SOME REFLECTIONS ON ANGELOMORPHIC HUMANITY TEXTS AMONG THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS

Abstract

Scholarly discussion of ancient Jewish angelology has, hitherto, largely assumed that angels are entirely suprahuman: angels are angels and men are men and each belong to a distinct order of being. In this respect discussion of angels among the Dead Sea Scrolls has reflected the wider discussion of the angelology of the period. It is generally recognised that humanity can share a community with angels (an Engelgemeinschaft) and it is widely supposed that human life and religious practice was thought at this time to mirror on earth the activity of the angels in heaven. Indeed, the communion between the righteous and the angels in the literature of the Qumran community is wellknown and has been thoroughly investigated.' One feature of late second temple angelology that has only recently come to the fore in modem discussion is the way in which the righteous are themselves regarded as angelic. Texts where humans are angelomorphic-angelic in status or nature, though without necessarily having their identity reduced to that of an angel-have been the subject of a flurry of studies in recent years, partly because of their potential significance for the understanding of early Christology.2 The principal purpose of this present article is to focus in particular on the