The Truth about the Virgin
1. Gunnar Berenfelt, A Study on the Winged Angel (Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1968) 18.
2. Ibid., 11-16.
3. While biblical "angels" as such do not have names, the sometimes monstrous "cherubim" and "seraphim" do.
4. Gabriel is the angel who appeared to both Elizabeth and Mary in the miraculous annunciation scenes in Luke. Therefore it has been suggested that Gabriel is rooted in female myths. A folk story tells of "how she [our emphasis] takes the invariably protesting soul from paradise, and instructs it for the nine months while it remains in the womb of its mother." (Malcolm Godwin, Angels, An Endangered Species [N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, 1990] 44).
5. "Whoever has murmured against the foundations of the community shall be expelled and shall not return" (1QS 7:17). See also other reasons for expulsion, which, by and large, relate to a member's behavior contrary (to the community): 1QS 8:21-24; 6:27-7:2; 7:22-23.
6. In that testament, the birth of Solomon is also associated with a virgin.
7. The story recorded in Hagigah 14b is about the four rabbis who entered the Pardes (orchard = paradise); three of them were hurt in one manner or another (in fact, one became "another" aher = abandoned Judaism), and only R. Akiba (the great mystic of the age of Bar Kochba) entered the "orchard" and returned safely. The legend's purpose is to highlight the difficulties of mystical journeys and to warn those who do wish to undertake such endeavors to be fully prepared. See, Joseph M. Baumgarten, "The Qumran Sabbath Shirot and Rabbinic Merkabah Traditions," Revue de Qumran 49-52 (Oct. 1988): 208-213. See also the chapter entitled "Hymns and Mysteries" in Eisenman and Wise, Dead Sea Scroll Uncovered, 227-228.
8. See Scholem, Jewish Gnosticism.
9. Cherubim in later thought were considered an order of angels.
10. Baumgarten, "Qumran Sabbath Shirot" 206-7.
11. These clear images, though, are also related to the world of the Goddess and particularly to fertility and birth. Brick stools, for example, were used for the birthing process itself.
12. Carol Newsom, Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice: A critical Edition (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1985).
13. Ibid., 17.
14. The "seasonal" order (mo'ed) is associated both with a festival celebrated in its time and with a woman's "due time" to give birth (see the confrontation between Sarah and the angel about the birth of Isaac). Qumran Literature attests to the sectarians' interest in both these "due times."
15. Newsom, Songs 17-18.
16. For example, Lev. 19:2: "You should be holy because I, Yahweh your God, am holy." Further, Exod. 9:6: "And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." See also Deut. 4:2.
17. Newsom makes the point about the form of the Songs, which is heavily focused on the number seven and the Sabbath (Songs 13).
18. Newsom observes that in the book of Jubilees "the two highest angel classes, the angels of the Presence and the angels of Sanctification, share with Israel two marks of distinction -- Sabbath observance and circumcision (Jub 2:18)" (Songs, 20).
19. On the role of Melchizedek in the Dead Sea Scrolls, see Paul J. Kobelski, Melchi-sedeq and Melchi-resa (Washington, DC: Catholic Biblical Association, 1981) 49-74. Melchizedek is presented in 11QMelch as the heavenly redeemer of the sons of light.
20. See Newsom, Songs, 97.
21. Ibid., 19.
22. See Carol Meyers, "Cherubim" in Anchor Bible Dictionary, 1:899-900. Though the Bible refers to cherubim in various complex contexts (sometimes as being the closest guards of Yahweh), they do finally develop in the West as baby winged creatures.
23. Column 8 of the Damascus Document describes in some detail the fate of those who ultimately betray them.
24. Newsom, Songs, 19.
25. See Scholem, Major Trends, 49-51.
26. Newsom, Songs, 63.
27. It is possible that the sign of the zodiac assigned to this time was Gemini, the twins. See, Wise, Thunder in Gemini.
28. Newsom, 213-214.
29. In Exodus, the anointment is that of the ark of the covenant.
30. Newsom tentatively suggests that it is possible to read this word (she translates it as "perfect light") in line with a similar one in 1QH 18:29 and 4:6 as "double light" (oratim) which means "daybreak." (Songs, 231). "Oratayim" would be "double light": the sun and the morning star.
