Petitionary Prayer in Gospel John
Petitionary Prayer in Gospel John
Petitionary Prayer in Gospel John
Doctor of Philosophy
2005
2
Abstract
The approachadopted in this study is not philosophical but textual. How does a
text articulate its idea of determinism on the one hand, and its concept of
petitionary prayer on the other? Does the text offer an explanation for the
interplay of determinism and petitionary prayer?Two texts are in focus, the Rule
of the Community (1QS) and the Gospel of John. These texts are utilised as
literary resourcesfor exploring the interplay of determinism and petition.
It is argued,on the basis of a careful analysisof the types of determinism and the
contentsof the petitions in John and the Rule, that there is nothing in the petitions
of both texts which cannot be accounted for within the framework of their
deterministic theology. Petitionary prayer does not function as a means of
protesting the order of events in a deterministic framework, but as a medium of
asking for the fulfilment of those events. Petitions are composed in compliance
with the orderly arrangementset forth by God.
3
Acknowledgements
whose patience and critical acumen has guided the course of my intellectual
formation. I am also grateful for the helpful criticism and suggestionsof Dr.
Christ Apostolic Church Stockwell, and in particular the ministers and the board
of elders for believing in me. Special mention must be made of Mr. and Mrs. J.
McDowell, Rev. and Mrs. Adewumi who have supported me and my family
morally and financially during this time of study. Thank you to Keith Anderson
me many years ago the potential to becomea scholar, for his particular interest in
the completion of this work. He and Rev. S. 0. Akinsulure taught me the art of
thinking biblically, and investedsacrificially into the personI have now become.
Toyin, is commendablenot just for her countlesssacrificial support, but also for
children, Molly and Nicholas, for the patience they have shown in enduring the
with my love.
4
Abbreviations
AB Anchor Bible
AJT Asia Journal of Theology
BA TheBiblical Archaeologist
BI Biblical Interpretation Series
Bib Biblica
BibS Biblical Series
BJRL Bulletin of the John RylandsLibrary
BT TheBible Translator
BVC Bible et vie chretienne
BZ Biblische Zeitschrift
CH Church History
CBQ Catholic Biblical Quarterly
CJA Christianity and Judaism in Antiquity
CurThM Currents in Theologyand Mission
DSD Dead SeaDiscoveries
EDNT Balz, H. & G. Schneider,ed. Exegetical Dictionary of the
New Testament.3 vols. Grand Rapids, MI: William B.
Eerdmans,1991.
EDR Meagher, Paul K. et.al, ed. Encyclopedic Dictionary of
Religion. 3 vols. Washington, DC: Corpus Publications,
1979.
EDSS Schiffman, L. H. & J. C. Vanderkam, eds.Encyclopedia of
the Dead Sea Scrolls. 2 vols. Oxford: Oxford University
Press,2000.
ETL EphemeridesTheologicaeLovanienses
ER Eliade, Mircea, ed. The Encyclopedia of Religion. 15 vols.
London: Collier Macmillan Publishers, 1987.
EvQ Evangelical Quarterly
EvT EvangelischeTheologie
ExpTim Expository Times
HBTh Horizons in Biblical Theology
Herrn Hermeneia: A Critical and Historical Commentary on the
Bible
HTR Harvard Theological Review
HSM Harvard Semitic Monographs
JAOS Journal of the American Oriental Society
IBT Interpreting Biblical Texts Series
ICC International Critical Commentary
IEJ Israel Exploration Journal
Int Interpretation
ISBE Bromiley, G. ed. International Standard Bible
Encyclopaedia. 4 vols. Grand Rapids, MI: William B.
Eerdmans,1979.
JBL Journal of Biblical Literature
JBLM Journal of Biblical Literature Monograph series
JJML Journal ofJewish Music and Liturgy
JJS Journal ofJewish Studies
JQR Jewish Quarterly Review
JSJSup Journal for the Study of Judaismin the Persian,Hellenistic
and Roman Period Supplements
JSNT Journal for the Studyof the New Testament
JSNTSup Journal for the Study of the New Testament, Supplement
Series
JSOT Journal for the Study of the Old Testament
JSOTSup Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, Supplement
Series
JSP Journal for the Study ofPseudepigrapha
JSPSup Journal for the Study of PseudepigraphaSupplements
JTSA Journal of Theologyfor SouthernAfrica
NCB New Century Bible
NICNT The New International Commentaryon the New Testament
NIDNTT Brown, Colin, ed. New International Dictionary of New
TestamentTheology.4 vols. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan
Publishing House, 1986.
NIDOTTE Gemeren, Willem A. Van, ed. New International
Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis. 4
vols. Exeter: PaternosterPress,1996.
NovT Novum Testamentum
NTL New TestamentLibrary
NTS New TestamentStudies
NTT New TestamentTheology Series
OBO Orbis biblicus et orientalis
OTG Old TestamentGuide
OTL Old TestamentLibrary
PSBSup Princeton SeminaryBulletin Supplements
PToday Philosophy Today
RAC Reallexikonfr Antike und Christentum
RB Revuebiblique
RevExp Reviewand Epositor
RQ Review Quarterly
RevQ Revuede Qumran
RSRe1 Recherchesde sciencesreligieuses
SacP SacraPagina
SAHT Studien zum Alten und Neuen Testament
SBL Society of Biblical Literature
SBLD Society of Biblical Literature Dissertation Series
SBLEJL Society of Biblical Literature Early Judaism and Its
Literature
Scr Scriptura
SDSRL Studiesin the Dead SeaScrolls and RelatedLiterature
Sem Semeia
SIT ScottishJournal of Theology
SkrK Skrif en Kerk
SNTSMS Society of New TestamentStudiesMonograph Series
6
Table of Contents
Abstract 2
.........................................................................
Acknowledgements 3
.............................................................
Abbreviations 4
...................................................................
INTRODUCTION 11
...............................................................
A. Methodology 14
........................................................
B. Previous Scholarship 17
..............................................
C. Why 1QSand John 22
.................................................
ChapterOne
ChapterTwo
ChapterThree
C. Summary 154
.............................................................
9
ChapterFour
CONCLUSION 237
..............................................................
A. Overview 237
...................................................
B. Comparisonof John & IQS 241
..............................
BIBLIOGRAPHY 248
.............................................................
11
INTRODUCTION
However, not much has been done to explore the relationship between
mean that studies on how a given text articulates determinism on the one hand
and human actions on the other have been uncommon especially in the biblical
field. This is not surprising becausebiblical writers seemto have a subtle way of
For them, the sovereignty of God is paramount, but it is upheld with a certain
degreeof flexibility which allows them to make senseof human actions within
of divine sovereignty that one encounters in the Old Testament books is less
foreordination, and there is little or nothing that human beings can do to alter
those divine decrees. Creation follows its course in compliance with already
1E. Schuller, "Petitionary Prayer and the Religion of Qumran," in Religion in the
Dead Sea Scrolls, ed. J. J. Collins & R. A. Kugler (Grand Rapids, MI: William B.
Eerdmans,2000), 29-45,35.
12
a petitionary kind in the same literature being addressedto that same God who
determined the course of events from the beginning. The petitioner does not
other hand, are pleasto God to bring about changesin given conditions, for God
to honour such prayers would imply the violation of his original designs which
words of Schuller: "The question is not just can an individual choose to act
freely, but, more specifically, can or should an individual act to make petition to
God? What is the point of petitioning the God of knowledge who has determined
all things from the beginning? What might be the proper object of petition?"2
This is not at all a new theological enquiry becauseboth Thomas Aquinas and
John Calvin have pioneered the discussion in the field of systematic theology.
However, the approach adopted in this present study differs in that it is not
determinism and petitionary prayer at the textual level. In a text that articulates
is to say, when put it in the form of question,how doesa text convey a notion of
determinism on the one hand, and its concept of petitionary prayer on the other?
Does the text offer an explanation for the interplay of determinism and
petitionary prayer?
For the purpose of our enquiry, two texts are in focus, the Rule of the
Community (IQS) and the Fourth Gospel. Our interest is in the nature of
The reason for choosing these two texts, I QS and John, will be addressedlater
(see pp. 22-29 especially 27-28). Suffice to emphasizehere that while the Rule
and the Fourth Gospel may sharethesethemesof determinism and prayer, it does
not necessarilymean that they both expressthe themes in the same manner. In
the other hand, are either by the priests or the Levites. Moreover the text of 1QS
whereas the same cannot be said with confidence in the case of the Fourth
employed the character of Jesusto commend his own (i. e. the author's) deep
his 3
convictions unto readers.
The task of this study is twofold: to probe the nature of the determinismin
the Rule of the Community and the Fourth Gospel, and to investigate the nature
each text. In order to make senseof our studied texts, a working definition of
determinism and prayer will be helpful. Firstly however, we shall discuss the
A. Methodology
s The commonly held view regarding the sectarian literature from Qumran is
expressedin these words of Dimant: "The best preservedand most typical works in this
category are the Rule of the Community, the Damascus Covenant, the Thanksgiving
Psalms (Hodayot), the War of the Sons of Light against the Sons of Darkness (War
Scroll) and the biblical commentariesknown as Pesharim." See D. Dimant, "Qumran
SectarianLiterature," in Jewish Writings of the Second TemplePeriod, edited by M. E.
Stone (Philadelphia, PA: Fortress, 1984), 483-550,487-8. In his opening remark on the
Rule, G. Vermes expressedthe sectarianoutlook of the book in this manner: 'There are,
to my knowledge, no writings in ancientJewish sourcesparallel to the Community Rule,
but a similar type of literature flourished among Christians between the second and
fourth centuries, the so-called `Church Orders' represented by the Didache, the
Didascalia, the Apostolic Constitution, etc." See G. Vermes, The Dead Sea Scrolls in
English (London, UK: PenguinBooks, 1987),61.
determinismand prayer.
study will classify the prayer texts according to their contents.Is the
goods etc? What views of God are expressedin the prayer texts? Are
(1QS/4QS)," RevQ 18 (1998), 541-548. See also Robert A. J. Gagnon, "How Did the
Rule of the Community Obtain Its Final Shape?A Review of Scholarly Research,JSP 10
(1992), 61-79; P. S. Alexander, "The Redaction-History of Serek ha-Yahad: A
Proposal," RevQ 17(1996), 437-453; a comprehensivestudy of the textual history is
found in Metso, Textual Development; Metso, "In Searchof the Sitz im Leben of the
Community Rule," in The Provo International Conference on the Dead Sea Scrolls:
Technological Innovations, New Texts, and ReformulatedIssues, STDJ 30, eds. D. W.
Parry, and E. Ulrich, (Leiden: Brill, 1999), 306-315; Charlotte Hempel, "Interpretative
Authority in the Community Rule Tradition," DSD 10 (2003), 59-80.
will
passages be drawn upon for clarification and better understanding
determinism.
Community that is projected by the text. This implied sense is also intended
`sect' and `sectarian' are used, except where otherwise stated, to convey "an
larger group."9
8 While it is quite possible that an individual may have been responsiblefor the
composition of the Rule, the text is certainly dotted with the tradition of its community.
And should 1QS have been a production of an individual, whether or not the individual,
to put it in the languageof Judith Lieu, has adopted,modified or correctedthe tradition
of his community as well asmaking his own individual and creative contribution remains
a matter of academic conjecture. See J. Lieu, The Theology of Johannine Epistles
(Cambridge:University Press,1991), 19-20.
Also, it is worth mentioning that the English quotations from the Rule are
stated.There are occasionswhere long sectionshave been quoted for the sake of
edition in clarifying the issues at stake in each of these long quotations. Since
there are no serious textual variants between 1QS and 4QS so as to warrant
comparisons of passages discussed in this study, and the fact that such
paralleled passages.
B. Previous Scholarship
Among the first set of scholars to undertake the study of prayer in the
prayers of the Scrolls were developed for and recited on certain occasions,
Talmon argued that the Qumranites' renunciation of the Temple cult and the
cessation of that cult resulted into the institution of fixed prayer among the
Temple cult from which the sect had already distanced itself, the Qumranites
adoptedwhat they called the "worship of the heart". This is evident in the use of
sacrificial language to denote prayer, e.g. "an offering of the lips" (1QS 9:5).
Thus praying among the sect was viewed as a replacement of the Temple
In the 1980s and 1990s, the study of prayer in the Scrolls assumeda
different outlook. This was due in part to the publication of more prayer texts
from Qumran.13The publication made the extent, the variety of material and the
that prayer was a substitute for sacrifice, was based on the few existing texts
which were distinctively sectarian (especially the Hodayot and the concluding
hymn of IQS), the rush in publication of prayer texts during those years reveals
13The publication includes the complete version of the Songs of the Sabbath
Sacrifice, The Words of the Luminaries, Ritual Blessings (4Q512), Hymn against
Demons(4Q510-511).
translated into English (1994).16 Although Nitzan did not incorporate the
provenanceof the documents found at Qumran in her monograph, she did not
hesitateto submit that the texts found in the Scrolls made use of contemporary
traditional prayer, and by so doing, the texts at Qumran serve as witness to the
prayer form of the Scrolls which is similar to the rabbinical prayer reflects a point
prayer.
Scroll, and the Rule of the Community- all of which exhibit one form of prayer
15E. Chazon, "Hymns and Prayers in the Dead Sea Scrolls," in The Dead Sea
Scrolls After Fifty Years: A ComprehensiveAssessment,vol. 1, ed. P. W. Flint & J. C.
Vanderkam(Leiden: Brill, 1998),244-270,249.
increases.
cannot be confined to these areas.Reading through the text of the Rule of the
texts. The questionsare about the ideological strategyof the text. They focus on
our present study sets out to analysethe theology encodedin the prayer of 1QS
and how that theology fits into the deterministic framework articulated in the text.
she explores the theme of determinism and petitionary prayer in the Dead Sea
19Metso arguedthat the opening sectionsof the covenantrenewal (IQS 1-2) and
the two spirits (1QS3-4) and also the hymn which concludesthe Rule were not originally
part of the Rule. The Rule as it now standsis a final production of severalredactional
stages.SeeMetso, Textual Development,143-49.
20E. Schuller, "Prayer and Religion," 29-45.
21
21
speakingworld. Shebegins the article with a brief backgroundsketchabout the
prayer texts before embarking on her main concern. She sets out to answer the
questionwhich she statesin this manner: "What is the interplay between a strong
the ThanksgivingHymns, the War Scroll and others to highlight the determinism
of the Scrolls and the petitionary prayer that characterizethe religion at Qumran.
that "Yet the total picture is more varied and complex, particularly now that we
In the final analysis, Schuller concludesthat the prayer texts used by the
and acknowledgedthe sovereignty of God who has determined all things in his
not underminethe needto study each of the texts in its own right to discover the
scenario that is reconstructedhere can only be tentative and a starting point for
further reflection."26 And for this reason,her work should be seen as a starting
point on the subject that is yet to win the attention of the Dead Sea Scrolls
The relationship betweenthe Fourth Gospel and the Dead SeaScrolls has
been a matter of scholarly interest since the discoveriesof the Scrolls in the latter
half of the last century. As early as 1950, K. G. Kuhn was convinced that there
was a relationship between the two. For Kuhn, the far-reaching dualism in the
R. E. Brown drew attention to certain striking features that the Gospel has in
common with the Scrolls. They include the following: (i) the dualistic mode of
thought and language; (ii) the ideal of love of one's brother within the
community. While these parallels exist in John and Qumran, as Brown asserts,
they are not sufficiently close "to suggesta direct literary dependenceof John
upon the Qumran literature, but they do suggestJohannine familiarity with the
type of thought exhibited in the scrolls."27 Thus, for certain features of John's
thought and vocabulary, the Dead Sea Scrolls are indispensable becausethe
Qumran texts offer "a closer parallel than any other contemporaryor earlier non-
perspective, one can study John and the Scrolls together for the sake of the
thought patterns and vocabularieswhich one encounterson the pagesof the two
documents.
article comparing the dualism of John and 1QS. Charlesworthrejects any attempt
was not compiled until after the Gospel."'29 He also shies away from the
because "we must first allow for the possible redaction of post-Johannine
agrees with those scholars who concluded that "both John and Qumran were
dualistic opposition between light and darknessfor instance "is not something
concludes that "John probably borrowed some of his dualistic terminology and
ideology are not close enoughnor numerousenough "to prove that John directly
copied from IQS," the closenessis sufficient to concludethat the two documents
words: "John may not have copied from 1QS but he was strongly influenced by
view, the best way to understandthe dualism of John is to study it in light of the
Qumraniandualism.
timidly" in their answersto the question of relationship between John and the
John visiting the Qumran Library, as Brown calls it, and taking the Community
Rule out of the repository, scrolling through it, taking notes perhaps, and then
making use of its ideas when he came to compose his own work?"35 From
that of Brown's indirect influence cannot account for the striking similarities
accounted for by the suggestionthat the evangelist was a disciple of John the
Christian, so, I believe, the author of the Fourth Gospel retained the pattern of
thinking with which he was probably familiar from an early age, maybe from
37
childhood. What is implied in this assertionis the fact that the author of the
,
Fourth Gospel was a Christian convert from Qumranian faith. Hence the Gospel
36Ashton, Understanding,235.
37Ashton, Understanding,236.
26
All the scholars reviewed thus far have recognised some points of
that the similarities between John and Qumran, especially dualistic pattern of
light and darkness,do not amountto a casefor any influence or for any particular
in the natural world, and has therefore acquired the metaphorical meanings of
knowledge and ignorance,truth and error, good and evil, life and death, in most
assertsthat the dualism of light and darkness occurs "relatively often in the
Hebrew Bible and in Second Temple Jewish literature, and so were readily
available in the Jewish tradition to the authors of both the Qumran texts and
38Richard Bauckham,"Qunran
and the Fourth Gospel: Is There a Connection?"
in The Scrolls and the Scriptures: Qumran Fifty YearsAfter, ed. Stanley E. Porter and
Craig E. Evans (Sheffield, UK: Sheffield Academic Press,1997),267-279.
39Bauckham,"Qumran
and the Fourth Gospel," 269.
27
their focus on the influence of Qumran on the Fourth Gospel,he doesnot dismiss
the claim that there are similarities. However, he insists that the commonality of
the dualism of light and darknessin John and Qumran goes back to common
Jewish tradition and therefore does not constitute sufficient grounds upon which
Nevertheless, it will suffice for the sake of our enquiry to say that
to the recognition of similarities between the two texts. Apart from the
two texts are chosen for our study of determinism and prayer for three reasons.
Secondly,they are contemporaryliterature in that they both stem from the milieu
of early Judaism, and thus reflect the dualistic pattern of their social context.
Thirdly, they both deal with the motifs of determinism and petition. Our primary
determinism and petition, and to seehow each text reconcile its petition with its
of our studied texts that is our utmost concern.In an enquiry involving two texts,
each of our texts. It is warrantedby our attempt to locate this study in the context
of the scholarly discussion of the relationship between John and the Dead Sea
While the Rule and the Fourth Gospel are in severalways dissimilar with
respectto their literary genre, content, and purpose,to put it in the words of JL
Price, "there are features of both which invite comparison, and raise similar
they are literary collections with a highly charged sectarian terminology and
ideology. This ideology includes a certain perceptionof how God works and how
human beings are involved in divine activities. This does not in any way imply
others, rather it means that the texts exhibit certain features which are
in
unparalleled other literature.
but such is not the casewith 1QS. In her study of the genreof the Fourth Gospel,
Margaret Davies explores the genre of the gospel against the background of the
Scripture, Judaism (by which she means the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Rabbinic
writings, and Hellenistic Judaism) and the non-Jewish Greek literature, and
divine providence in view of the existenceof evil, but the theology is focused in
the broad outlook of the Fourth Gospel. In a similar fashion, Mark W. G. Stibbe,
Christology."46
44M. Davies, Rhetoric and Referencein the Fourth Gospel (Sheffield: Sheffield
Academic Press,1992), 89,108.
identifies the present age as the dominion of the angel of darknesswho in turn
posesthreats to the sonsof Light. However, this dominion is for a while because
God has set an appointed time in which he will judge deceit and all in its lot.
laws guiding the communal life of the Community. The text concludes with a
long section (10-11) which is categorizedas praise in 9:26c. This praise is much
more hymnic in nature. This brief analysis of 1QS is intended to show how
complex it is to categorize IQS as a whole. However when the text is read in the
light of its opening column which statesthe purposeof the Community, it can be
said that 1QS is a manifesto of a well-knitted group. The earlier part (1-4) states
the doctrinal orientation of the sect,and the later part (5-11) dealswith communal
text. While the evidence of 4QS shows that the Rule of the Community is not a
stable document, for the purpose of this study, IQS is approachedas a coherent
literary document.
Brill, 1997), 25-38; Apocalypticism in the Dead Sea Scrolls (London: Routledge, 1997),
1-12; TheApocalyptic Imagination (New York, NY: Crossroad,1984), 1-32.
For the list of texts in the Dead SeaScrolls identified as apocalyptic, seeD. S.
Russell, The Method and Message of Jewish Apocalyptic, (Philadelphia, PA:
WestminsterPress,1964),39.
31
Chapter One
The goal of this chapter is to clarify the framework for our discussionof
determinism and petitionary prayer in John and the Dead SeaScrolls. BecauseJohn
literature other than biblical tradition, this chapter explores the theme of
determinism and petitionary prayer in the Hebrew Bible and the Jewish literature of
A. Determinism
is broadly defined as the theory which holds that "all events without exception
an effect of a prior series of effects, a causal chain with every link solid."2 It
upholds that the universe operatesin accordancewith absolute laws, just as the
past events are fixed and unalterable, so also are future events fixed and
3
unalterable. Thus all things that occur are bound to happenas they do and in no
other possible way. In other words, "nothing in nature is contingent, nor is there
tradition, all universal laws are put in place by God. In other words, God is the
hand, Carson makes the distinction on the basis of the exclusion of God in
3 Weatherford,"Determinism," 194-195.
predictable according to the universal laws of nature, but which does not trace
suchfixednessto God."8
In our study, the focus is on the principle of cause and effect which is
narrow senseof the election of certain people unto salvation and not necessarily
the divine determination of all things that refers to the supernaturalend of souls,
interchangeablyin the sensethat they both affirm the dictatesof God beforehand
1
thought. However in the context of our study, it is appropriateto draw attention
only to those forms of determinism which are relevant to the context of Second
Hellenistic context. Among the philosophical schools of the Hellenistic era, the
dynamics of the universe exhibits certain parallels with the biblical account of
Rule. Thus, Stoic cosmology gives some insights into one of the ways by which
The book of Genesis introduces God as the one responsible for the
existence of the universe. Like the active principle of the Stoics, God puts the
universal order in place by giving form and shapeto the world which he created"
only arrangethe universal order but also ascertainsthat the order carries out its
This is the universein which humanity is given the mandateto "rule over the fish
of the seaand over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on
the earth." (Gen 1:28) In spite of this dominion given to human beings,it is never
within their reach to alter or amend the universal order that has been set up by
God Thus, humanbeings carry out their task as a ruler within the confinementof
determine the destiny of sea and land creatures,they can neither re-arrangefor
instancethe sequenceof day and night, nor alter the sun, moon and stars from
which forms the basis for the theological framework of the Deuteronomistic12
upon which Israel remains alive or dead in the land of Canaan. The
study is described as "statutes" and "ordinances", and the contents are the Ten
must therefore be careful to do as the LORD your God has commandedyou; you
shall not turn to the right or to the left. You must follow exactly the path that the
LORD your God has commandedyou, so that you may live, and that it may go
well with you, and that you may live long in the land that you are to possess.
