“Heaven as Temple”: Astronomical-Cosmological Motifs in the Songs of Sabbath Sacrifice

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Beate Ego
• Subject Area: Protestant Theology
• Term: since 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 424565043

The 13 Songs of Sabbath Sacrifice from Qumran, written in the Hellenistic period and fragmentarily preserved, deal with the worship of angels in the heavenly world – be it that the angelic beings are summoned to praise God or that the Songs describe the heavenly praise. Since the texts were first published in 1960, research has been trying to find a meaningful interpretation of this tradition. It was primarily the idea of a “liturgical communion with angels” that – with different emphasis – became decisive for their interpretation. The reciting of these texts was to replace the missing cult in the Temple in Jerusalem by means of the imaginary participation of the persons at prayer in a heavenly service. Because of the importance of this research approach, other ideas – in particular the attempt to combine the songs with cosmological conceptions – have or the most part remained on the margins of interest to date. However, the motif of a liturgical communion with angels for these songs has to be questioned, since this idea is not attested in the texts itself; rather, they emphasize the difference between the persons at prayer and the heavenly worshippers. Thus, a plausible interpretation of the songs is still a desideratum of research. Accordingly, this project aims at working out a new interpretation of the Songs of Sabbath sacrifice. The starting point for a new approach is the thesis that the Songs of Sabbath sacrifice contain astronomical-cosmological motifs. In this context, the temple mentioned in these texts is to be interpreted as heaven and the light phenomena as stars. In view of the fact that psalms such as Ps 19 or Ps 148 combine the praise of God with astrological-cosmological ideas, such an interpretation is given a plausible framework. In order to concretize such an approach, the astronomical-cosmological motifs must not be viewed in isolation - as has been the case in research to date – but should be contextualized in their “Traditionsgeschichte” as well as in the work’s immanent discourse. Therefore, in a first step, the astronomical-cosmological motifs of the texts will be collected and placed in the broader context of biblical and early Jewish extra-biblical literature and its reference texts. The second part of the project will then focus on positioning the motifs in the overall context of the Songs of Sabbath sacrifice and in relation to other central motifs such as “temple worship and sacrifice”, “angelology” as well as “liturgy and hymn”. Against this background, the "world view" of the songs and their identity discourse within the framework of the literature of the Old Testament and the extra-biblical early Jewish traditions are to be discussed and determined anew. The results of this research will be presented in the form of a cursory commentary on the Songs as well as in an extensive introductory chapter. An English-language publication of the most important research results is planned.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants