James the Brother of Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls II (154 page)

It will be recalled, Paul even went so far as to characterize the ‘
Hebrew
’ Apostles as ‘
those reckoned to be something
’ or ‘
those who wrote their own letters of recommendation’
, ‘
not that their importance’
, as far as he was concerned, ‘
anything co
n
ferred
’ (Galatians 2:6). For him, these
Super Apostles
were really Servants of Satan ‘
transforming themselves into Servants of Righteousness
’ and, parodying the actual doctrines of these last, their ‘
End would be according to their works
’ (2 Corinthians 11:15).

To repeat once again, as the
Pesher
now responds to this: those who ‘
blasphemed and vilified the Elect of God’
, instructing others ‘
in works of Lying
’ and ‘
tiring
’ them out ‘
with a Worthless Service’
, would themselves be brought, as just indicated, to ‘
the
(
same
)
Judgements of Fire with which they had insulted and vilified the Elect of God’
.
57
Paul calls down similar
Judg
e
ment
against the Jerusalem Leadership in 2 Corinthians 11:15 whereas James 2:13, in its discussion of ‘
the Tongue
’ being ‘
a Fiery World of Unrighteousness’
, also speaks about ‘
Judgement without Mercy for him who does no Mercy’
. For him, this same Tongue, ‘
set among our members’
, ‘
setting on Fire in the course of nature’
, will itself ‘
be set on Fire by Hell
’ (3:5–3:6).

Final Things: ‘
On the Day of Judgement God will Destroy all the Servants of Idols from the Earth
’

Before moving on to its treatment of the fate of the Righteous Teacher and Wicked Priest in Columns XI–XII, the Ha
b
akkuk
Pesher
pauses to interpret a passage from Habakkuk 2:14 about ‘
the Earth filling with the Knowledge of the Glory of the Lord like waters covering the sea’
. Though coming at the end of Column X and, therefore, fragmentary again – aside from the fact that it was from this citation (to say nothing of the ones about ‘
the City of Blood
’ in 2:12 and ‘
laboring for the sake of Fire
’ in 2:13) that the extraordinary exegesis about how ‘
the Spouter of Lying led Many astray
’ was constructed – the reference to ‘
waters
’ in the underlying text seems to be interpreted in terms of ‘
repenting
’ or ‘
a repentance
’ of some kind and it is after this that it is asserted that ‘
Knowledge
,
like the waters of the sea
,
should be revealed to them abundantly’
.

Here, not only can something of a parallel to the ‘
abundant works of the Law
’ alluded to in 1 Corinthians 15:58 above possibly be discerned, but also possibly one to what is portrayed as ‘
the descent of the Holy Spirit
’ in Acts or ‘
Holy Spirit-baptism
’ generally. Whatever this ‘
Knowledge of the Glory of God
’ from 2:14 is interpreted to be, it is clearly the opposite of the ‘
puffed up Knowledge
’ of those forbidding the consumption of ‘
things sacrificed to idols’
, to whom Paul so contempt
u
ously refers in 1 Corinthians 8:1ff. But it is the opposite as well of ‘
the waters of Lying’
the Comedian
or ‘
Lying Scoffer
’ is said to ‘
pour over Israel
’ in the First Column of CD.

After turning again to the subject of what
the Wicked Priest
did to
the Righteous Teacher
and
the Poor
and how ‘
the Cup of the Wrath of God’
, in turn, would come around and ‘
swallow him
’ in Columns XI.4–XII.9, the
Pesher
concludes on the note of ‘
Idolatry
’ and ‘
serving Idols’
. This was also the theme, seemingly reversed in Paul and applied to ‘
the Table of the Demons
’ and that of ‘
reclining in an idol Temple
’ generally and ‘
eating things sacrificed to idols
’ in 1 Corinthians 8:1–13 and 10:14–33.

Here at the conclusion of the Habakkuk
Pesher
, it is connected to the evocation of ‘
the Day of Judgment
’ and ‘
Salvation
’ or ‘
being saved
’ at the time
of this Last Judgement, language and themes part of the all-important eschatological exposition of Habakkuk 2:4 four columns earlier in VIII.1–3 as well. Not only is the theme of
Idolatry
important in the ‘
Three Nets of
Belial
’ accusations against the Establishment and the Letter(s) known as
MMT
, but it is also part and parcel of James’ directives to overseas communities in the sense of what Acts either calls ‘
the pollutions of the idols
’ or ‘
things sacrificed to idols’
.

This is the context in which Paul is responding to it in 1 Corinthians too, the letter in which he ultimately sets forth his ideas of ‘
Communion with
’ and ‘
the New Covenant in the Blood of Chris
t’ – the very same
Blood
ostensibly forbidden in James’ prohibitions to overseas communities. Paul refers to this ‘
idol-worship
’ in the run-up to his presentation of ‘
Commu
n
ion with the blood of Christ
’ in the conclusion of his discussion of James’ ‘
eating things sacrificed to an idol
’ – also in conjun
c
tion with
Cup
imagery – in 1 Corinthians 10:16–21.