31. See William Hugh Brownlee, Interpreter's One Volume Commentary on the Bible, 427. Further, "Trade in purple dye and purple-dyed clothing ... aided Tyre during the Greco-Roman period, as remains of abundant shells located near the city indicate. In addition, the murex snail shell, from which purple dye was made, is found on the reverse imperial coins of Tyre. The trade was lucrative, although [according to Pliny] the dying process was smelly." (Douglas R. Edwards, "Tyre" in The Anchor Bible Dictionary, 6:691).
32. The word riqma is used also in the context of the fall of Sisera (Judg. 5:30). Priestesses were always associated with spectacular dress.
33. There are similar fire images in Ezekiel and Psalms.
34. Elsewhere the Dead Sea Scrolls utilize this image in CD 2:5 as well as in 4Q487 in DJD 7:5.
35. See Newsom's discussion of the word badan, which appears sixteen times in the Shirot. In one context at least, it could mean "short sleeveless coat"; in other contexts it is fairly clear that the meaning is indeed related to some kind of clothing. (Songs 283-284).
36. Newsom, Songs, 67.
37. Newsom had already observed that this passage should not to be read as being associated with "priestly garments. In that case one would expect a reference to all four priestly colors, including blue and purple." p. 337.
38. Allegro, The Sacred Mushroom, 69; see also the use of the "hour of incense" in Luke 1:10.
39. Interestingly, the Egyptians, who are thought to have originated the Hebrews' practice of circumcision, probably used drugs for that surgery, as suggested by two reliefs in the "tomb of Ankh-ma-Hor at Saqqara (VIth dynasty). In one of the drawings ... a man is standing and in front of him is a kneeling person called the 'circumcising priest,' holding an oblong object applied vertically to the organ to be operated on.... The face of the patient shows no pain. The operator says: 'This ointment is to make it acceptable,' from which it has been concluded that the drawing represents a form of anesthesia." (Daral-Al-Maaref, Health and Healing in Ancient Egypt [Cairo: Zeinab el Dawakhly, 1963] 96).
40. Dale C. Allison, "The Silence of Angels: Reflections on the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice," Revue de Qumran 49-52 (Oct. 1988). Allison draws attention to the following texts in order to demonstrate the point about "angel language": 1 Cor. 13:1 and 2 Cor. 12:4; also, see his p. 190 n. 6, as well as Testament of Job 48:2 and 50:2, the last statement of which reads: "And she spoke in the dialect of the cherubim, glorifying the master of virtues by exhibiting their splendor" (p. 191).
41. Ibid.
42. Ibid., 191-192. Allison enumerates the various references to ecstatic language in the Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha, and the Dead Sea Scrolls.
43. Ibid., 192.
44. Ibid. Allison cites various references to silence in heaven in the Shirot (p. 193). "God reveals himself in silence" and humble silence is the appropriate response to God's self-revelation or theophany (p. 194). Silence is also a vehicle of praise, as is particularly manifested in Sefer Harazim (the Book of Mysteries) (p. 195). Finally, "silence is the language of the kingdom of Heaven." (pp. 196-97).
45. See Carol A. Newsom, "Merkabah Exegesis in the Qumran Sabbath Shirot", Journal of Jewish Studies 38 (1987): 11-30; the author suggests that the text was deliberately interested in heavenly sounds.
46. See Jub. 2:18, referred to by Newsom (Songs, 20).
47. The Rechabites make their first appearance in the time of Jeremiah (2 Kgs 10:15); they reappear during the time of the millennium committed to purity of a very special kind: "Remove clothes from your body, do not drink a carafe of wine, and do not eat bread from fire, and do not drink liquor and honey until the Lord hears your petition." (The History of the Rechabites, Vol I: The Greek Recension, trans. and ed. James H Charlesworth [Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1982] 51). Presumably, this type of extreme behavior will cause God to have mercy on Jerusalem (p. 53). The Rechabite lived in caves, nude, in a quasi-animalistic state: "with us there is no vine, nor cultivated field, nor is there a house" (p. 67).
48. Newsom already made that observation (Songs, 30).
49. See also 4Q403 1 i 24; 1 i 30-31; 4Q404 frag. 5, line 4; 4Q405 frag. 13, line 5; frag. 17, line 3; 11QSirSabb frags. 2, 1, 9, line 5.
