Introduction to the Dead Sea Scrolls St. William Church January 23, 2013 Session Two

1. Introduction to the Dead Sea Scrolls St. William Church January 23, 2013 Session Two

2. Session Two: Contact with Scrolls Who were the people who wrote the Scrolls? Three sections to discuss: • Origin of the Group • What we can learn about them from Philo and Josephus. • Two Texts, 1QS and 1QpHab

3. Session Two: Contact with Scrolls In the ancient world, there was inconsistency in “authorial attribution.” On the one hand, Philo and Josephus (generally) were careful with “attribution” On the other hand, whoever wrote (or last-copied) the DSS were less careful…we don’t know actual authors: “Pseudepigrapha.”

4. Session Two: Contact with Scrolls The Non-Biblical DSS use “code words” that they themselves understood…but which we interpret with some speculation. Four critical terms: • The Wicked Priest • The Teacher of Righteousness • The Kittim • The “Yahad”

5. Session Two: Contact with Scrolls “The Wicked Priest” may have been Jonathan Maccabee, who was the leader of the Jews in their revolt against the Seleucids. During the continuing civil war between the “Hellenists” who supported Greek culture and governance and the “Nationalistic Jews” who insisted on a national religion, he was appointed High Priest by the pretender to the throne of Seleucia. (151 +/-)

6. Session Two: Contact with Scrolls 18 Then he said to me: Son of man, thus says the Lord GOD: These are the statutes for the altar when it is set up for sacrificing burnt offerings and splashing blood on it. 19 A young bull must be brought as a purification offering to the priests, the Levites descended from Zadok, who come near to serve me-- oracle of the Lord GOD. (Eze43:18-19)

7. Session Two: Contact with Scrolls Problem with Jonathan: He was not of the line of Zadok Priest, whom the Nationalistic Judaizers insisted that all High Priests be of his line (Prior slide) Hence, he could not be a proper “High Priest”..i.e., he was the “Wicked Priest.” As a political opponent the Nationalistic Jewish party saw him as an “oppressor.”

8. Session Two: Contact with Scrolls “The Teacher of Righteousness” was the political/spiritual leader of the group that became the “Covenanters.” (See Handout §1). It is likely that Jonathan and his successor, Simon, hounded the “remnant” and forced them to move to the desert at Qumran.

9. Session Two: Contact with Scrolls “Kittim” is the code word for the implacable enemy of the Covenanters. It is likely that it represents the Romans, especially the Roman army. The Kingdom of Israel, after almost 100 years of civil war, was occupied by Pompey in about 67 BC. The Kittim were allied with the corrupt Jews who did not accept the teachings of the Teacher of Righteousness.

10. Session Two: Contact with Scrolls The “Yahad.” This appears often in the OT meaning “together, union, association.” This was the first part of the self-reference.This is synonymous with “Kahal,” which was translated into Greek as synagogē. (Christians chose another translation, ekklesia.)

11. Session Two: Contact with Scrolls But this Yahad was special…for it was the “Yahad ha B’ritha-Chaddeshah:” “B’rit” = “Covenant” “ha Kaddeshah” = “New” “The Community of the New Covenant.”

12. Session Two: Contact with Scrolls (Jer 31:31 The days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant (B’ritChadashah, diathekē) with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.) Mark 14:24 He said to them, "This is my blood of the covenant (diathekē),which will be shed for many.

13. Session Two: Contact with Scrolls There is a traditional identification of this group as “Essenes.” While the Pharisees and Sadducees had significant political vectors, the Essenes generally did not. They were a “religious” sub-group, described by both Philo and Josephus.

14. Session Two: Contact with Scrolls Philo (Handout §2) • Devoted to the Service of God…no Sacrifice of animals. • Not commercially oriented to acquiring riches • Ignorant of Commercial dealings (Whose end is acquiring riches.)

15. Session Two: Contact with Scrolls • No Slavery • Devote all attention to “Moral Philosophy” • Whose source is the “Laws of their country” (i.e., Torah) • Which exists only by divine inspiration.

16. Session Two: Contact with Scrolls Josephus (Jewish War, 2:119-63) (Handout §3) • Rejection of pleasure and practice of continence and control of passions. • Despise Riches • Entrance into the group involves giving up all riches to the community.

17. Session Two: Contact with Scrolls • Piety toward God is extraordinary. • Bathing in cold water important • Hate the wicked and love the righteous • Avoid spitting • After being touched by inferior, must bathe…(importance of bathing facilities)

18. Session Two: Contact with Scrolls I. Life after death, where the good are rewarded and the wicked suffer eternally.

19. Session Two: Contact with Scrolls Part of the “Temple Scroll,” 11QTemple.

21. Session Two: Contact with Scrolls How do Scholars date and discover the scribal forms of the texts? Example from Biblical Archaeology Review, where the identical characteristics of letter-formation was found in Qumran and Masada…

23. A Distinctive Lamed: The early Herodian script on the Hosea commentary (4Q166; above) matches that of more than 50 other Qumran tests and one from Massada. Yardeni analyzed each letter’s form, describing the Lamed as the most “characteristic letter of this scribe…”

24. 11 QT, 56 19-21 Note the configuration of the “Lameds” (ל)

25. Session Two: Contact with Scrolls The Temple Scroll Prior to Unrolling

26. Session Two: Contact with Scrolls Total Texts (ignoring a huge number of scraps that have at most several letters written on them): 972 Texts. There are 11 caves around Qumran that produced texts; there are many, many caves in the area that may have added texts to be discovered.

