Jewish Apocalyptic Writings:
The "Dead Sea Scrolls"
OF THE JERUSALEM
TEMPLE, ZEALOTS & PELLA-BOUND CHRISTIANS
Community Rule
Dead Sea Scroll
1QS
C14 Age: 1) 159 BC - AD 20 2) 206 BC -
AD 111 (Subrange) ; Paleo. Age: 100-75 BC
"the community itself expresses its
self-understanding as the new covenant community of the Last Days."
"My whole mind sings, and each
touch of my harp glorifies God, And the string of my lute, his holy
will; And, like a pipe, my lips praise his righteous rule. From dawn
till night, I am the Covenant of God. In the dusk of evening and in the
morning I voice his teachings; In them will I live for ever. I proclaim
his judgment upon my transgressions, And my sins are like an inscription
graven before my eyes. I hail God as 'My Righteousness! Most High:
Creator of my joy!' 'Well of knowledge, Source of Holiness, Glorious
Majesty, Strength of Eternal Splendor!' He has chosen all my joy and I
rejoice in his judgment upon me. Walking or moving, I bless his name. At
my goings out and my comings in, in my sleeping and in my waking, And
even upon my bed, I rejoice in him. I open my lips and praise him for
all that he has given to men, ... I know that in his hand is the
judgment of every living soul, true are his acts. In my anguish I praise
him, I rejoice in his salvation alone." (10.9-17)
"So shall all together comprise a
Yahad whose essence is truth, genuine humility, love of charity, and
righteous intent, caring for one another after this fashion within the
holy society, comrades in an eternal fellowship." (2.24)
WHAT OTHERS HAVE SAID
Apostle John
"While ye have light, believe
in the light, that ye may be the children of light. These
things spake Jesus..." (John 12:36a)
David Flusser
"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)." ("The Parable of the Unjust
Steward: Jesus' Criticism of the Essenes" in Jesus and the Dead Sea
Scrolls (James H. Charlesworth, Ed. - 1992), p. 181
Norman Golb
"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'." (Who Wrote
the Dead Sea Scrolls?, (1995) p. 69)
"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."
"Any fault or sin committed by sons of righteousness,
the author explains, is attributable to the angel of darkness, for
reasons that are secret except to the Lord until the age of His own
complete dominion dawns. If in the author's own time the righteous
suffer, it is due to this same influence of the angel of darkness.
Nonetheless, although having Himself created these two opposing angelic
spirits, 'the Lord of Israel and the angel of His
truth aid all sons of light' - the Lord loving the one spirit and
hating the other. Those of humble mien, we are told, thereby possess all
desirable moral and spiritual virtues - slowness to anger, mercifulness,
understanding, supportive belief in the Lord's deeds and His
benevolence, zeal for righteous laws, acts of loving kindness toward all
the 'sons of truth', and revulsion at all
ritual impurity." (Who Wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls?, (1995) pp.
68-69
"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."
"Only two columns of this writing are extant...The
scribe's handwriting seems to be the same as that of the copyist who
transcribed the Cave 1 text of the Manual, and writers have theorized
that the two extra columns once stood, physically speaking, as the
opening part of that work. It begins with the avowal that 'This
is the rule for all the community of Israel at the end of days.'
Here the initiates specifically include women and children."
"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." (Who Wrote the
Dead Sea Scrolls?, (1995) pp. 195, 92, 73)
Howard C. Kee
"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." ("Membership in
the Covenant People at Qumran and in the Teaching of Jesus" in Jesus
and the Dead Sea Scrolls, p. 115 )
"The community perceived itself as the 'house
of holiness' ([Community Rule] lQS 8), a precious cornerstone (Isa
26:16), a perfect dwelling place for Aaron, as the embodiment of the
everlasting knowledge of the covenant of rightness, as the house of
perfection and truth in Israel. The community believed that it was
atoning for the land even as it was identifying and judging wickedness
in the last days, the community is to assemble - including women and
children - to hear the covenant and its exposition, which are binding on
everyone born in Israel ([Rule of the Congregation] lQSa 1)."
("Membership in the Covenant People at Qumran and in the Teaching of
Jesus" in Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls (James H. Charlesworth,
Ed. - 1992), p. 116)