50. This is the seventh psalm where there are numerous references to "tongues."
51. See, Newsom, Songs, 69; as well as 4Q213-214, which uses a similar terminology in imploring God to remove "evil and fornication" from the speaker (see Eisenman and Wise, Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered, 137).
52. This phrase may be compared with the godly revelation to Elijah, described as a mystery, in 1 Kgs. 19:12. There, after the noise and the fire, there was "a voice of thin stillness."
53. In line with other sectarian pronouncements about extraordinary, secret revelation that have been bestowed on them.
54. In John 3:29-32 we read: "The bride is only for the bridegroom and yet the bridegroom's friend, who stands there and listens, is glad when he hears the bridegroom's voice. The same joy I feel, and now it is complete ... he who is born of the earth is earthly himself and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven [i.e., Jesus] bears witness to the things he has seen and heard." We will see that there is a "friend" in a similar context in Qumran's Marriage Ritual.
55. The Rabbis assign Psalm 91 to be thus recited. A recension of this psalm from Qumran Cave 11 has been published in Revue Biblique, 72 (1965): 210-217. See also Saunders, Psalm Scroll of Qumran, 86.
56. Newsom, Songs, 64; see also Newsom's comments on p. 46 and the various Ezekiel references about the same.
57. A similar event is narrated in Luke 1:42 where Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, gives a "loud cry" when she is filled and made fertile by the Holy Spirit.
58. Newsom suggests an interesting scenario related to the story in Zechariah (Songs, 67).
59. The Hijras, "impotent and emasculated men, have this traditional role of conferring blessings of fertility on newborn males and on newlyweds.... As ritual performers, they are viewed as vehicles of the divine power of the Mother Goddess, which transforms their impotence into the power of generativity" (Serena Nanda, Neither Man Nor Woman: The Hijras of India [Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth,1990] 5). A full description of the operation and its attendant ideology follows: "The client's penis and scrotum are tightly tied with a string, so that a clean cut can be made. The client looks at the picture of Bahuchara and constantly repeats her name.... This apparently produces a trance-like state during which the dai ma [midwife] takes the knife from her sari and makes two quick opposite diagonal cuts. The organs - both penis and testicles - are completely separated from the body. A small stick is put into the urethra to keep it open. None of the hijras ... felt any pain ...; it was variously described as 'a small pinch' or 'like an ant bite.'... No stitches are made in the wound after the surgery, and the wound is healed through repeated applications of hot gingili (sesame seed) oil and heat to prevent infection" (pp. 27-28).
60. See Carlo Ginsburg, Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches' Sabbath, trans. R. Rosenthal (New York: Penguin, 1991) 226-95.
61. In 1 Chr. 15:17-24; 16:4-7; 25; there were singers among the Levites in David's time. W. F. Albright suggests that David originated musical guilds ("The List of Levitic Cities," in Louis Ginzberg Jubilee Volume, ed. Saul Lieberman [New York: American Academy of Jewish Research, 1945] 49-73).
62. The priests, in addition to supervising slaughter and the raising of animals -- and gelding was a well-known technique in the ancient world -- are also the healers of the ancient world. Uundoubtedly, Aaron's magical knowledge helps in the brothers' performance in front of the Pharaoh. Not by accident, Zipporah, Moses' wife, performs a circumcision on him and/or their son or both, an act which saves the life of the Israelite/Egyptian savior. (Exod. 4:24-26)
63. Nehemiah, who is portrayed in the Masoretic Text as "the king's cupbearer" (1:11b), is referred to in the Septuagint as "the king's eunuch." Jacob Myers' new translation, introduction and commentary on Ezra Nehemiah (New York: Doubleday, 1981) harmonizes the Hebrew and Greek traditions by suggesting that the cupbearer was an important official in the Persian royal household and that he was also a eunuch because he served in the queen's presence (p. 96). There is, of course, the fairly intriguing story in Acts 8:26-40 about the so-called Ethiopian Eunuch, who was converted to Christianity through the deacon Philip. Eusebius claims that this Ethiopian "was the first of the Gentiles ... the first fruits of the faithful ... the first to return to his native land and preach the Gospel" (Church History 2.1.13). Origen, the most important theologian of the Greek church (d. 254) castrated himself in looking for Christian perfection. Ambrosius, Origen's patron and disciple, was a strict ascetic who never touched meat, wine or women. Origen influenced Gregory of Nyssa (d. 395) who claimed that "Prelapsarian life was like that of the angels, who multiply without marriage and sexual reproduction" (De hominis opificio 17). See also, Uta Ranke-Heinemann, Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven (New York: Doubleday, 1988). Heinemann recounts a story associated with Justin Martyr (p. 150) who "tells ... about a young Christian man who had applied to the Roman governor for permission to be castrated. Back in the first century the Emperor Domitian (d. 96) had made castration subject to criminal punishment" (p. 46). This prohibition (close to the time of the sectarians) perhaps indicates the popularity and commonness of the phenomenon. John Chrysostom (d. 407) of the Eastern Church wrote: "In keeping with God's will man and woman dwelt in Paradise like angels, enflamed by no sensual lustfulness" (In Genesin Homiliae 15.3.4). As Heinemann aptly summarizes, "virginity and immortality, marriage and death belong together" (p. 55). In the fourth century as well, according to Ambrose (d. 397), virginity was the Christian virtue (p. 57).
