Skip to navigation | Skip to main content | Skip to footer
Search by multiple inventory points or book comparison
Full Inventory point list:
 
44 books found
 
     
Hodayot 1QHa [Fragment] (Researcher: Alexander Samely):
Selected Inventory point(s):
1.1 Individual part-texts: The text refers to itself as verbal entity (with implied or explicit boundaries): for most part-texts (hymns) of the compound the opening "I will praise/thank you, Lord, ..." (odekhah adonai) or, "Blessed are you, Lord..." (barukh attah adonai) provides an acknowledgement of the part-text's existence and generic theme.

Full profile (Bibliography at the bottom):
1.1 Individual part-texts: The text refers to itself as verbal entity (with implied or explicit boundaries): for most part-texts (hymns) of the compound the opening "I will praise/thank you, Lord, ..." (odekhah adonai) or, "Blessed are you, Lord..." (barukh attah adonai) provides an acknowledgement of the part-text's existence and generic theme.

1.1.1 Individual part-texts: The text refers to itself using a genre term, speech act term, verb or other term implying verbal constitution: see 1.1.

1.1.2 Individual part-texts: The text speaks of itself as dealing with an overall theme (subject matter) or purpose, or as consisting of coordinated parts making a whole: the opening verb in the first person (or the passive form, in the case of barukh) provides an overall purpose or theme of the part-text.

1.1.4.1 The text has a superscription concerning “to whom” it is addressed or for whose use it is: three apparent part-texts have the partly restored superscriptions "Song (mizmor) to the instructor" (1QHa 5:12) and למשכיל, "to the instructor" (1QHa 20:7, 25:34); a different construction in 7:21. The term "maskil" occurs once more when in the part-text that begins at 20:7, the first person refers to himself as "maskil" at 20:14. See 2.2.2.

1.6 The approximate word count or other indication of comparative size is: very approximately 7,135. This is the result of a quick hand count of the words (including restored ones, but not fragments of words) in Stegemann and Schuller. Although it should not be relied upon for absolutely precise figures, the count by column is as follows: 2- 28; 3- 54; 4- 217; 5- 250; 6- 269; 7-317; 8- 290; 9- 361; 10- 359; 11- 427; 12- 449; 13- 424; 14- 395; 15- 370; 16- 434; 17- 337; 18- 317; 19- 323; 20- 299; 21- 238; 22- 192; 23- 208; 24- 130; 25- 145; total without col. 26 = 6,833; 26- 302 (mostly reconstructed from 4Q fragments); total including col. 26 = 7,135.

1.7 The text’s Inventory profile should be seen in the light of the following further information on completeness, thematic progression, aesthetic effects, etc.: The text reconstructed as 1QHa is very incomplete; apart from the first column and the ending, parts of most columns are missing. With all material available from other manuscripts (from cave 4) used to fill in the gaps, Stegemann estimates that 75% of the text is extant or can be reconstructed. It is therefore speculative to say anything substantial, as is here attempted, about the text's overall literary constitution. The text shape described here is that as given in Stegemann and Schuller with respect to the overall sequence of parts and columns (largely unchanged from some of the recent preceding editions, including Garcia Martinez and Tigchelaar). For an overview of the part texts see the bottom of the Bibliography. The resulting picture is one of a compound of more than 28 smaller independent part-texts (often called "psalms" or "hymns" in the scholarship), conceived along the lines of Psalm-like prayer texts in the first person, although not imitating the poetics of the biblical Psalms (see 7.1). The pieces or part-texts were perhaps often, but not necessarily always, clearly marked off from each other (see overview in the bibliography, and 9.13), but now at least some of these transitions are likely to be lost to lacunae, so the total number of pieces is uncertain. It is also clear from other Qumran fragments that other sequences of the same part-texts, selections, and compounds with other part-texts, existed in other fragmentary manuscripts found at Qumran. However, regardless of where exactly the boundaries between some of the part-texts fall (and adapting the sequence as here in 1QHa in Stegemann and Schuller), it seems certain that, overall, 1QHa Hodayot constitutes a compound of part-texts, falling under the category 10.2.

