Genesis 1–3 and the Formation of Subjectivity in the Hodayot and the Two Spirits Teaching

Abstract

Although the lived experience of subjectivity for persons in antiquity cannot be known directly, one can study certain texts as tools for the formation of subjects. Among the Dead Sea Scrolls two compositions are particularly instructive, the Hodayot found in 1QHa 2–9, 18–28 (the Hodayot of the Maskil, also known as Hodayot of the Community) and the Two Spirits Teaching (1QS 3:13–4:26). Each develops an understanding of subjectivity based on subtle interpretations of creation traditions, developed through sophisticated intertextual readings. The Hodayot privilege Gen 2–3; the Two Spirits Teaching emphasizes Gen 1. Although mutually contradictory on the surface, the two accounts actually develop subjectivities that share many similarities. By analyzing these converging patterns one may get some sense of the lived subjectivity that was created by the various texts and practices of the Yahad community.