 War Rule 4Q285 (SM) Copied early first century B.C.E.
The Messianic EliteThe Communities of the ScrollsThe Wicked Priest
The Habakkuk Pesher "describes the struggle between the Teacher of Righteousness and his opponents - the Man of Lies (termed the Spouter or Preacher of Lies) and the Wicked Priest. The Spouter is pictured as heading a community. The dispute between the Teacher and the Spouter is seems to have been based on matters of religious interpretation and law. The Wicked Priest is said to have begun his rule in truth but then to have abandoned the way of truth. He then persecutes the Teacher, confronting him on the holiest day of the year, the Day of Atonement."
"...The Habakkuk Pesher, xi 13-15...deliberately transmutes an underlying scriptural reference to 'trembling' into an allusion about the Wicked Priest 'not circumcising the foreskin of his heart.' This image plays on Ezekiel 44:7-9's reconstructed Temple vision, also including the language of pollution of the Temple. This last image is specifically related to the demand to ban from it rebels, Law-breakers, foreigners and those 'of uncircumcised heart'."
"In the time of the interpreter, the Wicked Priest was apparently still alive; because of the latter's perfidy, we read, he would someday be swallowed up by the 'cup of the (Lord's) wrath' (11.12 ff.) and paid back in full for his wickedness against the 'Poor' (Hebrew, ebyonim). The partly untranslatable passage, Habakkuk 2.17, includes the phrases 'The violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein'. The interpreter explains that the word 'Lebanon' stands for the Council of the Unity - an expression identical with the one used several times in the Manual - and that the 'beasts' of the same verse of Habakkuk stand for the 'simple ones of Judah who perform the Torah' (column 12, lines 1 ff.)."
The Habakkuk Pesher alluded to God by writing the Tetragrammaton YHWH in archaic Hebrew letters.
"The 'city' stands, according to the interpreter, for Jerusalem, 'where the Wicked Priest performed his abominations, defiling the sanctuary of the Lord', and the phrase 'the violence of the land' refers to 'the cities of Judah (where) he stole the wealth of the Poor'. The doers of the Torah, we are informed, will ultimately be saved 'by virtue of their toil and their belief in the Teacher of Righteousness' (8.1). While the final-generation priests of Jerusalem will gather lucre 'from the booty of the nations', in the 'end of days it will be given over the Kittim' (9.4) - and 'on the day of judgment the Lord will destroy all worshippers of graven images and the wicked from the earth' (13.2). The theme of righteousness of the poor and wickedness of those amassing lucre has resonances...within the Manual of Discipline [Community Rule]." These apocalyptic expectations find their fullest expression in the War Scroll, which was found in Cave 1 near Qumran along with the Habakkuk Pesher, Community Rule and Manual of Discipline.
"The enemies of the Wicked Priest, the nation against whom he had made war, are said to have tortured him, so that his life ended in mortal disease and affliction."
Outcasts in the Desert
"That priestly led group withdrew from Jerusalem's Temple to a 'monastery' on the Dead Sea's northwest coast, judging that the Temple was polluted after the usurpation of the high priesthood by the Hasmonean rulers, Jonathan and Simon, between 152 and 134 B.C.E." References to withdrawing into the "wilderness" may have been meant allegorically. At any rate the destination could not have been Qumran.
"It is most likely that the descendants of Zerubbabel and his inner group known as the Hasidim left Jerusalem sometime between 187 BC and 152 BC."
"The sectarians saw themselves as living a pristine life like that of the Israelites in the period of desert wandering. Further, they saw themselves as having gone into the desert to receive the Torah, just as Israel had in the period of the Exodus. All this is to be expected from a group that had left the more thickly settled areas of Judea to relocate in the wilderness, there to maintain its own standards of sanctity and purity."
Teacher of Righteousness This information appears in the Damascus Document - Geniza manuscript A 1.4-10. (More on the Righteous Teacher can also be found at this link.)
"From pertinent hints and suggestions in both the Pesher and the Covenant, it appears that the Teacher began his oppositional career by preaching against the Jerusalem establishment, whom he accused of deceit, graft, exploitation of the poor, and failure to understand the true meaning of the prophetic writings.quot;
"Scholars have proposed the Suffering Servant as Israel, one of the Isaiahs or Jeremiah. Dupont-Sommer suggested that Second Isaiah may date from a period as late as that which is dealt with in the literature of the sect and may refer to the Teacher of Righteousness himself. These later chapters had long been assigned to the Babylonian Exile, but it had been admitted that still later additions were possible."
"While the Manual interpreted this passage as implying a collective atonement by some for the sins of others, some early Christians conceived of it as a reference to the Messiah." The Thanksgiving Psalms are attributed to the Teacher himself by many scholars. They likely reflect the Teacher's escape from persecution by the "flattery-seekers", or Pharisees in the first century B.C.E. (Click here for details.)
"Many passages of the Old Testament involving an Anointed One or of a Prophet carried off by a violent death must be examined with a fresh eye, particularly Daniel, Zechariah and Psalms; and the sayings of the passages in Second Isaiah called 'Songs of the Servant of Yahweh'. Certainly the apocalypses of Daniel, despite apparently referring to the Babylonians are currently identified with Antiochus in the 160s BC."
