The Thanksgiving Hymn
Excerpts from ‘The Thanksgiving Hymns’ from the Dead Sea Scrolls
…“…I have counted twenty‑five compositions similar to the biblical Psalms. They are all Hymns of Thanksgiving… expressing a rich variety of spiritual and doctrinal detail. But the two fundamental themes running through the whole collection are those of Salvation and Knowledge. The sectary thanks God continually for having been saved/delivered from the ‘lot’ of the Wicked, and for His gift of insight into the Divine Mysteries. He, a ‘creature of clay’, has been singled out by his Maker to receive favors of which he feels himself unworthy and he alludes again and again to his frailty and total dependence on God.” ‘The Introduction’