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May you attend upon the service in the Temple of the kingdom and decree destiny in company with the Angels of the presence, in common council [with the Holy Ones] for everlasting ages and time without end; for [all] His judgments are [truth]!

May He make you holy among His people, and an [eternal] light [to illumine] the world with knowledge and to enlighten the face of the Congregation [with Wisdom].

[May He] consecrate you to the Holy of Holies! for [you are made] holy for Him and you shall glorify His Name and his Holiness.

There are several ways in which a person can resemble an angel in this passage, and the text betrays the same ambiguous use of the word “like” that is also implicit in Daniel 12:2. Does it imply likeness to the brightness of the heavens or identity and melding with the heavenly figure? Should “k” be translated as “like” or “as”?25 In favor of transformation are several other passages. As early as 1972, Milik noted that the fragment of 4QAmram calls Aaron (brother of Moses but in this context, founder of the priesthood) an angel of God.26 Furthermore, S. F. Noll has drawn attention to the similarity of description between angels and the sectarians.27 The sect uses the term “prince” (sar) for some members of the sect as well as for angels (CD 6:6; 4QpPsa 3:5; cf. 1QH 6:14). It also likens the privilege of these believers to that of ministering angels (cf. Josh 5:14; Dan 10:13, 20; 12:1; 1QS 3:20; CD 5:18; 1QM 13:10). The ministering angels were commonly depicted as those angels who served as priests in God’s heavenly Temple. This terminology is also commonplace in other Jewish mystical texts. When it is placed in the context of Daniel, more interesting implications emerge. The group prays to be made “holy among His people,” language which suggests both angelic as well as priestly ministration and, especially, martyrdom in Daniel. It also prays to illumine the world with knowledge and wisdom, the job of the maskilim in Daniel.

At the climax of the liturgy (the twelfth and thirteenth songs), there is both a vision of God’s chariot (twelfth song) and his Glory (thirteenth song). The thirteenth song is the climax of the liturgy, according to this interpretation. In it, the human form seated on the throne in Ezekiel I first comes into view. The human high priesthood makes manifest the anthropomorphic appearance of the likeness of the Glory of the Lord. Rather than crowned angels in heaven, the exalted creatures of the thirteenth song are the human saints in heaven, who have received their crowns as result of their transformed status. The Glory of Ezekiel I is visible but it appears to be embodied as the community’s high priest, especially in his high priestly garments, miter and breastplate.

Everyone agrees that the final vision of the divine throneroom is the climax of the vision. It is the angelification that is still debated. But angelification seems to be demonstated in the more recent publications of the texts. Two fragments from cave 4 published in DJD 7 (1982) have shed further light on this phenomenon. The first (4Q491) has been discussed by scholars hotly since Baillet considered it the self-description of Israel’s archangel Michael. But Morton Smith pointed out in 1990 that the speaker is more appropriately described as a mortal human being who has been raised into heaven.28 The figure is given a “mighty throne in the congregation of the gods” (line 12) and will be “reckoned” with the gods (line 14). This suggests that a community member was being transformed into an angel, as both Elim (gods) and Bene ha-Elohim (the sons of gods) were angelic designations.

The second fragment is included in The Sons of the Sage (4Q510-511). The relevant part reads:

Some of those who are seven times refined and the holy ones God shall sancti[y] as an everlasting sanctuary for Himself and purity amongst the cleansed. They shall be priests, His righteous people, his host and servants, the angels of his glory. They shall praise Him with marvelous prodigies.

Most commentators have understood the passage to