The Dead Sea Scrolls and Christianity

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arnoldo
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Re: The Dead Sea Scrolls and Christianity

Post by arnoldo »

John2 wrote: Sat Feb 10, 2018 7:08 pm Another similarity between the Fourth Philosophy and Christianity is a willingness to endure torture.

Ant. 18.1.6:
They also do not value dying any kinds of death, nor indeed do they heed the deaths of their relations and friends, nor can any such fear make them call any man lord. And since this immovable resolution of theirs is well known to a great many, I shall speak no further about that matter; nor am I afraid that any thing I have said of them should be disbelieved, but rather fear, that what I have said is beneath the resolution they show when they undergo pain.
James 5:6:
You have condemned and put to death the righteous man; he does not resist you.
Hegesippus EH 3.32:
... Symeon, son of Clopas, an uncle of the Lord, was informed against by the heretics, and was himself in like manner accused for the same cause before the governor Atticus. And after being tortured for many days he suffered martyrdom, and all, including even the proconsul, marveled that, at the age of one hundred and twenty years, he could endure so much. And orders were given that he should be crucified.


Ignatius Rom. 4:
I write to the Churches, and impress on them all, that I shall willingly die for God, unless you hinder me. I beseech of you not to show an unseasonable good-will towards me. Allow me to become food for the wild beasts, through whose instrumentality it will be granted me to attain to God. I am the wheat of God, and let me be ground by the teeth of the wild beasts, that I may be found the pure bread of Christ. Rather entice the wild beasts, that they may become my tomb, and may leave nothing of my body; so that when I have fallen asleep [in death], I may be no trouble to any one. Then shall I truly be a disciple of Christ, when the world shall not see so much as my body. Entreat Christ for me, that by these instruments I may be found a sacrifice [to God].
Lucian of Samosata
The poor wretches have convinced themselves, first and foremost, that they are going to be immortal and live for all time, in consequence of which they despise death and even willingly give themselves into custody; most of them. Furthermore, their first lawgiver persuaded them that they are all brothers of one another after they have transgressed once, for all by denying the Greek gods and by worshipping that crucified sophist himself and living under his laws. Therefore they despise all things indiscriminately and consider them common property, receiving such doctrines traditionally without any definite evidence. So if any charlatan and trickster, able to profit by occasions, comes among them, he quickly acquires sudden wealth by imposing upon simple folk.
John2
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Re: The Dead Sea Scrolls and Christianity

Post by John2 »

Another curious similarity between the DSS and Christianity is the reference to being "like blind men groping for the way" after God is said to have "visited them" in the Damascus Document. As Flint notes in Eschatology, Messianism, and the Dead Sea Scrolls:
The notion of a blind man losing his way is common in the Hebrew Bible (cf. Deut 27:18; 28:29; Isa 59:10; Zeph 1:17; Lam 4:14). Other relevant material is found in the Damascus Document. For instance, CD 1:9 reads: "And they were like the blind and like those who grope their way," referring to the remnant of Israel. For twenty years they were like blind men groping for the way, and subsequently they sought God with a perfect heart; God then raised up for them a teacher of righteousness (CD 1:10-11).

https://books.google.com/books?id=DDUw9 ... my&f=false
CD 1:
For when they were unfaithful and forsook Him, He hid His face from Israel and His Sanctuary and delivered them up to the sword. But remembering the Covenant of the forefathers, He left a remnant to Israel and did not deliver it up to be destroyed. And in the age of wrath, three hundred and ninety years after He had given them into the hand of king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, He visited them, and He caused a root of planting to spring from Israel and Aaron to inherit His Land and to prosper on the good things of His earth. And they perceived their iniquity and recognized that they were guilty men, yet for twenty years they were like blind men groping for the way. And God observed their deeds, that they sought Him with a whole heart, and He raised for them a Teacher of Righteousness to guide them in the way of His heart.
While I lean towards the idea that the "root of planting" refers to the DSS sect, I've entertained the idea that perhaps Jesus was this arguably messianic "root of planting" that God caused to spring up, and more so now that I think Jewish Christians thought that Jesus was divine. As Blanton writes regarding this and the connecting expression "from Israel and Aaron" in Constructing a New Covenant : Discursive Strategies in the Damascus Document and Second Corinthians:
The phrase [from Israel and Aaron] resonates with the sect's messianism ... However, CD 1:7-8 does not here refer to messianic figures per se, but to the continuation of the lineages that would eventually give rise to those figures.

