'Instruction to a student'),[1] also known as Sapiential Work A or Secret of the Way Things Are, is a Hebrew text among the Dead Sea Scrolls classified as wisdom literature.
The author addresses how to deal with business and money issues in a godly manner, public affairs, leadership, marriage, children, and family, and how to live life righteously among secular society.
Among the major studies published on the document are those by Armin Lange (1995),[4] Daniel J. Harrington (1996),[5] Torleif Elgvin (1998), John J. Collins (1999;[6] 2003), Eibert Tigchelaar (2001),[7] Matthew Goff (2003),[8] Cana Werman (2004), Benjamin Wold (2018),[9] and Jean-Sebastian Rey (2009).
Similarly, both books reflect scribal activity with "a quest for divine communication," and "neither are concerned with the sacrificial cult of the Temple".
One of the most discussed passages (4Q417 1 i lines 15–18) from this document is a fragmentary and cryptic description of what many view as angelic involvement in the creation of humanity, which is apparently described in reference to Genesis 1:26.
In addition to the fragmentary nature of these lines and the broader context, the identification of the "Vision of Hagu" and the "sons of Seth/perdition" have led to competing views about implications for the type, or even presence, of dualism that one should find in 4QInstruction.