Top of the Page

2.1 The information conveyed in the text defines the perspective of the governing voice in the following way:

2.1.2 Individual part-texts: The governing voice thematizes how it comes to know the text’s contents or its right to command obedience from the text’s addressee. Its perspective is presented as limited, referring either to evidence, or to personal experience (mere human knowledge): the part-texts pervasively cast their speaking personae as depending in their knowledge on God, or the truth of something being demonstrated by certain kinds of "evidence" (see 8.1.8 reason clauses, and 5.6). There are also rhetorical questions which stress the inferior epistemic position of humans vis-a-vis the knowledge of God, going hand in hand with stressing the importance of understanding God, at least partly through nature and his "wonders" (see 2.6). However, the specific contents of the knowledge are not comparatively rarely given. One passage in which this happens is 7:26–7: "in your hand is the inclination of every spirit [and all] its [activi]ty you determined before you created it" (Newsom's translation in Stegemann and Schuller). Much more commonly knowledge in the abstract, as well as the having of knowledge and understanding, are thematized. Yet while the knowledge is thus sourced to an "outside" of the speaking persona, and the governing voice's perspective is admitted to be limited and requiring mediating sources, the knowledge itself is characterized as certain and a number of apodictic claims are made about God (even though largely in the form of "praise", that is, a "flattering" engagement with the projected addressee God). This is reflected partly also in unlimited or generalized statements, manifest indirectly in the number of occurrences of the word "all" (c. 250; see concordance in Stegemann and Schuller, pp. 356–8); and certain uses of "forever" (עולם), also a word occurring frequently (about c. 80 times), could perhaps also be taken to point in the same direction. The universality of the claims could be seen as standing in a somewhat pervasive and immanent tension to the limited epistemic horizon and the petitioning stance also embodied the first-person governing voice vis-a-vis God (see 7.1.5.3.3), also stressed to some extent by use of words such as "dust" (עפר, also four times אפר, occurring some 40 times, occasionally explicitly combined with "I am"), and "clay". The result of this tension is perhaps to convey that while the governing voice presents itself as merely human, it is nevertheless privy to divine knowledge which, while not being spelled out in terms of anything that surpasses ordinary human perception (e.g., of nature), conveys a special certainty and universal force to otherwise "ordinary" generalized statements. This could be seen to distinguish the epistemic attitude of some of the part-texts from many biblical Psalms (see 7.1.5.3.3). See Newsom, The Self, pp. 191–286.

2.1.4 Individual part-texts: The governing voice explicitly acknowledges that something mentioned in the text cannot be adequately expressed or conveyed: this point applies in a modified meaning, in that on occasion the governing voice expresses the wish that he may "find" the "tongue" to recount/respond to something, e.g., 4:28 (although Newsom in Stegemann and Schuller translates simply as, "I will find...", p. 73); a similar expression in 8:24.

2.1.5 Individual part-texts: The information in the text is characterized as secret or as (made) known exclusively to the persona projected by the governing voice: while "secrets" are often referred to, just as wondrous deeds and similar topics, the contents of these secrets is not spelled out, so that the text does not contain that contents. It is nevertheless perhaps suggested that the governing voice does actually know the specifics of these secrets. The term raz occurs c. 25 times (in the concordance of Stegemann and Schuller, including reconstructed occurrences), albeit not evenly distributed; columns 3, 4, 6–8, 11, 14, 22, 23 and 25 insofar as they are extant, do not have this term. The noun "wonder" (פלא) and its verbal root occur together about 55 times (not in the extant parts of cols. 3, 4, 16), at least 8 of them substantially reconstructed.

2.1.7 Individual part-texts: The governing voice (whether first or third person) is anonymous, that is, is not presented as tied to a specific personal identity (or to personhood in general): this is true for the part-texts which present a generic "I"; for part-texts "to the Maskil", see 7.2.7 and 2.2.2.

2.2 Individual part-texts: A first-person voice imposes its perspective on all (or almost all) knowledge or norms conveyed in the text: see the points above and compare Newsom, The Self, pp. 191–286.

2.2.2 Part-texts beginning 1QHa 7:21, 20:7 and 25:34: The first person voice identifies itself by name or uniquely identifying expression (once or repeatedly): if "maskil" is presented in the text as referring to a historically unique individual (as opposed to a functionary) then the phrase "And I, maskil, know you my God by the spirit..." at 1QHa 20:14 is such a self-identification of the governing voice, for one of the part-texts. There are other instances of self-identification throughout the compound of part-texts, namely, "I your servant". This occurs for the first time in 4:23 and there are c. 24 other passages where "your servant", even without first person pronoun, is refers to the persona of the first-person governing voice, which presumably has to be understood as entirely generic. (The term "servant", עבד, only occurs with the second person possessive suffix.) See also 7.2.7.