The language of "root"/"shoot" combined with the planting imagery is related to biblical passages such as Isa 11, to Jewish texts of the Second Temple period such as Jub 1:16; 21:24; 1 Enoch 10:16, and to other texts that were produced by the sectarian Association, such as 1QS 8:5. Using this imagery the sect is able to establish its pedigree as a group that was founded by an act of divine election, as God chose and nourished the "root" that would later constitute the sect.

https://books.google.com/books?id=rdaTp ... sm&f=false
Jesus is referred to as a "root" several times in the NT.

Rom. 15:12:
And again, Isaiah says, "The Root of Jesse will spring up, one who will arise to rule over the nations; in him the Gentiles will hope."
Rev. 22:16:
I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David ...
Rev. 5:5:
Then one of the elders said to me, "Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals."
And the part about being like "blind men" after God caused the root to spring up reminds me of how Jesus' disciples are presented in Mark. As Tyson, for example, writes in "The Blindness of the Disciples in Mark":
The blindness of the disciples is usually regarded as a device of Mark and as part of his messianic secret motif.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/3264783
And MacDonald in The Homeric Epics and the Gospel of Mark:
The section intervening Mark's healing of the two blind men consists primarily of Jesus instructing the Twelve concerning discipleship, including the inevitability of suffering. Jesus was "on the way, going up to Jerusalem," where he would suffer and die, but the disciples remained blind to this fate. The evangelist seems to have crafted much of 8:27-10:45 to highlight the spiritual and moral blindness of the disciples, who failed to understand the necessity of suffering.

https://books.google.com/books?id=8JkFq ... nd&f=false
And if we were to go by the earlier dating for the crucifixion of Jesus (c. 20 CE), then twenty years later would coincide with the rise of James as a leader of the Jerusalem Church in the 40's CE, who would then be the Teacher of Righteousness in this scenario. In any event, this motif of "blindness" is another curious similarity between the DSS and Christianity, all the more so given that it appears in the larger context of practicing the way and the new covenant in a place called Damascus.
You know in spite of all you gained, you still have to stand out in the pouring rain.
John2
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Re: The Dead Sea Scrolls and Christianity

Post by John2 »

I disagree with Blanton regarding the idea that there are two messiahs in the Damascus Document though. As Chester notes in Messiah and Exaltation: Jewish Messianic and Visionary Traditions and New Testament Christology:
All four of these passages from the Damascus Document refer to the coming of the Messiah of Aaron and Israel (in three cases what is clearly a stereotyped formula). In contrast to 1QS 9:9-11, the term 'Messiah' is here used throughout in the singular, not plural, form. Nevertheless, because of the reference to both Aaron and Israel, and in comparison with the distinctive usage in 1QS, it has been argued that these ....

https://books.google.com/books?id=0YJ3n ... el&f=false
Ah, Google books just cut me off here, but he goes on to argue that the Messiah of Aaron and Israel in the Damascus Document is singular. But it is noted by others too, such as in Defining Identities : We, You, and the Other in the Dead Sea Scrolls:
The eschatological expectation concerns a singular messiah of Aaron and Israel throughout the Damascus Document. The consistent twofold reference to Aaron and Israel could signify the priestly and royal aspects projected on the expected messianic figure.

https://books.google.com/books?id=N7ytc ... nt&f=false
And Jesus too, of course, is said to have had priestly and royal aspects in the NT. e.g., Mk. 11:8-10, Heb. 2:17, 3:1, 4:14 and 5:4-10:
Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted, “Hosanna!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!” “Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.
Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest.
Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.
And no one takes this honor on himself, but he receives it when called by God, just as Aaron was.