As this same imagery emerges, but with opposite signification, in these final columns of the Habakkuk
Pesher
, it is of such poignancy and immediacy as to be heart-rending. Moreover, it is an example of that long-suffering ‘
patience
’ and ‘
steadfast
’ Faith we have seen encouraged in the Letters of both Paul and James above despite their differing points-of-view. In the Ha
b
akkuk
Pesher
, this is perhaps best evidenced by the exegesis of Habakkuk 2:3: ‘
If it tarries, wait for it
’ – an exegesis seemingly attributed to
the Righteous Teacher
and clearly paralleled in the last Chapter of James by the admonition, ‘
Be patient brothers until the coming of the Lord’
, ‘
strengthen your hearts because the coming of the Lord approaches’
. In the Damascus Doc
u
ment this last is referred to – together with the same ‘
Strengthening
’ imagery – as ‘
the Visitation of the Land’
.
58
This is the same kind of
Strengthening
also signaled by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:58 above.

The sequence that is followed here at the end of the Habakkuk
Pesher
also almost precisely follows that of early Church accounts delineating the death of James. In these accounts, James’ death is pictured as immediately being followed by the a
p
pearance of foreign Armies outside Jerusalem and the final destruction of both City and Temple presumably because
the Pr
o
tection
/
Pillar
/or
Bulwark
, provided by
the ‘Righteous One
’ James, had been removed. In Columns VIII-XI of the Habakkuk
Pesher
, the sequence is: the destruction of
the Righteous Teacher
, the destruction of
the Wicked Priest
and ‘
the Last Priests of Jerusalem
’ – this last, paralleling what the Gospels call ‘
the Chief Priests
’ – and their
Riches
and
spoils
(collected, seemingly, by the agency of ‘
the Peoples
’ or ‘
Herodians
’ and other ‘
Violent Ones
’) given over to ‘
the Army of the
Kittim
’ or ‘
the Additional Ones of the Peoples’
.
59

But in the immediacy and poignancy of this commentary, it is the ‘
Pious Faithfulness
’ that stands out. These people have undergone every reversal and tragedy. Their Community has been decimated.
The Righteous Teacher
– just as in the Gospels – has been destroyed. Jerusalem is either in the process of being destroyed or already destroyed.
The
Kittim
are overrunning the Land, ‘
taking no pity on
’ anyone, ‘
youths
,
men
,
old people
,
women and children
,
even babes in the wombs
’ (of course, a more accurate description of the Romans could not be imagined
60
). In the words of the Nahum
Pesher
, supported by Josephus’ descriptions: ‘
the corpses are stacked up everywhere
’ and ‘
there is no end to the sum of the slain’
.
61

In particular, the group responsible for these writings has lost everything and ‘
the Last End will be extended beyond an
y
thing the Prophets have foretold
’ – an exegesis of Habakkuk 2:3 seemingly ascribed to
the Righteous Teacher
(‘
to whom God made known all the Mysteries of His Servants the Prophets
’) in his role as God’s exegete on Earth.

In short, we have an eyewitness account of these events – as the Gospels are supposed to be but are not – written as they are actually going on. Nothing could be more immediate or compelling. Nor as ‘
Men of Truth
’ and ‘
Doers of the
Torah
’ are they ‘
to slacken from the Service of Truth
– as opposed presumably to ‘
the Service of Lying
’ –
though the Final Age is to be extended beyond anything the Prophets have foretold’
. Therefore, the author(s) of this document call down on the kinds of ‘
Enemies
’ they are facing the only
curses
they have left, those of ‘
the Day of Judgement’
, wherein will be their ultimate
Salv
a
tion
– that is,
they do not give up
.

This is delivered from Columns XII.10–XIII.4 in exposition of an underlying reference to ‘
Lying
’ and ‘
dumb idols
’ from Habakkuk 2:18: ‘
Of what use are graven images
,
whose makers formed a casting and images of Lying
’ and directed against both ‘
those who
serve
idols
’ and ‘
the Wicked Ones
’. The former are, in fact, overtly identified in the
Pesher
as
Gentiles
. The la
t
ter, as already suggested, have to be identified as ‘
backsliding Jews
’ – people like
the Wicked Priest
, responsible for the destru
c
tion of
the Righteous Teacher
, who ‘
did not circumcise the foreskin of his heart
’; or persons like the Alexandrian Jewish tur
n
coat, Philo’s nephew and Titus’ Commander-in-Chief at the siege of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple, Tiberius Alexander, whom Josephus specifically identifies as just such a ‘
Backslider’
.
62
In fact, where the
Pesher
is concerned, they would probably also include the whole Pharisee/Sadducean Establishment or collaborators such as R. Yohanan ben Zacchai or Jos
e
phus himself and, of course, Paul. There are many – enough to go around – and all are to be
subjected to the same ‘
Hell-Fire’
.