"
Appended to the statutes are blessings and curses (Deut 27-28). The
left" but to "follow exactly the path that the LORD your God has commanded."
(5:32,33 cf. 17:19-20). In other words, the pathway to Life and blessings is a
irreversible from the Deuteronomist standpoint: "I call heaven and earth to
witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessingsand
curses.Chooselife so that you and your descendantsmay live" (30: 19). Theseare
unalterable statuteswhich determine the destiny of Israel and its leaders in the
worldview."13
There are other indications in the Old Testament that God directs the
speaksof God's intention to overthrow Nineveh: "Yet forty days and Nineveh
will be overthrown." (Jonah 3:4) This idea of God making up his mind about a
city is also evident in the caseof Sodomand Gomorrah (Gen 18). In the casesof
Hezekiah (Isaiah 38) and David (II Sam. 7) etc. God predestinedAbram to be
However, in the case of Hezekiah, God reversed his earlier decree of death
concerning King Hezekiah following the prayer of the king. While all these
historical events, they also reveal that historical determinism is not always
determination:"All eventshave a time when they will occur, and God determines
when this is. Thus man cannot change the course of events, and his arduous
efforts are not appropriately rewarded."16 Fox modified his position ten years
later when he read the same passage "as presuming a less rigid sort of
does not imply a strict fatalism. "God does not predetermineexactly what will
happenand when. He has the power to do so but doesnot always use it. "18
sovereignty over history is presentedin different ways in the Hebrew Bible. But
the idea of the determinationof times was not common in early biblical Israel.
of Yahweh's sovereignty over history and the rigid determination of history into
These parallels between Wisdom and Apocalyptic led von Rad to conclude that
the determination 21
of times pre-apocalyptic. S. J. De Vries in his essayon the
is
This is evident in the aim of wisdom "to managereality by reducing its vast array
amid distinctions, it strives to put all things into their proper framework and relate
attention to the Qoheleth's usageof terms such as -,tip "to happen, befall", vm
done under the sun" (1: 14; 8:9,17) and "the work of God" (8: 17a) are two
different phrases used by Qoheleth to express the same idea.24 "Perhaps the
is done under the sun' refers to human action and thought (cf. 4: 1,3). The parallel
determinist, human actions and thought is controlled by the deity, and any real
words, human action under the sun is not only dependentbut also a subsequent
outcome of the work of God. Having placed the book in Hellenistic milieu,
worldview to human actions, and therefore does not entirely absolve the deity of
24Rudman,Determinism in Ecclesiastes,33-69.
25Rudman,Determinism in Ecclesiastes,68.
41
conception of time in wisdom literature could have influenced the rigid division
of history into vast eras as apparent in the apocalyptic literature. This does not
insteadit implies that the apocalyptists,as von Rad puts it, are wise men.28
26Rudman,Determinismin Ecclesiastes,172.
strange especially in light of the fact that Jewish apocalyptic literature is the
product of a Hellenistic milieu. The fact that not only the Jews of the Dispersion
31
conception of reality. According to Schmithals, the Greek emphasis on the
words:
Russell called attention to the books of I Enoch 72-82; 83-90 and Jubilees
cannot alter what had beenpredetermined,they can try "to discover at what point
they themselves stood in the scheme of history unfolded for them by divine
Jewish apocalyptic and wisdom literature within a Hellenistic milieu, there can be
no doubt that these writings have been coloured by Hellenistic influence. This is
to say that while the Greek concept of cosmos provides an analogy for the
apocalyptic idea of history, it does not imply that "the apocalyptic genre is
derived from Hellenistic culture or that the Jewish apocalypseslack their own
originality and integrity."35 Although the Hellenistic world provides some of the
The extent to which the Phariseesand the Essenesheld determinism may differ.
determinism,the Essenes,on the other hand, upheld determinism in its most rigid
36Scholarshave recognizedthat there are some elementsin the scrolls which are
hard to reconcile with a simple identification of the Qumran community with the Essene
community. The efforts to make senseof the contradictions between Josephusand the
Scrolls on the ground of a developmentin Essenismor esoteric characterof Essenism
does not account for the fact that "Essenism is a widespreadnational movement which
covers the whole country and its members do not at all consider themselves separate
from the rest of the people of Israel. The Qumran community, instead, is a marginal
phenomenon,a closed and isolated group, which deliberately lives apart from the rest of
Judaism." See F. Garcia Martinez & J. Trebolle Barrera, The People of the Dead Sea
Scrolls: Their Writings, Beliefs and Practices (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1993), 11.
that by the time that Josephus' Jewish Antiquities was being written, the concept,
either in its moderate version (i. e. the Pharisaic view) or in its rigid form (i. e. the
passage (Ant. 13: 171-2) is an ethical determinism: "Now at this time there were
three sects of the Jews, which held different opinions concerning human actions"
The nearest parallel is found in the Dead Sea Scrolls - IQS 3 (this will be
discussed in chapter 2). It is not surprising that T. S. Beall, in his effort to validate
Josephus' description of the Essenes, turns to the Scrolls for clues and by the
2. STOIC DETERMINISM
In order to show that the idea of determinism was not only a Jewish
one of the ways in which the idea was expressedin Hellenistic writings of the
forms and stages,and certain individuals have beencredited with the moulding of
the philosophy42.By the first century CE, Stoicism has been recognizedas "the
Stoic determinism which are paramount.(Although the Rule may not expressits
two -p. 81) The Stoic view of determinism stemsfrom the fact that the universe
is made up of two principles, the active principle and the passiveprinciple. The
42For a brief discussionof the men who moulded into shapethe Stoic system,
seeR. D. Hicks, Stoic and Epicurean (New York, NY: Russell & Russell 1961 [reprint
of 1910]), 3-8.
43Hicks, Stoic and Epicurean, 9.
47
active principle is given various names such as "god", "reason of the world",
"cause of the world", or "fate . 45It is also known as the "universal nature." This
is probably the same principle which the Greek atomists understood as the
intelligence which directs motion. The active principle, accordingto the Stoics, is
Every object in the world is held together by the active principle because
being. For just as the pneuma spreadsthroughout the whole body, so also does
47Plutarch, De Stoicorum
repugnantiis, 1054a. The concept of the pneuma of the
universe was an analogy which had its origin in biological thought. In Aristotle for
instance, the inborn pneuma formed the source of bodily vitality. For the Stoic, pneuma
was appropriated in Aristotelian mode as pervading the entire body and thus vitalizing it.
Although there is no ancient source which attributes a theory of cosmic pneuma to Zeno
or Cleanthes (both of whom were forerunners of Stoic philosophy), there are sufficient
references to Chrysippus (also an early Stoic philosopher). Lapidge states the point about
Chrysippus acutely: "Even if he was anticipated by one of his predecessors (and we have
no evidence that he was), it was Chrysippus who realized the great versatility of the
concept of bodily pneuma as well as its applicability to cosmology, and it was he who
worked out the full complexity of the theory of cosmic pneuma. " See Lapidge, "Stoic
Cosmology, " 170.
48
Stoic cosmologyin relation to pantheism(see the title of the first chapterof his
On the structure of the universe, the Stoics believed that the "god"
separatedfrom all that has happenedbefore. For the cosmoswould break apart
therefore that the active principle does not leave room for alternative
soThis is to saythat everythinghas its fixed place in the cosmosand the course
The reasonfor our discussionof the Stoic determinism has been to show
that the idea of determinism is a subject of interest not only in Jewish circles but
differs one from another.While determinismin the Jewish writings of the Second
Stoic. Although the Hebrew Bible displays certain features, especially in the
by
questionsraised our studied texts. It is to searchwhether or not a given literary
is
work consistentin its ideological In
strategies. other words, if a text articulates
determinism on the one hand and petitionary prayer on the other, the question to
ask is thus: are the contents of the petition permissible by the deterministic
B. Prayer
In the range of words used to denote the concept of prayer in the Old
Testament,there are two which stand out most. They are 'utv and The verb
reference to God. In other words, the verb signifies entreaty and supplication
directed to God. And even in the caseof its niphal form, it is God who is granting
55
the entreaty.
53 For
a critique of Determinism, especially the Stoic version, see Bobzien,
Determinism and Freedom in Stoic Philosophy, 180-233.
The word !Dis the more popular prayer term. The verb carries a variety
the noun '*m. While the origin of the hithpael form and the noun is contested,
their meanings are clear in the contexts in which they occur. Their usage is
37
confined to prayer. The hithpael form means "pray", "intercede". When the
form is used to denote intercession,it is used with prepositions such as 'iv, 'tvs
(both can be read as "for" or "on behalf of'), e.g Gen 20:7; Num. 21:7; 1 Sam.
7:5; 2 Ch. 30: 18. On the other hand, its usagefor petition occurs with preposition
'm -"before", K - "unto, to" as in Dan. 9:4; 1 Sam. 1:26; 8:6; 2 Sam. 7:27; 1
Kg. 8:48. The noun form 7bm "prayer" occurs over 70 times and it refers to
"both cultic and non cultic prayer, both sung and spoken prayer."58 The term is
the usageof 'envandhD60 It includes: (1) petition, (2) adoration, (3) praise, (4)
confession and (5) thanksgiving. Each prayer type falls under one of these two
of needs.s62
requests.According to Westermann,
this kind of prayer is lacking in the Psalms.
(e.g. intercession for the king) is added to a Psalm, there is never a Psalm of
The
petition which outlines various requests. secondelement presentin petition is
60For a concise list of other terms employed in the Hebrew Bible to denote the
concept of prayer, seeF. Buck, "Prayer in the Old "
Testament, in Word and Spirit, ed. J.
Plevnik (Willowdale, ON: Regis College, 1975),61-110, especially71-72.
determinedby the situation of the one making supplication, and the situation is
since the word petition includes the concept of making request in the senseof
his study of the Psalms but with much emphasison the element of lament. His
reason for doing so is due to his categorization of the Psalms via the poles of
praise and lament 66What one encountersin the Psalter is the lament of people
and the crying to God in that condition. The fact that Westermannrecognizesthe
65This form of prayer puts the focus on the needsand concernof other people. It
requires of the intercessorthe "willingness to discover the circumstancesand needs of
others." SeeClements,Prayer of the Bible, 11-12.
66In his form analysis of the Psalter, Westermannposits five different forms
which include the following: community psalms of Lament, community psalms of
narrative praise, individual's psalms of lament, individual's psalms of narrative praise,
and the hymns. The distinction betweenpsalms of praise and psalms of lament lies in the
occasionswhich generatedthem. The community psalmsof lament for examplegrew out
of "a greatnational crisis, drought, threat or attack, defeat or plague". On the other hand,
the community psalms of praise emergedas a result of national victory, liberation from
enemies,and aversion of dangers.See Westermann,The Psalms: Structure, Content &
Message,12-16,24-29. However, long before Westermann,scholarssuch as Gunkel and
Mowinckel had acknowledgedsimilar forms - H. Gunkel, The Psalms: A Form Critical
Introduction trans. By T. M. Homer (Philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press, 1967), and S.
Mowinckel, The Psalms in Israel's Worship 2 vols. trans. D. K Ap-Thomas (Oxford:
Basil Blackwell, 1962). Since none of the petitionary prayers in John and 1QS, fits one
of the Psalmtypes precisely, it is justifiable to avoid going into further discussionof the
forms.
54
term to include asking something for oneself as well as others without the
presenceof lament. Any attempt to reduce the term only to supplication in the
justice to the other sections of the Hebrew Bible in which one encountersthe
may be called "petitionary", although his study concentrateson the prayersin the
Judaic texts of the Middle Ages. The first kind of petitionary prayers is what
and "68
thanksgiving. The second type is said to comprise `free' petition that
betweenthe two residesin their forms: while the first kind of petition is fixed and
that one is fixed and the other is spontaneous.It is this element of spontaneity
nature; and it includes addressto God in the second person, although it can
rejects for instance Abraham's plea on behalf of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen.
initiated by God and not Abraham.74Although Newman does not deny the fact
eliminates them from the focus of her study because of their form-critical
in 75
composed the third person.
becauseof the focus of her enquiry. However such interest does not warrant a
reduction of the prayer elements which dot the pages of the Scripture. For
example,Newman affirms that Abraham's dialogue with God over the fate of the
Sodomites does not qualify as prayer because God initiated the exchange of
views and the bargaining is conversational.If that is the case,what then should
i. e. asking God to alter the course of event? Should the fact that the request
Hezekiah, and it results to the plea of Hezekiah) and that of Moses in Num.
14:11ff (especially Moses' plea for mercy and pardon in w. 17-19 within the
the text of the Hebrew Bible in its use of various vocabularies and forms to
witnessesto the prayers of ancient Israel or literary artefacts on the part of the
circumstanceswhich in turn force the people involved to call upon God for divine
Buck noted this circumstantial factor when he concluded that the prayer of
human control. As a last resort, human beings turned to higher and mightier
situation out of which they arose. Such prayers are found in the patriarchal
the righteous with the wicked? Supposethere are fifty righteous within the city;
covenantof Gen. 17, the fact of old age poseda threat to the promise of a child to
Abraham through Sarah; the outburst of Abraham goes thus, "Oh that Ishmael
the occasionof finding a bride for Isaac: the servant who was assignedthe task
were shapedby those situations. Their importance was temporal in the sensethat
words, they are circumstantial prayers. The events rather than a set of beliefs
them unpredictable.In terms of locality where they were uttered, there was no
B.
circumstances. Nitzan, after a brief survey of the variety of forms of prayer in
the Bible, offers this concluding remark: "that there are no fixed times for the
and large 78
occasional.,,
with Abraham. Praying for guidance in finding a wife for Isaac was intended to
change him from being single to being married. Again, prayer in a narrative
display any striking deviation from those of the Hebrew Bible. They are prayers
renderedin the situation of joy and travail of the individual and the community.
length of this study, it is only appropriateto cite one or two passages:the book of
Tobit offers some clues on the Apocryphal prayers which are found in narrative
contexts.
condition of "grief and anguish of heart" (3: 1). The circumstancesof Tobit were
blindness and the challenge to his pious character by his wife. The prayer is
similar to the post-exilic prayer of Ezra and Nehemiah in that it is a lengthy kind
(3:2). The invocation is followed by the petition, and the move is made possible
by the use of the transitional phrase,"And now" (3:3). The petition is for divine
ancestors.The prayer goes on to enumerate how God dealt with the people
becauseof their sins (3:4-5). The petitioner (i. e. Tobit) prayedthat his life should
be cut off becausethe anguishhe suffered has robbed him the joy of being alive.
Tobit was not alone in this prayer for suddendeath. Sarahthe daughterof Raguel
also prayed for death so as to escapethe reproach she suffered for not having a
shameof Sarah.Other people who prayed include Tobias (see 8:4-8) and Raguel
(8: 15-17).
is that they are circumstantial prayers. They arose out of particular conditions.
commentaryon the prayer of Tobit, C. A. Moore writes, "In the Old Testament
prayer of Judith (Judith 9) and the prayer in I Mac. 7:37-38. While this literary
emphasizedthat the notion that prayer precipitates change in real life is part of
prayersof Tobit, Sarahand others do not only allow the writer to move from the
account of one event to another but also serve as windows through which one
the petitioners' own way of protesting the conditions in which they found
enquiry.
3. Psalms as Prayer
study of Psalmswith the study of biblical prayers to the extent that non-psalmic
prayer texts were regarded as almost non-existent. Even those scholars who
studied the prayers embedded in narrative treated them like the Psalms by
disregardingtheir literary context as if context does not affect the functions and
meaningsof the 83
prayers. While it is no longer possibleto retrieve with certainty
the particular situations in which the Psalms originated, it is difficult to treat the
psalmic prayersas unrelated to the Temple cult. For instance, Gunkel pioneered
the theory that the Psalmshad a cultic origin84.The view was developed further
by Mowinckel who claimed that most of the Psalms had their setting in the
could have emergedout of certain crises in the life of the nation or individuals.
into admirable poetry for the purpose of the formal style required by communal
87
worship. As a summary of the state of scholarship regarding the origin of the
the point underscoredby S. Reif in his 1993 monograph on prayer: "One may
certainly define the psalm as a liturgical genre with formal and structural
elementsthat was in existenceover much of the biblical period, but that doesnot
mean that it was closely attachedto the Jerusalemcult."88 It was the form and
structure of the psalm which served as a paradigm on which the prayers of the
surprisingtherefore that the interestsof many scholarsin the prayersof the Dead
Sea Scrolls have focused mainly on their significance for the history and
echoed in these words, "Thus, this body of data is potentially available link
between the mostly ad hoc prayers glimpsed in the Hebrew Bible and later
synagogueliturgy. "90 This present study is a detour from that popular trend. It
sets out on a different adventure - the theology of prayer in the Rule of the
Community.
profitable to search in the Hebrew Bible for what constitutes prayers. Such an
enquiry will not only provide the framework for selecting a prayer text, but also
4. STRUCTURE92
There are three main elements in the prayers of the Hebrew bible: (1)
identify himself in the first person:"Save me, 0 God by your name, and vindicate
securelyon high away from those who rise up againstme. Deliver me from those
have rejected us, you have broken us, you have been angry, 0 restore us." (Ps.
60:1) In these cited prayers,the petitioner is signified by "me" and "us". This is
petitioner identifies himself thus: "So give your servantan understandingto judge
your people to discern between good and evil. " (I kgs. 3:9) Thus the petitioner
can also identify himself in the third person, and in the case of Solomon "Your
servant."
things asked for. The Hebrew Bible contains also prayers whose beneficiary is
not the petitioner but someoneelse. Such prayers include the priestly blessingsin
Num. 6:24-26. While the prayer is to be recited by Aaron and his sons, it is the
blessing.
the relationship which exists betweenthe petitioner and God (e.g. Ps. 80). Much
more important is the languagein which the addressis composedand the nature
of concerns or crises for which the petitioner is seeking for a resolution. The
have seenit 0 Lord, do not keep silent." (Ps. 35:22) "Let Thy lovingkindness,0
Lord, be upon us, according as we have hoped in you." (Ps. 33:22) That the
this manner: "0 Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel our fathers "94
...
(cf. Gen 24:12; 32:9f.; Ex. 32: 13) There are instanceswhere the petitioners begin
their prayer by invoking the name of the Lord and then moves to their petition:
"0 Lord of hosts, if thou will indeed look on the affliction of thy maidservant,
and remember me, and not forget thy maidservant, but will give to thy
maidservanta son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no
razor shall touch his head."(I Sam. 1:11; cf. Is. 38:3; Num. 12:13)
account of the mighty acts of God in the past. The petition acknowledgesthe
is the caseof the prayersof David (II Sam. 7: 18-29) and Solomon (I Kg. 3:6ff. )
The petitioner's awarenessof the divine favour in the past forms the bedrock
structural insight 95
on such prayer. The confession begins with the people's
mentioning specific events in the history of Israel such as the election of Abram
(9:7-8), the Exodus (9:9-23), and the occupationof Canaan(9:24-31). The people
fact that God is faithful in his promises. They also acknowledge the favour of
God in spite of the short-comingsof their ancestorsby retelling side by side the
therefore, our God, the great and mighty and terrible God, who keeps covenant
and steadfastlove, let not all the hardship seem little to thee that has come upon
us, upon our kings, our princes, our priests, our prophets,our fathers, and all thy
people,since the time the kings of Assyria until this day." (9:32) This is the only
explicit requestmadein the whole prayer and the petition is introducedby rInit.
Another example of this structure is Psalm 106. The Psalm tells Israel's
Psalmist begins his retelling with the Exodus, the same theme of confession
which one encountersin Neh. 9 is also found in Psalm 106. It is not surprising
therefore that Neh. 9 is often compared with Ps. 106 becausethey both "use
base an appeal for mercy."96 Other later texts of similar style (i. e. of historical
recital) include Baruch 1:15-3:8 and the Prayer of Manasseh11. Again all these
texts make the transition from confessionwith the use of "and now" - -,intl.
God with the sinful acts of human beings in order to show that the fault is not
with God but human beings (see also Ezra 9:5-15). In this way, confessionis an
offering of the lips by human being with the intention of appeasingGod in order
this study. It includes those petitions which are embeddedin the blessings97and
curses.The fact that these petitions now put on the language of blessing and
In his study on Jewish worship, Abraham E. Millgram notes the fact that
benediction forms the basic structural element out of which Jewish liturgy is
categories,and each of the categories has its own formula and structure: (i)
99
thanksgiving,or praise. In the third category,when God is the object of 1-0, it
declare God's works in relation to his people (Pss. 18:47; 28:6; 31:21[22];
of these petitionary blessings,in our judgment, it is not unlikely that the priestly
petition. "The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face shine on
you, and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up His countenanceon you, and give
you "
peace. This blessing, like that of the patriarchal blessing of Gen. 27:27-29,
second person, while the God who is being summoned to act is in the third
person.In biblical occurrencesof blessing, the one invoking the blessing stands
in the position of an intermediary between God who is being asked to grant the
things askedfor and the party on whom those things are bestowed.What is very
significant about these blessings is that they shed light on one of the structures
certain misfortune upon the one being cursed. Among the ancient Near East in
curses was to ascertain that the promises would be kept by invoking the
denotethe idea of cursing in the Hebrew Bible is an indication that curse has "a
"103
condemnation. The most common term for "curse" is 'rn. 104
Nitzan has noted
covenantbetweenGod and his people for the observanceof the Torah (Lev. 26 &
covenanttreaties and law codes of the people of the ancient Near East.16 It is
religious sanctions.%A07
From the biblical examples of Lev. 26 and Deut. 28,
C. SUMMARY
In this chapter,the goal has been to show that prayer takes a prominent place in
the ethos of the Jewish religion. It is the medium by which human beings
communicatetheir joy and pains to God in the form of praise and petition. The
circumstancesin which they found themselves.It is also worth noting that the
than by ideology. And in the case of the prayer of petition, it is the particular
situation which prompts the prayer that the petition seeksto confront by asking
for divine intervention. In other words, petitionary prayer, both in the Hebrew
a child. It can also be change in the state of one's relationship with God as
from the Genesisaccount of creation that God createsthe heavenand the earth,
reveals that determinism is not always absolute and rigid. Thus one can explain
articulation of how God works in the world, and thus present a world that is
Chapter Two
determinism in the Rule of the Community (IQS)'. What is the determinism all
God works in order to discover the place of petitionary prayer within that
framework. Again our interest is in the literary worldview of the Rule and not the
have to acknowledge the fact that the theme has not been given adequate
community, there have been few monographsand essayson the subject. Most
referencesto determinism have been under the general discussionof the features
fact that the universal order is set beforehand is indisputable. It is this prior
Rule of the Community, there are other passagesin which the concept is only
is inadequateto restrict the usage of words to one meaning, certain terms are
peculiar to a particular ideology. And in the case of our subject, words such as
relevant. In the of
course our study attention will be drawn to this terminology of
determinism.
of this earlier divine factor, there can be no determinism. This guideline seesa
established at one point in time, and makes them remain the same for all
do not alter and neither are they subject to alteration; and there is no amount of
human effort that can alter the permanenceof those ordinances.If we can find
traces of such ordinances in our text, they will establish the presence of
say that the framework proposedabove is just a starting point in the road that few
havetravelled.