2.2.3 Individual part-texts: The first-person governing voice is not identified by name or unique identifier, but speaks of himself/herself in the first person at least once: the absence of an identification of the persona of the "I" is the normal case for most piece, while also generic descriptive phrases like "your servant" to himself (the use of the first person is pervasive).

2.2.4 The number and gender of the first-person governing voice are as follows:

2.2.4.1 Individual part-texts: The first person singular is used: this is overwhelmingly the case. There are some 50 occurrences of the independent pronoun אני alone, if reconstructed occurrences are included, almost invariably introduced by we-, "and"; see the concordance in Stegemann and Schuller, p. 330 and Vegas Montaner.

2.2.4.2 Individual part-texts: The first person plural is used: there is one part-text in which the independent pronoun "we" occurs, 1QHa 7:17; as suffix it appears more often, e.g., in 6:13. A list of occurrences in Stegemann and Schuller, p. 90, identifies the further six certain occurrences, in 7:12–20 and one 26:6 (further ones in that column from 4QHa).

2.2.4.4 Individual part-texts: The first person forms are marked for gender: in a number of passages, as when combined with the word "maskil" or "servant", the speaking persona is marked as male.

2.4 Individual part-texts: The governing voice defines a horizon of knowledge as shared with the projected addressee by taking for granted the following linguistic usages or references (in selection):

2.4.1 Persons or unique objects referred to by proper name or by technical expression: Moses is mentioned once (1QHa 4:24, as mediator of God's word); She'ol is mentioned, e.g., 4:25 and another 8 times (three times in col. 11), including She'ol Abaddon.

2.4.1.3 for Gods/mythical figures/supernatural beings, etc., for example: the word "Adonai" (as אדני) is commonly used in the opening line of a new part-text, in particular after odekha(h). The term "El" is common, in particular with the first person suffix; "El Elyon" occurs in 12:32; 14:36; the plural also, in the biblical "Who is like you among the elim" (15:31); the expression "prince of the elim" occurs in 18:10. "[Your] Name" is used as standing in for mention of God, e.g., in 4:32 and in some 14 other passages (usually as object of the verbs to praise (h.l.l.) or to bless (b.r.k.). "Your (God's) holy spirit" is mentioned 8:20–21 and 25. On a number of occasions, a divine name is indicated in palaeo-Hebrew signs: 7:38, 9:28, 10:36. Angels are mentioned four times generically, including "angels of presence" (14:16,בגורל יחד עם מלאכי פנים) and angels of heaven (partly restored, 24:11). Another expression of commonality with angels like the one just quoted occurs as "And to come into community (יחד) with the counsel of the children/sons of heaven (ביחד עם עדת בני שמים)", in 11:23, in which line "the host of the holy ones" is also mentioned. The implied or explicit communion with heavenly beings in praising God is mentioned 1QHa 7:12-20, 11:19-24, 14:12-14 and 19:13-17 (if "sons of heaven" is constructed, also 19:27-30), see Schuller, "Recent Scholarship", p. 151. The word "spirit(s)" is very common (about 80 occurrences), and has a wide range of nuances (including some occurrences of the meaning "wind"); many are linked to humans, but some are clearly references to supernatural creatures, such as the "holy spirits" (16:13, alongside "strong warriors" guarding a fountain of life), and for a considerable number of occurrences is it at least possible to understand them as hypostasized entities (cp. "lord of every spirit", 18:10). "Belial" occurs a number of times (c. 12), and "Satan", probably not used as proper name but as generic "hinderer", occurs twice (22:25, 24:23).

2.4.1.5 [for times or calendar dates (specific to a language or culture), for example: there appears to be no mention at all of any of the major festivals, nor of the Shabbat; I have also not come across any names of months, while abstract terms for time spans are very frequent.]

2.4.3 The text as a whole routinely employs the following language(s), knowledge of which is taken for granted: Hebrew.

2.4.3.1 Additional language(s) taken for granted in quoted speech or certain parts of the text are: rudimentary familiarity with the palaeo-Hebrew alphabet, or at lest the appearance of the divine name in it, is taken for granted. See 2.4.1.3.

2.4.4 Special linguistic usages occur pervasively or prominently:

2.4.4.1 Technical expressions for a particular subject matter: this is rare, but includes use of the term "maskil" as referring to a particular person or role. Prominent by its absence appears to be the term yahad (יחד) in any technical sense (most of the occurrences are in adverbial constructions, and the concordance in Stegemann and Schuller lists only one occurrence of the noun, in a restored line at 26:28; but hides some ambiguous cases; see also 8.1.17). Other terminological hallmarks of "sectarian" Qumran views, such as "lot", are either not very common or absent. "Lot" appears 9 times (3 times in col. 11); "darkness" and "light" occur, but not particularly insistently, and never in collocation with "sons of". The word סוד with some 30 occurrences is quite frequent, in meanings that range from council to (secret?) counsel and foundation.