64. The Yazidis of Sheik Adi, Iraq, are a vanishing sect that seems to carry many of the Qumranites symbols and rituals. Specifically, they are forbidden to disclose their secret rituals; they are involved in cleansing; they venerate fire and sun; and their "priest," Baba Shaweesh, became a eunuch "to resist the temptation of the flesh." In fact, he carried out the operation himself with a knife and juice from some medicinal plants (C. Hedges, New York Times, 31 May 1993, p. 2).
65. See Newsom, Songs, 237. Clement of Alexandria (150-215) talks about psalms sung by virgins, the chorus of the just, and the hymn to the God of the universe. He suggests that "the union of many voices ... constitutes ... a single symphony, with the chorus obeying a single leader and instructor, the Logos, and finding its repose in truth itself" (quoted in The Eucharist of the Early Christians, ed. Willy Rordort et al. [New York: Pueblo, 1978] 107). Interestingly, Gregorian chants too attempt a monotone in unison rejecting any rhythmic elements that may be too "bodily."
66. Newsom, Songs, 163.
67. About bodily emissions, see CD clos. 12-15 as well as 1QS col.7 and 11QTemple.
68. St. Augustine's (354-430) claim about human nature is in line with the sectarian legacy: "for by them [Adam and Eve] so great a sin was committed, that by it the human nature was altered for the worse, and was transmitted also to their posterity.... Is not this proved by the profound and dreadful ignorance which produces all the errors that enfold the children of Adam, and from which no man can be delivered without toil, pain, and fear?" Augustine then goes on to list a variety of "sins" and "shortcomings" culminating thus: "shamelessness, fornications, adulteries, incests, and the numberless uncleannesses and unnatural acts of both sexes.... These are indeed the crimes of wicked men, yet they spring from that root of error and misplaced love which is born with every son of Adam" (The City of God, trans. M. Dods, J.J. Smith, and G. Wilson. [Edinburgh, 1872] 22.22). In a very extreme statement about the hopelessness of people, Augustine emphasizes the uncontrollable aspect of sin, which therefore must be checked in a repressive fashion, as he advocates.
69. Eisenman and Wise, Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered, 4Q477.
70. Water purification in 1QS and CD to include everyone.
71. See 11QMelch, which portrays Melchizedek as a judge "who will return them there and will proclaim to them liberty, forgiving them [the wrong doings] of all their iniquities."
72. Newsom, Songs 203.
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Ita Sheres is Professor of English, Comparative Literature, and Judaic Studies at San Diego State University. Born in Jerusalem and related to two distinguished Hasidic dynasties, she received her bachelor's degree at Hebrew University, where she was a disciple of Gershom Scholem, the late scholar of mysticism, and she completed her graduate work at the University of Wisconsin. She is the author of Dinah's Rebellion: A Biblical Parable for Our Time .
Anne Kohn Blau teaches sociology in the California State University system. She has been immersed in research on the Dead Sea Scrolls and its companion literature for the last thirty years. She has painstakingly traced links among the various texts in an effort to synthesize traditional historical and sociological approaches to the period and people. Dr. Blau's Ph.D. dissertation at Boston College dealt with the issue of women and the money taboo. She has several publications in this field.
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