Creation at Qumran

CD 2.2ff, esp. 2.7; 11-12, CD 4.20-5.2 the principle of creation is male and female he created them CD 4This is the rule for the judges of the nation. They shall be ten men in all chosen 5from the nation at the proper time: four from the tribe of Levi and Aaron, and from Israel 6six men learned in the Book of Meditation and in the basic covenant principles, from the age of 7twenty-five to sixty. No one above the age 8of sixty shall hold the office of judge of the nation, because when Adam broke faith, 9his life was shortened, and in the heat of anger against the earth's inhabitants, God commanded 10their minds to regress before their life was over. Geniza A col. 10 1QS 3:13-4:26; 10 1QSb/28 IV 27 may he make you holy, like the [great] light 1QM 10.11-16 Creation Hymn 1QM 17.4: their desire goes towards chaos and emptiness 1QH 9 (cf. Gen 1-3; Ps 104), 16 (cf. Gen 2-3), and 18 (cf. Ps 8); 26.41-42 1Q26/4Q415-18,423Instruction, DJD 34 4Q416 17-10; 4Q417 1 1 16-18; 4Q423 2 and 3 4Q180-81Ages of Creation A-B, DJD 4Q184Wiles of the Wicked Woman: She is the beginning (reshit) of all the ways of wickedness . . . for her paths are paths of death. 4Q216Jubileesa 5:17:5 4Q259Rule of the Community + 319Otot IV 10-11 light on the fourth day of creation 4Q265Miscellaneous Rule frag 7 col. II the weeks of creation and purity of woman in childbirth 4Q287Blessings(b 4 2) 4Q301MysteriesC 3 6: over what is in the earth he gave him dominion 4Q303-5Meditations on Creation DJDXX 4Q370 On the Flood 4Q381Non-Canoncial Psalms B Frag 1, 15 DJDXI 4Q385Pseudo-Ezekiel The author . . . makes several changes and additions, emphasising a certain reading of the text. One of these additions is the repeated formula, , and it was so, in lines 6, 7, and 8 of fragment 2. When combined with the numerous other echoes of the creation accounts in Genesis, this formula,

Creation at Qumran
found in Genesis 1:7, 9, 11, 15, 24 and 30 appears to be a conscious link between the eschatological resurrection of the dead described in these fragments and the story of creation. In Pseudo-Ezekiel the insufflations of life-giving breath at the eschaton appeared to be understood as an act of new creation, echoing the original creation as described in Genesis 1. 44, Yates, Spirit and Creation. 4Q392Works of God DJD 29 4Q408Morning and Evening Prayer DJD: creation of day and night signs of dominion of darkness and light 4Q422Paraphrase of Genesis and Exodus 1 I 9-12: echoes the eating of the fruit of Gen 3 4Q427-32Hodayot, DJD 29 4Q440Hodayot like text C the fourth day; portions of light and darkness = periods of dominion? 4Q457aCreation? DJD 29 4Q475Renewed Earth, DJD: earth will be like eden 4Q504,6Words of the Luminaries a-b (esp. frag 8 recto of 504 and all of 506) DJD VII Adam created in the likeness of Gods glory; Israel created for Gods glory 4Q507Festival Prayersa Frag. 1: 4Q521Messianic Apocalpyse 2 ii.6 There are many references and echoes of creation here in the eschatological context of renewal 11Q5Psalmsa(Hymn to the Creator) 26:11b-15: angels witness Gods separation of light from darkness Questions/thoughts: Was the tree of knowledge off limits? Cf. 4QInstruction, Ben Sirah, Community Rule The glory of Adam involves eternal life, which is considered part of the lot of angels, and its possession is signified by access to privileged knowledge, simultaneously identified as angelic knowledge. Does this imply a reading of the creation account in which the original intention of humankind was immortality, a sharing in the lot of the angels, and access to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? On this account the problem with the flesh is explicable: flesh inherently decays; it is incompatible with the original intention of humankind; access to the tree of knowledge was forbidden to the fleshly Adam.