2.4.4.4 Biblicizing language, such that the text may be assumed to project itself as having a link to texts today known as biblical (see 7.1.4.1); on the question of the nature and extent of the occurrence of waw consecutives in the text, see Vegas Montaner.

2.6 The text presents itself as speaking to certain persons, groups or entities, explicitly projecting a certain image of its addressee.

2.6.1 The governing voice uses apostrophe, second-person grammatical forms or first-person exclusive or inclusive “we”.

2.6.2 The projected addressee is characterized as having a certain moral or epistemic stance, or as standing in contrast to another group’s moral or epistemic stance: the use of words for knowing and understanding for the first person persona, and for God, is pervasive, with or without contrast to others. The concordance included in Stegemann and Schuller lists 77 occurrences of the verbal root "to know", in addition to which there are nouns for understanding (בינה), intelligence, insight and truth, etc., including knowledge itself (as דעה or דעת) which is found c. 30 times. (with חכמה being comparatively rare). Often the verb "to know" is preceded by "and I", or by "and" alone and followed by "that" (כי); where כי precedes the verb, God tends to be the subject ("For you know...."). The noun "truth" (emet) occurs approximatley as often as the verb "to know". Verbs other than "to know" for the act of understanding something are also common, such as בין "to understand". The projected addressee, without being directly addressed in most cases, is implicitly placed by these formulations among those who, for example, "seek insight and those who search for understanding" (6:13–14).

2.6.4 The governing voice directs questions at the projected addressee which are marked as rhetorical or as suggesting the audience assume a particular epistemic or moral stance: the use of rhetorical questions is regular, e.g., 1QHa 3:27, 5:30–1, p:27 and a considerable number of other passages (the concordance in Stegemann and Schuller lists c. 30 occurrences of the interrogative mah/what? and another c. 20 of mi/who?).

2.6.5 The governing voice employs exclamatory or declamatory modes of speech (cf. 8.1.13): this is the basic mood of many sentences throughout the part-texts.

Top of the Page

3.3 For a number of indivdiual part-texts which make up Hodayot the following point applies: The text bears resemblance in length and theme to a biblical prayer, song, lament or psalm, and is thereby recognizable as constituting a single piece (3.2 does not apply).

3.4 For most of the individual part-texts which make up Hodayot the following point applies: The text constitutes one piece in a sequence of pieces that only show themselves as separate from each other by their contrast in adjacency (3.2 does not apply to this single piece). The contrast may arise from theme, perspective, opening or closing formulae, terms of address and style (including language, poetic devices): all these criteria apply to some extent, as well as, in some part-texts, a distinct cluster of topics. For the aggregate of part-texts, see 10.2.

3.6 The language of a text whose boundaries are not determined by poetic formation or by contrast in adjacency (3.2–4 does not apply) exhibits poetic formation as follows: this point deals with the whole of Hodayot, that is, with the nature of the collection as a prima facie continuous text. The whole of Hodayot, irrespective of the fact that it falls into part-texts each of which may have its formal, perspectival or thematic boundaries, is marked by language which is "poetic" in the following sense: (and see 10.2)

3.6.3 There is pervasive use of other features that can be interpreted as defining poetic formation, such as heightened or figurative language, repetitions of key phrases, short or otherwise poetically defined lines, etc. There is also occasional (but very far from pervasive) use of parallelism, e.g., 6:25–6.

Top of the Page

5.6 Individual part-texts: The text pervasively provides explicit links between successive sub-topics, without at the same time mirroring an objective order as in 5.2–5 or in some other manner; the text is also not a case of 3.1: the use of waw/"and" (or "but") is pervasive within and between sentences. It is regularly used also after a shift to a new theme ("And I now that...") and thus can articulate larger parts within any one part-text (often after vacats indicating a shift of theme). The occurrences of waw must number well over one thousand across the whole compound text, as a rough calculation on the basis of Stegemann and Schuller's concordance (p. 343) shows (and the independent pronound "ani", "I", occurs almost never without it, see 2.2.4.1). There are about 170 occurrences of "ki" either meaning "that" (e.g., after a verb of knowing), or "for" (introducing a reason clause), as well as a considerable number of the pronoun "these" used as anaphoric discourse deixis. And while the part-texts do not constitute a conceptual inquiry (thus no 5.6.1), they contain many individual declarations that something is "known" or "understood", or that knowledge or understanding can be acquired. In thus emphasizing the centrality of cognition, in particular with regard to God whose role as shaper of reality is occasionally the explicit topic, the universality of the claims of (about) knowing provide the text with a flavour that resembles in certain respects the enquiry into reality as such, and thus the part-tetxs partake, in a certain way, in the self-bounding nature of reality as a topic. It is likely that for this aspect of the text, differences between individual part-texts within the compound are potentially of great significance.