 (2) The Damascus Document
True to the Law
"The text is divided into two parts: the Admonition and the laws....Although the Qumran manuscripts of this text indicate there was additional material at the beginning of the Zadokite Fragments [Damascus Document], they preserve very little significant material from that section, which must at one time have been part of a much longer passage. The text of the Zadokite Fragments as preserved in medieval manuscripts begins by declaring that in ancient times, Israel went astray. As a result, God 'hid His face' and allowed the destruction of the First Temple (dated in modern scholarly chronology to 586 B.C.E.). Yet a remnant of the defeated people remained, and it was they who ultimately formed the sect. In this narrative, the sectarians regard their way of life and belief as a direct continuation of biblical tradition."
"Their society was strict and Torah-centered, but many of the regulations appearing in the legal section of the [Cambridge] manuscript (folios 9 ff.) parallel those of the rabbinic Jews, as described in early Tannaitic sources (i.e., the earliest corpus of rabbinic law, second century A.D.)."
Textual References to the Teacher (Click here for accounts of the teacher in the Halakhic Letter and Community Rule.)
Scholars date the beginnings of the Babylonian exile to 597 BCE. If we calculate 390 years after the exile for the "period of wrath" and add the 20 years the sect was "groping on the road", we arrive at 187 B.C.E. for the advent of the Teacher of Righteousness. There were no significant historical events in Palestine during this time, although twenty years later the Jews revolted against their despotic Seleucid Greek ruler. Historians usually date the Teacher of Righteousness to around the beginning of the first century B.C.E., after the Maccabean victory against the Seuclid Greeks. (Click here for details.)
"According to the Damascus Document, God raised up the Righteous Teacher 390 years after the exile in order to restore Israel from its period of disobedience. This would be achieved through a faithful remnant to whom God had revealed his purposes. The majority of Israel will continue to disobey the law, but the Teacher will - through the priests and Levites who left their roles in the Jerusalem Temple and its establishment - restore the true sons of Zadok, the elect of Israel. The Damascus Document builds on the imagery of Yahweh's instruction to Moses at Beer (Num 21:18): the well from which they are to draw is the law; the stave is the interpreter of the law, and the nobles of the people are the faithful remnant (CD 7)."
"...The Righteous Teacher was powerful and created a new means of interpreting scripture (= the Old Testament or Hebrew Scriptures) because he claimed to have received a special revelation ([Habakkuk Pesher] lQpHab 7). This unique revelation empowered him and his followers to contend that God had disclosed all the mysteries in the words of the prophet to him and to him alone."
"He was influenced, most likely, by Ezekiel's allegory of the vine in the vineyard which is fruitful because of abundant waters and is then transplanted in a dry land (Ezek 19:10-14)."
"The god is thus portrayed as a gardener. Other texts also show that in the ancient Near East the deity was the gardener. He is the one who brings rain and provides for the fruitfulness of the land. The Righteous Teacher inherits these thoughts from ancient traditions and projects himself as the one whom God has allowed (or caused) to irrigate the dry land (the parched followers) and plant the eternal planting (the remnant who shall be living trees in God's restored paradise). The Righteous Teacher conceives of himself as the gardener, 'the irrigator of the garden' ([Thanksgiving Psalm] lQH 8.4-5)."
Organization of the Community
"...The prophet Ezekiel is a central informing passage for the Qumran covenanters. Ezekiel prophesied that the Zadokite priests would be God's chosen ministers in the future era (44:15), possibly giving the Qumran community its priestly aristocracy ([Damascus Document] CD 3.20-4.3).
"Among the notable statements in the manuscript are several referring to overseers, and others to a writing of the group, termed the 'Book of HGW' (pronounced hagu or hago: Damascus Covenant, folios 8.2;10.6), which both those priests responsible for groups of ten members as well as all judges (whether priests, Levites, or Israelites) had to know well, along with the 'Foundations of the Covenant' (Hebrew, berith)."
"There is a well-defined hierarchy: the Teacher is the venerated founder and prime interpreter of the law and of God's purpose for his people. Replacing him is the Master, or Guardian [Overseer], who is to be thirty to fifty years of age and whose responsibilities and powers are detailed in [Community Rule] 1QS. He must see to it that the will of God is obeyed, that revealed knowledge is meted out and that all are instructed in the mysteries, that the members of the community are evaluated, and that the truth is kept from outsiders."
According to the Damascus Covenant, the aim of the movement "was to found a new type of social and religious life based not upon kinship but upon free acceptance of a new covenant made with God. The groups had 'camps' in various towns, whose members were households, including servants and day laborers. The organization of each 'camp' was based upon the leadership of priests and Levites, and Israelites had precedence over proselytes. Mutual responsibilities included the support of orphans and the poor, and the redemption of those threatened with or fallen into slavery."
"The legal section of the Damascus Covenant makes clear that members could possess their own property, and two alternative modes of living are sanctioned - those in cities and those in 'encampments.'"