77
The larger unit of 1QS 3&4 raises the question of literary unity which
takes us far beyond the limits of this enquiry and can be only briefly commented
formation of 1QS dualism. He claimed that the section on the two spirits in the
the following: (a) 3: 13-4:14; (b) 4: 15-23a; (c) 4:23b-26. The earliest of these
stages,3: 13-4:14, exhibits some traits which are peculiar to the dualism of the
other scholars such as J. Licht and J. Kamlah have previously noted certain
the additions of 3: 18b-25a took place in two stages.The first stage comprises
Duhaime studied and concluded that those sections in IQS 3, which exhibit
features that are peculiar to the War Scrolls, are secondary additions, which
phenomenonone encountersin the text reveals that the text we now have is a
the attention of the exegete is quickly drawn to the section on the two spirits
4:26) more from the standpoint of dualism6 than from that of determinism.
However, earlier scholars overlooked the fact that there is hardly any dualistic
is generally viewed as the doctrine that the world is governed by two basic
Knowledge sets up this structure of creation in antithetical pairs, and each pair
exists between the pairs leads us to assumethat there are certain fundamental
properties which are pertinent to each pair, and that the properties of each of
fundamentalto the domain of darkness,and the Angel of Light holds the domain
of light and its property. The properties of each pair remain constant and
thematic sub-headings.
9A substantialportion of this
section (especially IQS 3: 15-26)is unparalledin
the 4QS.
80
dynamics of creation expressedin the text as "the order of the universe and its
laws."" This description of the text recognisesthat creation goes through its
knowledge." This order of the universeis not subjectto change(3: 16). Thus there
is finality to creation and the course of existence.I adopt the term cosmological
Apart from the scholarly categorization of IQS 3: 15ff, the unit is dotted
10Armin Lange, "Wisdom and Predestinationin the Dead Sea Scrolls," DSD 2
(1995), 340-354,346. See also Lange, Weisheitund Prdestination (Leiden: E. J. Brill,
1995).
Another reasonfor categorizing IQS 3: 15-17 as deterministic lies in the fact that
the order of creation is set or establishedby a force which is not part of the
creation but independentor outside of it. The force is identified as the "God of
knowledge". Moreover, the order of creation is not left on its own but depends
upon the sustenanceof the One that establishedit. In other words, when the law
of the universeis left on its own without the sustenanceof its architect, it cannot
and also noted that the closestto it in biblical tradition is the creation account of
Gen. 1. When 1QS 3: 15-17 is read in light of the Stoic version of Hellenistic
determinism, there are noticeable similarities. They both affirm that: (1) the
an external force which is God; (2) God is responsible for the organization and
the structure of the universe; (3) God is the sustainerof the universal order; (4)
determinism in that God is not only the intelligence (i. e. the sustainer) which
guides the motion of the universe, he is the Creator in the sense that he is the
origin of everything which exists. It should be noted also that a careful reading of
the IQS passage shows that the determinism can be regarded as the pre-
"becoming" - vnt (3: 15,16). By making this affirmation, the text exhibits its
taken the proleptic referenceof the word in IQS 3: 16 for granted, this assumptionmay
needto be revisited at a later time.
82
historical determinism. This is to say that the smaller unit of 3: 15-17 is best
understoodin the light of the cosmology of Gen. 1 (see chap. 1, pp. 34-35) The
introduce its doctrine of the two spirits and their ways. The text attains that goal
Regardlessof the tense in which one may read -.rin 'rin n (3: 15),13that
prime basefrom whom all things derive their existenceis one of those traditions
actually take their course. In this way every event in history is a fulfilment of
and perfect in all his paths before God and men" (11Q5 27:2-3) David was
placedalongsideof 1 Chronicles 29: 10-16, one cannot but notice certain features.
And David said, `Blessed are you 0 From the God of knowledge comes
Lord Thine 0 Lord is the greatness all that is occurring and shall occur.
...
and the power and the glory and the Before they came into being he
victory and the majesty, indeed establishes all their designs; and
everything that is in the heavensand the when they come into existence in
earth; You exalt yourself as head over their fixed times they carry through
all. Both riches and honour come from their task according to his glorious
you, and you rule over all For all design. Nothing can be changed.In
...
things come from you and from your his hand (are) the judgements of all
hand we have given you.... 0 Lord our things; he being the one who
God, all this abundance that we have sustainsthem in all their affairs.
provided to build you a house for your
holy name is from your hand, and all is
yours.
The use ofv, "everything" or "all things", is common to both texts. While the
majesty, riches, and honour" as coming from God, he employsu to capture the
totality of all things found in the domains of nmmand ynK (29:11). And in terms
of relation to the 'v, Yahweh is not just only the tnn, but also the mm. The
word l
um indicates divine sovereignty,and that is in
sovereignty expressed these
words "and you rule over all. " (29: 12) It is not unlikely that the Qumraniteshave
reworked this Davidic blessing with certain modifications of their own. For
reference.It denotesthe entire events,those that have occurred and those which
84
are yet to occur. Every phenomenonin time and spacedoesnot come to exist on
The secondpoint of similarity is with regardsto the origin ofv. Both the
Chronicler and the Rule prefix the word referring to the divinity with the
which David and his people have provided are not really theirs but God's. This is
29:14b (cf. 29:16). The Hebrew expressionsuggeststhat there was never a time
when what David and his people had acquired as their own ceasedto belong to
God. Thus the people are giving to God from the hand of God. Similarly, the Rule
affirms that the 'iu is the direct creation of God. In making this claim, the
Community does not only remain committed to the scripture, but affirms its
continuity with the common Judaic heritage. However, the Community has
God does not only bring forth theU, but also establishesits subsequent
word tan 'nn in 3: 15, which most commentators have translated as "their
designs" or "their plans", to refer to the "thoughts" of human beings, the context
does not warrant this reading, becausethe word u in the same line intends the
commentsthat "the author seemsto have in mind not just the actions of human
beings,but everything that happens".16The goal of 'D is set even before it comes
to be, and its motion conforms to its pre-determineddestiny. Thus the universe as
it now exists could not have been other than what it is. This is a cosmological
type of determinism. For thev to exist in a manner other than God's glorious
design would not only be irrational in the sense of lack of purpose, but also
immutability in 3: 16 '7
of - nuw* 1,M1.
It is not unlikely that IQS 3: 15-17a is intended to serve as a summaryto
before embarking on some specifics from 3: 17b onward. This summary also
functions within the larger unit as an introduction to that section of the Rule
which deals with the ideology of the Community. Instead of seeing different
layers of tradition within the larger unit of 1QS 3: 13-4:2618,we should think of
different ways by which the text articulates one major ideology. And 3: 15-17a,
being an introductory summary, sets the framework within which the larger unit
determinismis forcefully 19
monotheisticcontext of 1QS articulated.
While the Rule of the Communityleavesno doubt on the origin of1:), the
that is operating in the universe.The text focusesonly on human beings and the
forces which have influences on their existence.It explains this cosmic order by
One of the ways by which 1QS articulates its idea of the determinism of
the two spirits is in its affirmation that the spirits are necessaryfor the sake of
humanbeings (3: 18). The spirits are not on their own but exist for the purposefor
which the God of knowledge created them. They discharge their duties in
accordancewith the task assignedto them by God. They are the bearersof all the
activities of human beings,for it is upon them that all the activities of humankind
before his appointedtime are founded - `roe-(3:25). Thus every human deed is a
property either of the spirit of truth or of the spirit of deceit. Therefore, human
activity is not actually theirs per-se but is produced by the spirit which has the
dominion over them. It is in this senseof ethical relevancethat the dualism of the
19Duhaime has also stresseda similar point in his comment on the context in
which the ways of the two spirits should be understood:"La section initiale situe le tout
dansle contexted'un determinismeasseznet (iii 15b-18a),puls se concentresur le sujet
specifique du role des deux spirits dans la mission de l'humanite." See Jean Duhaime,
"Les Voies Des Deux Espirits (1QS iv 2-14): Une Analyse Structurelle," RevQ 75
(2000), 349-367,351.
87
the eschatologicaldualism of the War Scroll. On the other hand, Armin Lange
It is in the light of this sapiential background that Lange concludes that the
teaching of the two spirits in 1QS is a production of "the same circles in which
20 For
a brief discussion of the term spirit - m'i in the Dead Sea Scrolls, see
Maxwell J. Davidson, Angels at Qumran: A Comparative Study of I Enoch 1-36,72-108
and Sectarian Writings from Qumran, JSPSup 11 (Sheffield, UK: Sheffield Academic
Press, 1992), 153-6. It is noteworthy however that after Davidson's survey of the use of
the term he asserts that "the term mi is used quite widely for angelic beings in Qumran
Literature" (pp. 155-6). See also E. Sekki, The Meaning of Ruah at Qumran, SBLD 110
(Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press, 1989).
23 J. E. Worrell, "Concepts
of Wisdom in the Dead Sea Scrolls," Ph.D.
dissertation (Claremont, CA: Claremont Graduate School, 1968), 430pp, cited in W.
Lowndes Lipscomb & J. A. Sanders, "Wisdom at Qumran," in Israelite Wisdom:
Theological and Literary Essays,ed. Gammie et al, 281-2.
88
24
the sect In his concluding remarks, Worrell assertedthat the appropriation of
24 Worrell, "Wisdom in the Dead Sea Scrolls," 237-39, cited in Lipscomb &
Sanders,Israelite Wisdom,281-282.
25Worrell, "Wisdom in the Dead SeaScrolls," 393 cited in Lipscomb & Sanders,
Israelite Wisdom,282.
28P. Winter for instance acknowledgesthe differences between Ben Sira and
1QS in their teachings on the two ways but concurs that there adequate similarity
betweenthe two texts to presumea connectionbetweenthem - P. Winter, "Ben Sira and
the Teaching of the `Two Ways'," VT 5 (1955) 315-18. Manfred R Lehmann also
highlighted the resemblancesbetween Ben Sira and the Qumran literature, though he
made no reference to wisdom as part of what they share in common - see M. R.
Lehmann,"Ben Sira and the Qumran Literature," RevQ 3 (1961), 103-116.
The doctrine of the two spirits is important to the conception of God the
Creator of all things. If the God of knowledge is indeed responsible for the
cosmosas it now exists, the age old unsolved problem for all theism emerges.
How does one account for the problem of evil in a universe where God is
believed to reign supreme?Several books have been written on this subject and
one needs not to rehearse here an enquiry which has been given detailed
The Qumranites read in the Prophet (Isaiah 45:7-MT) that God is the
maker of light and darkness,peace(n*m) and calamity (Sri). In the Isaiah scroll
found in cave 1, the text has been modified. In place of the MT reading of rn w
and in, we find nin (good) and in in I Qlsa (see 1QlsaeXXXVIII and 1QlsabIV).
This changesthe meaning of in decisively. In the MT, the contrast of aft with
1QIsa is best known to the author who is no longer available to defend the
for the evil in the universe as part of divine arrangement.For such a position not
Prophets or Moses. The author of 1QIsa finds the support by heightening the
30A. RC. Leaney, The Rule of Qumran and Its Meaning, NTL (London: SCM
Press,1966),45.
90
A similar case can be put forward for the author of 1QS. He is someone
familiar with the scriptures(1:3). In justifying his claim that God is the designer
of all things, he neededa scriptural support that could allow him to include the
evil in the world as part of the v which originated from the God of knowledge.
The story of Saul provided the scriptural reference.If God can bestow upon Saul
his own spirit and later an evil spirit (I Sam. 16:14-16), it is not to be disputed
therefore that good and evil are traceableto God. The question is how are these
two opposing forces traceableto God? The author of IQS adoptsthe medium of
two spirits. God designed two spirits upon which he establishedthose things
which the author consideredto be good and evil. It is in thesespirits that God sets
theme of dualism in the Dead Sea Scrolls. His threefold conclusion includes the
following: first, the dualism of the Scrolls is not absolutebut relative; second,it is
threefold conclusion, Charlesworth insists that the dualism of the Rule is also
Maxwell Davidson warns against the error of reducing the dualism of the two
humanity.33
The existenceof these spirits is not eternal but temporal. U. Bianchi also
34
ruler of the world. The two spirits of the Rule have not existed co-eternally nor
are they going to co-exist forever (4: 18). They are not on their own for they owe
their sustenanceto the God who set them up as part of the cosmic order. "These
assertions ... were necessaryif the sect was to remain within the bounds of
theism."35The dualism of the two spirits is much more for the purposeof ethics
categoriesof deeds,vice and virtue. Moreover that the activities of the two spirits
are of utmost importance in the Rule is articulated in the way the text identifies
them: i n nzwnmmr - `spirits of truth and deceit' - (3: 18-19). In other words,
the spirits are identified by the deedsthey embodied. It is also important to note
the cosmic imagery associatedwith each of the spirits, which includes light and
darkness(3: 19,25). These images (rn and jmn) are employed to denote the
origins of the spirits of truth and deceit respectively (3: 19). Thus the deeds
embodied by the spirit of truth are properties belonging to the realm of light,
35P. S. Alexander, "Demonology of the Dead Sea Scrolls," in The Dead Sea
Scrolls After Fifty Years: A ComprehensiveAssessment,vol. II, ed. Peter W. Flint &
JamesC. Vanderkam(Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1999), 343.
92
while those by the spirit of deceit are traceableto the domain of darkness.These
be altered.
1. Its Identity
4:21; 8:16; 9:3), do not signify a proper name but the purity which characterizes
the domain from which the spirit emanated.While a few scholars have drawn a
distinction for instancebetween the Angel of Truth - nnx 7x'n (3:24) - and the
Prince of Light in the Dead Sea Scrolls for various reasons36,it is difficult to
affirm such a distinction within the Rule. Firstly, the two are mentioned in the
when they are mentioned it is in contrast to the spirit which emanatedfrom the
realm of darkness.Thirdly, the function of the prince is the same as that of the
angel. Moreover, the word 1tz which is rendered"prince" in 3:20 can also mean
the
stresses domain of light itself, whereasthe "Angel of Truth" focuses on the
truth which emanatedfrom the abode of light (cf. 3: 19-20). And finally, in the
Rule, there is a preoccupationwith only two spirits which are totally opposedto
each other (3: 18). It is each of these spirits which is describedin more than one
way. Thus in the following discussion,the Prince of Light and Angel of Truth are
light.38
2. Its Tasks
The Prince of Light emergesas the one who has the dominion over the
modified by the word iiK. Apart from the figurative nuance of the word (i. e.
generationfrom the abode of light. Thus the spirit upon which the existence of
of Darkness (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1962), 235-6, cf. Wernberg- Moller, The
Manual of Discipline, 71 n. 60.
38Recent Studieson the angelology of the Dead Sea Scrolls include: Crispin H.
T. Fletcher-Louis, "Some Reflections on Angelomorphic Humanity Texts Among the
Dead Sea Scrolls," DSD 7 (2000), 292-312 which explores how the righteous are
regarded as angelic especially Moses and the high priest; Hindy Najman, "Angels at
Sinai: Exegesis,Theology and Interpretive Authority, " DSD 7 (2000), 313-333, focuses
on the role played by angelsat Sinai during the revelation of Torah, and the implication
of that angelic mediation on the authority of the Torah.
39Koehler & Baumgartner,Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon,
vol. 3, s.v. "1m."
94
light. The spirit is in charge in the senseof being entrustedwith an official duty
relationshipto the world is usedto expressthe relation of the Prince of Light with
righteousness'.The task of the spirit is restricted only to those under its domain.
constitutesthe help from the Angel of Truth is most likely implied in the list of
the "ways" in the first part of column 4. One of the ways by which the text gently
expressesthis help is by its use of the hiphil form of 'tim in 4:2. While the word
is in
7rwb read various ways by different 41
translators, a literal renderingsuggests
that the Angel of Truth is the one who causesthe "light" or "enlightenment" in
the heart of human beings. It is also peculiar to the Angel to "make straight" the
reverentregardfor the judgement of God (4:2). Theseactivities and the rest listed
in 4:3-542are not optional to the spirit of truth but fundamental to its existence
the spirit is foundational to the courseof existenceof the "children of light". This
is echoed throughout the text in more than one way. For instance, if the
light" who are called out "to perform truth and righteousnessandjustice upon the
earth" (1:5-6a), it is inconceivablefor the author of the Rule that the Community
- to expressthe purposeof the Community (1: 5-6a) and the ways of the Prince of
Light (4:2,6a) in order to show the necessityof the spirit to the children of light.
Also in the dualistic section where the principles of the spirits of truth and
deceit are spelt out, certain deedsare categorizedunder the spirit of truth, and
most of those deedsare the sameas those that are set before the Community in
In other words, what God revealedto Moses as "the good" and "the right" is not
different from the ways of the Prince of Light. And these ways are unalterable
permanenceof the principles of the spirit of truth affords the author of the Rule
Moses as unchanging.It is not surprising therefore that the author usesthe same
yardstick for both the Israel of old and the covenantersat Qumran. The revelation
of what is good and right before God as given to Moses is nothing other than
what has always been and shall continue to be the properties of the Angel of
Truth.
96
1. Its Identity
'{win by virtue of the realm in which it operates.It is identified as one of the two
spirits designedfor human being (3: 18). The Angel is connectedwith deceit, 7in.
acting in the place of God. In the Rule, the Angel of Darkness is not said to be
has some "spirits" under its domain (3:24). However, it is possible that the
Community employs the term 1*3 for each of the two spirits43in the sensethat
the spirits are messengersof God. This becomesplausible when the activities of
the two spirits are seenas being assignedto them by the God of knowledge. Thus
when the spirits are thought of as divine agents,whose mission is to carry out the
that since the Rule employs the language of "messenger" to show that the two
spirits designedfor human beings carry out their activities in compliancewith the
divine instruction, the term "Angel of Darkness" is a descriptive title for that
Unlike the Prince of Light, the Angel of Darknesshas other spirits in its
lot. The text has little to offer about thesespirits, and so there is not much one can
say other than the fact that the spirits are responsible for the stumbling of the
43See also 3:24 where the sameword is used with referenceto truth in order to
denotethe spirit of light.
97
is not clear. Suffice to say that they belong in the samerealm of darknessas the
Angel, and their activities are the same as that of the Angel also. Although 1QS
restrains us from equating these spirits with demons, other literature from
especially, some spirits are mentioned: "And I the Sagedeclare the grandeur of
his radiance in order to frighten and terrify all the spirits of the ravaging angels
and the bastardspirits, demons,Liliths, owls andjackals ... " (4Q510, fg, 1:4-5).
same community, one can affirm with a certain degree of confidence that the
spirits in the lot of the Angel of Darkness are possibly the bastard spirits and
Scrolls, the following remark of A. M. Reimer sumsup the fact of the matter:
with the realm of Darknessis Belial46.The word is used five times in the Rule. It
is usedthrice to meanthe ruler of the age in which the Community lives (1: 18,24;
2: 19), once as a lot in which human being can belong (2:5) and lastly as an entity
which can inhabit the heart of people (10:2 1). In all theseoccurrences,the term is
affliction, iniquities, transgressionsand sins (1: 17b-18a, 23-24a). These are the
characterizationis the author's own way of projecting Belial as the sameas the
Angel of Darkness.47
2. Its Tasks
The aberrationof the children of light is one of the major activities of the
Angel of Darkness. The aberration is set out in practical terms, namely: sins,
iniquities, guilt, afflictions and staggering (3:22-24). Why should the Angel of
Darkness have such power over the children of light who are not under his
domain?The fact of the matter is that the polarity between the two spirits is not
in the text that the Prince of Light interferes with those outside his domain. The
influence of the Angel of Darknessover those in the lot of light lies in the fact
that the age in which children of light find themselvesactually belongs to the
Angel of Darkness. This is echoed on more than one occasion in the text
(1: 18,23; 2: 19). However, since the reign of Belial is for a particular period of
time, so also is the duration of his influence over the children of light.
word 'n with the phraseiy i "until its end" is crucial. The word n refers to
unknown but becauseit is not revealed. The length of these ' 'n is precisely
qualified by "until its end". While the Community cannot comprehend the
aberrationthey suffer from the Angel of Darkness,the end of the angel will bring
to light that which has remained hidden until then. That the aberration is in
accord with "x nis an indication that the suffering of n 33from the Angel of
do with human inability to account for the suffering within the framework of
unknown to the Community in the era of Belial will be made obvious becausethe
= n'rtih (IQS 3: 17b-18a). This line recalls the purpose of human being
recountedin Gen. 1:
26-28. The use of the word bwnn
-, in relation to human being
implies that certain authority is imputed into human existence. Just as kings
exerciseauthority over their subjects,so also are human beings in relation to the
world. While the text doesnot indicate who the subjectsare, it could be assumed
that the lesser creatures are intended to be their subjects as in Gen. 1:26.
Moreover, since rbwnn can also refer to the actual territory of dominion (e.g., 1
Kings 9: 49
19), for humanbeings,the world (=) is the territory of their domain.
In their rank as the governor of the sn, their activities are conditioned by
the presenceof two spirits. These spirits do not come forth by themselves,their
origin lies in the "God of knowledge." It is implied in the phrase* aw'i -`and he
establishedfor him' (3: 18) - that the existenceof the two spirits is necessitated
by the creation of man. The two spirits form the basesof all manner of human
deeds.Just as human beingsare createdfor the dominion of the world, so also are
the two spirits created to determine the moral path of every human being and
The verb JZ - "to walk" is used in col. 1 to signify the course of life
which the Community is called to follow: "to walk no longer with the
stubbornnessof a guilty heart ... to walk perfectly before him (according to) all
enumeratesthe ways - mrr - in which man can walk as the ways in the domain
according to the divine order of the universe. While the text does not make the
relationship between human walk and the ways of light and darknessobvious in
of these "roads" are already fixed. Whichever path a person walks, it is the
properties which are fundamental to that way that will become manifest in the
person.
Another way by which the author links the goal of the Community with
the dualism of the two spirits is in the paradigmof love and hate. The Community
is called to love (.ttt') everything which God has chosen (inn), and to hate
(X= h) everything which God has rejected (1:3,4). It is the samewords, =M and
?UV, which are employed to describe God's attitude towards the two spirits.
According to 3:26, God loves one of the spirits eternally. Although the text is
slightly corrupt at the end of col. 3, the context supportsthe spirit of truth as the
one loved eternally. This love is guaranteedin the expression that God takes
pleasure in the deeds of the spirit forever (4: 1). The other spirit, which is the
(stn) by God. The abhorrenceis spelt out in the language of eternal hatred of
everything pertaining to the spirit. (4: Ib). The dualistic section of the Rule (3: 13-
4:26) leaves no room for ambiguity in its description of what God loves and
102
hates.It is the two spirits which are the recipients of the divine love and hatred.
Thus for the sect to love what God loves and hate what he hates,the two spirits
and their ways must be mastered.It is the impartation of that knowledge that is
the two spirits. This establishmentby the God of knowledge never changes.And
since the activities of the two spirits are static and motionless, it is believed that
through the one can come to the knowledgeof this divine arrangement.
While all people are created by the God of Knowledge, they do not all
belong in the samecategory.Neither are they all regardedas the children of God.
Category A Category B
50It should be noted that there is a lack of generalconsensuson the use of rxm
in the Scrolls. A large number of commentatorsread the word againstthe backgroundof
Dan. 11:33; 12:3 and Pseudepigrapha(especially I Enoch 100:6; 104:12) and conclude
that the term is probably usedin a general senseto refer to an official in the Community
who happened to be a leader of his congregation. Some scholarssuch as M. Knibb (pp.