5.9 The text’s governing voice projects the accuracy or validity of its statements as: see the observations under 2.1.2.

Top of the Page

7.1 Narrative or thematic correspondences, or overlap of specific wording, occur between a non-biblical text and one or more biblical texts in a manner that is prominent or pervasive.

7.1.4 Individual part-texts: The text shares features of language with the Hebrew Bible, or exhibits tacit overlap with specific biblical wording, whether narrative or not: this is common, although the particular manner in which the Hodayot contain poetic language is, on the whole, quite different from that of the Psalms in particular, whom they most resemble in outer length, perspective and theme; see also Hughes.

7.1.4.1 Individual part-texts: There are pervasive biblical linguistic features (vocabulary, morphology or syntax) or a pervasive use of unspecific biblical language, such as generic biblical phrases or single words.

7.1.4.2 Individual part-texts: The text contains prominently, but not necessarily frequently, the wording of specific biblical passages such as whole sentences or unique biblical phrases, used in a tacit manner: this occurs pervasively in certain stretches of the text, although often the biblical wording is dissolved into new syntax and propositions. An obvious example is the allusion to Deut. 6:4 in 7:23. See Newsom's notes on her translations in Stegemann and Schuller for a detailed discussion of the biblical allusions and other linguistic features, e.g., p. 156; beyond that, there is a considerable number of scholarly treatments of the biblical allusions. See also 8.1.4.1.

7.1.5 Individual part-texts: The projected persona of the governing voice of the text, whether a narrative or not, is also known from a biblical text, or the governing voice assumes an epistemic stance similar to that of a biblical text.

7.1.5.3 Individual part-texts: The epistemic stance of the governing voice (narrative or not, first person or not) can be interpreted as falling into the same generic category as one of the following stances also adopted in biblical texts:

7.1.5.3.3 Individual part-texts: The plea to God of human prayer or supplication, as in Psalms: this is very approximately true in many part-texts, but see 2.1.2 and Newsom, The Self, pp. 191–286; Schuller, "Petitionary Prayer".

7.2 Individual part-texts: Narrative or thematic correspondences, or overlap of specific wording, occur between the non-biblical text under discussion and other non-biblical texts in a manner that is prominent or pervasive: there are a number of ideas, including that of a moral pre-determination of human beings by God (7:26–7:, see 2.1.2), which overlap with other "sectarian" Qumran texts. Also, the term "maskil" occurs in a usage similar to other Qumran texts. However, some of the terminological hallmarks of sectarian thinking in other texts are absent or not used in this terminological manner. See 2.4.4.1.

7.2.5 Individual part-texts: There are prominent single allusions to specific wording found in a non-biblical partner text.

7.2.7 [For some part-texts: The projected first-person persona of the governing voice of the text, whether narrative or not, is also known from another non-biblical text: if the term Maskil is taken to indicate (in Hodayot) a specific individual, and the "I" of those Hodayot which are headed "for the Maskil" (7:21, 20:7 and 25:34)is taken to be the persona of that individual, then this could be identical with the persona, constructed in a similar manner, of (part of) the Community Rule "to the Maskil", etc. See also 2.2.2.]

Top of the Page

8.1 Standard forms or contents formulated in set phrases, set sentence formats, or clauses in a standard syntactic connection.

8.1.4.1 Individual part-texts: The expressive use of unmarked biblical wording whose function in the text’s discourse is enhanced or achieved by it being recognised as coming from a Scripture: this is pervasive for certain features of the biblical text. See 7.1.4.2.

8.1.8 Reason clause: frequent (see the occurrences of כי, a substantial part of which introduce a reason clause; cp. 5.6).

8.1.13 Declamatory sentence, confession, proclamation or affirmation: pervasive, as this is the basic mode of sentence for the hymns/prayers.