A Place Called Damascus
"We find all kinds of pseudonyms for actual personages, yet almost never a personal name that would allow a definite identification. The Jewish sects of the day are never mentioned by name even though we see numerous references to them designated with code words in the sectarian texts. Why then should we fall into the trap of taking place names literally? Rather it is more likely that 'Damascus' is a code word for Qumran....The New Testament pictures Paul receiving a vision of Jesus on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:3-6). It is likely that the symbolic meaning of Damascus as an eschatological stopover would have led to its use here. Indeed, even in Amos 5:27 it is connected with the destruction of syncretist Israelites-those who had mixed worship of the God of Israel with pagan ways - in the End of Days." Although this is an attractive hypothesis, it is highly unlikely that any of the groups alluded to in the Dead Sea Scrolls actually lived in Qumran.
In addition, the Covenant [Damascus Document] itself makes it clear that Damascus is located outside of Judea.
"The Covenant, showing fierce opposition to a group known as 'the Builders of the Enclosure', recognizes both urban and nonurban modes of religious conduct characterized by observance of ritual laws..."
(3) Manual of Discipline and Community Rule
Companion Texts
The Charter of a Jewish Sectarian Association "refers to various groups or chapters scattered throughout Palestine. Therefore it did not attach itself specifically to the site of Qumran...This text does not merely reflect a small community living there."
"Like Ezekiel's community, the Essenes [Yahad] were exiles from Jerusalem. Of course, theirs was a willing exile, but the point remains that they too were isolated from the traditional means of mediation between divine and human realities. Yet, they believed that in their worship they participated in the angelic liturgy of the heavenly realm. Through their sacred texts, they had access to the presence of God."
"Some of the writings - the ones most often cited when attributing the scrolls as a whole to Essenic sectarians - reflect the ideas of writers evidently sharing awareness of a common background of opposition to ruling powers in Jerusalem in the second century B.C...The Manual of Discipline reflects one distinct radicalizing trend within this group of texts, emphasizing an apocalyptic mode of brotherhood initiation, strict spiritual dichotomies, heightened metaphorical interpretation of Torah-mysteries, and overriding purity-discipline...Some other scrolls, such as the Rules of the Congregation (1QSa), the Benedictions (1QSb), and the group of blessings known as 4Q Berakhot, are perhaps allied with the brotherhood trend reflected in the Manual."
"The author of the Manual of Discipline [Community Rule] and several others writers...refer to the Lord consistently without employing the Tetragrammaton [YHWH], but rather by use of the brief el, 'God', rather than other possible designations, e.g. elo'ah , elohim , shaddai, and so forth."
"The Manual is a text of a highly spiritualized quality, its emphasis centered on the deeper meaning of the Torah to be reached through study sessions held one night in three each year, in which the spiritual sense of holy writings was to be intensified. The author of this text believed that, as earlier ordained to Joshua (1:8), the words of the Law were never to be expunged from the mouths of the true Israel, who rather had to ponder them 'day and night' - and to this end the Manual stipulates that an expounder perform his task constantly, whenever ten members of the Unity are available."
"In this manner, the author of the Manual suggests that the deeper meaning of Isaiah's words about going into the wilderness has nothing to do with a literal intrustion into desert territories." See The Way of the Lord for parallels with Jewish and early Christianity traditions in the first century C.E.
First Treatise
"The 'standing of Israel' in Exodus 19 served as a kind of model for the life of the Qumran community and 'justified their attempt to apply the rules of priestly purity to the lay members as well. Everyone had to be as holy as the priests serving before God. The organization of Israel at Mount Sinai -the division of elders (Ex 19:7; cf. 1QS 6.8), priests, and laymen (Ex 19:21-22) in groups of ten, fifty, and one hundred (Ex 18:21); living in camps (Ex 19:2); and the necessary ritual purity and abstinence from sexual intercourse (Ex 19:14-15) - was followed at Qumran and instituted as a permanent order of the life of the community in expectation of the second coming of God. Hence, the ideal of becoming a kingdom of priests and a holy people (Ex 19:6) was pursued at Qumran.
"The author had in mind a well-ordered ritual of initiation into a new kind of Israelite society that would take the place of the old, with its acquiescence in royal privilege and the supremacy of the priestly sacrificial cult. Not merely some individuals, but the entire nation in its thousands would participate, with the priests and Levites - newly reformed through their solemn undertaking to perform the Lord's will - taking leading roles in ceremonies meant in effect to inaugurate a new covenant, based on spiritual and moral principles."
"As with Christianity, members of the association envision themselves as entering a new covenant with God, truly fulfilling the old Mosaic convenant. The charter calls this new covenant variously the Covenant of Mercy, the Covenant of the Eternal Yahad, the Eternal Covenant, and the Covenant of Justice. Believers are presently living in an era when Satan (here called Belial) rules the world. The New Testament terms Satan 'the Prince of this world.' Ultimately, that fact explains why believers, who know and live by the truth, have such difficulties in this world. Believers are Children of Light, nonbelievers Children of Darkness - terminology also used in the New Testament. Among other names, the association calls itself 'The Way' (i.e., 9:18), a self-designation that some of the first Christians also used (Acts 9:2)."
According to 4QFlorilegium [associated with the War Scroll], the enemies of Israel "are no longer identified with foreign nations such as the Philistines, the Babylonians, or the Romans. The author describes them as agents of Belial who try to seduce the true people of God and to let them stumble in order to deliver their souls to Belial (lines 7-9). In the present, Belial is ruling in the world ([Community Rule] 1QS 1.18). He has taken captive the priests of Jerusalem with three nets ([Damascus Document] CD 4.12-18); that is why the Temple service can no longer atone for the land."
