John J. Collins of Yale University was interviewed on NPR’s program “Fresh Air” discussing the Dead Sea Scrolls. It is an informative interview that last almost forty minutes. You can access it here.
Category Archives: Dead Sea Scrolls
Baptism as washing of the body; baptism not as washing of the body
I have been reading Joan E. Taylor’s The Immerser: John the Baptist within Second Temple Judaism. In “Chapter Two: Immersion and Purity” she juxtaposes John’s baptism with ritual cleansing at Qumran (e.g., 1QS). She quotes Josephus’ comments about John Antiquities 18.116-117:
(116) Now, some of the Jews thought that the destruction of Herod’s army came from God, and that very justly, as a punishment of what he did against John, that was called the Baptist; (117) for Herod slew him, who was a good man, and commanded the Jews to exercise virtue, both as to righteousness towards one another, and piety towards God, and so to come to baptism; for that the washing [with water] would be acceptable to him, if they made use of it, not in order to the putting away [or the remission] of some sins [only], but for the purification of the body; supposing still that the soul was thoroughly purified beforehand by righteousness.[1]
There are similarities between John’s baptism and ritual cleansing in 1QS, namely that both understand baptism to be something that follows the cleansing of the soul, and cleansing of the soul happens through righteous actions: in the case of 1QS obedience to the Law as interpreted by the Teacher; in the case of John as exemplified through virtue, righteousness toward others, and piety toward God. For both John and 1QS the body could be contaminated through unrighteousness, but the soul cannot be cleansed through baptism. So one must first cleanse one’s soul through righteous action, then, and only then, the washing ritual would make one pure in body.[2]
This brought to mind 1 Peter 3:21 where the author states explicitly of baptism that saves that it is “not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus”. If most ritual cleansings were for the express purpose of making the body ritually clean so that the body could “catch up” with the soul (if you will), then is 1 Peter aiming to imply a direct contrast? If so, what does this mean for Christian baptism?
Notes on 1QS (Columns 1 and 2)
I am studying 1QS (known popularly as “The Community Rule”), so I decided I would post my notes here for anyone who may be interested.
1QS
The “community” of 1QS is the Yahud, or the Unity (היחד).
There is a figure known as the Teacher, who is depicted as the authoritative interpreter of Moses and the prophets, who teaches the community how to live before God. To live correctly is to love what God loves and to hate what God hates, including wicked people known as “Sons of Darkness” ( בני חושך).
Those who love what God loves enter into a “Covenant of Grace” (בברית חסד, 1:8). Those who enter this Covenant may join the “counsel of God” (בעצת אל), which allows them to live according to God’s Law. According to 1:19-20 there seems to be an initiation ritual with priest and Levites present who bless God while the one being initiated affirm their blessing (saying, “Amen, Amen!”, אמן אמן). Those who are in the Covenant are called, “Sons of Light” (בני אור).
This group held all things in common. Those who entered the community had to share their possessions with the Yahud. This was the beginning of strict adherence to the rules of the Yahud. Obedience was demanded so that no one would abandon God during the “rule/dominion of Belial” (בממשלת בליעל, 1:18).
When the newly initiated enter the Covenant, the Priests declare God’s compassionate-hesed to Israel” (חסדי רחמים על ישראל, 1:22) and then cite the “iniquities of the children of Israel” (עוונות בני ישראל, 1:23) that were committed under the “dominion of Belial”. It is interesting to note that this sect seems to have view of themselves as a remnant of Israel and those who are not part of this remnant are under the dominion of Belial. There is a cry of repentance and confession present in 1:25ff. that accompanies entrance into the community. After repentance the initiated person must aim to live perfectly in accordance with the Law as interpreted by the Teacher.
There is no compassion for those outside the community. In fact, the “Levites” curse those who are of the “lot of Belial” (גורל בליעל, 2:5) wishing, “Be cursed because of all your guilty wickedness! May [God] deliver you up for torture at the hands of vengeful Avengers (נוקמי נקם, 2:6)! May [God] visit you with destruction by the hand of all Wreakers of Revenge! Be cursed without mercy because of (4Q256) the darkness of your deeds! Be damned in the shadowy place of everlasting fire (באפלת אש עולמים, 2:8)! May God not heed when you call on him, nor pardon you by blotting out your sin! May [God] raise his angry face toward you for vengeance! May there be no “Peace” for you in the mouth of those who hold fast to the Fathers!”[1] The initiated must agree to this with “Amen, Amen!”
Curses are placed on those who enter the Covenant, but who do not maintain their place within it. The person who fails to remain obedient receives this curse: “All the curses of the Covenant shall cling to him and God will set him apart for evil. He shall be cut off from the midst of all he Sons of Light, and because he has turned aside from God on account of his idols and his stumbling-block of sin, his lot shall be among those who are cursed forever.”[2]
This ritual occurs “year by year” (שנה בשנה, 2:19). When it begins the Priests enter first, then the Levites, then the people in grounds of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens (indicating that this document was likely written in anticipation of the day when the Yahud would be a larger group than it seems was a reality at any point). This is in order to preserve the social hierarchy within the group.