In the same way, Christ did not take on himself the glory of becoming a high priest. But God said to him, “You are my Son; today I have become your Father.” And he says in another place, “You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.”

During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek.
Last edited by John2 on Thu Feb 15, 2018 8:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.
You know in spite of all you gained, you still have to stand out in the pouring rain.
John2
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Re: The Dead Sea Scrolls and Christianity

Post by John2 »

Something similar may be going on in 11Q13, which Ben recently cited on another thread:

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3862&p=82892&hilit=11q13#p82892
11Q13, column 2, lines 1-8a, 15b-18a: 1 [...] ... [...] 2 [...] And as for what he said: «In [this] year of jubilee, [you shall return, each one, to his respective property» [Leviticus 25.13], concerning it he said: «Th]is is 3 [the manner of the release:] every creditor shall release what he lent [to his neighbour. He shall not coerce his neighbour or his brother, for it has been proclaimed] a release 4 for G[od»] [Deuteronomy 15.2]. [Its interpretation] for the last days refers to the captives, who [...] and whose 5 teachers have been hidden and kept secret, and from the inheritance of Melchizedek, fo[r ...] ... and they are the inherita[nce of Melchize]dek, who 6 will make them return. And liberty will be proclaimed for them, to free them from [the debt of] all their iniquities. And this [wil]l [happen] 7 in the first week of the jubilee which follows the ni[ne] jubilees. And the d[ay of aton]ement is the e[nd of] the tenth [ju]bilee 8a in which atonement shall be made [לכפר] for all the sons of [light and] for the men [of] the lot of Mel[chi]zedek. .... 15b This […] is the day of [peace about whi]ch he said [… through Isa]iah the prophet, who said: «How] beautiful 16 upon the mountains are the feet [of] the messen[ger who] announces peace, the mess[enger of good who announces salvati]on, [sa]ying to Zion: your God [reigns»] [Isaiah 52.7]. 17 Its interpretation: The mountains [are] the prophet[s ...] ... […] for all... [...] 18a And the messenger i[s] the anointed of the spir[it] as Dan[iel] said....
And as I pointed out on that thread, some date 11Q13 to the Herodian era:
The paleographic dating of the text has provoked some discussion. Van der Woude dated it to the Herodian period in the first half of the first century C.E., and Horton suggested an even later date. Milik, however, argued for a date towards the middle of the first century B.C.E., c. 75-50 B.C.E., and both Kobelski and Puech follow him with slight variations. A date for the manuscript in the middle of the first century B.C.E seems likely, but the evidence makes greater precision than that problematic.

https://books.google.com/books?id=ROama ... ng&f=false
You know in spite of all you gained, you still have to stand out in the pouring rain.
John2
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Re: The Dead Sea Scrolls and Christianity

Post by John2 »

While I lean towards the idea that the "root of planting" in the Damascus Document refers to the sect, and though root imagery is applied to Jesus in the NT, I'm starting to think the key part (and the one that might refer to Jesus) is "He visited them." What does it mean that God "visited" them?

While there are other examples of God "visiting" Israel in the Damascus Document, in those cases it is to punish Israel, unlike the visitation that caused the "root of planting" to spring up.

As VanderKam writes in The Dead Sea Scrolls and Contemporary Culture:
The stretch of time forward from the delivery into Nebuchadnezzar's hands ends with God's visiting (in a positive sense it seems from the context) his people and causing a root of planting to sprout."

https://books.google.com/books?id=FSnLk ... e)&f=false
I suppose one could imagine anything. But going by the scenario that the "root of planting" refers to the sect (and that it "resonates with the sect's messianism," as Blanton puts it), it says that God visited Israel (in an unspecified manner) and caused a messianic sect to emerge, after which the Teacher of Righteousness came into prominence. And whether or not one has anything to do with the other, this is similar to the Christian story that God visited Israel (in the form of Jesus) and caused a messianic sect to emerge, after which James came into prominence.
You know in spite of all you gained, you still have to stand out in the pouring rain.
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