66,118) Weinberg- Muller (pp.66n39,105n35,107n42) and G. Vermes (p. 23f) are
more inclined to identify the 'nun as the same person designated as na=7 (the
Inspector)in 6: 12 andnpDn (the Overseer)in 6: 14. However, the use of the term in 1QS
9: 12,21 hasprompted somecommentatorsto ask whether the meis a unique historical
figure or an official occupying a position only for a time and thereby making the position
openedto succession.The insight of Leaney may be helpful on this point. If the'nw is
also the same as w1rm w' (the interpreter) mentioned in 8: 1lb-12a, it means that the
position is destinedto be succeededby others since the term fuhrt wX refers to whoever
is expoundingthe Torah at any particular time. It is also possible that the term refers to a
selectnumber of men who were able to train the rest. SeeLeaney, Rule of Qumran, 229-
231; Charlesworth,TheDead SeaScrolls: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, 15 n57.
103
According to this table, when the words n and 'w1 are removed from each
category, it becomes obvious that each of the two categories has certain
and God, whereasdarkness,deceit and Belial are unique to categoryB. Both no.
3 and 4 in categoryA and B are used with referenceto the verb Iii -'to walk'-
(3:20,21; 4:6,12). The use of the verb in these contexts is significant becauseit
implies that `the walk' of each person determineshis category. Thus to walk in
truth, light, and righteousnessis to fall in the lot of God, and to walk in darkness
B are linked with the two spirits, which are designedfor human beings (see 3).
Light, and those of darknessand deceit are tied to the Angel of Darkness.Every
way in which a man walks links him with either the Prince of Light or the Angel
of Darkness. The Rule goes further however to show that the two spirits
affirms that all human beings have a share in the two spirits (4: 15-16).
God establishedthe two spirits in equal parts until the Endtime, their activities in
human life are determinedby one's share in each of the two spirits. "According
to a man's sharein truth shall he be righteousand thus hate deceit, and according
to his inheritance in the lot of deceit he shall be evil through it, and thus loathe
truth." (4:24-25a) It follows therefore that no human being can escape the
trait of truth or deceit not by choice but by the virtue of the spirit in which one
but the two spirits. Thus the only reason why a person is truthful or deceitful
of humanbeings.
One of the ambiguities that the Rule does not resolve is how human
beingsacquire thesespirits. According to 1QS3: 18, God is the one who designed
forth two spirits out of which people choosetheir degreeof participation? Or, on
the contrary, does it imply that God brings forth the two spirits, and determines
the level of participation of every personin eachof the spirits? While there are no
decisive answersto these questions,it is crucial to note that there are references
in the 1QS which favour the fact that human beings themselvesare responsible
for their sharesin eachof the two spirits. This will becomeclear when we discuss
105
charactersof each of the two spirits are determined and they are not subject to
2. Eschatological Determinism
wisdom (IQS 4: 18). The time is referred to as the appointed time of visitation.
timetable when the era of Belial is terminatedand the reign of the truth is ushered
into existence.At that time, God will destroy the spirit of deceit in such a way
will result in the purification of the remnant (in this case the members of the
Community) and all their deeds(4:20f1). The purification will be the culmination
of the cleansing which the spirit of holiness wrought at the point when an
individual entersinto the Community (3:5ff. ). All the guilt which the children of
have insight into the knowledge of the Most High and the wisdom of the sons of
heaven, and the perfect in the Way may receive understanding." (4:22) This
of all things.
Ethiopic book of Enoch for instance speaksof the destruction of injustice from
the face of the earth in the vision of the Endtime (I Enoch 10:lff. ). Every
Enoch 10:16).The cessationof injustice will meanthe cleansingof the earth from
Endtime, all of God's work will prosper and obey him, the work will never
changebut functions in the way in which God hasorderedit (I Enoch 5:2). In this
And so also shall the Endtime take its course in accordancewith the divine
decree.
3. Soteriological Determinism
divine will remains the same for all generations.While most people may not
5:8-9; 8:1-2 etc, and implied in the Community's devotion to the study of the
Torah, that the unchangingwill of God has been revealed and it is available to
humanbeingsto discover.
revelation in the Rule. This revelation consistsof the commandof God as spoken
through Moses and the Prophets. It is soteriological in the sense that the
of the Community will be "healing and great peacein a long life, multiplication
and acceptablebefore God in the time of Moses and the prophets remains the
samefor the Community and its generation. God's will is fixed and cannot be
altered.
determinismof the Rule to highlight the functional role of the opening column.
The column enumerateswhat constitutesthe will of God and the goal which the
serves as the compass to the achievement of the purpose into which the
Community has been called. It is in the opening column that the text explains the
goal of the Community and the will of God, both of which do not change.
To the [... ] sym for his life [the book of the Rul]e of the
Community. In order to seek God with [all the heart and
soul] doing what is good and right before him, as he
commanded through Moses and all his servants the
prophets,and in order to love all that he has chosenand to
hate all that he has rejected, keeping away from all evil
and adhering to all good works, and in order to perform
truth and righteousnessandjustice upon the earth; to walk
no longer with the stubbornnessof a guilty heart, and (no
longer with) lustful eyesdoing all evil; in order to receive
all those who devote themselvesto do the statutesof God
into the covenantof mercy, to be joined to the council of
God, to walk perfectly before him according to all the
things revealed at their appointed times and in order to
love all the children of light each according to his lot in
the council of God, and to hate all the children of
108
appearstwice (1QS 1:
7,12) as does the expressionnis o "as he commanded"
(IQS 1:3,17) In the caseof m 'itm, the contexts suggestthat God is the subject,
that there are certain instructions which have come from God. These instructions
presenceof biblical scrolls among the Qumranites points to the fact that they
were familiar with the writings associatedwith Moses and the prophetic figures.
Moreover, in 1QS 5:8 for instance, it is required of a new convert into the
(nwh min n 3iw1). It would have been inappropriate to bind oneself with that
oath if the peoplehad not recognizedthe Torah as divine instructions. Thus when
the text speaksof the commandmentthrough Moses and the prophets in 1:3, it
expects the reader to assume that the Community knows precisely what is
commandments.It should be noted also that the concernof the opening column is
to focus not on the commandsthemselvesbut on the fact that they originate from
God. This is echoed in the use of the phrase rn . t' -o - "all the (things)
revealed"53
- in the context of 1:8-9 (this is discussedin p. 111ff.).
What was good and right before Yahweh in the days of Moses and his
generationremained the same for the Qumran Community. While the Qumran
not distinguish themselves from the audience upon whom the Mosaic and
any way special to the Qumranites, for "the literature of the inter-testamental
period showsfaith and practice still firmly basedon the Bible and a belief that the
original revelation was directed not only to generationspast but to them all. "sa
firm conviction that what God commandedthrough Moses and the prophetswas
nothing other than itrmt stns, `what is good and right'. By linking itself to Moses
and the prophets,the Community envisioned itself, as A. R. Leaney puts it, "to be
that `the good' before God is already fixed. It is permanentin the revelation given
53The word `Yi implies that the totality of what God has
revealed is intended.
However scholars such as J Charlesworth have narrowed the force of the 'v to the
totality of "laws" by reading the phraserth iv as "all revealed laws". Although I am
more inclined to "all things revealed", should Charlesworth's reading be taken as the
more appropriate,it will just bring into a sharperfocus the claim that the Torah has its
origin in God.
to Moses and the prophets. This accounts for why the Community could not
separatetheir understandingof nnm stun from the revelation given to Moses and
the rest of the prophets.The good doesnot change,not becauseit is made known
Hence the unchanging will of God now resides in the Scriptures. It is this
immutablenatureof "what is good and right" before God which lendsMoses and
the prophetstheir enduring relevancein the faith of Qumran. That the good and
the right constitute the will of God is indisputable. Much more important to our
studyis the fact that God himself hasalready determinedwhat the "good" and the
"right" are. Many generationsmay come and go, but the will of God remainsthe
same.
of revelation, the use of the word pin deservesfurther attention. It is noted in the
openingcolumn that the word is usedto denote"what is good and right" and does
not change.However, a careful reading of cols. 5-9 showsthat the word assumes
a different nuance(see 5:20,22; 9: 12). It is used to signify the halachic rules for
The phraserefers to the instructions listed in 9: 13-26. Are these instructions (cf.
Moreover, in the passagecited above (9: 12-14) the text speaksof "the will of
God according to everything which has been revealed from time to time" (cf.
8:15), what does the text mean by revelation from time to time? And if it is
29:28 (MT) as the basis for the Qumranic view of revelation: "The secretthings
belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our
children forever, that we may observeall the words of this law." They arguethat
581QS 9: 12-20is paralleledin 4Q259, fg. 1,3: 6-19; 1QS 9:20-21 4Q259, fg.
=
2; 1QS9: 15-10:2 = 4Q258, fg.3,2: 1-12. Again, there is nothing unique in theseparallels
112
the terms m*2 - "revealed things" - and m-noi - "secret things" - which are
found in 1QS 5: 10-13 and 8: 11-16 are best understood in light of the
asfollows:
In seeingitself as the true Israel on whom the Torah was binding, the Community
was not satisfied only with knowing the explicit instructions, but also the truth
which may be in
concealed those revealed commands.In order to extract the
hidden truth from the revealedTorah, it was deemedfitting that among every ten
men, there must be a man whosetask is the study of the Torah: "And where there
(members),
there must not be lacking there a man who studiesthe 60
Torah,
are ten
day and night continually, each man relieving another," (IQS 6:6-7). In other
words, what is regardedas revelation from time to time is nothing other than the
truth arrived at after a careful study of the Torah. It is quite possible that those
60The phrase, ',nm mart Irrt, in IQS 6:6 is best understood in the senseof
"searchingthe Torah". This is further reinforced by the use of the niphal form of the verb
tan - "to find" - to denote the activity of rmm in 8: 11-12. The interpreter is the one
who searchesthe Torah in order to uncover what is concealed.Thus the study of the
scripture is not without a goal. My own inclinations as regards what the interpreter
searchesfor in the Torah is this: the will of God -'K ipri.
113
is thoseinstructionswhich are regardedas pin in 9: 12. They are not new because
also attestedin the pledge of the initiates to adherenot only to the Torah, but also
"to everything which has been revealedfrom it to the Sons of Zadok, the priests
who keep the covenant and seek his will, and according to the multitude of the
his will. " (IQS 5:9-10) If the Sonsof Zadok are the medium by which the hidden
commandmentsare revealed, one could probably suggest that the man who
studiesthe Torah on behalf of the ten is most likely a priest. However, such a
reading will not do justice to the point that the studying of the Torah among ten
another". And since there is no clue in the Rule to suggestthat the ten members
referred to in 1QS 6:6 were all priests, one cannot argue that the study of the
Torah in the Community was unique to the priests. In other words, the study of
the Torah was a piety for every member of the Community. It is in this sensethat
Again, the goal of studying the Torah is to discover "what is good and right"
before God. By making the study of the Torah a piety, the Community assumes
that those things consisting of the will of God reside in the revealed
114
That
commandments. is to say that Moses and the Prophetsremain foundational
Torah is in its referenceto the knowledge and ignoranceof the hidden things. The
(nnnori). The problem is not with the ignorance of the explicit Torah, for the
non-memberswere familiar with Moses and held him in high esteem,but that
"they have neither sought nor inquired after him through his statutes,in order to
know the hidden things in which they erred." (I QS 5: 11) What is regardedas
"hidden things" in this passageare the truths which one discovers through a
careful searchof the revealedTorah. These hidden things are already encodedin
the commandsthrough Moses and the prophets.They are hidden not in the sense
thus they are not discoveredcasually. It was an attempt to discover these hidden
exegesis-a study conductedwith the intent of knowing what the divine will is -
constitutesthe processof arriving at the hidden things. The hidden things are not
invented but discovered.It is not surprising therefore that the text describesthe
concealed from Israel and is found by somebody who studies - he shall not
concealit from these(i. e the council of the men of the community) out of fear of
a backsliding spirit." (8: 11-12) The goal of study is to find. The discovery is
spokenof as revelation "from time to time" (1QS 8:15; 9: 13) in that "the words
of scriptureare treatedas mysteriesthat refer not to the time of their author but to
the end time, which is now being fulfilled in the history of the community."62
Knowing the meaning of the biblical texts with particular reference to the
In 1QS 8: 15, the word tvn7nis used in the same context with rte i. The
the Torah. And the tvim must be in accordancewith "everything which has been
revealed(7nau)from time to time, and that which the prophets have revealedby
his holy spirit." (8: 15b-16a)Study in the Qumran Community as evident in IQS
human beings can seek God, K wrth (l: lc-2a), i. e. it is a piety." Thus the
scrutiny yardstick of the Community must validate any insight gained from the
64Benedict T. Viviano has drawn attention to the fact that the idea
of Torah
study as one of the highest religious values goes back to the book of Deuteronomy,
especially Dent. 6:4-9. Viviano quotes the insightful comment of Von Rad on this
sectionof Deuteronomyin p. 112 of his monographto show the importance attributed to
the study of the Torah. "For here the concernwith Moses' words appearsalready almost
an end in itself, as something which ought to claim the whole of a man's mental and
spiritual powers and to occupy him completely." See B. T. Viviano, Study as Worship
(Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1978), 111-127.
116
for 65
Community.
who is the official mediator of revelation the
was inspired by their persuasionthat beneaththe explicit texts lie the concealed
are already fixed becausethey represent the will of God. Although time may
change, the meanings remain the same. What it meant for Moses and his
it
generationwas what meant to the Teacherof Righteousness
and his generation.
The hidden meanings are not invented becausethey are already determined.
Instead they are discovered. To put it differently, the goal of the exegesis at
Qumranwas to unveil what is already in existencesince Moses, but was and still
to be a new movement in Israel, its existence has been revealed long ago. By
implication, it was a careful searchfor the hidden things in the explicit Torah that
it
put differently, the members of the Community, "while meditating on the
their own past, present and future. Convinced that they were living in the last
days, they read the happenings of their times as the fulfilment of biblical
predictions.'"
From the perspectiveof the Qumran covenanters,the Torah and the Prophetsare
scriptures "not becausethey have been formalized and fixed in stone (so to
speak), but becausein them it is thought that the divine will of God can be
found. ,68 Again, the will of God is never invented for it is already fixed in the
taken as an indication of the high esteem in which both the Torah and the
in the Torah and the Prophets.It can only be decodedby observing the explicit
scatteredwithin the first section (cols. 1-4) but constitute a block of tradition in
the second part of the Rule (cols. 5-10). Drawing attention to this notion of
Moreover, it will help us in narrowing down whether the prayers of the 1QS are
One of the ways by which the text articulates the idea of human
determinismin the Rule (see p. 75). In the introductory column for example, the
text employs words like 'ring - `to deviate' - (1: 13), -nO - `to turn aside' -
119
(1:15), 310'070
- `to turn back' (1: 17). Each of thesewords denotesthe concept of
change,but they are all used with the negative particle X*, and the particle
anything other than the purposeof the Community. They are not to depart (1: 13)
or turn aside (1: 15) from God's statutes. Such turning aside can be causedby
While the text portrays the Community as the predestinedof God, it does
not grant that a member'sdisregard for the Law of Moses is excusable on the
in
membership the Community is guaranteedon the condition that one's actions
were not the case,the text would not have madeprovision for expulsion from the
obliged to live accordingto the law and being devotedto the study of Torah.""
on the doctrine of the two spirits. The activities of the spirits extendto the human
psyche as they fight for dominion within human hearts. Human deeds are
informed by the inward experiencesof strife between the spirits of truth and
deceit. "Until now, the spirits of truth and of deceit struggle in the heart of man
abhorsinjustice; and accordingto his sharein the lot of deceit he acts irreverently
determined.If a person's lot in truth or deceit were already fixed and unalterable,
the struggle between the two spirits would be irrelevant. The struggle is
conceivableonly if it is a fight for gaining the dominion of the object. The use of
the word z'i (4: 18,23) for the struggle betweenthe two spirits is significant. It is
72The word that is renderedas "freely volunteer" is zu. That the word occurs in
its hithpael (5:21,22; 6: 13) form is an indication that the text doesnot underminehuman
responsibility.
121
a legal term used in a lawsuit when one is giving evidence.The purpose of the
is
whole exercise to presentone's caseconvincingly. In this instance,the goal of
the contention between the spirits of truth and deceit is to influence the
judgementof their object one way or the other, dependingon which of the spirits
the verb 7'f (3:20; cf. 1:8) which literally means"they causethemselvesto walk"
in the ways of light (see also 3: 18,21). Thus, if individual is the causativefactor
in the walk "in the ways of light, " it consequently means that each person's
struggle between the two spirits. The responseis not pre-determined but left
6:24-7: 25; 8:16-9:2). It should be noted however that the interest of the Rule is
as God intended it to be: "to seek God with all the heart and soul doing what is
good and right ... to love all that he has chosen, and to hate all that he has
rejected ... to perform truth and righteousnessandjustice upon the earth." (1:2-6)
for certain wrongdoings. For instance, "The man who grumbles against the
122
authority of the Community shall be banished and never come back." (7: 17, see
Again, since our text projects a relatively closed community whose self-image is
that of a remnant called not only to preserve the Torah but to embody it,
That the individual is held responsiblefor his deedsis also hinted at in the
tested,year after year, in order to upgrade each one to the extent of his insight
and the perfection of his way, or to demote him according to his "
perversion.
truth. It is implied, therefore, that man can alter his position by his deeds and
insight.
Jews, Josephus claimed that the Essenes held a rigid deterministic opinion
if not those things that lie within their capacity (i. e., their deeds)?While the
In 1QS, the ethical determinism focuseson the two spirits and their deeds.
It is the deeds in the lot of each spirit that is permanently determined. On the
justified from IQS that the God of knowledge assignscertain deedsfor certain
124
becausesuch action has been ordained for that individual, but becauseof the
spirit in which the person participates.Hence, those who are quick to equatethe
because
necessary the Essenes,
even in Josephus'Antiquities, were not the only
the Phariseesbetter than the Essenes.Although, this is not a medium for such
enquiry, it is sufficient to say that the parallel between the Phariseesand the
E. Summary
determinism of the Rule all about? It can be said with a certain degree of
confidencethat it is not about the fact that certain human beings are predestined
in the lot of light while others in the lot of darkness.Furthermore, it is not about
the fact that certain deedsare already assignedto certain people and by so doing
makes them irresponsible for their actions. Rather the determinism is about the
the Rule in the cosmic order is the two spirits and all the deedsestablishedupon
15:13-19; 1QM 13:9-11 and 1QS 3: 13-4:1: "We seemto have in these passages
direct statementsof double predestination:someto good, someto evil. " 75On the
into 76
andtheir ways, and not the allotment of people good or evil.
Chapter Three
the outsetthat our interest in the prayer of 1QS is not for its significance for the
and the result is well summed up by Esther Eshel: "One of the most important
prayers."2 Instead, the task before us is to analyse the prayer texts in order to
discover the theology that is encodedin them within the context of IQS. What
are the objectsprayed for in the Rule?Do the prayersanticipate either directly or
` See Weinfeld, "Prayer and Liturgical Practice in the Qumran Sect," in The
Dead Sea Scrolls: Forty Years of Research,eds. Dimant & Rappaport, 241-258; E. G.
Chazon," On the Special Character of the SabbathPrayer: New Data from Qumran,"
JJML 15 (1993), 1-21; Chazon, "Prayers from Qumran and Their Historical
Implications," DSD vol. 1 no. 3 (1994), 265-284 - Chazon is a notable scholar on
prayers from Qumran who claims that even patently sectarianprayers are witnessesto
non-sectarianliturgical customs becausethe sectarian prayers "draw upon a common
liturgical heritageand incorporate elementscommon to that heritage." (see 1993,p. 1) In
her 1994 article, she argues that the Sabbathprayers (4QdibHam, 4Q503 and 4Q400)
display features which are known patterns of the Sabbath prayers in contemporary
prayers from the Second Temple period and in early rabbinic liturgical sources; D.
Flusser, "Qumran and Jewish `Apotropaic' Prayers," IEJ 16 (1966), 194-205. J. H
Charlesworth, "Jewish Prayers in the Time of Jesus," PSBSup (1993), 35-56,
Charlesworth acknowledged the importance of his contribution in this manner: "our
work should be seenas prolegomenonto a full and detailed study of the text and context
of eachJewish prayer." See also E. Fleischer, "On the beginning of Obligatory Jewish
Prayer," Tarbiz 59 (1990), 397-441 [in Hebrew]; M. R. Lehman, "A Reinterpretationof
4Qdibre Ham-me'oroth," RQ 5 (1964 - 66), 106-110.
there is hardly a monograph on the prayer of I QS, and the contributions of the
orientation of existing works has been to take into account their significance for
Jewish liturgical history. Where referencesare made to the prayer texts from
1QS, they are often cited independently of their 1QS context to illustrate a
Nevertheless,
precedents. we have drawn on the insights of commentariesand
monographson liturgical texts in our study where such insights have proved
valuable.
discussionof prayer in chapter one (see pp. 50ff). These points are important
becausethey provide the guidelines for isolating prayers in 1QS. They can be
beings; (ii) in biblical prayer, God is addressedin the second or third person
in the sensethat it anticipates the granting of forgiveness and thus alters the
divine countenancetowards the penitent; (v) petitionary prayer can also be in the
Although the latter part of the Rule (cols. 10-11) is generally considered as
prayer, it is only the referenceto petition in that long liturgical section which is
relevant to our focus in this chapter. Apart from the entreaty of 11:16-17, the
outlined as follows: (i) confession-1: 24-2:1; (ii) petition in the form of blessings
2:2-4; (iii) petition in the form of curses- 2:5-9,11-18. Again our goal in this
-
in
worldview order to discover whether or not the be
petitions can accountedfor
those aspectswhich are distinctive to the sect. In order to make up for what
that after the destruction of the Second Temple, there were certain "norms
concerning the way of life and the worship of God which were the common
inheritanceof the various streamsof Judaism during this period."5 Such norms
include the recurrenceof certain themes and the recitation of certain formulae in
studieshave dealt with petitionary prayers that are found in distinctive sectarian
documents.It is part of the goal of this chapter to fill that gap. It has been
on
suggested the basis of the deterministic worldview of the Qumran Community
is
that there no petitionary prayer which is distinctively in
sectarian the Scrolls6
While it may be true that the prayerswhich are found in the distinctive sectarian
documentssuch as 1QS and 1QH do not imply a sectarian origin, this is not
sufficient grounds to dismiss the fact that the community projected by the Rule
in the sectarianliterature must have been for a particular purpose.In any case,it
context of our study, but the point that prayers constitute a part of the whole
document of 1QS and thus have a contribution of their own to the literary
Before going into the details of the confession,its literary function in the
framework
general of IQS deservesa brief comment.After setting out the goal of
entranceof a new convert into the Community. The first of those events is the
utteranceof praiseby the priests and the Levites with the "amen" responseof the
that every new member must recite with the guidanceof the Levites. The initiate
the sons of Israel and all their guilty transgressionsand their sins during the
renewal of covenant rather than a liturgy for the occasion of entering into the
Thus they shall do year after year, all the days of the reign
of Belial. (2: 19)
Thus all those who are entering shall cross over into the
covenant before God by the Rule of the Community in
order to act according to everything which he has
commanded.... When they crossover into the covenant.
(1: 16-18)
..