Some elements of 1QS parallel the language of early Christianity. There is a Covenant that is characterized by grace. Those who enter this Covenant are “Sons/Children of God”. Those who are not in the Covenant are under the power of the evil being, Belial in 1QS and Satan in most Christian writings (but Belial is mentioned). There appears to be a sense in which one can be part of Israel and then another sense in which there is a truer manifestation of Israel.
There are elements of 1QS that stand in contrast to early Christianity. One can juxtaposes the curses placed on those outside the Covenant with Paul’s words in Romans 9:1ff. Those Paul could speak of people being accursed, it doesn’t seem that he wanted this to happen and he does not command anyone to act this way toward outsiders. Likewise, while there has been much discussion over whether Judaism of Paul’s day was “legalistic”, and while scholarship has shifted from this language due to the work of E.P. Sanders and others like him, this doesn’t mean that we should dismiss the reality that there were some Jewish sects who maintained very strict interpretations of the Law. It seems as if expulsion from the Yahud was always a possibility, and therefore eternal punishment.
Digital Dead Sea Scrolls
The Israel Antiquities Authority and Google have been working to make a digital collection of the Dead Sea Scrolls available to the public. Today, from Bible History Daily:
This week, the Israel Antiquities Authority, in collaboration with Google, launched The Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library, a new website that allows visitors to view and search high-resolution images of the complete Dead Sea Scrolls archive online. The project uses the most advanced and innovative technologies available to image the entire collection of about 930 manuscripts, comprising thousands of Dead Sea Scrolls fragments, in high resolution and multiple spectra. Through this process, hundreds of images are now accessible to anyone, anywhere in the world over the web, with many thousands more on the way. Several hundred fragments are already viewable, and it is hoped that transcriptions and translations for many scrolls will soon be available as well.
View the digital Dead Sea Scrolls archive.
I browsed around the site and it is nice. You can explore the archive by site, language, and content. Wonderful!
Screen capture after a search for 4Q521:
Zoomed in on the the “Messianic Apocalypse”:
See also: The Great Isaiah Scroll
Craig A. Evans and James VanderKam discuss the Dead Sea Scrolls.
For those interested, Craig A. Evans (Acadia University) and James VanderKam (University of Notre Dame) discussed the Dead Sea Scrolls on WGN Chicago 720 while in town for AAR/SBL. You can listen to it here.
(HT: Greg Monette)
Exegesis of 4Q521, Frags. 2 + 4 Col. 2 (Pt. 2)
Translation:
4:1 For the heavens and the earth will listen to his messiah,
4:2 and all that is in them will not depart from the commandments of the holy ones.
4:3 Strengthen yourselves you seeking the Lord in his service
4:4 Will you not find the Lord in this, all those waiting in their hearts?
4:5 Because the Lord will attend to the covenant faithful and the righteous he will call by name.
4:6 And on the humble his spirit will rest and the faithful he will renew in his strength.
4:7 Because he will glorify the covenant faithful upon a throne of kingship forever,
4:8 freeing the imprisoned, opening [the eyes] of the blind, raising the bowed.
4:9 And forever I will cling with those [who] wait and in his covenant faithfulness.
4:10 and the fruit of good deeds to no man will be delayed.
4:11 And the glorious things which do not exist the Lord will do just as he said.
4:12 Because he will heal the slain, and the dead will be alive, and to the humble he will bring glad tidings
4:13 and the oppressed he will cause to be satisfied, and the exiled he will guide, and the hungry he will enrich.
Exegesis:
Line 7 continues what was begun in Lines 1 and 2. In those two lines messiah is obeyed and the “holy ones” seem to share in his reign. In Line 7 the חסידים are enthroned. The language is quite strong, predicting a future day when they will be “glorified” by the Lord (יכבד, imperfect), which is explained as having a “throne of kingship” (כסא מלכות). That this reign is “forever” (עד) is an interesting statement as well. Does the author mean to indicate something like resurrection life or merely that the kingdom of God’s people will reign forever (i.e., the children of future generations will continue the rule)?
Line 8 has language that is similar to some Lukan language regarding the messiah, though God seems to be the primary mover. The imprisoned will be free (מתיר אסורים), the eyes of the blind opened (פוקח עורים), and bowed or cast down will be raised (זוקף כפופים).
Line 9 moves to the first person with the author saying that he will “cling with those who wait/hope” (אדבק במיחלים). As with the statement at the end of Line 7 that seemed to indicate an eternal hope of some sort, the author says he will do this “forever” (ולעלם). Now, עולם can mean “for a long time,” but it is hard to avoid the implications in the broader context, especially with mention of what may be resurrection in Line 12.
In Lines 5 and 7 the covenant faithful of the Lord are mentioned. In Line 9 the author establishes the Lord as faithful to the covenant saying he will cling to the Lord’s covenant faithfulness (ובחסדו).
Line 10 appears to present the idea of an eschatological award for good deeds. The author says that “the fruit of good deeds” (ופרי מעשה טוב) will not be denied/delayed to any man (לאיש לוא יתאחר). The hithpael here seems to be emphasizing the work of the Lord as a future event. The Lord himself will not delay the fruit.
