James the Brother of Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls II (143 page)

Elsewhere, as in Columns
II
–
IV
of the Nahum
Pesher
at Qumran, ‘
prophesying Smooth Things
’ from Isaiah 30:10 is e
x
pressed in terms of ‘
the Seekers after Smooth Things’
, usually tied by almost all commentators to Pharisees and considered to be a play on their characteristic activity of ‘
seeking
Halachot
’ or ‘
seeking legal Traditions’
. I have extended this usage in the light of the claims by Paul of ‘
being by Law
,
a Pharisee
’ and the consonant behaviour pattern of ‘
seeking accommodation with fo
r
eigners
’ (the most perfect formulation of which is to be found in Romans 13:1–7 above, a completely anti-nationalist and non-‘
Zealot
’ text) to ‘
Pauline Christians
’ as well.
8
In the Nahum
Pesher
, ‘
Seekers after Smooth Things
’ is related to an underlying allusion in Nahum 3:1 to ‘
the City of Blood’
.
9

Not only is this esotericism associated in Column
II
of 4QpNahum with the historical action by the Pharisees of
inviting foreign armies into Jerusalem in Alexander Jannaeus
’
time
(103–76 BCE) – the paradigmatic act of ‘
seeking accommodation with foreigners
’ – but in the Third and Fourth Columns with ‘
the City of Ephraim’
, defined as ‘
the Seekers after Smooth Things at the End of Days’
, and reference to ‘
joining
’ or ‘
Joiners
’ (
Nilvim
in CD IV.3), interpreted to include ‘
resident aliens
’ or ‘
the stranger
’ (
ger-nilveh
) – in this case, meaning
Gentiles
.
This ‘
City of Blood
’ imagery will have important ramifications as well when it comes to analyzing the activities of ‘
the Lying Spouter
’ in the Habakkuk
Pesher
below.

There is an extant commentary on these materials from Isaiah 30 at Qumran, but it is very fragmentary. Still, it does refer to this same ‘
Assembly
’ or ‘
Congregation of the Seekers after Smooth Things who are in Jerusalem’
, ‘
the Last Days
, and ‘
r
e
jecting the Law’
.
10
There are also two fragmentary commentaries on Hosea and Micah, the first referring to adopting ‘
the Fe
s
tivals of the Gentiles
’; and the second, ‘
the Spouter of Lying who leads the Simple astray
’ though ‘
the Spouter
’ and ‘
the Simple
’
are
nowhere mentioned in the underlying text from Micah 1:5–6. By contrast, it should be noted that ‘
Samaria
’
is
. While this allusion to ‘
the Spouter
’
clearly
links up with the allusions to ‘
he will surely spout
’ in Micah 2:6 and ‘
walking in wind
(
the Spirit
)
and Lying
,
spouting Lies
’ in Micah 2:11, ‘
Samaria
’ links up with ‘
the Simple of Ephraim
’ in the Nahum
Pesher
above –
Samaria
and
Ephraim
being coextensive. This
pesher
also contains a reference to
the Righteous Teacher
and ‘
those volunteering to join the Elect of God’
.
11
Not only do we have in this last allusion another variation on the language of ‘
joining
’ but, seemingly, a
n
other reference to those ‘
Doers of
Torah
’ (‘
the Elect
’) so disparaged by Paul but so important to the interpretation of Haba
k
kuk 2:4 in the Habakkuk
Pesher
. For the Micah
Pesher
, anyhow, ‘
these will be saved on the Day of
(
Judgement
)’.
13
Again we can see this allusion to ‘
being saved
’ is eschatological, but we shall now find precisely this language, ‘
being saved on the Day of Judgement
’ in the Habakkuk
Pesher
as well.

In the Damascus Document we now hear of another attack against ‘
the Righteous One’
, probably the Righteous Teacher and possibly James. The description of what these ‘
Seekers after Smooth Things
’ – who ‘
chose illusions
(
mahatalot
from Isaiah 30:10 above)
and watched for breaks
,
choosing the easiest way
’ – do, is very germane to our subject. What they did was ‘
just
i
fied the Wicked and condemned the Righteous
,’ ‘
transgressing the Covenant and breaking the Law
’.
12

This is an incredible description because it completely reverses what the proper ‘
justifying
’ activity in Column Four of the true ‘
Sons of Zadok
’ was considered to be, namely, ‘
justifying the Righteous and condemning the Wicked
’. If one considers the word ‘
Wicked
’ here in the Hebrew to include what Paul is calling in Galatians 2:15 ‘
Gentile Sinners’
, then this phraseology, ‘
justifying the Wicked’
, can be seen as exactly how Paul’s ‘
justifying
’ activities might have been seen by his opponents, that is, as
justifying the Sinners
. As Paul actually puts this in Galatians 2:15–16, ‘T
hough by nature Jews and not Gentile Sinners
,
we know that a man is not justified by works of the Law but through Faith in Jesus Christ.
’

