Maskil, Community, and Religious Experience in the Songs of the Sage (4Q510-511).

Abstract The present study seeks to illuminate how the recitation of the prophylactic magical hymns known as 4QSongs of the Sage engendered religious experience for worshipers. Previous research on this composition has focused on locating it within the broader streams of early Jewish magical and apo...

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Published in:Dead Sea Discoveries Vol. 19; no. 1; pp. 1 - 28
Main Author: Angel, Joseph L.
Format: Article
Published: Brill Academic Publishers Jan2012
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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        atl: Maskil, Community, and Religious Experience in the Songs of the Sage (4Q510-511).
      aug:
        au: Angel, Joseph L.
        affil: Yeshiva University New York, Email: jangel@yu.edu, URL: http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink
      su:
        Sacred songs
        Religious experience
        Worship (Judaism)
        Ritualism
        Liturgical adaptation
      sug:
        subj:
          Sacred songs
          Religious experience
          Worship (Judaism)
          Ritualism
          Liturgical adaptation
      keyword:
        4Q510
        4Q511
        apotropaic ritual
        Maskil
        religious experience
        Songs of the Sage
      ab: Abstract The present study seeks to illuminate how the recitation of the prophylactic magical hymns known as 4QSongs of the Sage engendered religious experience for worshipers. Previous research on this composition has focused on locating it within the broader streams of early Jewish magical and apocalyptic tradition, but little attention has been paid to the apotropaic function of the Songs within the larger religious experiential framework implied by the text. This study argues that despite the lack of concrete information pertaining to ritual praxis, the language of the Songs reveals that participation in the ritual was designed to bring worshipers to understand themselves as realizing essential Qumranite ideals such as perfect purity and supernal knowledge, and to experience communion with the angels in the image of 'the eternal sanctuary.' It is suggested that the protection from the demons offered by the Songs is not so much the result of 'magic' as it is a natural outcome of the perceived attainment of these ideals.
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    language: English
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