Line 11 is about covenant fulfillment. Things that do not exist now (ונכבדות שלוא היו יעשה) will exist then “just as he said” (אדני כאשר דבר ).
Line 12 The “reason” that the things that are not existent will be existent is “because” (כי) the Lord will “heal the slain” (ירפא חללים , imperfect) and “the dead will alive” (ומתים יחיה, imperfect) and he will bring “good tidings/good news” to the humble (ענוים יבשר , imperfect). All of these statements are in the imperfect indicating future events. It is hard to avoid reading them as eschatological. Likewise, it is hard to avoid connecting this language to language used by Christians later. In fact, one can hear the echo of this fragment’s worldview in much Christian writings: a time of messiah, co-reigning with messiah, covenant faithfulness; the Lord releasing captives, raising the oppressed, opening the eyes of the blind, and bringing the dead to life; the spirit resting on God’s people. One could view the use of בשר as a precursor to language about the “gospel” as well. It refers to a message of good news.
Finally, Line 13 appears to continue this line of thought: oppressed are satisfied by the Lord (ודלים ישביע), the exiles given guidance (נתושים ינהל), and the hungry enriched (ורעבים יעשר).
Note: the symbol 〚 〛 means there is “empty space or damaged skin with no writing. When a bracket [ ] is present the content was reconstructed, so there is reason to be cautious in those instances.
A full PDF of Pt. 1 and 2 will be available on the Essays/Papers page. As before, feedback welcome.
Exegesis of 4Q521, Frags. 2 + 4 Col. 2 (Pt. 1)
Translation:
4:1 For the heavens and the earth will listen to his messiah,
4:2 and all that is in them will not depart from the commandments of the holy ones.
4:3 Strengthen yourselves you seeking the Lord in his service
4:4 Will you not find the Lord in this, all those waiting in their hearts?
4:5 Because the Lord will attend to the covenant faithful and the righteous he will call by name.
4:6 And on the humble his spirit will rest and the faithful he will renew in his strength.
4:7 Because he will glorify the covenant faithful upon a throne of kingship forever,
4:8 freeing the imprisoned, opening [the eyes] of the blind, raising the bowed.
4:9 And forever I will cling with those [who] wait and in his covenant faithfulness.
4:10 and the fruit of good deeds to no man will be delayed.
4:11 And the glorious things which do not exist the Lord will do just as he said.
4:12 Because he will heal the slain, and the dead will be alive, and to the humble he will bring glad tidings
4:13 and the oppressed he will cause to be satisfied, and the exiled he will guide, and the hungry he will enrich.
Exegesis:
4Q521 fii 4.1-13 interest me for four reasons: (1) it mentions the messiah; (2) it depicts the spirit of YHWH as coming upon his people; (3) it may allude to a resurrection; (4) it presents the reader with an eschatological hope for the people of God.
In line 1 the “heavens and earth”( השמים והארץ) represents all of the created order, ala Genesis 1. The author writes that creation will “listen to his messiah.” The word for “listen” is שמע which goes beyond hearing something to hearing something attentively. This seems to present creation as listening to obey the messiah. The messiah (למשיחו) is “his”, the third person masculine singular suffix connects messiah to YHWH.
Line 2 continues this sentence establishing that all that is in creation “depart” (יסוג) from “the commandments of the holy ones” (ממצות קדושים), a statement that seems to implied a shared rule with messiah for those who are the people of God.
Line 3 begins with an imperative in the hithpael instructing the reader—likely the “holy ones”—to engage in the act of self-strengthening (התאמצו). These holy ones are “seeking the Lord in his service”
Line 4 rhetorically asks if the reader will find the Lord in this and describes the holy ones as “hoping in their hearts” or “waiting in their hearts” (המיחלים בלבם).
Line 5 is future oriented. The Lord will attend (יבקר, imperfect) to his “pious”[2] (חסידים) or as I translated it “covenant faithful” because חסד seems to have the implication of faithfulness is a covenant setting. The holy ones are faithful and the “righteous” (וצדיקים). The Lord will “call them by name” (בשם יקרא, imperfect).
Line 6 is intriguing because it mentions the spirit resting on the humble. The “humble” (ענוים) is another way of speaking of the aforementioned holy ones, covenant faithful, and righteous. The spirit (רוחו) is “his” (another third person, singular, masculine suffix as with “messiah” above) meaning the Lord’s. The word used to the spirit’s resting upon the humble is the same word used of the spirit in Genesis 1.2 (תרחף in line 6 and מרחפת in Gen 1.2). I assume the author intends to evoke an echo of the creation narrative with the spirit doing a similar work of reorganizing the chaos.
The other action of the Lord in this line is renewing of the strength of the faithful (ואמונים). This is different from my “covenant faithful” gloss above. The covenant doesn’t seem to be in view as much here as when the author wrote חסידים though the action of fidelity is similar.
In my next post I will share my notes on the rest of the fragment. Your feedback is most welcome!