27. Session Two: Contact with Scrolls How are Texts Identified? First number of text is Cave No. (1-11) First Letter is “Q”, which means Qumran. Next Letter or phrase identifies the manuscript for scholars. “Commentaries” are indicated by “p”= pesher = “interpretation.”

28. Session Two: Contact with Scrolls 1QIsaiaha (known as Great Isaiah Scroll) 1QIsaiahb (Additional Isaiah..with differences from “a” and from MT. 1QS “S=serek” which is the Community Rule. 1QpHab = “commentary on Habakkuk” 1QM = “Milcamah” = “War”

29. Session Two: Contact with Scrolls 1QH=“Hodyot,” which are non-canonical Psalms…i.e., functioning as psalms but not from the Bible 1QapGen= Genesis Apocryphon, a re-telling of parts of Genesis.

30. Session Two: Contact with Scrolls Other Text types found: Cave 2 produced a copy of Jubilees, a text that might be called a “Rewriten” Genesis and Exodus 1-12, written in the 2nd Century BC; Cave 2 also produced a copy of the Wisdom of Ben Sirach in Hebrew. (Non-canonical for Jews and Protestants; canonical for us)

31. Session Two: Contact with Scrolls Cave 4 produced the majority of texts of Qumran…about 90%. There were 500 texts and 15,000 fragments. It also produced 21 Tefillin and 7 mezuzot. (Deut 6:9 Write them (words of Torah) on the doorposts (mezuzot) of your houses and on your gates.)

32. Session Two: Contact with Scrolls Cave 11 produced the “Temple Scroll” (11QTemple) or 11Q20. It is about 26 feet long and deals with the “Covenanter’s Temple” not that in Jerusalem. It has a powerful eschatological vector to it. YigaelYadin: “The Torah According to the Essenes.” This has been challenged.

33. Session Two: Contact with Scrolls If we look at the most “popular” books found, we have something like the following: Psalms: 39 Isaiah: 22 Num. 11 Deut. 33 Jubilees 21 Minor P. 10 1 Enoch 26 Exodus: 18 Daniel 8 Genesis 24 Leviticus:17 Jeremiah 8

34. Session Two: Contact with Scrolls Several things to notice: • There was no “Canon” at the time; hence, we find books that were subsequently declared “Non-Canonical” next to those declared “Canonical.”

35. Session Two: Contact with Scrolls Pseudepigrapha are books that are written in a biblical style, such as1 Enoch, was written about 165-200 BC, and is a pattern for later apocalyptic work. Enoch did not die (Gen 5:24, “God took him.”) It includes ideas not present in biblical texts but was influential in other literature.

36. Session Two: Contact with Scrolls • The texts themselves indicate considerable cases where they differ among themselves; the Masoretic Text was not codified until the 10th Century. • Except for the DSS, the oldest manuscripts we have is Leningradensis, which was produced in 1008. The BibliaHebraicaStutgartensis (the one we use today) is based on Leningradensis.

37. Session Two: Contact with Scrolls • There are at least segments from every book of what we call the OT except the Book of Esther.

38. Column 19: Plea for Deliverance (A Noncanonical Psalm) 11Q6 (11QPsb 11QPsalm Session Two: Contact with Scrolls Psalms, both Canonical and Non-Canonical like the one below: • Column 19: Plea for Deliverance (A Noncanonical Psalm) 11Q6 (11QPsb 11QPsalmsb) • Fragments 4 and 5 • See Handout § 4 for Translation

39. Session Two: Contact with Scrolls What1QS looks like (Col II:1-4) See Translation in Handout, §5B And for 1QpHab 7.1-5 See Translation in Handout, §6

42. Session Two: Contact with Scrolls • But God has also requited us with the loving deeds of his mercy, long ago and forevermore. Then the priests are to bless all those foreordained to God who walk faultless in all his ways, saying, “may he bless you with every good thing and preserve you from every evil; may he enlighten your mind with wisdom for living, be gracious to you with the knowledge of eternal things, and lift up his gracious countenance upon you for everlasting peace.” (Col 2:1-4)

43. Session Two: Contact with Scrolls What 1QpHab 7.1-5 looks like:

46. Session Two: Contact with Scrolls • 1QpHab 7:1-5 • And God told Habakkuk to write what was going to happen to the last generation, but he did not let him know the consummation of the era. (blank) and as for what he says: “So may run the one who reads”. Its interpretation concerns the Teacher of Righteousness, to whom God has made known all the mysteries of the words of his servants, the prophets…

47. Session Two: Contact with Scrolls In next slide, from 1QpHab, look at the writing on the fourth line and the eleventh line…do you see anything unusual?