The Performance of Blessing as Imitation of Divine Beings: Acknowledging the Creator in the Hymns of the Maśkîl and Related Texts

This essay examines Qumran texts that not only perform blessing but also reflect on the activity of blessing itself, and thereby offer an opportunity to better understand the urge and necessity behind the growth of liturgical cycles that generate traditions of prayer. The paper looks at three texts,...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Bakker, Arjen (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Brill 2022
In: Dead Sea discoveries
Year: 2022, Volume: 29, Issue: 3, Pages: 325-341
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Gemeinschaftsregel (Qumran Scrolls) / 4Q408 / 4Q511 / 4Q510 / Immitation / Angel / Creation / Enlightenment / Blessing / Liturgy / Interpretation of / Performance of / Interpretation of / Alternating effect
IxTheo Classification:HD Early Judaism
Further subjects:B Interpretation of
B Creation
B Blessing
B Imitation
B Community Rule
B Liturgy
B Angels
B Performance
B Maskil
B luminaries
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Summary:This essay examines Qumran texts that not only perform blessing but also reflect on the activity of blessing itself, and thereby offer an opportunity to better understand the urge and necessity behind the growth of liturgical cycles that generate traditions of prayer. The paper looks at three texts, the hymns of the maśkîl, the Hymn to the Creator, and 4Q408, in which the performance of blessing is presented as acknowledgment of the creator through the lens of primordial time and the actualization of creation narratives. The essay argues that the way in which divine beings are imagined as perceiving and responding to the act of creation forms a model that liturgical performers emulate in order to approach as much as possible the holiness of these higher beings. This example demonstrates the interaction between interpretation and performance and their impact on the emergence and growth of textual traditions, both oral and written, in the Second Temple period.
ISSN:1568-5179
Contains:Enthalten in: Dead Sea discoveries
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/15685179-02903002