two Spirits Treatise Revisited

The article provides new avenues for interpreting the Two Spirits Treatise and its eschatology on the basis of new manuscript evidence. The shorter form of the Two Ways section in 1Q29 13, 4Q257 V and 4Q525 11-12 indicates that the eschatological rewards in 1QS IV 7-8 were included in a yet flexible form of the text as it became part of 1QS. 4QD fragments yield new connections with dualism in the Two Spirits doctrine. 4Q444 shares with the Treatise the anthropological orientation on an inner dispute of spirits (1QS IV 23b-26) as well as the eschatological expectation that the dominion of wickedness will be completed (1QS IV 19-20). 4Q215a elaborates an eschatological perspective on a time of righteousness with dualistic and predestinatarian parameters very comparable to those of the Treatise. This article concludes that the Treatise’s eschatologically oriented worldview has a broader traditio-historical setting than previously assumed.