"[El Elyon gave me a seat among] those perfect forever,
a mighty throne in the congregation of the gods.
None of the kings of the east shall sit in it
and their nobles shall not [come near it].
No Edomite shall be like me in glory,
and none shall be exalted save me, nor shall come against me.
For I have taken my seat in the [congregation] in the heavens
And none [find fault with me].
I shall be reckoned with gods
and established in the holy congregation.
I do not desire [gold] as would a man of flesh;
everything precious to me is in the glory of [my God].
[The status of a holy temple] not to be violated,
has been attributed to me, and who can compare with me in glory?
What voyager will return
and tell [of my equivalent]
Who [laughs] at griefs as I do?
And who is like me [in bearing] evil?
Moreover, if I lay down the law in a lecture
[my instruction] is beyond comparison [with any man's].
And who will attack me for my utterances?
And who will contain the flow of my speech?
And who will call me into court and be my equal?
In my legal judgment [none will stand against] me.
I shall be reckoned with gods,
and my glory, with [that of] the king's sons.
Neither refined gold, nor gold of Ophir
[can match my wisdom]."
     - 4Q491, col. 1 of fragment 11 (translated by M. Smith)

"This manuscript, mistakenly labeled as a copy of the War Scroll, is instead a copy of a hymn similar to the Thanksgiving Psalms."
     - Michael Wise, Martin Abegg, Jr., and Edward Cook, The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation (1996) p. 171

The Thanksgiving Psalms are commonly believed by scholars to have been written by the Teacher of Righteousness.

"The author speaks of himself in the first person and recounts an agonizing history of persecution at the hands of those opposed to his ministry. In addition, the writer describes having received an empowering spirit granting him special insight into God's will (1QH 4:26), opening his ears to wonderful divine mysteries (9:21), using him as a channel of God's works (12:8), and fashioning him as a mouthpiece for God's words (16:16)."
     - Michael Wise, Martin Abegg, Jr., and Edward Cook, The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation (1996) p. 85

The passage "was identified by Baillet as a psalm of Michael, followed by a psalm of the just. There is no evidence that it is a speech of Michael. Indeed, Michael plays almost no role in [War Scroll] 1QM, to which this passage is an addition. Rather, M. Smith suggests that the narrator is human..."
     - Alan F. Segal, "The Risen Christ and the Angelic Mediator Figures in Light of Qumran" in Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls (James H. Charlesworth, Ed. - 1992), p. 308

"This speaker's claim to have been taken up and seated in heaven and counted as one of the gods ('elim) is more direct and explicit than anything I remember in the Thanksgiving Hymns or in any other of the Dead Sea Scrolls hitherto published. [In] contrast with the Thanksgiving Hymns, there is nothing here of the emphasis on revelation, on the secrets of the heavens, the role of the spirit, and the distinction between the 'elim and the one God 'with whom there is no other' (12.11)."
     - Morton Smith, "Two Ascended to Heaven - Jesus and the Author of 4Q491" in Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls (James H. Charlesworth, Ed. - 1992), p. 298

Accounts of ascension to heaven and return are a common feature of shamanism around the world.

In 4Q491, "we have evidence that the mystics at Qumran believed that they were one company with the angels, whom they call the bene 'elohim. These mystics must have achieved this unity through some rite of translation and transmutation. If that is so, ought we not to count the Wisdom of Solomon 5:5 ('Why has he been numbered among the sons of God? And why is his lot among the saints?') as another example of 'deification' or, as I would prefer to call it, 'angelification'? Furthermore, the technical term 'glory' is used to describe the splendor of the transformed person, just as Paul uses the term in his description of the transformed Christian."
     - Alan F. Segal, "The Risen Christ and the Angelic Mediator Figures in Light of Qumran" in Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls (James H. Charlesworth, Ed. - 1992), p. 308

"When he [the speaker] goes on to say that no Edomite can rival him in glory, the Edomite he has in mind is probably Herod the Great. Consequently, the nobles of the kings of the east, who preceded the Edomite, were probably the Parthian backers of Antigonus, who preceded Herod and was ousted in 37 B.C.E. That the speaker thinks it worthwhile to contrast himself with them probably dates the speech to the early years of Herod's reign."
"The speaker may be contrasting himself with the Temple of Jerusalem. It and the entire city had been granted inviolability in Seleucid times (Josephus, Ant 13.51), but had not thereby been saved from looting."
     - Morton Smith, "Two Ascended to Heaven - Jesus and the Author of 4Q491" in Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls (James H. Charlesworth, Ed. - 1992), p. 297