Second Treatise
"According to a famous rabbinic concept, God concealed the light which he created on the first day from the present world, 'but in the world to come it will appear to the pious in all its pristine glory.' This explanation of the 'sons of light' is absent from the Dead Sea Scrolls, where it is said only that 'in the spring of light are the generations of truth and from the well of darkness come the generation of perversity' ([Community Rule] 1QS 3.19)."
"There are two kinds of human beings: the 'sons of light' who are guided by the angel of truth, and the 'sons of darkness,' who are led by the angel of darkness. God loves the former and loathes the latter ([Community Rule] 1QS3). The qualities that are to characterize God's sons are humility, patience, love, goodness, understanding, intelligence, discernment, zeal for the laws, a holy intent, and the spirit of wisdom. Conversely, the 'sons of darkness' are dominated by a spirit of falsehood, greed, lethargy, wickedness, haughtiness, cruelty, brazen insolence, abominable deeds, lewdness, and blasphemy. They are blind of eye and dull of ear, stiff-necked and in the dark (lQS 4). The enlightened will be instructed in divine knowledge and have been chosen for an everlasting covenant through which they will attain to the glorious image that God first granted to Adam."
"We are introduced...(column 3, line 13) to the figure of an 'instructor' (Hebrew maskil) whose task is to teach all 'sons of light' about the true natures of men. The 'all-knowing Lord', we learn, is responsible for everything that is and was: He has preordained the destinies of all living creatures, and their ultimate actions and fate cannot be changed. But in creating mankind, he put two spirits - one of truth and the other of perversion - in its charge: Truth has its source in a 'dwelling place of light', while wickedness derives from a 'source of darkness'; the 'chieftain of lights' has dominion over all the sons of righteousness, while the 'angel of darkness' rules over the 'sons of perversion', each group walking, respectively, in the paths of light and darkness." This description of the righteous as "sons of light" is echoed in the Gospel of John:
"The reward of these righteous ones will be not apocalyptic battles, but 'peace throughout length of days, and fruitfulness of progeny (Hebrew zera, literally 'seed'] as well as eternal blessings and everlasting bliss in life eternal and a diadem of glory together with (full) measure of glory in never-ending light'."
Third Treatise The Charter of a Jewish Sectarian Association (Community Rule) laid down a number of conditions for membership in the Yahad
"From his youth each 'member in Israel' is to study the 'Book of HGW' - as also ordained in the Covenant - and to be increasingly inducted into the 'statutes of the covenant' as he matures, for a period of ten years (1.7-8). The initiant is to have no sexual intercourse, nor to involve himself in legal matters, before the age of twenty. At twenty-five he may take his place 'in the foundations of the community of holiness', fully participating in the community's responsibilities; and at thirty, he may become a full-fledge warrior, among those who will 'stand at the heads of the thousands of Israel, as chieftains of hundreds, fifties, and tend, (as) judges and overseers of their tribes'."
"The use of military terminology is notable. Members are described as 'volunteers' and are organized into groups of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens. The method of organization is that used in the holy war conducted under Moses and Joshua when Israel first attacked the Canaanites and took possession of the land of Israel....The group thought of itself as warriors awaiting God's signal to begin the final war against the nations and the wicked among the Jews. Meanwhile they sought to live in a heightened state of purity, as the Bible required for holy warriors."
"According to the Rule of the Congregation, to gain membership in the group, one must have received instruction in the statutes of the law precepts of the covenant for at least ten years. At age twenty, admission was granted, although family duties and sexual relations with women were to be carried out. At age twenty-five, the novice could take his place in the lower ranks of the congregation and work for its benefit. At thirty, he could take part in the decision making of the community, finding his place in the ranks of members."
The third treatise in the Community Rule states that "to join the Community a recruit had to pass an examination by the members under their leaders. Before that there was almost certainly a probationary period when an inquirer could learn about the way of life and the rules before committing himself. Josephus says he spent some time in such a state, though not at Qumran." A candidate started "with an interview with the Council to examine the potential candidate and establish his righteousness after which a ballot was taken. If accepted, the candidate was admitted at a lowly grade for the period of one year, in which time he must not mingle his wealth with the 'many' [the Community]. The first level of Freemasonry...used to be of a year's duration, and in the initiation ceremony the candidate is required to bring in no coins or other metallic objects. In the course of the initiation he is asked to give money, and when he replies that he has none he is told that it was a test to ensure that he had brought no coins or other wealth into the Lodge." The Hiram Key: Pharaohs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus
"Membership involved total commitment, whole-hearted obedience to the rules, and putting all one's possessions at the Community's disposal."
A Blameless and True House in Israel
"Three priests and twelve laymen were apparently the leaders, and everyone had to respect them. They controlled the meetings at which every kind of business was discussed. Even then, order was rigidly kept. Everyone could speak, but only in order of rank, and only when called upon. No one could interrupt. The rules of conduct set a penance of ten days for anyone who did interrupt. Other offenses drew heavier punishments: thirty days' penance for foolish laughter, or for sleeping during the meeting: six months for deception, bearing malice, or going about indecently dressed. Disobedience to the Community could result in expulsion; so too would the greater offense of speaking the holy name of God, even by accident."