8.1.14 Prayer, doxology, valediction or blessing: frequent.

8.1.17 Individual part-texts: Report sentence of a singular event in the past which is not part of a narrative unit, nor of a mashal: there are some rare references to single events in the past, or "autobiographical" meaning, which imply a narrative not told, such as "And thus I was brought near in the congregation (יחד) of all the men of my counsel...", 6:28 (Newsom translates this yachad adverbially rather than as a noun: "And thus I was brought into association with all the men of my counsel...").

8.1.18 Individual part-texts: Sentence making a prediction of a future event: occasional.

8.1.21 Statement describing a reality (nature, creation, human nature) in a “wisdom” or similar formulation: frequent; see also Goff.

8.1.22 [Statement praising Torah in a “wisdom” or similar formulation: this point does not apply, for the values that are emphasized are understanding and insight (from God) as such, without the use of the notion of Torah (the word only occurs three times). The term "wisdom" is also not particularly frequent (12 occurrences) in comparison with other words for knowing (see 2.6.2).]

8.2.5 Individual part-texts: The summary exposition, in a number of sentences, of theological ideas.

Top of the Page

9.13 Physical evidence from antiquity potentially shows non-verbal signals indicating (an interpretation of) the text’s thematic division: the text of 1QHa is presented in such a manner that regular scribal signals appear to indicate sense units within part-texts, and may help to demarcate also the different part-texts from each other in adjacency, in particular the use of vacats within a line, and the continuation of the text on a new line (in particular for a new part-text). For an overview of the scribal signals which may help identify the different part-texts, see the list of part-texts in the bibliographical section of this Profile. In 1QHa 20:7 (at the line beginning "la-maskil hodot") and in 4QHb frg. 10, 11) there is a paragraphos scribal mark in the margin (see also Schuller, "Recent Scholarship").

Top of the Page

10.2 The text consists of the juxtaposition of part-texts which are constituted by poetic or communicative-rhetorical formation, so that one of the points 3.1–4 applies to part-texts.

10.2.1 The text juxtaposes poems, psalms, songs, etc. as part-texts (3.2, 3.3 or 3.4 applies to each part-text): : there appear to be more than 28 separate part-texts or psalm-like pieces in the text. See the tentative list of part-texts, largely but not entirely following Stegemann and Schuller, in the section on bibliography.

10.2.1.3 There are cases of ambiguity concerning where one part-text ends and the next begins, if read in their textual sequence; but regardless of where the boundaries between part-texts are drawn, one of the points 3.2, 3.3 or 3.4 will be satisfied for all part-texts: for some of the arguments leading to different ways to segment the continuity of the text (already in part the result of the modern scholarly reconstruction of fragment continuities), see Schuller "Recent Scholarship", pp. 132 f. and Stegemann and Schuller, pp. 64–6 on the first passage (col. 4) where major disagreements occur. Stegemann and Schuller treat as what they call "sections" within the same piece what other scholars treat as the beginnings of new pieces; they also suggest that "Blessed are you (+ term of address)" can be an indicator of such subordinate sections (but see 7:21 (p. 99) and 13:22 which they interpret as beginning of a new piece; a list of pieces for which they acknowledge barukh as the opening is found in pp. 173 f.), and restore accordingly several line beginnings on col. 4 with ברוך where other scholars had restored אודך (most perhaps thereby implying that this is the opening word of a new piece). Stegemann and Schuller address the question of the "Division of the Psalms" for every column in their edition and see Appendix 4a in Stegemann "The Number".

10.2.1.4 The themes of individual part-texts are predominantly homogeneous across the whole aggregate text.

10.2.1.7 The formal characteristics of individual pieces are predominantly homogeneous across the whole aggregate text: apart from certain opening formulae and specific vocabulary or words that arise from the topics addressed, the formal charcteristics are so little marked that the pieces appear to belong to approximately the same "form". ?? really?

10.2.3 There is important transmission evidence indicating that the sequencing or division of part-texts within the overall aggregate varied: comparison of the cave 1 with the cave 4 evidence suggests that even where part-texts can be recognized as being the same, they can occur in a different sequence from the one established for 1QHa in other Qumran "recensions" of the compound.

