James the Brother of Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls II (115 page)

The Psalm 37
Pesher
’s exegesis of the passage about ‘
the Wicked casting down the Meek and the Poor
’ makes it clear that somehow ‘
the Wicked of Ephraim and Manasseh
’ were involved in the destruction of ‘
the Priest and the Men of his Cou
n
cil
’.
66
As almost all commentators agree that this is an esoteric allusion of some kind to what most now call ‘
Pharisees and Sadducees
’, it would be absurd in such a context to put this back into either the First or Second Century
BCE
. At that time the Sadducees would mainly have been a pro-Maccabean Party. Nor would it be a simple matter to identify any ‘
Violent Gentiles
’ at that time to take vengeance on ‘
the Wicked Priest
’ for what he did to ‘
the Righteous Teacher
’ which is the gist, in fact, of the
Pesher
. These are the problems that are rarely, if ever, addressed when evaluating Establishment theories of Qumran or
i
gins.

‘
The Violent Ones of the Gentiles
’

This matter of the vengeance taken by ‘
the Violent Ones of the Gentiles
’ for what had been done to the Righteous Teac
h
er is treated in two separate expositions in the Psalm 37
Pesher
. The second of these at the end of the
Pesher
uses almost the exact language of the Habakkuk
Pesher
– to say nothing of Isaiah 3:10–11 above, namely ‘
God will pay him
(‘
the Wicked Priest
’)
his reward by delivering him into the hand of the Violent Ones of the Gentiles
’. These ‘
execute Judgement upon him
’, a Judgement which is then described as ‘
the Judgement on Evil
’.
67
In the parallel material in the Habakkuk
Pesher
about the admonishment of the Wicked Priest, these ‘
Judgements
’ reappear as ‘
the Judgements on Evil
’, which they (identity unspec
i
fied) inflicted upon ‘
the flesh of his corpse
’.
68

The Psalm 37
Pesher
is replete with the kind of language we have been following and links up perfectly with allusions in the Habakkuk
Pesher
and the Damascus Document again confirming the interrelatedness of these documents. Its subject is God’s ‘
Righteousness which will be
revealed like Light and
(
His
)
Judgement like midday
’ (37:6). The interpretation of this and anal
o
gous phrases is applied to ‘
the Assembly
’ or ‘
Church of the Poor
’ (
Ebionim
). It, like the Messianic ‘
Root of Planting out of A
a
ron and Israel
’ in the Damascus Document, ‘
will inherit the Land
’ and ‘
prosper on its good things
’, this last in direct interpr
e
tation of an underlying reference to ‘
‘
A
nayyim
’/‘
Meek
’ in 37:11, again deliberately transmuted in the
Pesher
(as in the Habakkuk
Pesher
) into ‘
the Assembly of the Poor
’ (
Ebionim
).

Also called ‘
the Assembly of His Elect
’, as in the Damascus Document, they are again characterized as ‘
the Penitents of the wilderness who will live for a thousand generations
’.
69
Here not only does the usage ‘
of the wilderness
’ take the place of the ‘
of Israel
’ in CD IV.2, VI.5, and VIII.16/XIX.29, but the phrase ‘
be-Yeshu
‘
a
’ – seemingly ‘
in Salvation
’ (‘
Jesus
’) – is added and it is stated – in what appears to be yet another variation of the ‘
Primal Adam
’ ideology – that ‘
all the inheritance of
(i
n
stead of ‘
all the Glory of
’)
Adam will be theirs
’. As in the Habakkuk
Pesher
too, ‘
God will save them
– the ‘
saving
’ here really being eschatological ‘
saving
’ in the sense of ‘
Salvation
’ –
and deliver them from the hand of the Evil Ones
’ (this both quoting and interpreting Psalm 37:40). Because they ‘
waited on
’
Him
and ‘
kept His Way
’, they would both ‘
be exalted
’ and – using the words of both Psalm 37:34 and CD I.7–8 – ‘
inherit the Land
’ and ‘
see the destruction of’
the same ‘
Evil Ones
’.
70
Here the
Pesher
again applies this to ‘
the Assembly
’ or ‘
Church of the Poor
’ who will not only ‘
see the Judgement on Evil
’ but, ‘
with His Chosen Ones
’ or ‘
Elect
,
rejoice in the True Inheritance
’ – a more eschatological promise is hard to imagine.