"In the future the charter [Charter of a Jewish Sectarian Association (Community Rule)] anticipates a 'gracious visitation' of God. Then adherents will enter into the Day of Vengeance, and this world's power structures will be overturned: the last shall be first and the first, last. Those who enter the Yahad of God can anticipate long life, bountiful peace, multiple progeny, and eventually life everlasting."
"...Israel's eventual acceptance in toto of the rules of the order is described as an 'atonement for wickedness and wrongdoing...a voluntary (offering)...better than the flesh of (animal-) offerings and the fat-portions of sacrifices, (as) an offering [teruman] of lips for judgment, as the sweet-smelling incense of righteousness, (as) perfection of the (righteous) way akin to free-will afternoon (animal) sacrifice'."
"This structure and function of the community were to continue until the time of renewal (lQS 4), when the eschatological prophet would come, together with the messiahs of Aaron and Israel, who are the priestly and royal rulers, respectively. The chiefs of Israel will be assembled before him, and the heads of all the families of the congregation according to rank. The climax of this consummation (which was probably performed as an anticipatory ritual) will be the table where bread and wine will be set out. The priest (Messiah of Aaron) will bless the wine first; then the Messiah of Israel, to which the congregation responds by uttering a blessing."
The Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice, also found at Masada, was a paean to the heavenly counterpart of animal sacrifice in an attempt to spiritualize a cruel and bloody act. The Manual of Discipline elevates itself above the practice altogether.
"Without arguments based on good internal evidence, it makes little sense to associate the hundreds of texts not bearing the Yahad term with this proposed single group, simply because they were all found together in the Qumran caves. And as it happens, there is no mention of Yahad in the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice, nor any other terminology leading logically to the conclusion that the work was written by an Essene, or a member of the Yahad group or groups."
Footprints of the Teacher
"Among the terms by which the Qumran community [Yahad] referred to themselves was 'Keepers of the Covenant', which appears in the original Hebrew as 'Nozrei ha-Brit'. From this term derives the word 'Nozrim', one of the earliest Hebrew designations for the sect subsequently known as 'Christians'. The modern Arabic word for Christians, 'Nasrani', derives from the same source. So, too, does the word 'Narorean', or 'Nazarene', which, of course, was the name by which the 'early Christians' referred to themselves in both the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles."
"As in the Manual and Covenant, the priests and Levites play a prominent role in the community, but no mention is made of purity practices, the collection of communal funds, or the spiritually defiling nature of wealth; and the role of study that figured to prominently in the third part of the Manual is reduced in the Messianic Rule to a relatively formal period of ten years."
The Greek word Essene could also be interpreted as "Saint".
"...It is crucial to note that while the Unity-brethren of the Manual are reminiscent in many respects of the Essenes as described by Philo and Josephus - particularly of marrying Essenes - many of the two groups' common features are shared, in turn, with the Haburah (or 'friendship') groups of early rabbinic times, described in texts of the second century A.D."
"...Viewers will be able to discern, with the aid of the appended markers, an obvious discrepancy between the text itself and the Eshel transcription at precisely that most important word: The transcription shows a conceivable, if somewhat overly large, arrowhead-type yod, with two vertical strokes angling upward toward each other and meeting at the top,and having no horizontal stroke to spoil the picture. This is supposed to constitute what the authors claim to be the first consonant of the word 'yahad.' The blow-up of the photograph itself, however, shows only one vertical stroke, on the right, plus a clear horizontal stroke below and attached to it. These two strokes reasonably form only a nun or gimel. No specimen of ancient or medieval Hebrew script contains a yod formed in such a manner." - Norman Golb, "Qadmoniot and the Yahad Claim"
(4) The Acts of the Torah
Dissident Sadducees?
"A Qumran text, today known as the Halakhic Letter [Acts of the Torah], demonstrates quite clearly that the root cause that led to the sectarian schism consisted of a series of disagreements about sacrificial law and ritual purity. The full name of this document is Miqsat Ma'ase ha-Torah (some legal rulings pertaining to the Torah). The writers of its text list more than twenty laws that describe the ways their practices differed from those prevailing in the Temple and its sacrificial worship."
"...A known point of dispute between Sadducees and Pharisees in early rabbinic times (ca. second century A.D.) concerned the ritual purity of a vessel whose liquid contents were poured into a ritually impure receptacle. The Pharisees held that the impurity could not 'travel upward', so to speak, from the receptacle into the vessel from which the liquid was being poured, whereas the Sadducees were of the opposing view [above]."
"It appears that this letter was written to the head of the Jerusalem establishment, the high priest....In the letter, the ruler is admonished to take care lest he go the way of the kings of First Temple times. Such a warning could be addressed only to a figure who could identify, because of his own station in life, with the ancient kings of biblical Israel."
The Acts of the Torah was a "literary epistle, such as those found for example in the apocrypha and the New Testament - not, to be sure, the original autograph, but rather fragments of scribal copies of it." Schiffman writes that those at odds with the ritual practices of the Temple priesthood where themselves Sadducees.
"The earliest members of the sect must have been Sadducees unwilling to accept the status quo established in the aftermath of the Maccabean revolt. The Maccabees, by replacing the Zadokite high priesthood with their own, reduced the Zadokites to a subsidiary position for as long as Hasmonean rule lasted. Even after leaving Jerusalem, the Dead Sea sect continued to refer to itself or its leaders as the 'Sons of Zadok'. Our text makes clear that the designation 'Sons of Zadok' is to be taken at face value. These were indeed Sadducees who protested the imposition of Pharisaic views in the Temple under the Hasmonean priests."