Top of the Page

11.3 The text is directly or indirectly addressed to God. Its specific contents are self-reflective regarding the governing voice, thematic in a diffuse manner or narrative (see also 3): the more than 28 part-texts that make up this compound (see 10.2) are Psalm-like in much of their contents, and dominated by one of two opening lines, both of which directly address God: אודך אדני or ברוך אתה אדני (sometimes also with "El" and other expressions), meaning "I will give thanks/praise to you, Lord [who]..." and "Blessed are you, Lord...". The latter are in most cases, according to Stegemann and Schuller's interpretation which partly relies on scribal signals such as new lines and vacats, renewed passages of addressing God within a continuous part-text, rather than the beginnings of new part-texts (see 10.2.1.3). Linguistic forms of the second person which have God as their subject are ubiquitous, and is present in all columns of which substantial parts are extant.

Top of the Page

12.1 Sampling of genre labels applied to the text in secondary literature: hymns, thanksgiving hymns, "collection of poetic compositions of praise and thanksgiving" (Schuller); Danklieder; hymnische Bekenntnislieder; psalms.

Top of the Page

Bibliography:

Editions:

E. L. Sukenik, מגילות גנוזות סקירה רישונה (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1948); idem, מגילות גנוזות סקירה שנייה (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1950); idem, The Dead Sea Scrolls of the Hebrew University, (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1955); J. Licht, The Thanksgiving Scroll. A Scroll from the Wilderness of Judaea [Heb.] (Jerusalem: Mossad Bialik, 1957); the standard edition is now H. Stegemann and E. Schuller, translation of texts by C. Newsom, 1QHodayot[a]: With Incorporation of 1QHodayot[b] and 4QHodayot[a–f] (DJD 40; Oxford: Clarendon, 2009; a conversion table of column and line numbers between the Sukenik and DJD editions can be found on pp. 49–53; a contextualized concordance by M. Abegg of the words occurring in the text, pp. 325–402); M. Delcor, Les hymnes de Qumrân (Hodayot). Texte hébreu, introduction, traduction, commentaire (Paris: Letouzey et Ané, 1962); S. Holm-Nielsen, Hodayot. Psalms from Qumran (Aarhus: Universitetsforlaget, 1960); F. G. Martinez and E. J. C. Tigchelaar, The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition, 2 vols. (Leiden: Brill, 2000); E. M. Schuller and C. A. Newsom, The Hodayot (Thanksgiving Psalms). A Study Edition of 1QHa (Atlanta, GA: Society of Biblical Literature, 2012).

Translations:

In addition to the editions above, see also: G. Vermes, The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English (London: Allen Lane/Penguin, 1997); M. Owen, M. Abegg and E. M. Cook, The Dead Sea Scrolls. A New Translation (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2005); A. K. Harkins, "Thanksgiving Hymns (Hodayot)", in L. H. Feldman, J. L. Kugel and L. H. Schiffman (eds.), Outside the Bible. Ancient Jewish Writings Related to Scripture, 3 vols. (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society/University of Nebraska Press, 2013), pp. 2018–2094, translation adapted from Abegg The Dead Sea Scrolls.

Selected Studies:

S. Mowinckel, "Some Remarks on Hodayot 39.5-20", Journal of Biblical Literature, 75 (1956), pp. 265-76; H. Stegemann, "The Number of Psalms in 1QHodayot and Some of their Sections", in E. Chazon (ed.), Liturigcal Perspectives. Prayer and Poetry in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls, January 19–23 2000 (Leiden: Brill, 2003), pp. 191–234; C. Newsom, The Self as Symbolic Space. Constructing Identity and Community at Qumran (Leiden: Brill, 2004); J. A. Hughes, Scriptural Allusions and Exegesis in the Hodayot (Brill: Leiden, 2006); W. A. Tooman, "Between Imitation and Interpretation. Reuse of Scripture and Composition in Hodayot (1QHa) 11:6–19", Dead Sea Discoveries, 18 (2011) pp. 54–73; M. J. Goff, “Reading Wisdom at Qumran. 4QInstruction and the Hodayot”, Dead Sea Discoveries, 11 (2004), pp. 263–88; L. Vegas Montaner, "Some Features of the Hebrew Verbal Syntax in the Hodayot", in J. Trebolle Barrera and L. Vegas Montaner (eds.), The Madrid Qumran Congress. Proceedings of the International Congress on the Dead Sea Scrolls, Madrid 18–21 March 1991, vol. 1 (Leiden: Brill, 1992), pp. 273–86; E. Schuller, "The Classification Hodayot and Hodayot-Like (With Particular Attention to 4Q433, 4W433A and 4Q440)", in D. K. Falk, F. García Martínez, E. Schuller (eds.), Sapiential, Liturgical And Poetical Texts from Qumran (Leiden: Brill, 2000), pp. 182–94; E. M. Schuller, "Recent Scholarship on the Hodayot 1993–2010", Currents in Biblical Research, 10 (October 2011), pp. 119–162.

