Women, Men, and Angels: The Qumran Wisdom Document ‘Musar leMevin’ and its Allusions to Genesis Creation Traditions

How did the use of biblical traditions shape theology? Benjamin Wold focuses on allusions to traditions from Genesis in Musar leMevin from the Dead Sea Scrolls and explores implications for the document’s understanding of women, men and angels. Cosmology and anthropology are conceived of in light of creation and ethical instruction provided on this basis. The nature of creation is reflected upon and alluded to in the document to educate and exhort the addressees about who they are and how they should live. The behaviour between the addressee and members of the family, society and angelic beings are formulated on the basis of interpretations of creation stories. Creation is also related to the esoteric ‘mystery of being’, angels and the apocalyptic worldview of the author(s). This is a sustained study on both explicit and non-explicit uses of Genesis creation traditions in the Hebrew Wisdom document Musar leMevin.