8 The liturgical nature of the confession is apparent in the fact that it is
formulated as a communal recitation, and phrasedin the plural "we". The occasion for
the prayer is describedas n'v trolml - "when they cross into the covenant" (1: 18,20,
24). Thus there is fixation in terms of the occasion and the form of the confession.And
the method of the confession is prescribed - it is to be led by the Levites and nobody
else.
131
speakersof the confession and they include: (a) the entering novice, (b) only
those already in the Community, (c) both the new initiates and the membersof
the Community. Wernberg- Moller, for instance,following the insight of Van der
Ploeg,is of the view that the ',t "thus" of 2: 19 should be taken retrospectively:
prayer designedmore for those who are entering the Community afresh than for
those who are already within the Community. This is justified by the fact that
those already in the Community are presumed on the basis of the aim of the
that the confessionbelongs for the new comers with break from the old sinful
The purpose of recounting the sins of Israel at this point in the Rule,
especially after the text has set out the goal of the Community (1: 1-11), is
10Moller The Manual of Discipline, 55, ef. Knibb, Qumran Community, 82-90.
Moller goesfurther to place the ceremonyon the Day of Atonement(p. 14).
coming from Israel to becomea member of the sect must renouncethe iniquities
andsins which are peculiar to the "children of Israel" in order to be admitted into
forms a part of the large prayer unit (1: 19 - 2: 18) that allows the text to make a
transition from the way people were admitted into the Community to the
descriptionof life within the Community; (ii) since it is not automatic to become
a member, we can tentatively assert that the transition from being a part of
The confessiondoes not display any striking difference from the biblical
and apocryphal confessions12except that the Levites play a special role in the
recitation of the confession.It is the Levites who guide the converts through the
13
confession. This special role of the Levites does not render the confessionless
his lot with the "children of Israel" prior to the joining of the Community is
the priests and the Levites, and their recognition of their own and their ancestors'
responsibility for the sins of Israel in earlier generations and for their
14
punishment. The focus on the sins of Israel is partly due to the point that it is
m,
Israel at large which is being viewed as the "outsider" in the Rule. Those who
constitutethe membersof the Community are recruited from Israel (6: 13f.).
attestedin the use of the following words: 111- "to pervert", ii - "to rebel",
The focus on human deeds in the 1QS confession is also due to the
emphasisof the Rule on deeds in general. One of the ways by which the text
new members,the Overseerat the head of the Many is to examine the initiates
worldview of the Rule, there are two categoriesof ways in which human beings
can chose to walk, namely, 'tau 'r, "ways of light", and Im n 'n, "ways of
darkness",(3:20,21), and they denotethe domains of the Angel of Light and the
The initiates until their entrance into the Community, by virtue of the path in
the penitent and those deeds attributed to the Angel of Darkness cannot be
undervalued.Just as the ways of the Angel are filled with pw, yin, Hun(3:22) and
vi (4:9), so also are the deeds of the penitent (1:24-25). Indeed, if it is the
exhibit nothing other than the penitent's participation in the lot of the Angel of
Darkness.In this way, the initiates by virtue of the nature of their walk belonged
in the realm of the Angel of Darkness. This is the manner in which 1QS
bring out the relevanceof the confessionwithin the worldview of 1QS. Prior to
the entrance into the Community, the initiates were under the fury of God's
vengeful wrath (4: 12). It is this fact, that the initiates have been under the
135
the aim of the Community (1: 1-11) is significant. In the list of the aim, each of
must be abandonedby the membersof the Community: "to walk no longer with
their walk is characterizedin the confessionas the path in which the children of
17The word 'ton appearsaround 250 times in the Hebrew Bible and its meaning
and significance have been a matter of long debate.This is attestedin the fact that none
of the ancient versionsusesthe sameword to representit. In his Das Wort Hesed which
was translated as Hesed in the Bible, Nelson Glueck argued that the word denotes a
relationshipbetweentwo parties. It can be relationship betweenhuman beings, but when
it refers to relationship between human being and God, it is within the context of
covenant.This led Glueck to the assertionthat the divine exerciseof hesedis basedon
God's covenantalrelationship with his people. (N. Glueck, Hesed in the Hebrew Bible
trans. by A. Gottschalk (Cincinnati, OH: 1967)). K. D. Sakenfeld in her 1978
monographconcurred with Glueck's theory of covenant as the circumstancesin which
hesed operates,but she moved beyond Glueck's hypothesis by arguing that hesed is
appropriateto the superiorparty in a relationship since the word involves "deliverance or
protection as a responsible keeping of faith with another with whom one is in a
relationship." - p. 233. However, a human being is not fundamentally responsible for
enforcing such action. (seeK. D. Sakenfeld,TheMeaning of hesedin the Hebrew Bible:
A New Inquiry HSM 17 {Missoula, MT: Scholars Press, 1978)). G. R. Clark recently
stressedthe bilateral commitment which is characteristic of hesed relationships: "the
relative statusof the participantsis never a feature of hesedact, which may be described
as beneficent action performed, in the context of a deep and enduring commitment
between two persons or parties, by one who is able to render assistanceto the needy
party who in the circumstancesis unable to help him- or herself." (See G. R. Clark, The
Wordhesedin the Hebrew Bible (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press,1993), especially
- p. 267). These monographs have demonstrated that the word cannot be defined or
clarified with precise accuracy becauseof the variety of its usage in the Bible. For the
multiple use of the word see, C. P. Whitley, "The Semantic Range of Hesed," Bib 62
(1981), 519-526.
136
[fath]ersbefore us, by our walking [... ] truth andjust [... ] his judgement upon us
and upon o[ur] fathers." (1:24-26)18By placing the righteousnessof God against
the evil deeds of human beings, the text exoneratesGod of any blame for
in which the people and their fathers had walked. According to the woridview of
1QS,the objectsof God's love and hatred are eternally established(3:25-4:1) and
what he hates is what he punishesat the time of judgement (4: 11f). To be "true
and righteous" therefore meansthat the God of Israel acts in compliance with his
towardsthe two spirits and all in their domains,the text assertsthat the prayer of
confessiondoes not in itself bring a change in the divine gesture towards the
penitentbut the activity of the spirit of truth. The text works out the dynamic in
the atoning work of the spirit. "For it is by the spirit of the true counsel of God
that the ways of man - all his iniquities - are atoned, so that he can behold the
light of life. It is by the holy spirit of the community in his (God's) truth that he
can be cleansedfrom all his iniquities." (3:6b-8a cf. 4Q255, fg.2: 1-2) Why does
the text stressthis redemptive role of the spirit prior to its teaching on the two
spirits? The fact that it is presentedimmediately after the prayer on the occasion
is
confession sufficient in itself to guaranteethe atonementof the initiates' sins.
Moreover, that the text placesthis redemptive work of the spirit in betweenthe
prayer and the doctrine of the two spirits has a twofold significance: first, the
emphasison the spirit as the medium by which sins20are atoned is to remind the
of the two spirits which later engaged the attention of the author. It is
characteristic of these two spirits that, in order to carry out their deeds in a
This is the purposeof their struggle in the heartsof human beings.In the process
of the struggle, it is the spirit to which people yield themselves that has the
dominion. This is to say that the dominion of either of the two spirits is
In the case of the converts into the Qumran Community, the text takes the
position that their dominion is in the hand of the spirit of truth. This is evident in
the descriptionof the spirit which atonesfor human iniquities as "the spirit of the
true counsel of God" (3:6), and "the holy spirit of the community in his truth"
(3:7). The terms "counsel of God" and "community in his truth" are never used
for any other group of people in 1QS other than the covenanterswho understand
their associationas that of "the children of light". The point is that the spirit
which atonesfor the sins of people is the sameas the spirit of truth that holds the
dominion of the children of light. This is the samespirit which is placed in sharp
contrastwith the spirit of deceit. Thus what actually atonesfor the iniquities of
the new membersof the Community is not the prayer of confessionbut the spirit
is in
of truth which at work the heart 21
of the penitent.
iv. Summary
initiates? While the confession expressesthe remorse of people for their evil
ways, the text does not opine that the prayer is sufficient for winning the
favourable gesture of God. The only medium by which one appropriates this
what he hates,and these he (i. e. God) has already establishedupon the spirit of
truth and the spirit of deceit respectively.For the confessionof sins to accomplish
the confessionis tied to the yielding of the individual to the spirit of truth upon
The text does not state explicitly the spirit at work in the initiates at the
time when the prayer of confession is being recited. However, in light of the
overall thrust of the Rule, it is implied that the confessionis rendered with the
willingness to comply with the aim of the Community in "keeping away from all
evil and adhering to all good works" (1:4-5). The penitent's desire to embrace
this sectarianway of life belongs in the category of deeds in the realm of the
spirit of truth. It is the fact that the act of repentanceon the part of the initiates
falls in the domain of the spirit of truth which precipitatesthe favourable gesture
Rule22,it will be helpful to recall our discussionof the matter in chapterone (see
assurethe fulfilment of the covenant. The same is also true of the petitionary
blessings and curses of 1QS. The occasion of the blessings and the curses
according to the text is "the entrance into the covenant." (1: 16,20). While this
may be in correlation with the practice in biblical Israel and the Ancient Near
East, "the adaptationof ceremonial customsand the use of texts and styles from
the Bible for new purposesare among the most interesting phenomenain the
thejuxtaposition of blessingsand cursesin the Rule are not addressedto the same
group of people. One group of blessingsis invoked upon thosewho enter into the
covenant and undertake to observe it, and against it there are two groups of
curses:first to those who do not enterthe covenant,and secondto those who have
makes a distinction between the recipients of the blessings and the curses is
significant in that it allows the text to drive home its messageof dualistic
determinism.People are either blessedor cursedby the virtue of the lot in which
learned from the Bible, in Qumran its aim was altered in accordancewith the
formula. Within the blessing, five major requests are noteworthy and their
petitionary nature is obvious from the way they are framed in the text (IQS2: 2-
4)25:
amnv ai h 'mb rron '. etw'- May he lift his kind countenancetoward
you for eternal peace
This is to say that the term "evil" signifies the entire activities of the Angel and
eternally (4: 1). Hence it is the object of punishment at the time of the divine
visitation.
This petition for protection from evil is probably the most essentialof all
existence,and the factors which can hinder that goal. Walking perfectly before
God forms the bedrock of the Community. The sect recognizesalso the threats
posedby Belial. This is echoed in the warning that forbade the new members
from being led astrayby the 'fear', 'grief, or'agony' which characterizethe age of
Belial's dominion (1: 17-18).Thus the possibility that a member of the sect could
be led astray called for a defensive measurethat keeps the members protected
from Belial's threats. This petition is recited against possible interference of the
Israel and the angel of his truth." One way by which the help is solicited is
expressedin this petition for protection against evil. It is a plea which aims to
prevent the interference of the common enemy of the Community. Since its
existence is in the era of Belial, the Community knows that it cannot stop the
enemyfrom inflicting evil; instead,the people turn to the Creator of all things for
protection. In this way, the prayer is not only a plea to abstainfrom the deedsthat
are alien to the purpose of the Community but also a defence against the
This petition does not in any way undermine the deterministic worldview
of the Community. In fact, the prayer recognizesthat good and evil as embodied
However, it also recognizesthat God the creator of all things is the one who
sustainsthe parallel distinction that separatesthe good from the evil. It is this
in the lot of good. The goal of the prayer is to establishthe cosmic arrangement
good to remain that which they have been predestined to become. Thus the
God would continue to sustainthe cosmic order as it relatesto those in the lot of
the good.
and "walking perfectly" before God, a prayer of protection from evil servesas a
Community is meant to be. In other words, the prayer is consistent with the
28P. S. Alexander, "Demonology of the Dead Sea Scrolls," in The Dead Sea
ScrollsAfter Fifty Years:A ComprehensiveAssessment,vol. II, 344.
144
interference of one lot into another, and by so doing reassert the parallel
distinction of the lot of good and evil. Thirdly, the petition is permissibleby 1QS
found itself.
The function of this prayer in the framework of IQS correlates with the
emphasisof the text on studying the Torah and the prophets.The finality of the
Law and the Prophetsand the exegeticalactivities of the Community have been
the Maskil whose insight provides the yardstick for correct interpretation of the
fact that the goal of exegesisis to discoverthe hidden things, mrnori not (5: 11),
acceptableand what is not. It is against this background that the petition for
enlightenmentshould be understood.
a"n = 'tn'7 -im,- May he enlighten your heart with insight for living.
Almost all the words of this petition for enlightenment, am ': rlX1?-K,, are
paralleled in the deterministic passagesof the Rule. The verb nwn - "to
is the location of the struggle between the spirit of truth and the spirit of deceit
over the domination of human beings. The word Dtv meaning `insight' is a
145
29
rtun In 1QS 5:21,23,24 Ow is used in connection with w
cognate of
must be taken into account whenever the spirit of the members are being
examined for promotion, and each member's registration in the 3*o must
correlatewith the individual's xi in the Torah. While ntvm refers to the `doing'
which determines and guides the `doing' of the Scripture. This reading is
reinforced by the fact that the purpose of :)v requestedin the petition is for
`living'. In other words, the xi is imparted into the members for practical
30
purposes.
The only occurrenceof the verb iK' other than in this blessing (2:3) is in
the context of the description of the activities of the spirit of truth (4:2):
irr =' 3 'rX;*, `to illuminate the heart of man'. The function of the verb in 1QS
decision, 3' and this task is assignedto the spirit of truth. Again, this spirit, as
,
Thus when the priests invoke this petition on the members of the Community,
they are not asking God to do anything contrary to his establishedorder, rather
the petition asks God to accomplish that which is already inevitable in the
The word nin - `knowledge' - and its cognates are used in the
deterministic section of the Rule in relation to God (3: 15; 4:22), spirit (4:4), and
mysteries (4:6). But it will be helpful first to comment on two crucial terms
which are closely associatedwith the conceptof nsrr in this deterministic section.
They include l, s'.* - `to instruct' - and ith - to teach' - both of which are used
"the natureof all the sonsof man, with respectto all the kinds of their spirits with
their distinctions for their works in their generations,and with respect for their
except to note, as a way of reminder, that the content of the Maskil's instruction
beings. The pupils of the Maskil are the children of light, and the goal of the
within the framework of creation in order that they might know their lot in the
words 1,
xb and `id' is to impart into the children of light the knowledge of the
naturesof all human beings,their relation to the two spirits, the dualism of human
deedsand the final destiny of the spirits and the people in their lots. In other
147
intellectual or mental perception of the Torah (3: 1). It can also signify knowing
is intended.
there is no doubt that the favour anticipatedis the endowmentwith the perception
especially human beings and the two spirits upon which all human deeds are
established.When we read the petition for eternal knowledge in the light of the
members in the Community are being taught. The content of this petition
therefore is the perception of the foundational truth about God and his creation,
namely, the nature of human beings, the two spirits and their deeds,the bearing
of the two spirits on human beings and the final destiny of the two spirits and the
people in their lots. The petition for knowledge is crucial because whatever
148
asksfor nothing other than that which the Maskil hasbeenassignedto do within
the QumranCommunity.
lies in its representationof the totality of "the will of God" both revealedand
the priests invoke the blessing of "everything good", they are asking that the
Communitythey arejoining. In other words the petition for `good' is a plea that
Community.
31I. The
eanry, Rule of 0imin i. 63.
149
the word rtt, `anger', which implied thejudgementof God. In the determinismof
1QS,it is the spirit of truth (and all that belongsin its domain) that attractsthe
divine favourablecountenance.It is this spirit and its principles that God loves
eternally(4: 1). The destiny of those under its dominion is describedas "healing
and great peacein a long life" (4:6-7). This is to say that the divine gesturethat
its lot, one finds oneself inseparablefrom the divine Ton and oft? which are
doesnot alter the determinismof the text. Insteadit affirms the determinismby
the Community.
those who are not membersof the Community, while the secondaims at the
resemblanceis not sufficient "to permit a claim that the author of the ceremony
33The difcrcncc in
the responsehoweverlies in the fact that there is a single
"Amen" in Dcut.27:26, while that of IQS is double"amen".
thereare severalfeaturesof the curseswhich arc more in line with the scenesof
the turning over of the wicked to "terror by the hand of all those who carry out
retribution" (IQS 2:5-7) are referencesto the angels of torture which are
12-16,62-63);(2) the cursesof IQS anticipatethat the wicked will "cry out" (i. e.
pray)to God for mercyat the time of judgement(IQS 2:8), and this conceptionis
and Jubilees generate or shape the curses in the Rule of the Community. Instead
the author of the Rule. who happens to be well versed in biblical tradition,
composed his prayer by taking into account the richness and vitality of blessings
and curses in the context of the sacred covenant ceremony and expressed it in
prohibit and discourageany act of default from the covenanton the part of the
The first set of cursesis directedat thosein Belial's lot (2:5-10), while the
other aims at the hypocrites within the lot of God (i. e. the covenant
the darknessof your works" (2:7). The hypocrites in the Community are
"iniquity" - (2: 12) and their perversionof the purposeof blessing (2: 13). In
spirits which are permanentlyfixed, and that thosein Belial's lot becomeso not
assigneda given end via the domain of the spirit in which it belongs.The
This end is inevitable becausethe divine hatred for the lot of Belial is eternal
(4:1). It is when we graspthis logic in the determinismof the Rule that the curses
compassionand forgiveness38,
angry countenanceof God, lack of peace,and
divine abandonmentto evil (2:5.17). When thesecontentsare readin light of the
C. Summary
the contents of the petitionary prayers in the Rule are consistent with the
the late Old Testamentbooks such as Nehemiah(9:33) and Daniel (9:5), and
IQS despite its coherence with the language of the sect's deterministic
worldview. It is safer however to say that the sect inherited from the common
deterministicideology.
the Angel of Darknessinto the lot of the Princeof Light, from beingan object of
divine hatred into being a lover of what God loves. This is to say that the
their pastsins, which accordingto the belief of the sect were performedas the
155
result of being misled by Belial as well as the preparationfor the renewalof the
permanentlyfixed on the deedsof the spirits of truth and deceit, and there is
distinction of the determinisminto the lots of the spirit of truth and the spirit of
that "the wicked arc assignedto their lot (2: 17) and the righteous within the
dualism betweenthe sons of light and the sons of darknessin their respective
The petitions"reflect the good rewardor evil bad retribution decreedby God for
the two opposing lots in accordancewith their deeds, which are similarly
determined(IQS Iv 2.14)."41
not so much on God who answers,but on those who render the prayer. The
petitions re-articulatethe ideology of IQS about God and how he works in the
Chapter Four
or not there is determinismwithin the Fourth Gospel.And if there is, how crucial
both in the narrativeand in the implied social contextsof the Fourth Gospel?Are
thesepassages
reconcilablewith Johannincdeterminismor not? Finding answers
expressions'in explainingcertainpassages
in the gospel,they rarely discussthe
Subsequent
scholarsfeel the pressureof not only respondingto, but also refining
1 Sec for
example R. Schnackcnburg, The Gospel According to John vol. 1,
trans. by K. Smyth (London: Bums & Oates, 1968), 330; Carson, Sovereignty and
Responsibility, 190.
158
and modifying, the contributionsof those earlier works. And in the processof
doing so, the discussionof the theology of John until recently has been focused
insights."3 This is to say that its theology does not have to be restricted to
3Culpepper,Gospel
and Letters,88.
4 Carson,So
'erelgntyand Responsibility.
159
the texts which articulate election (6:37-40ff.,70-71; 10; 15:16; PAM) and
From the perspective of the Fourth Gospel, the Old Testament is given a
Christocentric significance: "Not only did Moses and the prophets write about Jesus
(1:45; 5:46f), but Abraham saw his day (8: 56)
and Isaiah his glory (12:38). " These
fulfilment motifs, writes Carson, "are
established by way of predominantly pesher
exegesiswhich presupposesnew revelation enabling the identification of Jesus with the
roles alluded to from Old Testament pages." See Carson, Sovereignty and Responsibility,
133.
6 In
simple apocalyptic, according to John, the age to come is established and
controlled by God. There would be no question of human's will cooperating with God's
will at that point. However in Johannine eschatology, just as it is in New Testament
eschatologyin general, the ago to come has already arrived in a preliminary manner. The
delay of certain eschatological features into the future
allows the opportunity for human
beings to respond to God. See Carson, Sovereignty
and Responsibility, 145.
7 Based
on the assumption that Jesus is both God and man, Carson sees the
sovereignty-responsibility tension coming into sharpest focus in Jesus himself. His
conclusion is that in his deity, Jesus stands with God and expounds divine transcendence
to human beings, and in humanity, he human beings and demonstrates in his
stands with
own life the proper relationship between human beings and God. See Carson,
Sovereigntyand Responsiblli% 160.
160
upon the Father's election of certain people from "the world" to becomethe
responsiblefor their responsesto no one else but Christ. This implies that
Carsoncannotbe ignored.
with deterministic references.In the Gospel, the most striking of such expressions
no need to catalogue the occurrences of these terms here, but their functions will
be apparent in the
course of our investigation. The criterion of "divine
$ Carson. Sovereignty
and Responsibility, 197-8.
161
design 9
Father. The
occurrenceas a consequenceof an earlier or plan of the
guidelineof permanenceisolatespassages
that speakof ordinanceswhich are not
in the course of our study. Unlike our study of IQS, finding categoriesfor
words, the action of the Father in the election of some is played out in the
For
a contemporary debate on the use of the term "Father" as a metaphor for
God in the Fourth Gospel, see Adele Reinhartz. ed. God the Father In the Gospel of
John, Sem 85 (Atlanta, GA: SDI., 1999).
although it is expressedin more than one way. The fact that the Johannine
separatedin the Fourth Gospel.The life and death of Jesus- who he was and
Christologicaldeterminism.
B. Typcs of Determinism
advance the response of human beings to Jesus and his message.This is also
t=Schnac1enburg.
Cos,peAccording to John vol. 1.155.
13StephenS. Smalley,John: Evangelist lnterprrter (Exeter The Paternoster
and
Press,1978),220.
163
salvation and not for the broader pre-arrangedorder of the universe. Scholars
who do not believe (3:36). What is of interest to our enquiry is the Johannine
portrait of those who believe as the "given ones" by the Father. According to
John it is thosewho believe who have eternal life. They are the sheepthat hear
the voice of the shepherd(107), they are said to belongnot to the world and for
that reasonthey are hatedby the world (15: 18-21).In spite of the accoladethat
from the giving of the Father.What exactly doesthis "given" meanand what is
chapter begins with the feeding of the multitude and leads to the people's
awarenessof Jesusas the prophet who was to come into the world (6:14). In
14In his
readingof John, Pcdcrorgcn draws attentionto someof the puzzling
problemsraisedby chapter6 %hichinclude: the "collective designationsof people";the
meaningof the term 'sign' in vv. 2 and 14, and in v. 26 and v. 30; the long-debated
questionof relating the eucharisticformulationsin vv. S1t1. to the precedingsectionof
Jesus'discourse SeeP. Borgen."John 6: Traditon, Interpretation Composition," in
- and
dc Boer.FinneJesusto John, 268.291.
164
order to prevent the people from making him king, he escapedto the mountain
(6: 16-21).The narrative goes further to report the searchfor Jesusby 6 Bxloc
"signs" (6:26). John makes the ignorance of the multitude apparent in the
God?" (2) "What sign arc you going to perform for us to see?" If the multitude
who have witnessedat least the feeding miracle cannot believe in him as the
breadof life, what then do they needstill in order to believe?It is in this context
and L. Morris16.In the words of Barrett, the effect of the neuteris "to emphasize
recently suggestedthat the neuter va,' could indicate "all creation" in which
noted, the neuter singular signifies the unity of the disciples in the strongest
19
possibleway. This motif of unity is given an adequateattentionin the farewell
What is the relevanceof John 6:37-40 in the midst of the discourseon the
situation."21 They lack the right response not becausethe signs were insufficient
but becausethe responseis in accordance with God's previous gift of some to the
Son. The fact that the issue of 'the given ones' occurs in the context of disbelief
faith is a matter of divine initiative. This is put in a more blatant language in the
21Schnackenburg,
Corpr/Amathng to John, vol. 2,46.
167
a&r6v,"No one is able to come to me except the Father who sent me has drawn
him." (6:44 cf. 6:65) The sameFather who has given to the Son is also the one
the Father is the subject of the verb in thirteen occasions.And in four instances
the Father gives human beings to the Son (17:2,6,9,24). The "giving" is in the
senseof "assigning" or "selecting" those people for the Son. This is echoed in
17:6 where those who are "given" to the Son are said to be out of the world - EK
22.
TODK6 LOU It is in this sensethat Carsonspeaksof the "given ones" in terms of
those who believe: "the giving by the Father of certain men to the Sonprecedes
their reception of eternal life, and governs the purpose of the Son's mission. ,23
Barrett also reads the "given" in the senseof `predestination', and stressesthe
adopts a similar position: "The Father is the first to act. He `gives' Jesus the
22The term Kaochas various nuancesin John. In the context of 17:6 however,
it denotesthe inhabitants of the world, i. e. people. This reading of the word is also
attestedin 3: 16; 12:19; 16:8,20 and so on. While the Eicof the EicToi icclwucan imply
`origin' or `belonging', it undoubtedly connotesa senseof `separation' in this occasion.
For a brief discussionof the term K60oN in John, seeMorris, GospelAccording to John,
111-113;N. H. Cassem,"Grammatical and contextual inventory of the use of kosmos in
the Johanninecorpus with some implications for a Johanninecosmic theology," NTS 19
(1972-73),81-91; and in relation to dualism, seeAshton, Understanding,206-208.
25Schnackenburg,GospelAccording to John,
vol. 2,46.
168
to
subsequent but simultaneouswith the giving of the Father. In his comment on
God' the moment he believes; he does not believe becausehe has been fore-
Jesus."In the Fourth Gospel, therefore, we find the idea that all men are in
darkness and the suggestion that men are divided into different categories
argument is based on human freewill. He contends that 6:37 does not say that
God arbitrarily choosesto save whom he wills, for common sense"ought to tell
us that a God who `so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever
believes in him should not perish but have eternal life' (3: 16) is not, and can
free, able to accept or reject him as God. And in the context of the Johannine
gospel,
In other words, the purpose of 6:37 and possibly related passagesis inserted in
Calvinism and Arminianism.31 There are at least two occasions in the gospel
(3:27 and 19:11) which suggest that the reading of bi&j n is in the sense of
6:37 when he concededthat if the "all" refers only to "those who are given to
29Stanley B. Marrow, The Gospel of John: A Reading (New York, NY: Paulist
Press,1995),89.
concentratingon what the text does not say rather than what it does say. While
the text does not speak of those who are not given to the Son, as Charlesworth
rightly noted, the fact that John identifies the "given ones" as those who come to
Fourth Gospel may not employ the language of "not given" for any of Jesus'
12:34ff., and of 'Ioo& oi32 in chap. 8; 9: 18-23; 10:22-27 excludes such people
32There is lack of consensus on the identity of those the term of 'IoubaLoi. refers
to in the Fourth Gospel. Barrett for instance read it as "the title regularly given by John
to Judaism and its official leaders who stand against Jesus" - Barrett, Gospel According
to St. John, 143. A similar position is taken by U. C. von Wahlde, 'Me Johannine Jews,"
NTS 28 (1982), 33-60. As an alternative reading, M. Lowe expounds that the term should
be translated as "Judeans" - Malcolm Lowe, "Who Were the IOYAAIOI? " ATS 18
(1976), 101-130. In his assessment of the term, Ashton rejects the "authorities theory" on
the ground that John chooses the term "the Jews" instead of pxovTEC"rulers" or
pXLEpEtC"chief priests" even though the words are familiar to him - see Ashton,
Understanding, 132. In place of either the Authorities theory or the Judean hypothesis,
Ashton proposes that of 'IouSaioL should be read with a particular historical reference in
the social context of the Fourth Gospel. He suggests that the term is used to represent
"the powerful party that took advantage of the disarray following the fall of Jerusalem in
AD 70 and gradually assumed authority over the Jewish people. This party, not to be
identified absolutely with the Pharisees, laid the foundations of what we know as
Judaism." (p. 152). Whether Ashton's solution can win the approval of the majority of
Johannine scholars or not is yet to be seen. Recently, D. Moody Smith adopts the
`Ashtonian' reading of of 'Iou&xtoL in his own study -see D. M. Smith, The Theology of
the Gospel of John, NTT (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 171. In his
1998 commentary, Moloney explores the theme of of 'Iou6aioL from the view points of
its narrative function and his conclusion represents adequately "the Jews" one encounters
in the text: "the expression `the Jews' in the Gospel indicates those people who have
taken up a theological and christological position that rejects Jesus and the claims made
for him by his followers. Thus they also reject his followers. The expression `the Jews'
does not represent a race. Indeed, the expression could be applied to anyone of any age
and any nation who has decided once and for all, that Jesus of Nazareth is not the
Messiah, but a sinner whose origins are unknown (9: 24-29). " See Moloney, The Gospel
ofJohn, 11.
171
If those who are regarded as the "given ones" are those who display
Jesusin the opposite categoryof the given ones.However, since the gospel does
not speakof those who reject Jesusin terms of "not given", it is safer to say that
the argument is philosophical rather than textual. When the text is allowed to
speak for itself, the context of 6:37 shows that the purpose of the is
verse to
Jesuspositively can only do so as a result of the Father giving them first to the
on 6:37: "It is natural that here, as also in 17:2, we should from these words
conclude that some are predestinedby God to salvation, and others not; but it
the orb to which Jesushad performed. As already indicated in 6:26f, the signs
acceptanceof who Jesus is. Unlike the synoptic gospels where the theme of
plainly if he is 0 Xpurr6c (10:24). Since they cannot believe Jesus' own words,
signs, is meant as evidence about him (10:25 cf. 5:36). In other words, the signs
are meant to be a didactic springboardfrom which one can make the appropriate
in 34
John. The point to be noted however is that, as Luise
misunderstanding
of the signs from a Johanninetheological position are to show that: "No quantity
of evidencesuffices to produce faith in the one who does not already belong to
their own accord but in subsequenceto the giving of some by the Father to the
"the Jews", is attributed to the fulfilment of the scripture. In her 1988 article,
Judith Lieu explored the motif of blindness in the Johannine tradition, giving
particular attention to John 12:40. She noted that John, in common with other
39
unbelief. Lieu called attention to the Johannineintroduction of the verb ipw
"to harden" 40into the quotation from Isaiah 6: 1041to stressthe permanenceof
those who are blinded and cannot believe. According to Lieu, "it was not the
of
understanding unbelief as blindness,with a degreeof tension as to the question
40Lieu suggesteda hellenistic Jewish rather than biblical background for the use
of ac0p&Oin John. She was led to this conclusion by parallels from hellenistic literature
such as Philo, and Testamentsof the Twelve Patriarchs. Other usage of the verb in a
manner similar to John is found in Mark 6:52; 8: 17; Rom. 11:7 and 2 Cor. 3: 14). Lieu,
"Blindness in the JohannineTradition," 86ff.
41In relating the use of the Isaian passageto the social context of the Fourth
Gospel, although Lieu did not rule out the possibility that the experience of exclusion
from the Synagogue led to the agonising over the unbelief of the Jews and to the
development of the imagery of blindness based on Isaiah 6:9-10 to interpret that
unbelief rather she leaned toward the position that the Johannine community's self-
consciousnessas reflected in the binary opposition of blindness/sight left no room for
them in the Synagogueand contributed to their exclusion. In other words, the importance
of the reference to the Isaian passagein John may be not polemical but for identity-
construction of the Johannine community in relation to the "other", i. e., unbelieving
Jews.
175
from Isaiah in John 12:40 as the "ultimate responsibility" for unbelief cannot be
43
more adequate. This is expressedmore explicitly in these words of Moloney,
"the divine necessity of the unbelief of `the Jews' is stated in a way that is
without parallel in the rest of the NT. In order to fulfil the Scriptures it was
that God was responsiblefor their blindnessand their hardnessof heart, lest they
evidence for believing, in our assessment,is to show that the responsesof the
charactersto Jesus in John are predeterminedby not just the fulfilment of the
Scripture but also an outworking of the prior election of the Father in the giving
of someto the Son. It is the giving by the Father which allows Jesusto speakof
those who believe as his own sheep."But you do not believe becauseyou are not
amongmy My
sheep. sheephear my voice, and I know them and they follow me.
And I give them eternal life and they will never perish, and no one is able to
and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are
43In speakingof the Johannineuse of Isaiah as a proof text for unbelief, Martin
C. Albl's caution should not be ignored: "John's tendency towards a dualistic or
deterministic outlook (however one may define these terms) is reflected in the
commitmentthat the people could not believe ... becausehe (i. e. God) had blinded them
(John 12:39-40a). To what extent these theological ideas were already present in the
tradition taken over by John, and how much they are due to his creative adaptation,is
" See M. C. AN, "And Scripture Cannot be Broken". The Form and
difficult to assess.
Function of the Early Christian TestimoniaCollections (Leiden: Brill, 1999), 246.
"
one. (10:26-30) The `given ones' belong to Jesussimply becausethey belong to
the Father. It is in that sensethat the referenceto the onenessof Jesusand his
responseto faith by the narrative audienceof the gospel is the outworking of the
God the Father.Those who believe do not do so on their own accord but because
they are beneficiariesof the Father's prior assignmentof some people to the Son.
The author of the Fourth Gospel found in the giving of some by the Father, not
just an excusefor the disbelief of the Jews,but also evidencethat the disciples are
the fulfilment of the will (A ,qa) of the Father in the Son. In John, the content
of the OWIlLe of the Father is salfivic. It is the working out of eternal life for
those the Father gives to the Son (6:38ff. ). This will of God is embodied and
asFor a similar reading of the onenessof the Father and Son in John 10:30, see
Ernst Haenchen,John, Herm, vol. 2, trans and ed. R. W. Funk (Philadelphia, PA:
FortressPress,1984),50.
the O ill a of the Father is to believe in the Son (7: 17). Unlike the Rule of the
Community (1QS) where the will of God 'n lpri resides in the Torah and is
that the Father has sent (this contrast is further discussedin the conclusion, see
pp. 241-245).
consequenceof the prior action of the Father, the evangelistintensifies the claim
that Jesusand all that belong to him are inseparablefrom God The believers can
only come to Jesusby virtue of being made so first in the will of the Father. This
is more apparentespecially in light of Jesus' own claim that his will is to do the
will of the Fatherwho sent him (John 6:38-39). The only reasonJesuscan accept
and keep those who come to him without losing any of them is becausetheir
action can be accountedfor within the framework of the will of the Father.
(9:22;12:42; 16:2) - are nothing but the inevitable outcome of their being
predestinedby the Father. The evangelist found in this concept of the giving by
the Fathera metaphor for helping those who believe to understandtheir origin in
although this will be explored next; suffice to say that it is Jesus' constant
awarenessof the design of the Father for him which enables him to face the
2. Missiological Determinism
Jesus(in cosmos) as the sole agent of God the Father. This is expressed,for
instance, in the participle form of the verb 7th[uuowith the definite article to
designatethe Father who sent Jesus(5:23,30; 13:20; 14:24). It is the Father who
initiates the coming of Jesus and also the mission he is to accomplish in the
Father. He equateshis will to the will of the Father and even the words, t&
prjaza,spokenby Jesusare said to belong to the Father (14:10). Jesusas the Sent
One is incapableof doing anything of himself independentof the Father who sent
him (5: 19). And in all that he does, it is the will of the Father that is paramount
(5:30). Thus there is hardly anything about him which is not traceableto God the
Father. If the presence of the Son and his activities in the cosmos is pre-
conditioned by the Father, to what degree are the activities of Jesus not
is
answer clear and precise: there is no aspectof the Son which does not reflect
the will of the Father. For "no one has ever seenGod, the begottenGod who is in
179
the bosomof the Fatherhas made him known." (1: 18) To seethe Son is the same
as seeingthe Father not in the senseof corporeality but in teamsof the disclosure
backgroundof the Son being a perfect embodiment of the Father's will that the
the
necessity, impersonal verb M. In its Hellenistic context, it reflects "the sense
by men or by gods."49 The word is also used to express "the idea of the
LXX, the verb was "transformed by the underlying OT idea of the necessityof
the divine will. "51There is no doubt that the use of SELin the NT is informed by
In John the verb occurs ten times52and it is mostly used with referenceto
always'53its use with regardsto the mission of the Son cannot be read otherwise.
It is employed in articulating the necessity of the lifting up of the Son (3: 14;
Bultmann
salvific necessity. makes the point cogently, the &t indicates that "the
is
saving-event governedby a divinely ordained necessity."54
ExJJZW1IvaiwvLov (3: 15 cf. 12:32). By using the passiveform of the verb b*06)55
to anticipate the crucifixion (3: 15; 12:32,34), John shifts the focus of the action
from the subject or agent of the verb to the action itself and its victim in order to
died was not simply the result of the raging of wicked men, but was the divine
plan for men's salvation. This is not a side issue. It is the very heart of the
,56Although "the Jews" are implied as the subject of iIrowin 8:28 (cf.
story.
8:22), even there John stressesthe significance of the lifting up in relation not to
"the Jews" who perform the action, but to Jesuswho suffers it: "When you lift up
the son of man, then you will know that I am, and that I do nothing of myself, but
I speakjust as the Father instructed me." In other words, the necessity of the
guilty verdict. But he can only acquit Jesuson the basis of Jesus'own responseto
the chargesagainst him. Pilate said to Jesus:"Do you refuse to talk to me? Do
you not know that I have authority to releaseyou and to crucify you?" (19: 10)
of the principle at work in his trial: "You would have had no authority against
me, not even one, except it were given to you from above." (19:11) This is to say
that "the power and the authorization by virtue of which Jesusis now given into
as it actually doesso, it has a deeperreason.... the fact that Jesushas been given
into his hands has been determined by God. Pilate is the instrument through
which the decreeof God is put into effect "57Ashton also graspsthe deterministic
tendency that shapesthe Johannine report of the encounter between Jesus and
Pilate: "Confronted by Pilate it is he who is the real judge; such power as Pilate
has comes to him from on high, and in acceding to the demand that Jesus be
58Ashton, Understanding,489-90.
182
of Jesuslies in his use of the term t 6pa.59Apart from the use of the word to
that is just at hand (4:23; 5:25; 16:32), its use for the particular moment of Jesus
suffering is of relevanceto our study. From the first occurrenceof the word in
2:4, John signals a crucial moment that his audiencemust watch out for in the
arrest of Jesus (7:30; 8:20). It is linked with the departure of Jesus from this
include Jesus' illustration of the pain of child bearing (16:21), and the brief
The hour is first linked with the experienceof death in 12:23, although it
which dies and bears fruit as Christ (12:24).60 The force of "the hour" in the
context lies in the fact that "it underscores the necessity and life-giving
later in 12:27 are due to the hour arriving at last. Since the arrival of the hour is
hour in light of the arrest and trial, and the death on the cross that Jesussuffered
59For a brief study on the conceptof (3)pmin John, seeBrown, John I- XII, 517-
518; Schnackenburg,John, vol. 1,328-331; for more detailed study, see Ignace de la
Potterie, The Hour of Jesus: The Passion and Resurrection of Jesus according to John,
Text and Spirit (Slough: St. Paul Publications, 1989).
(12:27ff, 18:4f1), but for him to do so would be a violation of the will of the
to Peter, `put your sword into its place. Will I not drink the cup which the Father
The fact that i Spa is also the glorifying moment of both the Father and
hour as paradoxthat is plainly brought home: "the hour of the So aa9rjvai.is at the
sametime the hour of passion."TMIf indeed the hour is filled with arrest,trial and
death on the cross, where does the glory lie in Christ's troubled emotion and
request of the "EtIvES: through his passion Jesus will become accessiblefor
them as exalted Lord."65 Indeed the context of 12:23-26 is concerned with the
life-giving consequenceof Jesus' death, and there is no doubt that this is the
63For discussion of glory in John, see G. B. Caird, "The Glory of God in the
Fourth Gospel: an Exercisein Biblical Semantics," 1VTS15 (1968-69), 265-277; Smalley,
John: Evangelistand Interpreter, 220ff.
For John, glory residesin doing the will of someoneelse.The glory of the
Son lies in his fulfilment of the Father's purposein sendinghim into the world. It
is the will of the Father which is being worked out in the arrest, trial and the
soul is troubled, and what shall I say?Father, deliver me from this hour, but it is
for this reasonthat I came into this hour." (12:27) Again as Lindars rightly noted,
"the irony is that Jesuscannot be saved from suffering, for it is the appointed
the climactic fulfilment of all that the Father predestinedfor the Son he sendsas
T xWC EIC, TV K6%LOV. In John, true glory residesnot in the winning of human
praise, but in doing the will of the Father (12:43 cf. 5:41,44; 7: 18; 8:49,50,54).
With the declaration of Jesusin 19:30 - "it is finished" - John affirms that the
Son has accomplishedall that constitutesthe Father's will for him. It is in the
Son's absoluteconformity to the will of the Father that he is approved, and thus
glorified.
with its shock and horror in a gospel with much interest in Jesus' glory?
featuresof the victory of Christ upon the passion story."68 In spite of Ashton's
rejection of Ksemann's claim that the Passion story is "a mere postscript", he
These connections are sufficient to show that the passion narrative has been
with one concern - Jesus' glory. This style of the evangelist "is a strong
indication of his desire to show that the manner of Jesus' death was divinely
determined, fulfilling as it did not just the scripture but also Jesus' own
...
word.s69
his person, i. e. his actions are informed by the initiative of the Father. Jesus
69Ashton, Understanding,488.
186
himself emphasisesquite often that he has not come of his own accord, but that
he is being sent to do the work of the one who sent him; secondly,his words are
not his but those of the Father (7: 16; 8:26,28;12:49; 14:10,24); thirdly, his centre
am not seekinghonour for myself' (8:50 cf. 7: 18), "The Father is in me and I am
in the fact that "the loss of one's identity, the searchfor the glory of another and
speaking words which are not one's own form the outlines of the postmodern
implicit value which the implied author holds up for us'. 7' While Counet's
initiative outside of Jesus' own ego that is relevant to our study. Thus, glory does
"other", and the other in the case of Jesusis the Father. It is the fact that Jesus
fulfilled the design of the Father for him in its entirety which warranted Jesus'
final utterance- "It is finished". All the moments he was agonizing on the cross
until he finally gave up his spirit form the decisive hour of glory becausethere
and then, it was the will of the "other" (i. e. the Father)that was being realized.
of the NT is 73
writers the permanenceof the written word. This is evident in their
use of the perfect passive 7cypagpbov icrdv "it is written". This expression
occurs not less than five times in John (2: 17; 10:34; 12:15,16; 15:25). As a way
tantamountto quoting God himself (Jn. 7:38 cf Is. 44:3; 55:1; 58:11; Jn. 7:42 cf.
Mic. 5:2). Thus for John the OT stands in the same level of authority as God
for certain occurrencesin the story of Jesus.The fulfilment motif allows John to
evident from the use of the relative clause(va and 6L zotno in relation to ypaq
or its synonyms such as Torah, Prophet, or the name of a biblical author (Jn.
with a careful study of its contextual usage in the New Testament, its significance
is not always too strict.74It is used in the senseof both consecutive" and final
his observation on the use of the word in the context of John 12:38-39, for
instance,Brown assertsthat the use of `iva has a telic force by which he means
is not that the unbelief resulted in the fulfilment of the prophecy, but that the
prophecy brought about the unbelief. In this mentality where the OT prophecies
had to be fulfilled, hina has telic force."77 In other words, the purpose of the
scripture is to generateunbelief.
74E. Stauffer, Iva, " in TDNT, vol. 3,323-333. See also H. E. Dana & J. K
Mantey, A Manual Grammar of the Greek New Testament(New York, NY: Macmillan,
1955), 248-249,282-284; C. F. D. Moule, An Idiom Book of New TestamentGreek
reprint ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), 138-139, cf. 142-146; P.
Lampe,'Iva, " in EDNT, vol. 2,188-190.
76Moule suggesteda reason for this could be the unwillingness in the Semitic
mind to draw a sharpdividing-line betweenpurposeand consequence."It may be for this
reason(or at least, Semitic influence may be a contributory cause)that the iva with Subj.
sometimesoccurs in contextswhich seemto impose a consecutive,instead of final, sense
upon it; and conversely, that ate with Infin. seemssometimes to approximate to afinal
meaning." SeeMoule, Idiom Book, 142.
" Brown, John I-X11,483. Barrett adoptsa similar reading but in a more forceful
way by affirming that the use of iva in this passage "signifies predestination (to
condemnation) of the most absolute lind.... The non-purposive use of `Iva is attested
elsewhere in John (e.g. 1:27; 17:3) but that it is impossible here is shown by v. 39. It
...
can hardly be questionedthat John meant that the hardening of Israel was intended by
God." Barrett, GospelAccording to John, 359. Seealso Moloney, Gospel ofJohn, 364
189
the scripture is referred to no less than three times to explain the activities at the
eventually leadsto the arrest and trial as the fulfilment of the Scripture: `But that
the Scripturemight be fulfilled, `the one who eats with me raised his heel against
me'."" (13:18) This scriptural referenceis strategically placed here in the narrative
becauseit alerts the readerto the fact that the subsequenteventsare to be viewed
not in relation to Judas Iscariot but in connection with Jesus who suffers the
no scriptural referenceof its own79apart from the victim of the betrayal, because
it is Jesus,the centre characterof the gospel, who is under the surveillance of the
Scripture. Jesus' triumphant entry (12: 12-15), the response of people to him
(12:37-41), his betrayal (13: 18), and his resurrection (20:9) are explained in light
of the scripture.
Bultmann, is "the sign that what is here taking place is being achieved in
accordancewith the divine plan."80 Thus the soldiers throwing of dice for
instance,as Lindars put it, is "their own contribution to the plan of God". And
even much more appropriate to our study is the utterance zc aiat - "it is
finished" - by Jesus.The force of the utterance lies in John's report that Jesus
knew that all things were now completed.It is on the basisof that knowledgethat
Jesus expresseshis thirst and his last word in John (19:28,30). The word
tisi iat (19:28,30) doesnot meanthe end of the scripture, rather it denotesthe
God's will. "s' In the gospel, the climactic point of God's mission for the Son is
the Son? By presenting the trial and the crucifixion as the necessarymoment,
81Lindars, The Gospel of John, 58. It should be added that the force of the
utterance is to evoke not just death's physical depletion, the physical emptiness and
thirst, but also all of death's bitterness and finality. This is coherent with Johannine
emphasison Jesusas the giver of life.