Overview of Part-Texts:

A possible division into part-texts by formal criteria and scribal signals is as follows. This partly reflects Stegemann and Schuller's division. Stegemann and Schuller’s column and line count is given first, followed by that of García-Martínez and Tigchelaar in brackets.  Then follows a description of layout features and the opening word (odekha is usually spelled odekhah, and followed by Adonai).

1.     4:12 or earlier – 4:20 (4:1 or earlier – 4:8)

2.     4:21–27 (4:9–4:16) vacat and new line; beginning lost (reconstructions barukh or odekha)

3.     4:29–4:37 (4:17–4:25) vacat (or blank line) and new line; beginning lost (reconstructions barukh or odekha)

4.     4:38–41 (4:26–4:?) vacat and new line; beginning lost (reconstructions barukh or odekha)

5.     5:12–6:18 (5:1–6:7) end of previous column, with what might be closing formula; beginning lost (reconstruction mizmor la-maskil)

6.     6:19–6:33 (6:8–6:22); vacat at the end of the previous line and at some point of line 19; beginning lost (reconstruction barukh)

7.     6:34–7:20 (6:23–7:10) vacat and new line; beginning partly reconstructed as odekha

8.     7:21–8:25 (7:11–8:15) vacat and new line;  beginning partly reconstructed, baruhk followed by a lacuna and a correction “mizmor” before la-maskil

9.     8:26–8:40/41 (8:16–8:28) new line (no vacat in the line before, so Stegemann and Schuller surmise that this merely begins a new section within a piece), and define the extent of the part-text that starts at 7:21 to extend to 8:40; barukh.

10. [9:1–10:4 (9:1–10:2) Stegemann and Schuller hold that new part-text probably started in the first line of col. 9, but the line is now lost.]

11. 10:5–10:21 (10:3–10:19) the lines before are lost; Stegemann and Schuller reconstruct odekha, and thus the beginning of a new part-text, in 10:5 on the basis of a cave 4 overlapping fragment (4QpapH(f) 3 1–5).

12. 10:22–10:32 (10:20–30) vacat at the end of the preceding line and at the beginning of the new line (22); odekha

13. 10:33–11:5 (10:31–11:4) vacat and new line; odekha

14. [11:6–11:19 (11:5–18) end of preceding line not legible; vacat at beginning of the new line (6); Stegemann and Schuller postulate odekha as opening word]

15. 11:20–11:37 (11:19–11:36) vacat at the end of the preceding line and at the beginning of the new line (19); odekha

16. 11:38–12:5 (11:37–12:4) vacat at the end of the preceding line and the beginning of the new line (37); odekha

17. 12:6–13:6 (12:5–13:4) end of preceding line illegible, vacat at the beginningof the new line (6); odekha

18. 13:7–13:21 (13:5–13:19) vacat at the end of the preceding line, new line; odekha

19. 13:22–15:8 (13:20–15:5) vacat at the end of the preceding line, new line; original odekha deleted, and instead barukh attah written above it by another scribe (Stegemann and Schuller, p. 173)

20. 15:9–15:28 (15:6–15:25) vacat, new line, vacat; odekha

21. 15:29–15:36 (15:26–15:33) vacat, new line, vacat; odekha partiy reconstructed

22. 15:37–16:4 (15:34–16:3) vacat, new line; odekha partly reconstructed

23. 16:5–17:36 (16:4–17:37) vacat, new line; odekha

24. 17:38–18:15 (17:38­–18:12) vacat, blank line, new line; barukh attah or odekha reconstructed (Stegemann and Schuller provide reasons for thinking that the part-text continues to 19:5)

25. 18:16–19:5 (18:14–19:2) blank line, new line; barukh (not recognized by Stegemann and Schuller as an independent part-text)

26. 19:6–20:6 (19:3–20:3) vacat, new line; odekha (important presence of ink mark before the odekha of 19:17 mitigating against this beginning a new part-text, Stegemann and Schuller, p. 243)

27. 20:7­–? (20:4–25:10?) no vacats, only beginning of new line, with reconstructed la-maskil hodot

No formulae for beginnings are extant between 20:7 and 25:34 (25:10)

28. 25:34–27:3?end of fragments (25:10–end of fragments) vacat in preceding line, new line; la-maskil followed y partially reconstructed mizmor shir le- . 



Top of the Page