Thanksgiving Hymns

Thanksgiving Hymns

The Thanksgiving Scroll or "Hodayot" was one of the first seven Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in 1947 by the Bedouin. The scroll gets its name from the recurring use of the phrase “I thank you” in many of the poems, thus ‘Thanksgiving Scroll’ or Hodayot (the Hebrew word referring to ‘thanks’ or ‘thanksgiving’). Other names include Thanksgiving Hymns, Thanksgiving Psalms, Hymns Scroll and Scroll of Hymns.Fact|date=February 2007

The main scroll found in 1947 is designated 1QH. Other fragments of this text have been found in Caves 1, 4 and 5 (1Q35, 4Q427-432, 5Q11). But even when these readings are added to 1QH, there is still a substantial amount of text missing. Scholars can only speculate how many hymn/poems/psalms were included in this work, but it is fairly certain that at more than half of the psalms have survived, though not always in complete form.Fact|date=February 2007

The style of the hymns is so similar to that of the Old Testament that scholars have described it as a “mosaic of Old Testament Texts”. [Holm-Nielsen 1960; 301] Like the biblical “psalms of lament”, they employ intimate and personal language. This leads some scholars to believe that the speaker in this scroll is a specific individual, perhaps the Teacher of Righteousness mentioned in the Damascus Document and the Habbakuk Pesher.Fact|date=February 2007

The content varies from poem to poem but there are certainly overriding themes: first and foremost the scroll talks about and to God and is usually contrasted with the weakness, dependency, unworthiness and wretchedness of the human condition (thereby exalting God’s power and perfection even more). Other main themes include: salvation of the just and destruction of the wicked, gratitude for divine insight, personal (?) accounts of exile/persecution (and God delivering the speaker from such plights). To use the last subject as an example, here is a quote from the text showing both how personal the language is and the thanks awarded to God for his mercy:

“the wicked of the people rush against me with their afflictions, and all the day long they crush my soul. But You, O my God, turn the tempest to a whisper, and the life of the distressed You have brought to safety as a bird from the snare and as prey from the power of lions” (1QH, Col. 13 lines 19-21).Fact|date=February 2007

There are several theories regarding how the "Hodayot" were used. Some believe they were daily prayers, or a moral instruction booklet or even war songs sung after a victory. Menahem Mansoor holds that The Thanksgiving scroll was a private psalter for a select group within a community that modeled the correct way to praise God for deliverance. Svend Holm-Nielsen believes that the "Hodayot" served a liturgical purpose as hymns sung or recited during certain ceremonies, such as the initiation ceremonies described in the Community Rule (1QS) and the War Scroll (1QM).Fact|date=February 2007

Notes

References

*Davies, Philip R., George J. Brook and Philip R. Callaway. "The Complete World of the Dead Sea Scrolls". London: Thames & Hudson, 2002.
*"The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation". Trans. Michael O. Wise, Martin G. Abegg Jr. and Edward M. Cook. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2005.
*Holm-Nielsen, Svend. "Hodayot: Psalms from Qumram". "Acta Theologica Danica". Vol 2. Universitetsforlaget I Aarhus, 1960.
*Hughes, Julie A. "Scriptural Allusions and Exegesis in the Hodayot." "Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah." Vol 59. Boston, 2006.
*Mansoor, Menahem. "The Thanksgiving Hymns." "Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah." Vol. 3. Grand Rapids, 1961.
*Merrill, Eugene H. "Qumran and Predestination: A Theological Study of the Thanksgiving Hymns". "Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah." Vol. 8. Leiden, 1975.
*Puech, Émile. “Hodayot” Trans. Robert E. Shillenn. "The Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls." Ed. Lawrence H. Schiffman and James C. VanderKam. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.

External links

* [http://orion.mscc.huji.ac.il/cave/megila4.shtml Photos of the Thanksgiving Scroll]
* [http://www.princeton.edu/~aamihay/Hodayot.html Bibliography on the Thanksgiving Scroll]


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