' Marrow has read this giving up of the spirit (19:30) as a form of Johannine
Pentecost.According to Marrow, 19:30 is a reminder that "the crucifixion of Jesusis not
only his own glorification but also a Pentecostas well, the giving of his spirit to the
world." - Marrow, Gospel of John, 348. Culpepper also highlights the samepoint when
he notes that the giving up of Jesus' spirit in 19:30 resonatesthe narrator's comment in
John 7:39 that the spirit had not yet been given since Jesushad not yet been glorified.
The emphasison the Paracletein the farewell discoursehas already preparedthe reader
"to understandthat at the death of Jesusthe Spirit will come to guide the community of
disciplesafter Jesus'death." -Culpepper, Gospeland Letters, 236.
191
Son John intensifies this claim by giving a twofold meaningto the metaphorof i
wpa, i.e. suffering and glory. This allows John to affirm through the main
characterof his story, Jesus,that true glory does not reside in winning the praise
or approval of people but in doing the will of the Father, even if it means
suffering in the form of rejection. This indeed is an irony first to those audiences
within the narrative who do not believe becauseof the fear of "the Jews", and
then to those who are contemplating on giving up their faith becauseof the
dangerof expulsion from the Synagogue.It is not surprising, therefore, that John
thesethings have been written so that you might believe that Jesusis the Christ,
Son of God, in order that while believing, you may have life in his name."
(20:31)
The deterministic nuanceof the mission of the Son featuresin the Fourth
Jesusthe man of good deeds who is the victim of human hostility to Jesusthe
bearerof the Father's will in suffering. In other words, the hostility he suffers is
in accordancewith the mission that the Father assigned to the Son. In the
could have amountedto him being guilty as charged:"I cannot find any reasonto
condemnhim." (18:38; 19:4 cf. 19:12) Again, Jesusas the hero of the Johannine
Christianity experiencesall that besethim, not becauseof his ego, but becauseof
terms of quantity and quality. It should be stressedoutright that John does not
express this form of determinism in every character but only in the two
83
mentioned. Since this kind of determinism is not a recurrent motif in John, our
what is granted from heaven (3:27). That the passageechoesthe Baptist's own
86Schnackenburg,GospelAccording to John,
vol. 1,415.
193
being is intended as what is being given from heaven.In 3:26, the disciples of
John the Baptist told their leader that thvtcs "all" are going to Jesusfor baptism.
The word nvtcr, does not imply "all things" but "all men". The only way that
John can make senseof such a movementof peopleto Jesusis in the paradigm of
the "given ones". This is articulated in the Baptist's affirmation that: "A man is
While the phrase oEEv (3:27), which literally means "not even one
thing", tends to shift the focus from people to things, the literal meaning will not
ignore the force of the nvTcqin v. 26. Here is another occasion where John
In other words, it is John's attempt to show that the movementof peopleto Jesus
is not accidental but "the giving" from heavenwhich warrants the claim that an
26.
John, its function is to show that Jesus' overshadowingof John the Baptist is due
194
God, the one who gives from heaven,that makes the increaseof Jesusand the
in the
decreaseof the Baptist a necessity. Thus, the force of the S&SopL-vov
context of 3:27 is to show that whatever John the Baptist or Jesus does is
determined by God in whom lies all the initiative. 88 Carson grasps this point
when he posits that the word SESovov is used to explain the Baptist's own
The metaphor of the vine and the branches in John 15, at first glance,
tends to cast a doubt on the Johannine emphasison the eternal keeping of the
and p&kW - `to throw away' - in v. 6. The identity of the disciples as branchesof
Jesusthe true vine is linked with their ongoing abiding in the Son. Thus a branch
can be `cut off and `thrown away' if it ceasesto abide and bear fruit. How is this
117
Barrett, GospelAccording to John, 185.
show that the well-being of both the vine and its branchesstemsfrom the activity
of the vinedresser.In other words, tending the vine and its branchesis the action
responsiblefor all Jesusdoes and makes known."90In John, the only one among
the given ones who `falls out' is Judas.Earlier in 6:66 John remarks that some
John notes that Judasis one of the chosenTwelve (6:70), but for what purpose?
(this case of Judas is discussedin pp.198f.) The fact that these `disciples' stop
It is not surprising that John locatesthe setting of the discourseof the vine
and the branchesat the table where Judas left the rest of the disciples to align
is not to suggestthat apostasyis a possibility for any of the `given ones', but to
account for the `falling out' of Judas who was once a branch of the true vine.
Even in the context of the metaphor, John boldly assertsthat none of the other
disciples can `fall out' becausethey are already clean: ijiI ipdi icaOapoiEOTE
6 cbv 16yov v )EM;LIIKai iLv (15:3) Judas as a branch of the true vine does
not fall out arbitrarily, it is as a result of the necessitythat the scripture places
upon the Son. It is in the process of the vinedresser tending the vine and its
light of the determinism of the Fourth Gospel?John affirms the election of Judas
in the samemanneras the rest of the disciples. Among the selected(EK) yo(%1.92)
Twelve mentionedin 6:70-71, one is said to be "a devil". The editorial note of v.
This is the sensein which John usesthe term in 8:44; 13:2 (cf. 13:27). However
John's identification of Judas as &o).oc does not imply that he is the oacav&C
becausehe betrays Jesus (6:71 cf. 13:2). The betrayal unfolds in the senseof
someonewho was once within the sheepfold but later changedside to ally with
92The occurrenceof this verb in John is always in the aorist and it meansJesus'
action of selecting the twelve from other disciples - J. H. Charlesworth, The Beloved
Disciple (Valley Forge, PA: Trinity PressInternational, 1995), 123.
in 4
the outsider attacking the sheepfold. For John, the use of the term &4oXoc
for Judas is not in the evil which is generally associatedwith it, but in the
`devil' which is said to be the father of thosewho are antagonistsof Jesusin 8:44.
hour' of the Son (13: 1). His invasion of Judas' heart to betray Jesusis linked with
the arrival of the `hour' (13:2,27). The earlier referenceto Judas as a devil in
6:70 is a prolepsisof the devil acting out its role in the appointedhour of the Son.
It is the Father's appointed hour for the Son which warrants the devil's
involvement. Thus the devil does not just arbitrarily become involved in Jesus
story, for John, he is an agent whoseactivity is inevitable not just at any moment,
While the referenceto the devil in the context of John 8 seemsto suggest
that the devil has equal fatherhood with God, it is not in the senseof absolute
dualism. In 8:44, the devil is identified as the father of the "Jews". However, a
careful reading of the text showsthat the fatherhood of the devil is in contrastto
that of Abraham. John does not contest the fatherhood of Abraham as the Jews
claimed (8:33,37), instead he rejects the claim that these Jews are children of
Abraham becausethey are not doing Abraham's deeds. Their attempt to kill
Jesus,and their rejection of the truth from God are not Abrahamic (8:37,40), but
are of the devil becausethe devil is a murderer and a liar (8:44). In this manner,
the fatherhood of the devil is temporal not absolute. In John there is only one
Father, the one who sent the Son. People become his children becausethey
that actually triggers the expected `hour' of Jesusas due to satanic interference
upon Judas(13:27). However, that Jesus' gift of the morsel invokes Satan in the
Why does Jesus include "a devil" in his choice of disciples? Many
scholars have had difficulty with the fact that Jesus chose 98
Judas Indeed, for
summedup thus: "either Jesuswas ignorant of what residedin the mind and heart
purpose of scriptural necessity upon Jesus.This is evident in the fact that the
scripture in the life of Jesus(13:26-27 cf v. 18). It is only on this basis that John
Why then does John speak of Judas as KthTIC `a thief (12:6)? The first
referenceto KX Irr11cis John 10 where it occurs three times. Its meaning in that
act of stealing (10:1). Apart from Jesus,the gateway to the sheepfold, all other
rather than the means of access.However, further reflection on the role of the
level; as the one who, through his liaison with the Jewish authority, offers the
an alternative `gate' for the outsiders. But his kind of access precipitates the
scatteringof the fold (16:32). According to the parable of John 10, Judas is, by
virtue of his role in leading the authorities to the sheepfold,a thief whose activity
has destroyedthe unity of the fold and resultedin the deathof true shepherd.102
economically (12:4-6) does not adequately account for Judas' action in the
responsible for his action; but in the process of doing so, John unconsciously
undermines his own emphasis on the outworking of the scripture through the
concern of the Passion narrative to show that Jesus is betrayed not becauseof
Judas' love of money'3 but because the scripture must be fulfilled. Grtner
among"the given ones" by the Father is lost except the son of perdition - ulk
Tic i5
irwXdac. The word '1TG)iaC occurs only here in John, and it is used in
,E
connection with its verbal form dcn6uu to denote "loss" in the sense of
exclusion from those that belong to the Son.106That the son of perdition is a
sameverse(17:12) that Judasis included in the numberof "the given ones". Does
the case of Judas signify that the determinism of "the given ones" is not
permanent?Or doesit meanthat Jesusis incapableof all that the Father has given
108How doesJohn explain the dismissal of
him, as J. A. T. Robinson suggested?
those "given ones" by the Father, some commentatorsadopt the view that the
locating the factor for the dismissal of Judasfrom among the given ones within
Judashimself and not independentof him. One must ask however whether or not
coalescewith John's remarks in 6:39; 10:29-30 where the eternal security of the
given ones is assured?In fact, for John the &1ikLa of Judasis not due to Judas'
ir) pwe (17:12). Morris' insight on the son of perdition is quite helpful in the
context of our study: "And if attention be drawn to Judas,then it must be said that
the Father's will was done both in the eleven and in the one, for Scripture was
fulfilled. The reference to the fulfilling of Scripture brings out the divine
purpose."110Judas fell out of the "given ones" becauseof the necessityof the
D. Summary
It has been the purposeof this chapterto engagethe Fourth Gospel from
some passagesby the use of specific deterministic terms, and solemnly in other
by
passages way of implication. The nature of the determinism in John is
the determinationof the Father in the giving of certain people to the Son, but also
seemsto make people's responseto Jesusa matter of human volition, the fact of
the matter is that the action of those who respond positively within John's
is
narrative attributed to the previous act of the Father. On the other hand, the
In be
scripture. other words, while unbelief can explained in light of the scripture,
it is the necessityof the previous action of the Father in the giving of somepeople
cannotrespondotherwise.
in
expressed more than one way. Firstly, the use of deterministic terminology (the
the glorification of the Son. The hour and the event which make it a glorifying
make the mission of the Son inevitable. This is evident from the allusions to the
situation. It lacks a broad basedtextual support and therefore its relevancein the
context of our enquiry is minimal. However, our concern to make the theme of
absoluteand rigid. Although John attemptsto explain the falling out of Judason
the ground of scriptural necessity,the picture that the readeris left with tends to
his mission.
Johannine claim of Jesus as the Messiah, the motif of determinism helps the
reader of the Gospel of John to make senseof the opposition within the divine
framework.
205
Chapter Five
discussion of the petitions in John 17 include John 11:41-42 and 12:27. The
among scholars.In the presentform of the Gospel, as E. Malatesta rightly put it,
` Although Robert J. Karris recently arguedthat the prologue of John (1: 1-18) is
a prayer more than anything else. This he contendson the ground that the prologue is a
prayer in the form of hymn psalm, song, or confessionalstatement.SeeRobert J. Karris,
Prayer and the New Testament.Jesusand His Communitiesat Worship (New York, NY:
Crossroad,2000), 83-90. While there can be little doubt about the hymnic nature of the
prologue, as it is generally acceptedin exegesis,the fact that there is no single line of
petition in the entire prologue underminesits relevanceto our presentstudy.
206
3
elaboratedthroughout the gospel". In a similar tone, Barrett describesit as "a
Barrett and Malatesta,B. Westcott wrote of John 17 as "at once a prayer, and a
in such discussionin the context of our investigation. Our aim here is to explore
the contentsof the petitionary prayers in the Fourth Gospel.What are the focuses
of the petitions? What are the results anticipated by the prayers?Do the petitions
3 Edward Malatesta, "The Literary Structure John 17," Bib 52 (1971), 190-
of
214,190.
Apart from John 17, the common form of prayer that is associatedwith
is
relevance minimal to our enquiry. On the other hand, the thanksgiving at
Jesuspetition not just in the past (i ouxat) but also in the present and future
(irvrot &i
ou oi*tc). However on this occasion, there is no recall of any
12:27-28. This is the only passagein the Book of Sign that portrays Jesusas a
character with petitionary prayer. Like the narrative of the Hebrew Bible, the
light of this, coupled with the fact that the Johannine prayer so far has been
does not completely deny that Jesus offers petitionary prayer. Rather it is a
Johannine clue that Jesus' petition must be consistent with the determined
purposeof the Father. This is well articulated in v. 28 where the tension in the
Furthermore,why is the prayer not dialogical betweenthe Father and the Son as
attention to the use of prayer in the Johannine story of Jesus.In the episode at
Lazarus' tomb, John resolvesto prayer in order to show the unique relationship
the Fatheras the senderand Jesusas the messenger.In other words, in the prayer,
similar motif is also presentin the petition for escapein 12:27-28. It is the Father
(the sender) whose name must be glorified in the hour from which Jesus (the
is
messenger) asking for a rescue.Thus prayer for John, either thanksgiving or
petition, is employed as a medium for explicating the unity between the Father
and the Son, a unity in which the priority of the Fatherand the dependenceof the
The fact that the prayer in John 17 is placed in the context, and more
John 17 representsJesus'own report of his earthly mission to the Father who sent
him. This reading is basedon two factors: firstly, Jesuslocates the timing of the
17:4,6ff). Like the thanksgiving at the tomb of Lazarus and the petition for
the Father,who on the completion of his assignedmission gives the report of that
mission to the Father who sent him. In light of these,the opening petition is an
and the Father that prompts John to locate the prayer at the end of the farewell
discourse.
disciples on the subject of prayer. This teaching is different from that of the
in does '
synoptics the sensethat John not enumeratethe contentsof the prayer.
9 Recent scholarship which has highlighted these recurring themes includes Mark
Stibbe, John Readings: A New Biblical Commentary (Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1993),
175f.; Moloney, Glory not Dishonour: Reading John 13-21 (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress
Press, 1998), 126; Andreas Dettwiler, Die Gegenwart des Erhhten: Eine exegetische
Studie zu den johanneischen Abschiedsreden (John 13: 31-16: 33) unter besonderer
Bercksichtigung ihres Relecture-Charakters (Gttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht,
1995), especially chapters four and five; Christian Dietzfelbinger, Der Abschied des
Kommenden: Eine Auslegung der johanneischen Abschiedsreden (Tbingen: J. C. B.
Mohr, 1997), 357f; J. L. Boyle, "The Last Discourse (Jn 13,31 - 16,33) and Prayer (Jn
17): Some Observations on Their Unity and Development, " Bib 56 (1975), 210-222.
Earlier in chap 14, the disciples are assuredof the answerto "whatever",
tii v, they ask for, provided the asking is in the name of Jesus(14: 13). However,
John immediately assertsthat the goal of the praying processis not the answerto
the petition but the glory of the Father- iva 6o&aa9tj6 irac?p Ev tc, uiw. Again,
this notion of asking "whatever" is repeated in 15:7,16 (cf. 16:23,24) and the
granting of the petition is linked with the 66a of the Father.Thus in the assurance
of Jesusto grant the petition of the disciples, it is the glory of the Father which is
paramount.This motif of the glory of the Father forms the content of the opening
petition of the farewell prayer: "glorify your Son, in order that the Son may
prayer texts is qualified within the framework of the Father's glory. This is not at
embodimentof the will of the Father. The Son does not seek his own glory, not
even in his answerto the petition of his disciples, but the glory of his Father.
disciples to make petition, such prayer is not expectedof them until when Jesus
-` on that day" - (w. 23,26) in the broader context of the verse suggeststhat the
petition by the disciples is expected in the future. The only character whose
The Fourth Gospel allows us, on the basis of its repeatedemphasis(14: 13-14;
praying community. While John stressesthat the asking must be in the name of
the Son and thus make Jesusthe "broker"1 betweenthe believersand the Father,
there is no textual evidence regarding the nature and the content of their asking.
unlike the Lord's Prayer of the Synoptics, the contents and nature of their
the only one who prays in John becausethe Johannine story is about Jesus
13
structure of the prayer, finds five distinctive parts. Boyle, whose division is
three major parts (apart from the introduction of w. 1-3 and the conclusion of w.
24-26) which comprisesthe following: (i) Jesus' recall of his own work, w. 4-8;
(ii) prayer for the disciples, w. 9-19; (iii) prayer for future believers, w. 20-23.14
Brown adopteda threefold division, but noted that w. 6-8 (in which the disciples
are mentioned) have been the bone of contention betweenfourfold and threefold
this study as an introduction to the intercessorypetition for the disciples and their
9ff. For the purpose of our interest in the theological themes of the prayer, the
in
adopted this study:
to J. L. Boyle, "The Last Discourse (Jn 13,31-16,33) and Prayer (Jn 17)," 219;
cf. Schnackenburg,who basedhis own division on the linguistic structural analysisof the
chapter,seeR. Schnackenburg,"Strukturanalysevon Joh 17," BZ 17 (1973), 67-78,196-
202, especially70-72. It should be noted that while commentatorsare united in speaking
of the introduction and the conclusion to the prayer, they differ in terms of which verses
form those parts. Malatesta identifies 17:labc as the introduction and w. 25-26 as the
conclusion,whereasfrom Boyle's thematic perspective,the introduction is made up of
vv. 1-3 and the conclusionis w. 24-26.
15Brown, John xiii xxi, 749-750.
-
16Dodd, Interpretation, 417
inadequateon the basis that none of it has done justice to the full range of
is farewell 23
discourse.
narrative context of the prayer the
19This categorizationis evident in the titles of the following articles on John 17:
S. C. Agourides, "The `High-Priestly Prayer' of Jesus," StEv 4 (1968), 137-143,137;
Johan Ferreira, 'Me so-called `high priestly prayer' of John 17 and ecclesiology: the
concerns of an early Christian community," in Prayer and Spirituality in the Early
Church, eds. P Allen, R Canning, & L. Cross (Queensland, Australia: Australian
Catholic University, 1998), 15-37.
20SeeF. F. Bruce, The Gospeland Epistles of John (Grand Rapids, MI: William
B. Eerdmans,1983 [rep 2001]), 328. He called it "prayer of consecration"becauseit is in
the prayer that Jesusconsecrateshimself for the sacrifice in which he is simultaneously
both the priest and the victim. Also, it is a prayer that consecratesthe disciples and the
subsequentgenerationsof believers.
21Barrett, GospelAccording to John, 417.
5 as a prayer of Jesusfor himself, Agourides has insistedthat the Twelve are the
only object of the entire farewell prayer. He called attention to the following
iaKwaw
yLvc (17:3). In the section of the prayer where future believers are
in relation to the Twelve. "If this argument is accepted,then the so called High
Priestly Prayer will not have three subjects (viz. first, a prayer of Jesus for
Himself; secondly, a prayer for His disciples: and thirdly, a prayer for the
position of Agourides does not do justice to Jn. 17, especially w. 1-5. The
forms the content of Jesus' petition, and this glorification in w. 1-5 is not about
The opening remark that Jesus looks up to heaven Kai Eir&pat tioi c
66a 4LoiXa&ro dc Tbv opavbv25(17: 1) before making his petition recalls the
in John to convey the union between Jesus and the Father to those who are
audienceis identified as the "crowd" (11:42), and in the context of Jn. 17, it is the
"disciples" (16:29).
That the opening petition recalls the theme of glory is not surprising:
the previous chapter,we noted that the "hour" is associatedwith the suffering and
the death of the Son (see pp 182-186). It is also in the wpa that glory resides.
However the 66&alies not in the winning of human praise,but in doing the will of
the Father (12:43 cf. 5:41,44; 7: 18; 8:49,50,54). From John's theological
will of his Father. When the hour finally arrives for the mission of the Son to be
"may the will of the Father be done in the Son"27.This is hinted earlier in John
12:27 when the Son's distaste for the iapa evoked the petition for an escape:
The inevitability of the hour changesthe content of the petition from that
27Bernard, Gospel According to John, vol. 2,437; see also C. Morrison who
describesthe entire farewell prayer as the total dedication of the Son to the will of the
Father, Clinton D. Morrison, "Mission and Ethic: An Interpretation of John 17," Int
(1965), 259-273,260.
217
God's plan be carried out "28 The immediate responseby a voice from heaven
(12:28) confirming that the petition for glory is already granted is a Johannine
The second part of this response from heaven, icai nCaLVbo&ao has
,
been a matter of debate among commentators.There are those who see it as a
Thsing take the aorist clauseE66aaa(in the first part of the response)on the one
hand as a referenceto Jesus'life and the hour of his cross,and the future tenseon
the ultimate divine approval that is awaiting the Son in his suffering of the cross.
Thus the hour of the Son's agony is the moment that the Father is glorified
for glory in 17:1, it is the completion of the mission assignedto him by the Father
29See Lindars, The Gospel of John, 432; Dodd, Interpretation, 372-379; Josef
Blank, Krisis: Untersuchungen zur johanneischen Christologie und Eschatologie
(Freiburg: LambertusVerlag, 1964),276-280.
Insteadof taking the glorification of the Son as "his leaving the earth and
should be said that the Johannine language of departure does not necessarily
for John denotes not just "death as departure" but also, as Ashton rightly
Farewell prayer reinforces the fact that the glory is accomplished in Jesus'
conformity to the will of the Father. It is reiterated in v. 4 that the Son, while on
earth, glorified the Father. The manner he did that is expressedin the participle
"having
TEXELcioac fulfilled, completed". What did the Son fulfil? It is stated as
Again
TroLAaw). the use of Iva here is purpose,and it is the Son's compliancewith
ioat.
tiEIEU, Lindars hinted at the completion of the mission of the Son in the
completion of his mission and the vindication of his obedience even to death.
is in " 34
For the Father's glory revealed the sameact. Once we graspthe presence
32 Bultmann, Gospel of John, 491. Although Bultmann saw more than one
meaningin 66Eac,for him it also meansthe "divine power in action", and "honour". See
also Schnackenburg,Gospel According to John, vol. 3,168; Barrett, Gospel According
to John, 421.
33Ashton, Understanding, 448-452.
task, it shouldbe expectedthat at the completion of the task, the Son deservesthe
approvalis 66 a (see5:30,4144).
God. The eternal life is also describedas "seeing" (8EWpwv)and "believing in"
(17:
Xp,.TV 3).36This is an instance of a profound skill of a literary genius. In
35Here again, the scopeof the mission of the Son is specifically restricted to the
"given ones"(seechap. 4, pp. 163-164for the discussionof the neuter singular 96(, Kac
in
Tw as used irv bibwofv). Although John doesnot hesitateto declarethe Son has
aU,
E&ouoiavirorc oapK6c(17:2), the glory of the Son however residesnot in the possession
of authority over all, but in the exercise of such authority to accomplish his
predeterminedmission of giving eternal life, not to all as echoedby Moloney, but only to
thosethe Fathergavehim. SeeMoloney, Gospel ofJohn, 463-464.
