| Premortal Life and Predestination Because these documents developed out of the biblical tradition, many passages in the sectarian documents indicate that God is the great creator who knows all things and has power over all things. Consider these three examples: before your {God’s} might, nothing is strong, and nothing is [comparable] to your glory, and to your wisdom there is no measure, and your fait[hfulness has no end] (1QH XVII [9] 16–7) 6Who (is) like you, God of Israel, in the heavens or on the earth, to do great deeds like your deeds, marvels like your feats? (1QM X 8)
Thus, the God of Israel is over all and nothing can compare with his matchless power and knowledge. Josephus, the first century a.d. Jewish historian, indicated that the Essenes believed in the premortal existence of souls, or spirits. He records that: their doctrine is this, that bodies are corruptible . . . but that the souls are immortal and continue for ever: and that they came out of the most subtle air, and are united to their bodies as to prisons . . . but that when they are set free from the bonds of the flesh, they then, as released from a long bondage, rejoice and mount upward. And this is like the opinion of the Greeks. 7While the record of Josephus cannot be used without some critical evaluation (for example, it is not clear to what extent this passage is tinged with the influence of Greek ideas), it is clear from various other sources that at least some Jews and Christians living at the turn of the era believed in the existence of spirits before these spirits entered their mortal bodies. 8 Two passages from the Thanksgiving Hymns strongly suggest this same idea:These are those you fou[nded before] the centuries, to judge through them all your works before creating them, together with the host of your spirits and the assembly of [the gods,] with the holy vault and all its hosts, with the earth and all its produce. (1QH V [13] 13–5)
(1QH XVIII [10] 8) 9While the inhabitants of Qumran apparently believed in the premortal existence of spirits, there is nothing in the Dead Sea Scrolls that indicates the nature or characteristics of these spirits. They are never described as the "children" of God. The Old Testament contains various passages that are understood by Latter-day Saints to indicate that the Lord knows "the end from the beginning" (Isaiah 46:10), and that the house of Israel (Isaiah 49:1–3) and the prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:5), for example, were called, or foreordained, from the womb or even earlier to do God’s will. There are several passages in the sectarian scrolls, however, that clearly indicate that the Qumran community went beyond such conceptions of foreordination to believing in predestination—that everything in life happened according to God’s will and plan. Consider the following two representative passages from the scrolls: In your wisdom you es[tablished] eternal [. . .]; before creating them you know all their deeds for ever and ever. [. . .] [Without you] nothing is done, and nothing is known without your will. You have fashioned every spirit and [. . .] and the judgment of all their deeds. Blank You have stretched out the heavens for your glory. Everything [which it contains you have established] according to your approval. . . . And in the wisdom of your knowledge you have determined their course before they came to exist. And with [your approval] everything happens, and without you nothing occurs. (1QH IX [1] 7–10, 19–20)10 Based on these and similar passages, it is evident that the inhabitants of Qumran believed more strongly in the determining power of God’s foreknowledge than is evidenced in any other Jewish writings known to us from that time period. This view roughly correlates with the statement of Josephus that "the sect of the Essenes . . . declares that Fate is mistress of all things, and that nothing befalls men unless it be in accordance with her decree." 11 The passage from the Rule of the Community continues:In his {God’s} hand are the laws of all things and he supports them in all their needs. He created man to rule the world and placed within him two spirits so that he would walk with them until the moment of his visitation: they are the spirits of truth and of deceit. In the hand of the Prince of Lights is dominion over all the sons of justice; they walk in paths of light. And in the hand of the Angel of Darkness is total dominion over the sons of deceit; they walk on paths of darkness. Due to the Angel of Darkness all the sons of justice stray, and all their sins, their iniquities, their failings and their mutinous deeds are under his dominion in compliance with the mysteries of God, until his moment; and all their punishments and their periods of grief are caused by the dominion of his enmity; and all the spirits of their lot cause the sons of light to fall. However, the God of Israel and the angel of his truth assist all the sons of light. He created the spirits of light and of darkness and on them established all his deeds. (1QS III 16–25) 12This passage indicates that God created two spirits, the Prince of Lights and the Angel of Darkness, who each have their "lot" or group of spirit followers that influence people with "truth" or "deceit." Latter-day Saints may see in this the aftermath of the war in heaven. That may well be the origin of this concept at Qumran, but it must be pointed out that in the Qumran material there is no mention of such a war, nor of a loss of status for the Angel of Darkness. 13 Note also that in the preceding passage the Angel of Darkness is described as being created evil by God. While it might be tempting to suggest that the Qumran community did not really believe in predestination, but in foreordination, thus allowing for an individual’s agency, similar to the Latter-day Saint conception, I do not see how the passages just cited can be understood to indicate anything other than predestination.There is, however, another dimension to this picture. There are several passages, especially in the Thanksgiving Hymns, that seem to suggest that in the doctrines taught at Qumran there was a certain amount of free will or agency that people could exercise in order to merit God’s grace and forgiveness. For example: Dread and dismay have gripped me . . . for I have remembered my faults . . . But when I remembered the strength of your hand and the abundance of your compassion I remained resolute and stood up . . . for you have supported me by your kindnesses and by you abundant compassion. Because you atone for sin and cle[anse man] of his fault through your justice. (1QH XII [4] 33–7)
(1QH XV [7] 30)
(1QS XI 13–4) 14Space does not allow a full exploration of how these concepts—predestination, agency, and forgiveness—could comfortably coexist in the thought of the Qumran community. E. H. Merrill has observed, "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." 15 From the perspective of the inhabitants of Qumran, those who entered the covenant of the community and remained faithful in that covenant as true Israel had been predestined to be the elect of God. Yes, they would sin and need to be forgiven, but this like everything else, happened because God had willed it long ago.In summary, the Qumran sectarian scrolls indicate that God created all things, including good and evil spirits, as well as the spirits or souls of people before they existed in the flesh, and that God determined which people would be saved and which people would be destroyed. 16 These passages suggest to me corrupted echoes of the war in heaven and of God’s foreordination of his spirit children, concepts that Latter-day Saints believe were known and understood in previous gospel dispensations. However, by the time of the Qumran community it appears that their understanding was well off the track of true doctrine.17
Introduction | Section 1 | Section 2 |
Section 3 | |