Prayers of the Antediluvian Patriarchs: Revisiting the Form and Function of 4Q369 Prayer of Enosh
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This article reassesses the evidence for determining the form of 4Q369 “Prayer of Enosh” and, in light of this assessment, considers how the composition could function rhetorically. Based on textual and comparative literary evidence, the article proposes that the extant text is structured by a genealogical framework (1 i 9–10) in which historically-oriented prayers are attributed to specific patriarchal figures like Enosh (1 i 1–7) and Enoch or one of his near descendants (1 ii 1–12). These formal aspects of the composition are seen to have important rhetorical consequences: they position the implied audience as a third party between God and the esteemed figures from the remote past and they frame the prayers as accurate forecasts of salvation history. Together these features provide grounds upon which pious readers could have confidence in the inevitability of God’s fidelity until the eschaton.
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31
Kugel, “4Q369 ‘Prayer of Enosh’ and Ancient Biblical Interpretation,” 140; djd 13:358.
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47
Ibid., 147, n. 36.
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49
Ibid., 119, 147.
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56
Ibid., 2141, n. 2.
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58
Already by 1999, “Prayer Concerning God and Israel?” begins to be listed as a possible designation for the composition; see Emanuel Tov, “A List of Texts From the Judaean Desert,” in The Dead Sea Scrolls After Fifty Years: A Comprehensive Assessment,” ed. Peter W. Flint and James C. VanderKam, 2 vols. (Leiden: Brill, 1999), 2:686; The Texts From the Judaean Desert: Indices and an Introduction to the Discoveries in the Judaean Desert Series, ed. Emanuel Tov, djd 39 (Oxford: Clarendon, 2002), 62; Emanuel Tov, Revised Lists of the Texts from the Judaean Desert (Leiden: Brill, 2010), 46. This designation is also found in Tov’s most recent list, which will circulate widely in The sbl Handbook of Style, 2nd ed. (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2014), 299. It is also worth noting that Qimron, who cites Kugel’s study, gives the composition a similar designation: דברי הודות על חסדי האל. As is made clear below, I agree that this designation accurately describes the form of the prayers in this composition, but it does not adequately account for their placement on the lips of particular figures.
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Prayers of the Antediluvian Patriarchs: Revisiting the Form and Function of 4Q369 Prayer of Enosh
In: Dead Sea DiscoveriesSearch for other papers by Justin L. Pannkuk in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
This article reassesses the evidence for determining the form of 4Q369 “Prayer of Enosh” and, in light of this assessment, considers how the composition could function rhetorically. Based on textual and comparative literary evidence, the article proposes that the extant text is structured by a genealogical framework (1 i 9–10) in which historically-oriented prayers are attributed to specific patriarchal figures like Enosh (1 i 1–7) and Enoch or one of his near descendants (1 ii 1–12). These formal aspects of the composition are seen to have important rhetorical consequences: they position the implied audience as a third party between God and the esteemed figures from the remote past and they frame the prayers as accurate forecasts of salvation history. Together these features provide grounds upon which pious readers could have confidence in the inevitability of God’s fidelity until the eschaton.
| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 295 | 68 | 11 |
| Full Text Views | 212 | 3 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 41 | 5 | 1 |