"The priests were called the 'sons of Zadok' ([Community Rule] 1QS 5.2; cf. 9.14; [Damascus Document] CD 4.1; [Collection of Blessings] 1QSb 3.22), in deliberate contrast to the priests of the Hasmonean, Herodian and Roman periods, almost none of whom were descendants of Zadok."
Zadokites and the Pharisees "The calm style of the Acts of Torah, and the author's full command of the issues that had brought about the separation of his group, do not reflect such a period of initial turbulence [Damascus Document - Geniza manuscript A 1.4-10]. Both the idiom of the Acts and the issues its author discusses indicate a period at lead one hundred years later than that of the Convenant's Teacher of Righteousness [during the reign of Alexander Jannaeus (103-76 B.C.E.]." "...Some other scrolls, such as the Rules of the Congregation (1QSa), the Benedictions (1QSb), and the group of blessings known as 4Q Berakhot, are perhaps allied with the brotherhood trend reflected in the Manual. Joseph Baumgarten [Journal of Jewish Studies 43 (1992), pp. 268-276] has shown that texts from Cave 4 related to the Manual of Discipline of Cave 1 in fact reflect numerous differences with it in the specific area of punishments for infraction of the group's rule..." The results of the Zurich and University of Arizona C-14 dating of the scrolls generally support the dates arrived at by paleographers' (experts at deciphering ancient inscriptions). Linguistic criteria dates the text of the Acts of Torah to the early first century C.E. If correct these Cave 4 scrolls are roughly comtemporary with Judas the Galilean and a Pharisee called Sadduc/Zadok who instigated the revolt of 6 C.E. and founded the Zealot movement.
"One or two of the laws of the Acts of the Torah...appear to be identical with those of the Sadducees as described in later rabbinic texts...The law concerning the ritual status of those responsible for preparing the ashes of the read heifer is, however, more problematic; the author of the Acts of the Torah states that they were to make themselves pure by evening - i.e., by a ritual bath - so that they could then sprinkle the waters containing the ashes on those who were impure. The Sadducees, by contrast, claimed that they should remain impure until evening (see Num. 19.7-10)."
"The writer of the Acts of the Torah states in the course of his epistle that 'We have separated form the majority of the na[tion]' as a result of the specific differences in ritual practice that he lists. the Hebrew term which he uses for 'we have separated' - parashnu - shares its root with the term that has come down to us as Pharisees (Hebrew, perushim), meaning 'separatists'."
"The dissidents, sons of Zadok, "were called bene sadok. In modern terminology, they are called Zadokites..."
"...These Sons of Zadok would wear white linen garments when they entered the inner court [of the Temple]. They could not shave their heads nor allow their hair to grow very long, they could not drink wine before entering the inner court, they had to marry a virgin of Israelite birth and they must teach people the difference between clean and unclean. The list of requirements went on and included that they should not have personal processions nor come into contact with the dead."
"The author of the Acts of Torah calls the Pentateuch by the title 'Book of Moses', and expression otherwise unheard of in any of the scrolls. The other writings which he especially reveres are the prophetic books and (the writing or Book of) David, apparently a designation of Psalms. He makes a special point of referring to the blessing that were David's and Solomon's; he states that David, as some later Israelite Kings, was forgiven by the Lord for his sins. This is of course a startling assertion in view of the many acts of a wicked nature attributed to David in Second Samuel - descriptions that contrast egregiously with the picture of a pious and God-fearing David that emerges form those psalms attributed to him. The author sought to harmonize the conflicting portraits by suggesting that David's sins were forgiven in view of his overall piety and pursuit of Torah - precisely as did the early rabbis when faced with this probem."
"Here the authors reveal their belief that they are currently living on the verge of the End of Days, a notion that later became normative in Qumran messianic thought [presuming the Acts predates the Damascus Document]. It is also clear that they considered their own age the period foretold by the Bible as the final repentance of Israel.
"The author exhorts the recipient of his epistle to seek the Lord's guidance so that he might eventually find bliss 'at the End of the Season' [aharit ha'et]."
A Spiritual Temple The Temple Scroll, asserted to be from Cave 11, was purchased privately by Yigael Yadin from an anonymous dealer for $105,000. The scroll may date from a different period than the Acts of the Torah but has been attributed by some to the same group.
"Another Qumran text - the Temple Scroll, essentially a rewritten Torah into which the author has inserted his own views on Jewish law - is also composed of sources deriving from the Sadducean tradition." A similar hope of reform is expressed in the last book in the Old Testament.
"Yadin (The Temple scroll: The Hidden Law of the Dead Sea Sect (London, 1985) p. 113) showed that the Temple of 11QTemple has some similarities with that of Ezekiel 40-48, but also striking differences. The same holds true for the description of Solomon's Temple given by Josephus (Ant 8.61ff), according to which it contains three concentric square courts like the Temple of 11QTemple (ibid., pp. 167-69)."
Click here for Ezekiel's Temple vision.