Eid Tbv To
KX1TOV EKELVOC
1TatpC EErplrjaazo(1: 18). Later in 14:8ff, John re-
emphasizes the centrality of the Son to the knowing of the Father in Philip's quest
to see the Father. It is here that John makes it apparent that "knowing" and
"seeing" the Son is the same as "seeing" the Father (14: 9), which is the same as
gaining eternal life. By identifying t aicvioc (wt in 17:3 with "knowing" both
God and Jesus Christ, and reasserting in 17:6-8 that the Son has revealed the
Father to the disciples, John does not only recapitulate the claim that the Father
and the Son are inseparable, but also gives a Christological nuance to his
interpretation of the will of the Father. Jesus does not only fulfil the will of the
Father in his missiological purpose, he also embodies the will of the Father for
his disciples. It is in this sense that the following insight of Haenchen becomes
paramount: "God is glorified when Jesus, whom John depicts as the absolutely
obedient embodiment of the divine will, gives himself up entirely to the passion:
the divine will triumphs in that hour when God, entering fully into the passion,
In contrast to our claim that the glorification of the Son lies in his
17:
5,24. 38 Although there are hints throughout the gospel about the
such as
existenceof the Father and the Son before the world (1: 1-18; 8:56-58; 10:30) the
the only begottenSon of the Father (1: 14) is not very helpful since there is a lack
Father and the Son in John. This unity is central in John's theological
of the Father. To see the Son is to see the Father (14:9). When John further
describesthe glory anticipated in the Farewell petition as that which the Father
and the Son had before the world, what does he mean?Since the Father, on the
one hand, is glorified in the Son's fulfilment of his purpose,and the Son, on the
other hand, is glorified in the approval that comesfrom the Father (5:41-44), it is
the glory of the Son in terms of the eternal and mutual approval which the Father
and the Son share in common. When this is read alongside the claim of Jesusin
W. Walker Jr. have been lured into reading this petition for glorification as a Johannine
equivalentof the petition for the "sanctification" of the divine name in the Lord's Prayer
of the synoptics. While Walker acknowledges that SoECEwand ayLaCELvare not
identical in meaning, he does not hesitate to say that "in this context of prayer, the
difference is not great." In the Lord's prayer, the yU(EW is in reference to the divine
name (a synonym for God himself), whereasin John the W Ew is in referenceto the
Father and the Son, and somewhat extends to the disciples (17: 1,4,5,10,22,24). This
differenceaccordingto Walker is due to JohannineChristology and "the Fourth Gospel's
somewhat `mystical' view of the relationship between the Father, the Son, and the
disciples." (See Walker Jr., "The Lord's Prayer in Matthew and John," 240) In light of
our reading of the theme of glorification in John, we find Walker's equation of the
&YWCEwin the Lord's Prayer with So%CELv in John to be too imposing becauseJohn's
notion of glorification is highly influenced by his theological reflection on the passion, a
perspective which is altogether lacking in the of the Lord's Prayer.
222
17:4 that he has glorified the Father on earth, it becomesapparentthat the glory
won only on the basis of the Son's fulfilment of the will of the Father. However,
that the glory is describedas irpb -rob Tv K&Iov Etvat. in sharp contrast to EtrL
doubt that John remains consistent with the manner in which he sets out the
glorification, John has one thing in mind, the predeterminedhour when the Son's
petition for glorification of both the Father and the Son is a plea for the fulfilment
of that which is inevitable. The petition is Jesus' own acceptanceof the design of
In shifting the focus of the petition from Jesusto others, John makes it
clear that Jesus' intercessionis exclusively for the "given ones" (17:9). In the last
messagenot by their own initiative, but becauseof God's prior election. Do the
intercession is exclusively for the disciples (17:9ff). He also echoes his own
immediatedeparturefrom the world as the basis for interceding. It has been part
he has done with the exception of Judas alone (17: 12). However, since Jesus is no
longer in the world, he cannot continue to fulfil the task of keeping them. It is this
role which is being committed to the Father in the petition for protection: II&TEp
'n[IELC(17: 11).
in 10:11ff. John describesthe good shepherdas the one who lays down his life
for the sakeof his sheep,not out of compulsion but sheerwillingness. The reason
for taking such a maximum risk for the well-being of the sheeplies in the fact
that the shepherdowns them (10:12-13). In the arrest scene(18:3ff), Jesusas the
good shepherddemonstrateshis care for his disciples. While Jn. 18 does not
disclose the reason for the involvement of a band of soldiers and police in the
arrestof Jesusat an odd hour, the fact that they came with weaponssuggeststhat
they were preparedto arrest him at all cost. In what could have becomea violent
41
thus sparesthe two sidesthe use of weapons. This self-disclosureto the soldiers
gatewayto the sheepfoldand also the shepherdwho voluntarily lays down his life
for his sheep.Although Lindars was right in his caution that "it is too much to say
that Jesuspays for the safety of the disciples with his life" since he is going to
...
his death in 42
any case, it is also characteristic of the JohannineJesusto ensure
that the disciples remain unharmed,for it is on this basis that he submits himself
where the is
verb trjpECa repeatedas antithesis of aiT6 upL. The latter is used to
noted in the last chapter, Judas is the only disciple who changesposition and
identifies himself with the "other side" and as such decampsfrom the sheepfold
(see pp. 196-197,199-200). In light of this, the meaning of &1r6) uIL in contrast
be
to TrjpEwcan simply statedas "falling 43
out of the sheepfold". In the Johannine
thought pattern, such a falling-out amountsto nothing other than the fulfilment of
his denial of Jesus.It is precisely by the action that the identity of Peter as a disciple
lingers in the recollection of Malchus' relatives (18: 10 cf. 18:26).
In 17:15, the petition for protection is amplified" O)K Epwi tva &pic
&U'
a&rO)N EKto K&TLOU, `iva Tqprjmc a&ro% c'K tob novT1po.
The latter part -
.:
prMC a&roU'CE tot Trovrlpo- echoes a line of the Lord's Prayer (cf.
disciples remain in the world. To whom does "the evil one"45refer in John?The
word novilp6cand its cognatesoccur thrice in John (3: 19; 7:7; 17:15). In 3: 19 it is
than light. A similar notion is found in 7:7 where the works of 0 Kdvocare also
is depicted not only as the domain of darkness(3: 19; 8:12; 9:5; 12:46), but also
,rov,Ip6cis the prince of this world whose works are reflected in the deedsof his
subjects, Kvoc.The petition for the safety of the disciples is a recognition of
the danger that the devil and his agents pose in the world. The stance of the
missionof the disciples is not going to be different from the reaction of the world
allow them to fulfill the will of the Father just as Jesus did in the face of the
disciples and the world (see 17:9,14,15,16) is an indication that the "keeping"
can also mean "preserve them as what they are, a group of men separatedfrom
The fact that the protection is achievable in the Father's name - Ev Ty3
6v6urrC oou - is also noteworthy. Does it imply security in the professionof faith
48In
in the revelation which the disciples have received as Lindars has suggested?
17:6 the name of the Father is said to be the revelation to the disciples. The
"name" is the representationof the totality of all that the Son received from the
Father to be disclosed to the disciples. Thus the petition for protection may be
anotherway of asking the Father to keep the disciples in accordancewith his will
which the Son has revealed to them. It is with that same name that the Son has
111Lc(v. 11). A similar expressionis also found in v. 22. The frequent occurrence
of the iva in
clause the petitionary context of the farewell prayer is significant
becauseit explains the reasonfor reciting the petition. For instance,this petition
for protection in the name of the Father (v. 11) is for the purposeof unity among
the disciples (see our discussion of the iva clause in pp. 187-189). If the result
expectedin the petition for protection is the unity of believers, a unity which is
similar to that of the Father and the Son, in what way doesthat unity fit into the
discussionof the petition for unity, our tentative submissionhere is that the unity
which exists betweenJesusand the Father. Thus the common bond between the
Shepherdand the sheepon the one hand,and betweenJesusand the Father on the
other forms the bedrock of the petition for safety in the Johanninenarrative.
of this Farewell prayer (17: 17,19),the only occurrenceof the verb is in 10:36. In
the context of 10:36, it is used in the sense of setting a person apart for a
particular divine purpose.In John's use of the verb in relation to Jesus,it is the
verb in 17:19 makesJesusthe one who sanctifieshimself. This usageof the verb
with the reflexive pronoun Eautov "is unique in the gospel of John and very rare
elsewhere.This, together with the word ' Ep, leaves us in no doubt that Jesus'
death- in obedience- is stressedagain and again (10: 17f; seealso 13:27b; 14:4;
done for the benefit of others (6:51; 10:11,15; 15:13) and in their place (see
uses the verb with its traditional connotation of setting apart for a divinely
appointed task coheres with Jesus' anticipation of the wpa, the moment of
ultimate conformity to the will of the Father in suffering and in death. In other
similar language his own conformity to the mission which the Father has
appointedfor him.
When it comes to the reading of yL&(Ewin the petition for the disciples
in 17:17, almost all commentatorsagreeon the point that the traditional meaning
of setting apart is in focus but not in the samesensein which Jesusis consecrated
14, the disciples are depicted as keeping the word, which in essence constitutes
the revelation from the Father. On their acceptance of the word, KQoC
1LMIGEV
EI. aino 3 (v. 14). While the aorist tense Fia aEV tends to make the
- -
hatred as an experience of the past, John uses the aorist as if it were a perfect. 52
st Haenchen puts the same point differently in these words: "`To sanctify'
(&yu gELv)is used as a technical term of sacrificial discourse,although the author is not
thinking of Jesus' death as a sacrifice or a surrogate.Yet the Evangelist has to use such
expressionsin order to make it clear, at some risk, that the meaning intended is veiled."
SeeHaenchen,John, vol. 2,155.
52Bernard,GospelAccording to John, vol. 2,572.
229
This is supportedby the fact that the reason for the hatred is expressedin the
'CL OK ELQLV EK TO KOOJIOU KOLA( Eyc OK E'LILl EK TOO KQI.IOU.
presenttense,
The hatred suffered by the disciples began in the past and extendsto the present
the word is not of the world but of the Father. Those who belong to the world
reject not only the word but also those who receive the word. Thus the revelation
one of the by
ways which the disciples are sanctified in Johanninetheology is by
have done (17:6,14). In contrast to Jesus, the petition does not ask for the
human activity. Just as Jesus is sanctified first by the Father (10:36) before
sanctifying himself for the imminent passion (17:19), so also do the disciples
need to be sanctified first by the Father before they can sanctify themselvesfor
The fact that the sanctification requestedfor the disciples is Ev tip & ArIAEL'q
is crucial becausethere is only one medium of truth in John - the Son whom the
Father sent - and the truth is encodedin the words which the Son received from
the Father - Aoyoc 0 o6 &)i eEu Etrv. Brown puts it thus: "We must
that
remember in Johanninetheology Jesusis both the Word and the truth (xiv 6),
10] who is holy). The disciples have accepted and kept the word that Jesus
brought them from God (xvii 6,14); this word has cleansedthem (xv 3); now it
other. This is to say that if the reading of Ev Tci vdati. is locative rather
their continuation within the scopeof the revelation they have been given by the
Son. Bultmann summed up this point when he affirmed that holiness (i. e.
word that calls it out of the world, and to the truth that sets it free from the
chapter15.
sanctification57,it is beyond doubt that the goal of the sanctification petitioned for
the disciples is to set them on course for their mission in the world. This is
18: KIX06EMIL &1TECJtELXac Etc TV K&J}LOV, K&()
apparentin v. LIirEatELaa a&roic
ELCtbv Koov.Just as the Son is the Father's medium of revelation to the world,
in (and to) the world from which the Son will soon depart.It is as a preludeto the
disciples' fulfilment of their assignedmission Etc cbv K6%lovthat the petition for
sanctification finds its relevance in the Fourth Gospel. The petition does not
anticipatea particular changebut reaffirms that which the disciples have already
done, acceptingand keeping the word from the Father. The disciples have been
able to acceptand keep the word, not by their own initiative but becauseof their
predestinationby the Father. It is evident from this petition that the Father does
not give certain people (i. e. the disciples) to Jesusarbitrarily but for a purpose:to
4. Unity (17:20-23)
In the petition for unity, some scholars have interpreted the unity as a
17 writes,
harmonizeJohn's farewell prayer with the Lord's Prayer of the synoptic gospels
has led him to develop a highly mystical concept of unity. Although scholars
have drawn attention to the parallels betweenJn 17 and the Eucharistic prayer of
the Didache (chapters9,10), 59the fact of the matter is that, as Agourides rightly
observed,the 60
similarities are remote. The best we can make of the parallels is
well summed by
up Brown:
59 The following parallels are often cited by scholars:the theme of glory (Jn. 17:
1,5,22 cf. Didache 9:2,3,4; 10:2,4,5); addressingthe Father as IIarEp yLE(Jn. 17:11
cf. Didache 10:2); the petition of deliverance from evil (Jn. 17:15 cf. Didache 10:5).
However, despitetheseparallels, "Didache ix-x mentions the eucharisticbread and wine,
while John xvii does not." SeeBrown, John xiii - xxi, 747.
60Agourides, "`High-Priestly Prayer'," 142.
233
ideal model of unity is the kind of onenesswhich exists betweenthe Father and
the 62
Son, and the unity is expressedin terms of common will, 0E1%=.While
there is a distinction betweenthe Father and the Son, there is no difference in the
63
will of the two. However, it is Tb 8EAtjaof the Father which determinesthe
actions of the Son and not vice versa. Thus the unity of the disciples lies in the
fact that their activities in the world are not only guided by but also in conformity
emphasison the theme of unity as embodiedby the Father and the Son, the sense
the mission is revealing to the world the will of the Father as embodied by the
Son (17:21,23). This T AEiila does not change, and it is the Johannine
which are relevant to the farewell prayer of Jn. 17. In his review of such scholarly
exhortative, admonitory and polemical. Whilst all these five functions may fit
well in the broader context of the Johannine farewell discourse (chaps. 13-17),
Firstly, the function of the prayer within the broader context of John's
for the disciples, Jesus summarizes his mission in the world as making the
65 Such works include W. S. Kurz, "Luke 22: 14-38 and Greco-Roman and
Biblical Farewell Addresses, " JBL 104 (1985), 251-68; H. J. Michel, Die
Abschiedsrede des Paulus an die Kirche Apg 20: 17-38: Motivgeschichte und
theologische Bedeutung, SANT 35 (Munich:Kiisel, 1973); E. Stauffer,
"Abschiedsreden, " RAC 1 (1950), 29-35; J. Munck, "Discours d'adieu dans le Nouveau
Testament et dans la litti rature biblique," in Aux sources de la tradition chretienne:
Melanges offerts a M. Maurice Goguel, Bibliotheque theologique (Neuchatel and Paris:
Delachaux& Niestle, 1950), 155-70.
further defined as os E& KCrcoL EKto ic6aouand by so doing John recalls the
gospel.
disciplesare sharply differentiated from the world at large. While they are in the
drawing a distinction betweenthe disciples and the world, the prayer assuresthe
disciples of their continued associationwith the Son and the Father rather than
mission of the Son on earth and its implications for the disciples in their
relationship with the Father on the one hand, and the world on the other. The
Jesus'prayer for himself, the farewell petition is exclusively for the "given ones"
and it takes into account the condition of these given ones in the world. The
petition is a plea for the continuation of what Jesushas done until now (17: 12).
E. Summary
Are the petitions in the Fourth Gospel consistent with its perspectiveon
doesnot ask the Fatherto grant anything, either for Jesushimself or his disciples,
other than that which is the will of the Father as embodiedby the Son. Thus the
petitions are in harmony with the purpose of the Father for both Jesus and the
236
determinism in that the will of the Father cannot be altered, not even by the
petitions of his chosenones, rather his "given ones" must make their petitions in
CONCLUSION
It has been the primary goal of this study to explore the theme of
determinismas articulated in the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Fourth Gospel, and to
of each book. As stated in the introduction (see pp. 12-13), our approach has
text exploresthe theme of determinism and petitionary prayer within the scopeof
its literary framework as a unified whole. In the light of our investigation, we can
state without hesitation that petitionary prayers within the framework of the
determinism in our studied texts do not anticipate a change but ask for the
A. Overview
In chapter one, we set out the background against which the themes of
account of Genesisdepicts God as creator and the one who sets the course of
in
encountered the apocalyptic writings of the SecondTemple Judaism. On the
making petition, various terms are employed, and this kind of human
blessingetc) that formed the media usedby later generationsto expresstheir need
in Isaac's prayer for a child. Petition can also anticipate change in the state of
He does not only create everything, Diu, but sets and sustains its course to its
determinism of the two spirits and their relations to human beings that is given
prominent attention. In 1QS, the determinism is not about human beings but the
two spirits that embody the actions which human beings perform. Soteriological
wal -"what is good" - and 'w; t- "what is right" - from Moses and the Prophets.
In this unchangingwill of God lies the way of salvation for the membersof the
appointedtime set by God when the era of Belial is terminated and the reign of
truth is established.
239
Chapter three explored the petitionary prayers of the Rule; the petitions
the contents of the petitions are in harmony with the theme of determinism
articulatedin IQS. This is evident for instance in the fact that the languageof the
in the domain of either the spirit of truth or the spirit of deceit. In other words, the
petitions are human pleas to the God of knowledge, asking him to act in
in is
anticipated each petition granted accordingly only by aligning oneself into
are designatedas "the given ones" of the Father. The responsesof believing and
outworking of the Father's prior election on the one hand, and the outworking of
the necessity of the scripture on the other. In spite of this explanation, the
predestinationof the given ones, his case is unique in that his falling out of the
240
sheepfoldis also due to the outworking of the necessityof the scripture. Another
aspectof the determinism of the Fourth Gospel is with regard to the mission of
the Son.He came into the world to fulfil the specific task assignedto him by the
Father.His "hour" was set by the Father, and whateverhe did was determinedby
in
articulated the text. The petitions are meant exclusively for the given ones.
And the contents of the petitions seek to preserve the structure of the
determinism.By asking for the protection of the given ones and their onenessin
the world, the anticipation is that they should remain who they are: maintaining
their distinctivenessas the elect of the Father and not falling out of the sheepfold
among the given ones will perish, not becausethey are being prayed for but
becausethe Father has determinedit so. Thus the petition for protection is a plea
to God to fulfil that which he has decreed.The same point is also true of the
for the disciples, and sets them on course to fulfil the task for which they are
given to the Son; to become the embodiment of divine revelation just as Jesus
context of John and the Dead Sea Scrolls debate.In our introduction, we called
attention to scholarly theories of relationship betweenJohn and IQS (see pp. 22-
will be helpful.
They both perceive that the will of God is permanently fixed and
that the will of God residesin the revelation given to Moses and the Prophets(see
pp.106-118). This revelation gains its enduring credence not because it came
through Moses and the Prophets,but becauseit contains that which is eternally
"good" and "right" before God. The task of each generationis not to "invent" the
will of God but to "discover" it, and this, accordingto our study, explains to some
Community.
6:39-40; 17:2-3). The eternal life is fixed exclusively and permanentlyin the Son.
nuanceto this will of God both in 1QS and in John. Salvation is guaranteedonly
in the will of God. According to the Rule, the observanceof God's will means
that the visitation of the Community memberswill be "healing and great peacein
this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has
given me, but raise it up on the last day. This is indeedthe will of my Father,that
all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise
While the two texts agree on the permanenceof the will of God, they
differ on their perception of where that divine will resides.In IQS, the will of
God, x Im, is found in the Torah and the Prophets.There is no truth about God
the will of the Father is exclusively christological. John does not reject the
Scripture, rather he seesthe Son as the new-Moses in whom the will of God
discover the will of God as the Qumranites did, John stressesthe point that one
needs to believe the words of the Son who himself is the embodiment of ib
6 gjia of the Father. Unlike 1QS where the will of God is appropriatedby the
that the Father has sent.The fact that IQS emphasizeshuman action is consistent
with its focus on the permanenceof the two spirits and the deedsallotted to each
of them. It is the spirits and the deeds in their domain which are determined.
Human beings belong in the domain of either light or darknessby their choice of
actions, and not by prior allotment of people into the domain of truth and deceit.
decision of the Father in the prior election of the given ones. In other words, it is
The determinismin the Rule and John is theocentric in that God is the one
who setsthe course of a given event. In IQS, it is the "God of Knowledge" who
arrangesthe order of the world, and sets its course in motion (see pp. 82ff.). He
does not only set the order in motion, he guides its course to conform to his
design.The same God establishesvice and virtue upon the spirits of deceit and
Similarly in John it is the Father who determinesthose who believe by his prior
election of the "given ones". He guides the given ones to the Son by drawing
them (6:44). The Father is also responsiblefor defining the mission of the Son in
the world. While the terminology is not exactly alike, there is no difference in the
function of the "God of Knowledge" and the "Father" in the Scrolls and John
1QS and John could be accountedfor on the basis of the influence of a common
betweenJohn and IQS on what God has determined.In the Rule, it is the cosmic
order that God predetermined,whereas in John, it is the human being that God
God as the source of every occurrence, and the one who sustains the orderly
everything, Diu, it gives detailed attention only to that aspectof creation (i. e. the
two spirits and the deeds in their domains) which has a direct bearing on the
actions of human beings. John, on the other hand, gives attention to people. Its
determinism is focused on the election of certain people for the Son. Even when
244
determinism are similar. They both explore petitionary prayer not as a meansof
arrangementset forth by God. Unlike the narrative prayersof the Bible which are
informed by circumstances, the petitions of IQS and John are much more
Community as belonging in the domain of the spirit of truth. Those who were
once outside and wishing to enter must renounce their previous "walk" which
amountsto being in domain of the spirit of deceit so as to gain admission into the
In 1QS,the petitions are recited by all with the leading of the Levites and
the Priests,the only exception is the benedictory and imprecatory petitions which
are invoked upon people by only the Priests and Levites. On the contrary, in
John, the petition is recited by Jesuswho is the main characterof John, and no
one else. While the disciples are encouraged to pray, there is no nuance of
245
the Father, it must be in the name of the Son. Thus for John, there is a
Christological nuanceto the disciples' petition. However, in both John and 1QS
the petitions are composed in such manners that they do no violence to their
respectivedeterministic construct.
Rule, the determinism of the two spirits serves as a medium by which the
membersin the Community emergeas objects of the eternal love of God. This is
worked out in the categorization of their deeds into the domain of the spirit of
truth. It is this spirit and its ethical properties that the Lord loves forever, and
love. In relation to those who are outside, only the members in the Community
are true Israelites, the beloved of God. In a similar manner, it is in the motif of
determinism that John draws the line between the world and the disciples. John
traces the origin of the Johannine believers back to God by stressing that the
Father himself gives them to Jesus.The hostility, which confronts the disciples in
the form of hatred by the world, and the banishment from the Synagogue,is
inescapablebecauseof their link with the avw, `above'. The reluctance of "the
In the context of John and IQS debate, our study has shown that the
similar social concern which each text attempts to address.Both John and the
246
divine origin for their respective community. Although scholars such as Brown,
Ashton and Charlesworth are commendable for their insight to the debate, the
comparisonof John and the Rule needsto go beyond surface similarity to deeper
of common terminology, symbolism and dualism is not enough, the claim must
take into account how each text employs the terminology, symbolism and
Second Temple period was not peculiar to one particular group, becausethe
concept was already present in the biblical tradition. Each group developedits
own theology as it interacted with the biblical tradition to find legitimacy for its
It needsto be said, however, that this study does not presumethe absence
the texts which are not easily harmonizedwith the concept of determinism.In the
Rule, the tension is evident in the ambiguity of the text as to how human beings
participate in the two spirits. Does God determine the level of individual's
each of the spirits left to the discretion of the individual? While the latter position
is adoptedin our study, further investigation along this area is still required for a
more precise understanding of the relationship of the two spirits with human
beings.
disciples are the `given ones', none of whom is destined to perish according to
John, why is Judas (who is described as `devil' and `the son of perdition')
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