As in the Habakkuk
Pesher
, ‘
the Priest
’ (meaning ‘
the Opposition High Priest
’) is specifically identified with ‘
the Teacher of Righteousness
’ and, paralleling usages in the Damascus Document and
Florilegium
about ‘
the Star who came to Damascus
’ and ‘
the Interpreter of the
Torah
’, it is he whom ‘
God chose to
stand
before Him
’ (the ‘
Standing One
’ ideology again). Contrary to ‘
the Spouter of Lying
’ or Paul himself in 1 Corinthians 3:9–17, he has been ‘
prepared
’ or ‘
established
’ by God ‘
to
build the A
s
sembly
of His Chosen Ones for Him
’ – in CD IV.3–4, the same ‘
Chosen Ones
’ or ‘
Elect
’
who are
‘
the Sons of Zadok
’; here in the Psalm 37
Pesher
, they are ‘
the Assembly
’ or ‘
Church of the Poor
’. These will ‘
be saved from all the Nets of
Belial
’.
71

Here, not only do we hear about how ‘
the Wicked plotted against the Righteous gnashing his teeth at him
’ (Psalm 37:12), but a new category of individual is evoked, ‘
the Violent Ones of the Covenant in the House of Judah
’ – referred to also, as the text proceeds – as ‘
the Evil Men of Israel
’. These, too, are ‘
cursed by Him and will be cut off
’ (37:23) – again our ‘
cutting off
’ language used throughout the
Pesher
,
CD, and by Paul in Galatians 5:12.
72

This allusion to ‘
gnashing of teeth
’ is a familiar one in the parables attributed to Jesus in the Gospels. Acts 7:54, however, uses it to describe how t
he Jewish mob behaved towards Stephen
– they ‘
gnashed their teeth at him
’ – after Stephen accused them of ‘
being uncircumcised in heart and ears
’, ‘
always resisting the Holy Spirit
’, ‘
persecuting the Prophets
’ and
being
‘
the Traitors and murderers of the Just One
’ right before his vision of ‘
the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God
’ (7:50–56). When one realizes that ‘Stephen’ is a stand-in for James, one appreciates the significance of finding this important allusion about ‘
gnashing his teeth
’ at this point in the Psalm 37
Pesher
where ‘
plots against the Righteous One
’ are being described.

Again, just as in the Nahum
Pesher
previously, ‘
the Man of Lying
’, right from the beginning of the Psalm 37
Pesher
, is d
e
scribed as ‘
leading Many astray with deceitful words
,
for they have chosen
Emptiness
and did not listen to the Interpreter of Knowledge
’.
73
Moreover, the
Pesher
also refers to the period of ‘
forty years
’ – alluded to in the Damascus Document as the ‘
approximate time
’ that would pass from ‘
the gathering of the Unique Guide
(‘
Yoreh ha-Yahid
’, as opposed to ‘
Moreh ha-Yahad
’)
to the Completion of the Time of the Men-of-War
,
who walked with the Man of Lying
’ – ‘
to the Completion of
(
the Time of
)
all Evil
’. In fact, the very same word ‘
completed
’ is used regarding this eventuality in both documents.
74
Again, just as in CD XX.13–17, during this period ‘
the Wrath of God would be kindled against Israel
’ and ‘
there will be no King
,
no Prince
,
no Judge
,
no one to rebuke with Righteousness
’ (Hosea 3:4); here in the Psalm 37
Pesher
, at the end of this Time, ‘
there would not be found on Earth a single Evil Man
’ – to be sure, a slight exaggeration –
and ‘
the Man of Lying
’ and his confederates would be ‘
cursed
’, ‘
cut off
’, and ‘
exterminated
’ (37:34).

This allusion to ‘
approximately forty years
’ is clearly imprecise, ‘
forty
’ being the usual number in the Bible used to indicate a fairly long, if indeterminate period of time, and, in this instance, ‘
not a single Evil Man to be found on Earth
’ clearly being a little over-optimistic as well. Furthermore, ‘
the Man of Lying
’ has either not yet died or the author(s) have no idea of his exact fate, nor of those ‘
Rebels who did not turn aside from the Way of Traitors
’,
75
who are his confederates. If these have anything in common with either the New Testament’s Paul or Josephus’ ‘
Saulos
’ and their other colleagues, this completely accords with what one would expect, since after one or the other of these went off to Rome to appeal to Caesar or the like, the writers of documents of this kind would have had little or no idea of the actual fate of these sorts of individuals, only that immediately after the death of James (‘
the gathering of the Unique Teacher
’?), they were still alive.

For the
Pesher
, ‘
the Violent Ones of the Covenant who are in the House of Judah
’ (meaning again, ‘
Jews
’) ‘
plotted to d
e
stroy
the Doers of the
Torah
who were in the Council of the Community
(these are the same ‘
House of Judah
’ and ‘
Doers of the
Torah
’ found in the Habakkuk
Pesher
’s decisive interpretation of Habakkuk 2:4),
but God will not deliver them into their hand
’.
76
Moreover it is also the same ‘
plotting
’ as that of ‘
the Wicked Priest
’ in the Habakkuk
Pesher
who ‘
plotted to destroy the Poor
’. Here in the Psalm 37
Pesher
, it is almost immediately followed by the description of how ‘
the Evil Ones of Ephraim and Manasseh
– also referred to in the Nahum
Pesher
and normally thought of in this context as analogues of ‘
the Scribes and Pha
r
isees
’ or ‘
the Pharisees and Sadducees
’ of the Gospels –
who sought to lay hands on the Priest and the Men of his Council in the time of trial that came upon them
’ (this is the same ‘
period of testing
’ that was referred to earlier in the same column r
e
garding ‘
the Congregation
’ or ‘
Church of the Poor
’ who were ultimately going to be ‘
saved from all the snares of
Belial
’).
77