dssdead-sea-scrolls
E — Wisdom Literature
Part 4
A Herodian-era wisdom fragment opens with a teacher's commission to instruct in knowledge and wisdom, reading human conduct through two lenses: Jehovah's loving-kindness enlarges the inheritance of those aligned with His truth, while those who walk after appetite — ears and eyes untethered from covenant — are cut off from life. The pairing is covenant-structural: blessing and curse set side by side as in Deuteronomy 28. The closing lines gesture toward an elder generation and the revealed years of all generations, suggesting the teacher grounds present instruction in prophetic pattern across dispensations.
1
Two fragments have preserved the first four lines of a column from a Wisdom composition. The script is Herodian, dating to the turn of the era. The word 'God' is written with palaeo-Hebrew letters in lines and 4. For the editio princeps, see E. Qimron, DJD, XX, i69-71.. I will teach you knowledge and wisdom, And understand the ways of man and the works of the sons of man. According to God's loving-kindness towards man, He has enlarged his inheritance in the knowledge of His truth, and according to His rejection of every evil man, no-one who walks after his ears and his eyes shall live. And now His loving-kindness.. the ancient, they will consider the years of all the generations as God has revealed..
