Who is like me among the divine beings? — spoken by a human voice that has crossed into heaven.
This brief, electrifying text survives in three overlapping Qumran manuscripts: 4Q427 Fragment 7 Column ii (a copy of the Hodayot, the Thanksgiving Hymns), the independent fragment 4Q471b, and 4Q491c (Fragment 11 Column i, embedded in a War Scroll manuscript). All three preserve the same remarkable first-person voice — a speaker who claims to sit among the heavenly council, to be numbered with the divine beings (Elim), to hold a throne of power in the congregation of the holy ones.
The identity of the speaker has divided scholars since the text's first publication. Most likely the Teacher of Righteousness himself, or a figure modeled on him — but the claim is extreme even by prophetic standards. The language goes beyond anything in the Hebrew Bible. The speaker does not merely receive a vision of heaven; he declares that heaven is his home, that the divine assembly is his community, that no one among the Elim is his equal. Some have read this as liturgical fiction, a role taken up in communal worship. Others read it as genuine testimony — the Teacher's report of his own translation. The text refuses to resolve the question.
The text is highly fragmentary across all three witnesses. Lacunae are marked throughout with square brackets.
The Hymn
Who is like me among the divine beings?
And who is appointed as I am appointed?
Who can stand before me in judgment?
Who is like me in glory?
[...]
I am numbered among the Elim.
My dwelling is in the holy council.
My desire is not for the honours of men —
nor for the gold or silver of this age.
[...]
Not for any earthly inheritance,
not for [...] of flesh,
but for the glory of the Most High,
for the praise of the King of Holiness.
[...]
Who will return to me and compare?
Who shall sit with me?
Who shall be placed beside me
in the congregation of the holy ones?
[...]
None shall say of me: he has not been instructed.
My throne is set [in the heights].
[...]
For I am reckoned with the divine beings,
my glory endures with the children of the King —
and none of the Elim stands with me.
[...]
Colophon
Translated from the Hebrew of 4Q427 Fragment 7 Column ii, 4Q471b, and 4Q491c (Fragment 11 Column i), drawing on the García Martínez and Tigchelaar Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition (Brill, 1997–98), Esther Eshel's critical edition of 4Q471b in DJD XXIX (2000), Eva Schuller's edition of 4QHodayot manuscripts in DJD XXIX, and Maurice Baillet's edition of 4Q491 in DJD VII (1982). The three manuscripts overlap but are not identical; they likely represent independent copies of a shared composition that circulated both within the Hodayot collection and independently. The text is severely lacunose throughout; the reconstruction of the speaker's voice follows the convergence of all three witnesses. Translated by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.
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Source Text
Self-Glorification Hymn — Hebrew (4Q427 Frag. 7 Col. ii; 4Q471b; 4Q491c Frag. 11 Col. i)
4Q427 Fragment 7, Column ii (4QHodayot^a)
מי כמוני באלים
ומי כ[אשר הוכן ל]י
[מי יעמד] לפני [בדין]
ומי ידמ[ה לי בכבוד]
[...]
חביר אלים [אני]
ומשכני [בעדת קדש]
[...]
ואין [חשק]י לכבוד [ב]שר
[...]
לא לכסף ולא לזהב
[ולא לנחלת ב]שר
[...]
כי לכבוד [עליון]
ולהלל [מלך קדש]
[...]
מי ישוב [אלי וידמה לי]
[ומי ישב] אתי
[...]
ומי יש[ת] אצלי
בעדת קדש[ים]
[...]
ולא יאמר [בי] לוא [למד]
כסאי [בעליונים]
[...]
כי [נ]חשבתי בין האלים
[וכבודי] עם ב[ני מ]לך
[ולא] עם האל[ים] כמוני
[...]
4Q471b
[...]מי כמוני בא[לים]
[...]ומי כאשר הוכן [...]
[...]מי יענה [לי ו]ידמה [לי]
[...]ומי ישב אתי [...]
[...]
[...]ואני ב[האלים] נ[חשבתי]
[...]
[...]ב[...]כסא עוז[...]
[...]חביר אלים [...]
[...]
4Q491c (= 4Q491 Fragment 11, Column i)
[...]כסא עוז בעדת [אלים]
[...]ל לי ולא ידמה [...]
[...]חביר אלים [אני]
[...]
[...]כבוד [אדם] לא [ישוב...]
[...]
[...]ב[...]לא לכ[סף...]
[...]
Source Colophon
Hebrew transcription based on the DJD critical editions: Eva Schuller and Carol Newsom, DJD XXIX (Oxford, 2009) for 4Q427 and 4Q471b; Maurice Baillet, DJD VII (Oxford, 1982) for 4Q491. The three manuscripts share a common textual tradition but show significant variation in the preserved fragments. Fragments are presented separately by siglum. The text is highly lacunose; only the most confident readings of the consonantal text are reproduced here. Square brackets indicate lacunae; the proposed reconstructions in the translation section follow the scholarly consensus.
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