The Temple Scroll "contained abundant laws - clearly of a theoretical nature and written by an apocalpyticist - that, while resembling those of the Essenes in a few details, also resembled those of other ancient Jewish groups in additional ones. The majority of the laws could not in fact be traced to any known Jewish group of antiquity."
In addition, the ritual observances described in the Temple Scroll differed from those in the Damascus Document and Community Rule.
"The Temple Scroll reflects an independent trend of its own. It shares a few of the views espoused by the author of the Damascus Covenant - e.g., prohibition of polygamy and uncle-niece marriages, and of an Israelite's presence in the Holy City in a state of sexual impurity. However, its author, himself clearly a charismatic figure who much have claimed prophetic gifts, stands largely outside the literary and doctrinal traditions of those responsible for other works. His particular method of Torah argumentation, reduction, and emendation in the cause of sustaining a polemical trend is otherwise unknown in the Qumran texts."
(5) The Copper Scroll The Copper Scroll was discovered in Cave 3 in March 1955 and was a genuine autograph text rather than a copy of an original.
"The 'Copper Scroll' lists huge amounts of gold, silver precious objects and at least twenty-four scrolls within the Temple. Directions are given to sixty-one different caches; the following are typical of listings:" Examples of the caches include:
"Remarkably, the pattern of clauses in the Copper Scroll formulary finds precise parallels in Greek temple inventories from the Isle of Delos. These texts, most of which date between 180 and 90 B.C.E., were records kept by the priests of the island's temple of Apollo. They detail large numbers of votive objects brought to the temple, including crowns, jugs, earrings, and coins....Copper was used for the safekeeping of nonliterary records, Roman public laws, and even the private discharge papers of Roman military veterans. More to the point, copper and bronze were common media of choice for the archival records of temples in the Roman period."
Thus the Copper Scroll appears to be an official Temple document and gives 64 different locations for treasures from the Temple in Jerusalem. If the Copper Scroll with its Greek loan words, is of 1st century origin, it may be the actual inventory of treasures which were hidden before the destruction of of the Temple in 70 C.E. and lost ever since.
"John Allegro's interpretation of the 'Copper Scroll' indicated that there was at least one other copy, deposited in the Temple itself:"
"...In at least eight passages, writings are mentioned as being buried adjacent to the treasures.
"The amount of the described treasures is colossal: 26 tons of gold, 65 tons of silver, precious vases, instruments for worshipping, sacerdotal clothing...However, the excavations that have been carried out at that epoch in accordance with the instructions of the Scroll, never unearthed anything."
"The Romans pursued a definite policy to retrieve treasure hoards that the citizens of Jerusalem had secreted during the siege. As always, the key to their recovery lay with the interrogation of prisoners. One such, Phineas, was an official treasurer of the Temple. The historian [Josephus] tells us that this man delivered up to the Romans 'the tunics and girdles worn by the priests...along with a mass of cinnamon and cassia and a multitude of other spices...many other treasures also were delivered up by him, with numerous sacred ornaments' (War 6.390-91). Phineas led the Romans to hidden treasures from the Temple-perhaps including some that were listed in the Copper Scroll. A second passage of Josephus's War notes that as a result of the recovery and subsequent release of loot by the Romans, the standard of gold throughout Syria fell to half its previous value. The spoils of war were that enormous, the rape of Judea that complete.
"In reading the Copper Scroll I am struck by the complete absence of any Herodian Era placenames. Instead, we see sites prominent in the Hasmonean Era such as the district of Kohalith where Jannaeus conquered sixty villages, the fortress Dok (Dagon near Jericho), and the 'domicile of the queen' (probably the palace of Queen Salome in the vicinity of Jericho). Significantly, all the locations mentioned in the Copper Scroll fall neatly within the boundaries of Judea during the time of Alexander Jannaeus and shortly thereafter. To my mind this suggests a hiding of treasures in the wake of the exile from Jerusalem of the (arguably Sadducean) allies of Jannaeus during the time of Salome and Hyrkanus.
We also have reference to a 'garden of Zadok' near Jerusalem, suggesting a special reverence of Zadok by the group responsible for hiding the Copper Scroll treasures. May this not also point to the Sadducees?
"If there is thought to be any correlation between the hoarding described in the Copper Scroll and recovered coin hoards from Israel in general, the First Revolt is still the most likely. There are a number of shekel hoards associated with the First Revolt, but none from c. 76 B.C.E. and relatively few from the Second Revolt. An Inventory of Greek Coin Hoards, 1973, lists the following hoards for Hellenistic Phoenicia - Palestine for this period: El-Jib (Gibeon), Judaea, c. 75 B.C.E., 23 copper coins; Golan (Gaulanitis/Trachonitis), c. 100-75 B.C.E., 40 copper coins; Samaria-Sebaste, Samaria, after 74 B.C.E., 22 copper coins, 1 shekel of Tyre. A large hoard of shekels (200+) was recovered at Jericho, but the latest coin was dated 103/2 B.C.E. [as of 1973],"
The Legacy of the Dead Sea ScrollsSome of the Dead Sea Scrolls foretold the immanent coming of a Messiah to restore the kingdom of God to his people.
"Both the Gospels and this scroll presuppose that during the age of the messiah, the dead will be resurrected, either by God himself or through his messianic agent. Yet nowhere in the Old Testament do we read of this belief."
