SECTION

4

Psalms, Wisdom Literature, and Prayers

Introduction

The various expressions of religious piety among Second Temple Jews occasioned a large assortment of psalms, hymns, and prayers.1 These are often embedded in larger texts and so are part of larger writings rather than, for example, prayers utilized in individual practice.2 This is especially true for prayers, of which numerous examples survive from antiquity but surprisingly few are unintegrated into larger texts. And yet there is surely some degree to which the surviving texts reflect the “living practices of prayer in terms of form, motifs, occasion, and posture.”3 Yet the actual settings in which such works may have been used in worship or liturgical settings is difficult to identify. Of a different nature but with some literary affinities, at least in the Hebrew Bible, is Wisdom literature. Such writings are in part defined by the use of the term “wisdom” (Hebrew חָכְמָה, ḥokmâh; Greek σοφία, sophia), found in works in the Hebrew Bible like Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes, and also in such Second Temple Jewish works as the Wisdom of Solomon and Ben Sira.4 In their original forms wisdom writings were educational in nature, intended for the training of younger scribes for official service. The intent is to elucidate a way of life as well as facilitate discussion of pertinent religious and intellectual questions for the respective contexts in which they emerge.5 These three kinds of literature—psalms, prayers, and Wisdom literature—are discussed in this final major section of this book. Before turning to each, however, it is instructive to discuss a few matters pertinent to each category.

Psalms

The works discussed in the following chapters, Psalms 151–155 and the Psalms of Solomon, represent a small cross section of what are widely regarded as psalms and hymns compiled during the Second Temple period both for corporate worship within the temple and for educational purposes.6 The popularity of psalms is attested by the discovery of thirty-nine psalms scrolls at Qumran, including three scrolls (11QPsa, 11QPsb, 4QPsf) that include twelve texts not found in the Psalter of the Hebrew Bible and six of which were previously unknown.7 Other Qumran psalms reflect a diverse collection of Jewish religious poetry,8 the most important of which are the Thanksgiving Hymns (1QHa, 1QHb, 4Q427–432), which at times seem to depict the personal experiences of a sectarian leader. Other thanksgiving psalms include the Barki Nafshi (Hebrew ברכי נפשי, brkî npšî, “Bless my soul”), which contains pleas for deliverance from persecution and for the acquisition of certain spiritual qualities.9 Also significant among the Qumran works is the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice (4Q400–407, 11Q17, Mas1k), a liturgical text that originally consisted of thirteen units (“songs”) corresponding to each quarter of a 364-day calendar.10

Wisdom Literature

Pride of place for Wisdom literature in Second Temple Judaism belongs to two works classified among the apocrypha: Ben Sira and the Wisdom of Solomon. The former identifies Torah as Wisdom (Sir. 24:23). The latter belongs to Roman-era Alexandria and, like the work of Pseudo-Phocylides, which is discussed below, addresses matters of a similar perspective. Wisdom literature is also an important component of the Dead Sea Scrolls, where the book of Instruction (4QInstruction), attested in some eight copies and dating from the second century BCE, is most significant.11 In this work the addressee is exhorted to search for truth, receive instruction, and gain understanding (e.g., 4Q417 1 I, 25; 2 I, 1–7; 4Q418 81 17) but also to receive revealed wisdom by the “mystery of existence” (רז נהיה; rz nhyh, e.g., 4Q416 2 III, 14, 18; 4Q417 2 I, 6; 4Q418 43–45 4, 14).12

Prayers

Prayer in ancient Judaism is an act of communication with God with the purpose of getting some result from the interaction.13 In this respect its function is more important than its form,14 though prayers can be generally categorized into different types. These include petitionary or penitential prayers, which are typically communal in nature (Ezra 9; Neh. 9; Dan. 9; cf. Pss. Sol. 9; 4 Ezra 8:20–36; 1QS I, 18–II, 18) but can also be individual (Neh. 1:5–11; cf. Tob. 3:1–6; Prayer of Manasseh).15 These are directed to God to confess sins and ask for forgiveness as an act of repentance.16 There are also prayers of thanksgiving, typically in response to a specific blessing received, such as provisions, deliverance, or simply occasions for joy. These are embedded within other texts in the Hebrew Bible (e.g., 1 Chron. 16:35–36), the Apocrypha (e.g., Tob. 8:5–8; Sir. 51:1–12; Jdt. 16), the Pseudepigrapha (e.g., Pss. Sol. 2:37; 16:5; Jub. 22:7–9), the Dead Sea Scrolls (e.g., 1QHa IV, 29; 1QS XI, 15; 1QM XIII, 2) and the New Testament (e.g., 1 Cor. 15:57; Rev. 11:17).17