What immediately follows at the end of Column One in the Damascus Document is what can only be considered to be a description of another attack on
the Righteous Teacher
, led in our view by ‘
the Lying Scoffer’
. This can be seen as the attack by ‘
the Enemy
’ Paul on ‘
the Righteous Teacher
’ James in the Temple – certainly in coordination with
the High Priests
and presumably
the Pharisees
– in the Forties, as recorded in the graphic description of the Pseudoclementine
Recognitions
.

Interestingly enough, in this passage the terminology ‘
Righteous Teacher
’ is abjured in favor of James’ actual sobriquet, ‘
the Righteous
’ or ‘
Just One’
. As this is described: ‘
they banded together against the soul of the Righteous One and against all the Walkers in Perfection
,
execrating their soul
.
And they pursued them with the sword, attempting to divide the People
.’
Nothing could be a better description of the attack on James and his followers in the Temple by Paul and his ‘
Violent’
co
l
leagues, converted by Acts into ‘
the stoning of Stephen
’, than this.

The Vision of the End and ‘
the Delay of the
Parousia
’

Following the description of how the Liar ‘
rejected the
Torah
in the midst of their whole Assembly
’ and ‘
the Traitors
’ did not come to the aid of
the Righteous Teacher
against him in Column
V
.8–12 and the ‘
tax-farming
’ rapaciousnes and merciless brutality of ‘
the
Kittim
’ or
the Romans
in V.12–VI.11, the Habakkuk
Pesher
moves on in Columns
VII
–
VIII
to its interpretation of Habakkuk 2:3: ‘
If it tarries
,
wait for it’
, and Habakkuk 2:4: ‘
The Righteous shall live by his Faith
’ and what, for our purpo
s
es, constitute the key passages of its whole exposition. These would also appear to have been crucial to and the climax of the author’s entire presentation as well. It is surprising, therefore, that they have been so little considered by ‘
Consensus Scholars
’ and the question naturally arises of ‘
why
’?

These interpretations begin at the end of Column
VI
with the exposition of Habakkuk 2:1–2. Though the text is broken because it is the bottom of the column, it is clear that the underlying passage is from Habakkuk 2:1–2 speaking about ‘
standing up
’ and being a ‘
watchman
’ of sorts. It reads: ‘
But I will stand up upon my Watchtower and take my stand upon my Fortress
and look out to see what He will say to me and wh
(
at I will ans
)
wer when I am reproved
.’
13
Habakkuk 2:2 continues: ‘
And the Lord answered and said
, “
Write down the vision and make it plain on tablets
,
so that he may read it on the run
.”’ Once again, we are in the realm of the
visions
already encountered in Isaiah 30:10, Ezekiel 13:10, and Micah 2:6, now the ‘
true visions
’ of the Prophet
Habakkuk
and
the Righteous Teacher
, not the
Lying
ones of ‘
the Lying Spouter’
. Here is the allusion to ‘
being reproved
’ or ‘
admonished
’ and the reason, probably, it was applied to the exposition of Habakkuk 1:13 in the previous Co
l
umn V.10-12 about ‘
the admonishment of the Righteous Teacher
’ and ‘
the Traitors remaining silent
’ and ‘
not coming to his aid’
, when ‘
the Man of Lying rejected the
Torah
in the midst of their whole Assembly’
.

This passage from Habakkuk 2:1 is a very important one to the Qumran exegete because it is actually used at the end of the climactic exposition of ‘
the Zadokite Covenant
’ of Ezekiel 44:15 in CD IV.10-12. To understand how, one must recall precisely what was said there. This exegesis of how ‘
the Sons of Zadok
justified the Righteous and condemned the Wicked
’ also was eschatological, meaning, it was connected to or evoked ‘
the Last Days’
.
14

This was followed by the James-style ‘
all those coming after them were to do according to the precise letter of the
Torah
,
which the First
(
i.e.
, ‘
the Ancestors
’
) had transmitted
,
until the Completion of the Era of these years
’; and then, the assertion: ‘
According to the Covenant which God made with the First to remit their sins
,
so too would God make atonement through them
’ – meaning seemingly through or by ‘
the Sons of Zadok
’ or in succession to them. This, in turn, was immediately fo
l
lowed by, ‘
And with the Completion of the Era of the number of these years
,
there would be no more association with
’ or ‘
joining to the House of Judah
’ – apparently meaning, at least on the surface, that there would be
no more specifically being Jews
per se
.