(Note the Old Testment does mention the resurrection of the dead [i.e., Job 14:10-15, Isaiah 26:19 and Dan. 12:2-3] but not in the specific context of the "age of the messiah". See also 2 Maccabees 7:14, 23.)
"It is for these reasons that we felt it more appropriate to refer to the movement we have before us as 'the Messianic" one, and its literature as the literature of 'the Messianic Movement' in Palestine. In so far as this literature resembles Essenism, it can be called Essene; Zealotism, Zealot, Saddaceeism, Sadducee, Jewish Christianity - whatever might be meant by this - Jewish Christian." Verses from the Pseudepigrapha also express expectation that the Levite priesthood would be restored in the Temple. See the Testament of Levi 18:1-14. End of Days
"Here the authors reveal their belief that they are currently living on the verge of the End of Days, a notion that later became normative in Qumran [Judaic] messianic thought. It is also clear that they considered their own age the period foretold by the Bible as the final repentance of Israel."
"In preparation for the new age, the community is instructed in detail about the war that will take place between the force of evil and the people of God (lQM [War Scroll]). Angels will battle the heavenly hosts of evil, as the priests and the community's soldiers fight the earthly foes. Indeed, the war of the faithful remnant of Israel is to be fought against all nations: 'There shall be eternal deliverance for the company of God, but destruction for all the nations of wickedness' (lQM 15). The priests, and especially the high priest, will strengthen the troops for the final battle against the nations of the world. Rome - referred to regularly as 'the Kittim' - will fall, while the chief priest, the priests, and the Levites will sound the trumpets to aid the troops. In preparation for this final war details are given even to the sizes of the standards, shields, spears, and swords of the army. These divinely endowed forces are identified as 'the divisions of God for the vengeance of his wrath on the sons of darkness'."
"..It is generally agreed that these texts [veiled references in the Dead Sea Scrolls to earlier history] describe the times when Jewish patriots like the Maccabees fought the Hellenized High Priests of the Temple and the vicious kings of Syria. One of these texts, known as the War Scroll, tells of the battle that will take place at the end of time. It describes precisely the ritual battle order, drawn up strictly in accordance with the ancient Law, by which the Sons of Light will triumph over the Sons of Darkness. The battle order lists everything from the specifications the field latrines to the ages of baggage porters and the ritual order of advance that will secure the final victory."
In the apocalyptic final battle prophesized during war against Antiochus Epiphanes, an army of angels would help route the worldly powers oppressing the Children of Israel and reestablish the kingship of the House of David. This idea of heavenly Sons of Light destroying the Satanic Sons of Darkness is a reflection of Zoroastrian belief from several centuries earlier.
"...The phrase, 'Sons of Light', designating the righteous people of God, is found both in some of the scrolls and in one of the Gospels (Luke 16.8); however, the corresponding term in the scrolls, 'Sons of Darkness', is never found in the New Testament."
"The War Scroll, like the Manual, is not consistent in perspective: It appears to be made up of two or three sections containing more than one author's vision of the apocalyptic battle ceremonies. It is suggested in the main section of the text that warfare will take place over forty years, and encompass battles with most of the countries of the known world. Yet the battle formations seem always to stream out from the gates of Jerusalem, to where the warriors return after their forays."
"In keeping with the rules of Roman warfare, it [the war] will be fought with the use of phalanxes. It will go on for forty years. In the first twenty years, all the foreign nations will be conquered; in the following twenty, all other Jews. This was conceived as a sequence of successful military campaigns against the great powers. The identity of the children of darkness changed with history from the Jerusalem priesthood to the Romans, who finally destroyed Qumran for its intransigence in 68 AD." (It is more likely that Qumran was destroyed five years later when the Romans campaigned down the length of the Dead Sea.)
"...What one seems to have reflected in this Qumran literature is a Messianic elite retreating or 'separating' into the wilderness as in Isaiah 40:3's 'make a straight Way in the Wilderness for our God'. The élite seems to have inhabited 'desert camps', where they were actually 'preparing' to be joined by the Angels, referred to by them as 'the Heavenly Host', and for what appears to be a final apocalyptic Holy War against all evil on this earth. This would appear to be the reason they are practicing the regimen of extreme purity in the wilderness in these texts - not the somewhat more retrospective presentation in the New Testament as it has come down to us. This movement consists of a small care of committed 'volunteers' or 'Joiners for war', or 'Holy Ones' or 'Saints' - Messianic 'shock troops' if one prefers - preparing in the wilderness through 'Perfection of the Way' and 'zeal for the Law for the time of the Day of Vengeance'." While the core Yahad texts, specifically the Pesher Habakkuk interpreted that this end time would come with violence, the author of the Community Rule (which contained the quote from Isaiah) did not share the vision of an apocalyptic holy war.
The Damascus Covenant, the Pesher Habakkuk and the Manual of Discipline [Community Rule] "effectively reflect stages in the development of an important protest movement in intertestamental Judaism whose specific historical circumstances are still unclear. The movement had, at all events, no demonstrable connection with the Khirbet Qumran site, nor with any particular theater or locus of military operations. The members may have lived throughout Jewish Palestine (as did the Essenes, according to Josephus), and a group, if not all, of them had at one time migrated to Damascus under the leadership of their revered Teacher."
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