As indicated above, the majority of prayers from the Second Temple period are not freestanding texts but are embedded within other, larger documents. Some may function as doxologies (e.g., 3 Macc. 7:23) or be attributed to biblical figures like Noah and Abraham (Genesis Apocryphon), Levi (Aramaic Levi Document), Enoch (1 Enoch), Baruch (2 Baruch), Ezra (4 Ezra), or Job (Testament of Job). Others are found in early Christian narratives as models for a community (e.g., Matt. 6:9–13) or as a record of the prayers of Jesus (e.g., Luke 11:1–4; Mark 14:26) or Paul (2 Cor. 1:3–7). Sometimes prayers in Wisdom literature have didactic purposes, perhaps functioning as models (e.g., Sir. 23:1–6; 36:1–17; 51:1–12; Wis. 9).18 This situation renders the analysis of prayers in the present volume rather difficult. As Judith H. Newman indicates, the only prayers that survive as distinct texts are the Prayer of Manasseh and the Hellenistic Synagogal Prayers.19 To this one could add samples from among the Dead Sea Scrolls, as we shall see below. The Prayer of Manasseh, discussed capably by David A. deSilva, is preserved in part in the Greek tradition among the Septuagint manuscripts and so belongs formally to the Apocrypha.20 The so-called Hellenistic Synagogal Prayers is thought to derive from an originally Jewish source with Christian interpolations that, in some instances, can be identified (e.g., 5:4–8, 20–24; 7:4)21 and perhaps excised to identify its Jewish foundation. This is a challenging task, which we have avoided elsewhere (e.g., Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs). However, the paucity of free-standing prayers in the literature warrants some consideration. And so here we will address some of the matters pertaining to that document as well as a prayer found in the Dead Sea Scrolls (Prayer of Nabonidus [4Q242]).

 

1. Falk, “Hymns, Prayers, and Psalms.” See Flusser, “Psalms, Hymns and Prayers.”

2. Matlock, Discovering the Traditions of Prose Prayers.

3. Falk, “Hymns, Prayers, and Psalms,” 2:347.

4. Kampen, “Wisdom Literature.”

5. Kampen, “Wisdom Literature.”

6. Gillingham, “Levites and the Editorial Composition of the Psalms.”

7. Falk, “Hymns, Prayers, and Psalms”; Sanders, Charlesworth, and Rietz, “Non-Masoretic Psalms.”

8. Nitzan, Qumran Prayer and Religious Poetry, 173–318; Schuller, “Prayers and Psalms.”

9. Falk, “Hymns, Prayers, and Psalms.” See Schuller, “Barki Nafshi (4Q434–438).”

10. Mizrahi, “Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice”; see Davila, Liturgical Works, 83–167.

11. Kampen, “Wisdom Literature.”

12. Uusimäki, “Instruction (4QInstruction)”; see Goff, 4QInstruction; Kampen, Wisdom Literature, 36–190.

13. Falk, “Hymns, Prayers, and Psalms”; Malina, “What Is Prayer?,” 215.

14. Newman, Praying by the Book, 6–7.

15. Falk, “Hymns, Prayers, and Psalms.”

16. Werline, “Reflections on Penitential Prayer.”

17. Falk, “Hymns, Prayers, and Psalms”; Schuller, “Some Observations”; Falk, Daily, Sabbath, and Festival Prayers, 35–43, 79–84, 182–85.

18. Falk, “Hymns, Prayers, and Psalms.”

19. Newman, Praying by the Book, 7–11.

20. DeSilva, Introducing the Apocrypha, 324–29.

21. Stuckenbruck, “Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha,” 159.