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E. H. MERRILL, Qumran and Predestination. A Theological Study of the Thanksgiving Hymns (Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah, ed. by J. VAN DER PLOEG, O.P., VIII), E. J. Brill, Leiden 1975, 71 pp. paper f 30

E. H. MERRILL, Qumran and Predestination. A Theological Study of the Thanksgiving Hymns (Studies... 68 that the Fourth Gospel wants to remind its readers of their lasting band with Israel: Jesus died for Jews and Gentiles alike (11:50-52). The intention and the tone of this study are sympathetic; its treatment of the subject is too limited (mainly because of its concentration upon opinions among German interpreters), and its results are not very startling). M. DE JONGE REVIEW OF BOOKS E. H. MERRILL, Qumran and Predestination. A Theological Study of the Thanksgiving Hymns (Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah, ed. by J. VAN DER PLOEG, O.P., VIII), E. J. Brill, Leiden 1975, 71 pp. paper f 30,- (After a preface and an introduction this study includes four chapters: The Setting of the Thanksgiving Hymns, Exegesis of Selected Predestinarian Passages, Teachings in 1QH Related to or Depen- dent upon Predestination, Summary and Conclusion. Then follow a Bibliography, an Index of Personal Names (authors cited), an Index of Subjects, a List of References and a List of Hebrew and Greek terms discussed. The author points out that "the doctrine of predestination in 1QH (and, in fact, in both Judaism and Christianity)" cannot logically be reconciled "with that of voluntarism or free will". "All theological systems have tried to come to grips with this problem philosophically and so did the Covenanters of Qumran to some extent, albeit not formally. In their system, God had assigned the destinies of all men before their crea- tion on the basis of His foreknowledge of how they would respond to His gracious overtures. He provided the means and urging for their coming into the Covenant of the Elect, an urging which they voluntary accepted and followed. The very fact that a man joined the Community proved that he was one of the predestined. He did not do so to become one of the Elect; he did so because he was one of the Elect. Predestination did not contradict free will; it provided the rationale as to why men chose "freely" as they did. If this seems irrational to us, it must remain so, for we, like the lonely Covenanter of Qumran, must accept the ultimate issues of life and death by faith and not by sight". It is regrettable that rather many printing errors have been overlooked in the correction, e.g. "sons" instead of "soul" (p. 50, line 9), especially in the Hebrew quotations. On p. 18 1 QH XI, 20 is quoted as follows : bd'# jjrj gbr wbfwbt 'nwJ wygwn 4At 'h, whereas the text reads : bd'# jjrj gbr wtlwbt Inwl [ ]/Jl'h mygrvn. On p. 19 read 'wZ instead of .Zb (also in the List of terms); on p. 21 read t'wdh instead of tw'dh (also in the index); on p. 29 read knplkb instead of knpi kh, andfd instead ofyd`; on p. 47 read bryt instead of brwt; on p. 40 (n. 60) read slypwt instead of flpwt (also in the index); in addition, in the index (p. 71) read qf instead of q, and t'wdh instead of t'wd, which is at the same time superfluous because t'wdh was already mentioned three lines before. In the bibliography I missed J.CARMIGNAC et P. GUILBERT, Les textes de Qumrân traduit,r et annotés (paris 1961) and G. MAIER, Men.rch und freier Wille nach den jddischen Religionsparteien zwischen Ben Sira und Paulu.r (Tilbingen 1971)). J. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal for the Study of Judaism Brill

E. H. MERRILL, Qumran and Predestination. A Theological Study of the Thanksgiving Hymns (Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah, ed. by J. VAN DER PLOEG, O.P., VIII), E. J. Brill, Leiden 1975, 71 pp. paper f 30

Journal for the Study of Judaism , Volume 7 (1): 68 – Jan 1, 1976
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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© 1976 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
0047-2212
eISSN
1570-0631
DOI
10.1163/157006376X00168
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

68 that the Fourth Gospel wants to remind its readers of their lasting band with Israel: Jesus died for Jews and Gentiles alike (11:50-52). The intention and the tone of this study are sympathetic; its treatment of the subject is too limited (mainly because of its concentration upon opinions among German interpreters), and its results are not very startling). M. DE JONGE REVIEW OF BOOKS E. H. MERRILL, Qumran and Predestination. A Theological Study of the Thanksgiving Hymns (Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah, ed. by J. VAN DER PLOEG, O.P., VIII), E. J. Brill, Leiden 1975, 71 pp. paper f 30,- (After a preface and an introduction this study includes four chapters: The Setting of the Thanksgiving Hymns, Exegesis of Selected Predestinarian Passages, Teachings in 1QH Related to or Depen- dent upon Predestination, Summary and Conclusion. Then follow a Bibliography, an Index of Personal Names (authors cited), an Index of Subjects, a List of References and a List of Hebrew and Greek terms discussed. The author points out that "the doctrine of predestination in 1QH (and, in fact, in both Judaism and Christianity)" cannot logically be reconciled "with that of voluntarism or free will". "All theological systems have tried to come to grips with this problem philosophically and so did the Covenanters of Qumran to some extent, albeit not formally. In their system, God had assigned the destinies of all men before their crea- tion on the basis of His foreknowledge of how they would respond to His gracious overtures. He provided the means and urging for their coming into the Covenant of the Elect, an urging which they voluntary accepted and followed. The very fact that a man joined the Community proved that he was one of the predestined. He did not do so to become one of the Elect; he did so because he was one of the Elect. Predestination did not contradict free will; it provided the rationale as to why men chose "freely" as they did. If this seems irrational to us, it must remain so, for we, like the lonely Covenanter of Qumran, must accept the ultimate issues of life and death by faith and not by sight". It is regrettable that rather many printing errors have been overlooked in the correction, e.g. "sons" instead of "soul" (p. 50, line 9), especially in the Hebrew quotations. On p. 18 1 QH XI, 20 is quoted as follows : bd'# jjrj gbr wbfwbt 'nwJ wygwn 4At 'h, whereas the text reads : bd'# jjrj gbr wtlwbt Inwl [ ]/Jl'h mygrvn. On p. 19 read 'wZ instead of .Zb (also in the List of terms); on p. 21 read t'wdh instead of tw'dh (also in the index); on p. 29 read knplkb instead of knpi kh, andfd instead ofyd`; on p. 47 read bryt instead of brwt; on p. 40 (n. 60) read slypwt instead of flpwt (also in the index); in addition, in the index (p. 71) read qf instead of q, and t'wdh instead of t'wd, which is at the same time superfluous because t'wdh was already mentioned three lines before. In the bibliography I missed J.CARMIGNAC et P. GUILBERT, Les textes de Qumrân traduit,r et annotés (paris 1961) and G. MAIER, Men.rch und freier Wille nach den jddischen Religionsparteien zwischen Ben Sira und Paulu.r (Tilbingen 1971)). J.

Journal

Journal for the Study of Judaism – Brill

Published: Jan 1, 1976

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