James the Brother of Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls II (57 page)

This leads directly into the second citation of Isaiah 40:3’s ‘
preparing a Straight Way in the wilderness
’ passage: ‘
For this is the time of the preparation of the Way in the wilderness
.
Therefore he
(‘
the
Maschil
’ – in Matthew above, Jesus’ ‘
Blind Guide
’)
should guide them in all that has been revealed that they should do in this Time to
separate
from any man who has not turned aside his Way from all Evil
.’

To further demonstrate the interconnectedness of these kind of usages, the denotation ‘
the Sons of the Pit
’ is immediately reprised in these climactic passages from the Community Rule: ‘
These are the rules of the Way for the Guide in these Times
:
Everlasting hatred for the Sons of the Pit in a spirit of secrecy
,
to leave them to their Riches
and
the suffering (
‘
amal
) of their hands
,
like the slave to his Ruler and the Meek before his Lord
.’
Not only do we have the ‘
master
’ and ‘
lord
’ vocabulary here, but also again that of ‘
hands
’ – this time in the sense of ‘
that which their own hands have wrought
’ – the same ‘
hands
’ pr
e
sumably that were to remain ‘
unwashed
’ when eating in Jesus’ crucial ‘
toilet bowl
’ homily in both Matthew and Mark above. Furthermore, the implication of the whole simile embodied in this passage would appear to involve ‘
the Judgement Day
’, since the Hebrew ‘
amal
– as in the all-important Isaiah 53:11 proof-text and the Habakkuk
Pesher
, seemingly like the Gospels d
e
pendent upon it – is eschatological and also part of the vocabulary here.
The conclusion of all this is quite extraordinary: ‘
And he
(both ‘
the
Maschil
’ and the rank and file)
shall be as a man
zealous for the Law
,
whose Time will be the Day of Vengeance
,
to
do
all His will in all the work of his
hands
…
delighting in all the words of His
mouth
and in all His Kingdom as He comman
d
ed
.’
The reader should pay particular attention to all these usages, but especially: ‘
doing the will of God
’; ‘
separating the Sons of the Righteous One
’ and ‘
not disputing with the Sons of the Pit
’, but ‘
leaving them to their Riches
’ and ‘
the works of their hands
’; and finally ‘
doing all His will in all the work of his
(
the
Maschil
’s or the adept’s)
hands
’ and ‘
delighting in all the words of His mouth
’.

‘
Every Plant shall be Uprooted
’ and the Messianic ‘
Root of Planting
’ Imagery

In conclusion, one should also remark that leading into this allusion to the Pharisees as ‘
Blind Guides
’ in Matthew 15:14, Jesus is pictured as evoking the ‘
plant
’ or ‘
planting
’ vocabulary that Paul also uses with regard to ‘
God
’
s plantation
’ or ‘
growing place
’ and ‘
God
’
s building
’ in 1 Corinthians 3:6’s: ‘
I planted
,
Apollos watered
,
but God caused to grow
’. In the writer’s view this, too, plays off the Messianic ‘
plant
’ and ‘
planting
’ imagery at Qumran in general,
in particular, ‘
the Root of Planting
’ with which the Damascus Document follows up its opening imprecation to ‘
hear and understand
’. This reads, as we have already partially seen, as follows: ‘
And in the Age of Wrath
...
He
(God)
visited them and caused a
Root of Planting to grow
(these are some of the same words Paul uses in 1 Corinthians 3:6–8 above)
from Israel and Aaron to inherit His Land
(Paul’s ‘
field
’ or ‘
growing place
’ imagery, just cited in 1 Corinthians 3:9 above )
and to prosper on the good things of His Earth
.’
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In Matthew 15:13–14 the preliminary characterization introducing Jesus’ ‘
Leave them alone
,
they are Blind Guides
’ r
e
proof about
the Pharisees
reads: ‘
But he answered, saying
, “
Every plant which My Heavenly Father has not planted shall be uprooted”
’!
Of course the ‘
uprooting
’ or ‘
rooting up
’ language here is exactly the same as ‘
the Root of Planting
’ just encou
n
tered in the opening exhortation of the Damascus Document – the ‘
uprooting
’ playing off the ‘
Root of Planting
’ that God ‘
caused to grow
’, and the ‘
Planting
’, the ‘
Planting
’
part of the
‘
Root
’
imagery
. Likewise, Paul’s parallel ‘
Apollos planted
,
I w
a
tered
,
and God caused to grow
’ from 1 Corinthians 3:6 not only plays off, but is an actual
verbatim quotation
of the remainder of this all-important preliminary metaphor in the Damascus Document.

But in addition in these pivotal allusions in 1 Corinthians 3:6–11 to ‘
God
’
s Plantation
’ and ‘
God
’
s Building
’
–
of which Paul himself is ‘
the architect
’ or ‘
builder
’ just as he was ‘
the gardener
’ or ‘
husbandman
’ in the previous few lines, Paul also uses the further imagery of ‘
laying the foundations
’, widespread at Qumran
–
in particular, in both the Damascus Document and the Community Rule, but also in Hymns.
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In fact, these imageries are preceded in 1 Corinthians 2:4–6 by material in which Paul attacks ‘
the wisdom of men
’ and ‘
the wisdom of the age
’. One should compare allusions such as these to the Community Rule (1QS 9.12–13)’s instructions to ‘
the
Maschil
’ to: ‘
Do
the will of God in accord with everything that has been revealed from age to age
and
study all the wisdom that has been discovered according to the law of that age’
.
One can’t get a much closer fit than this or, for that matter, the Dama
s
cus Document’s ‘
the Root of Planting
’ to Matthew’s ‘
every plant which my Heavenly Father has not planted shall be uproo
t
ed
’.

Here too Paul evokes ‘
the perfect
’ and ‘
their wisdom
’ and speaks of ‘
the Rulers of this Age
’, another usage not so different from the allusion in the Community Rule to ‘
the Wisdom of God
’ above (as opposed to ‘
human wisdom
’)
revealed as if
‘
in a Mystery
’
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– ‘
Mysteries
’ in the Community Rule having to do with ‘
walking Perfectly
’, ‘
the Rulers of the Age
’, and ‘
making a straight Way in the wilderness
’ already cited above.
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Later, speaking of ‘
the reward each shall receive according to his own labor
’ and attacking ‘
the words which human wi
s
dom teaches
’, Paul rather evokes in 1 Corinthians 2:13–14 ‘
the words the Holy Spirit teaches
’ and ‘
communicating spiritual things spiritually
’. The perspicacious reader will be able to discern counterparts to all these usages in just the material from column Nine of the Community Rule defining the character and the function of ‘
the Guide
’. This could partially, but not e
x
haustively, include ‘
doing Judgement on each man according to his spirit
’, ‘
leaving the Men of the Pit to their Riches and the work of their hands
’ (meant eschatologically), ‘
being as a man
zealous for the Law
whose Time is the Day of Vengeance to
do
(
God
’
s
)
will in all work of his hands
’, and ‘
delighting in all that has been said by his
mouth
’.

Even more telling, all these imageries that Paul uses in 1 Corinthians 3:9–14 evoking ‘
building
’, in particular, himself as
the
‘
wise architect
’, his Community as ‘
God
’
s Building
’, and the ‘
laying the foundations
’ and ‘
building up
’ language would appear to be very familiar to the author of the Habakkuk
Pesher
who uses the very same imagery of ‘
the architect
’ and/or ‘
building up
’ to attack its omnipresent adversary, ‘
the Man of Lies
’ or ‘
Spouter of Lying
’ as ‘
building a worthless city upon blood and erec
t
ing an Assembly upon Lying for the sake of his Glory’.
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Here, once again, we have the language of ‘
Glory
’ or ‘
glorying
’ we have been underscoring above and, in our view, an allusion to a Community like Paul’s, ‘
built upon
’ the idea of ‘
Communion with the blood of Christ
’.

In addition to this, one should appreciate that in 1 Corinthians 2:7, preceding the above, Paul has just used the same la
n
guage of ‘
the wisdom of God
’, ‘
Mystery
’, and of ‘
Glory
’ when he asserts: ‘
But we speak the Wisdom of God in a Mystery which God has hidden and preordained for our Glory before the Ages’
.
Here not only the same ‘
Glory
’ alluded to in Column Ten of the Habakkuk
Pesher
, but also ‘
the Ages’
encountered in 1QS 9.13, which is to say nothing of the language of ‘
Hidden
’ and ‘
Mystery
’ already underscored above as well.

Furthermore, the idea of ‘
God
’
s Building
’, ‘
God
’
s House
’, or ‘
God
’
s Temple
’ – all more or less synonymous in Hebrew – which Paul goes on to apply in 1 Corinthians 3:9–17 to his new
Gentile Christian
Community is nothing less than the imagery of ‘
House of the
Torah
’, used throughout the Damascus Document to describe ‘
the Community
’ it is addressing in its final exhortative above – not to mention ‘
the House of Faith God built
’ earlier ‘
for them
’ in Column Three of the Damascus Do
c
ument, ‘
the likes of which never stood from ancient times until now
’.
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