James the Brother of Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls II (83 page)

Not only is the Prophecy important in helping us appreciate the ‘
Messianic
’ thrust of these several notations, it also helps demonstrate just what was implied by the evocation of James’ ‘
rainmaking
’ in the context of all the
importuning of God he did in the Temple
– presumably
in the Holy of Holies
– until ‘
his knees became as hard as a camel
’
s
’ (vivid testimony of this kind one should be chary of dismissing) in Epiphanius’ version of Hegesippus’ testimony about James. Whereas Epiphanius is only a Fourth–Fifth Century
CE
source, where James is concerned, he largely bases himself on Hegesippus, a Second-Century
CE
source.

Epiphanius specifically ties this notice of James having made rain during a drought of some kind both to his
going into the Holy of Holies once a year
,
because he was a Nazirite and connected to the Priesthood
(Epiphanius’
actual words
!),
and his wearing the High Priestly ‘
diadem
’ or ‘
Nezer
’ (
Crown
).
14
The first part is certainly something of what the
ARN
meant by ‘
proper Temple service bringing rain in its season
’, while the second is not completely unconnected, with the play on James’ death in the ‘
Stephen
’ episode in Acts, whose name means ‘
Crown
’ in Greek, specifically signaling in Eusebius’ exposition of these events, ‘
the Martyr
’
s Crown
’.
15

The coupling of two of the most important
Messianic
prophecies from Numbers 24:17 and Daniel 7:13 in this climactic section of the War Scroll, as well as the citation of the first of these in both Damascus Document and Messianic
Florilegium
and combining them there with the materials from Isaiah cited above is about as important as Josephus’ claim in a little-remarked testimony that ‘
the World Ruler Prophecy
’ was the moving force behind the Uprising against Rome in 66–70
CE
.
16
A better internal dating parameter for documents such as these Dead Sea Scrolls is hardly to be found.

To these the War Scroll adds a third passage from Isaiah 31:8: ‘
Assyria shall fall by the sword of
no mere Man
and the sword of
no mere Adam
’, not normally considered
Messianic
at all, but coupled with these other indications at this point in the War Scroll it must be so
construed. Not only do we have, yet again, just the slightest echo here of the
Man
/
Adam
/
Primal Adam
ideology we have been following, but all are applied to an apocalyptic
final Holy War
against ‘
the
Kittim
’ – who, in such a co
n
text of
the Star Prophecy
and this kind of imagery from Daniel at this point in the War Scroll are certainly to be seen as the Romans.
These sections of Columns 10–11 of the War Scroll, reprised in Column 19, express the kind of apocalyptic
Judg
e
ment
that is being alluded to with reference to ‘
the Heavenly Host
’ and ‘
the hand of Your Messiah
’. These, in turn, are coupled with allusion to ‘
the hand of the Poor
’ (our
Ebionim
again) and ‘
the hand of those bent in the dust to humble the Mighty of the Peoples paying
(
them
)
the reward on Evil Ones
’,
‘
justifying Your True Judgement on all the Sons of Earth
’ – including ‘
the Enemies of all the Lands
’ – all terms pregnant with meaning for the history of this period.
17

This notion of ‘
paying them the reward on Evil Ones
’ is a widespread one in the Scrolls, particularly apparent in the Ha
b
akkuk
Pesher
, where it is applied to
the punishment visited upon the Wicked Priest for what he had done to the Righteous Teacher
(that is,
he had
‘
destroyed him
’).
18
There, too, it unquestionably alludes to
the apocalyptic process of Final Judgement
, a point missed by most commentators.
It is also alluded to in the Psalm 37
Pesher
, where it is applied to the fate of ‘
the Wicked Priest
’ as well – ‘
at the hand of the Violent Ones of the Gentiles
’ – but the whole context is one of final eschatological
Judg
e
ment
and the ‘
Salvation of the Righteous
’ (
Zaddikim
) and ‘
the Congregation of the Poor Ones
’ (once more,
the
Ebionim
!).
19
The Scroll concludes this eschatological exegesis of Number’s 24:17’s ‘
Star Prophecy
’ and evocation of Daniel’s ‘
Son of Man co
m
ing on the clouds of Heaven
’ by speaking in terms of ‘
justifying
(
God
’
s
)
True Judgement on all the Sons of Earth
’ (as opposed presumably to ‘
the Sons of Heaven
’ carrying it out), including ‘
the Enemies of all the Lands
’ which, of course, can mean not
h
ing other than all the foreign nations round about – again demonstrating the quasi-xenophobia of these Scrolls.

This whole climactic exposition of
the Star Prophecy
in the War Scroll follows its outlining the battle order of the fo
r
mations, the slogans to be inscribed on the standards and weapons in this
War
, and the historical note with which it co
m
mences of
the
‘
return of the Sons of Light
,
who are in Exile
(
Golah
)
from the Desert of the Peoples
to the camp in the wilde
r
ness of Jerusalem
’.
20
Here too, in this opening evocation, ‘
Benjamin
’ is defined in terms of this pregnant
apposition ‘
the
Golah
’ or ‘
Diaspora of the Desert
’, which possibly includes ‘
the Sons of Levi and the Sons of Judah
’ and possibly does not, and the English term,
Gentiles
/
Peoples
appears in the above phrase, ‘
the Desert of the Peoples
’, just as it does in Matthew 4:15.
21

These passages in the first columns of the War Scroll read like the battle order of an army right out of the age of Cromwell and also parallel, in reverse, movement outlined in the Damascus Document, which twice refers to ‘
going out
from the Land of Judah
to dwell in the Land of Damascus
’ and which is to say nothing of the several
reverse exoduses
represented by ‘
Theudas
’ and those the Gospels picture Jesus as making above.
22
In view of all that we have been describing about the location of groups like ‘
the Ebionites
’ or ‘
Nazoraeans
’, the movement of what the Qumran documents (even those not so familiar, such as the pivotal
MMT
) are referring to as these ‘
camps
’ across the Jordan into the area of Damascus and beyond – possibly the Syrian Desert further north and east even as far ‘
North
’ as ‘
Assyria
’ (the classical ‘
Land of the Osrhoeans
’) and Adiabene – is signif
i
cant.

Biblically-speaking, this is the direction Elijah is pictured as taking ‘
in the
Way of the wilderness of Damascus
’ in 1 Kings 19:15 after his prototypical ‘
cave-dwelling
’ and ‘
rainmaking
’ in 1 Kings 18. This is not to mention the various pictures of Paul in Acts, Galatians, and the Pseudoclementine
Recognitions
following a fleeing community into just these areas as well.
23
This em
i
gration also bears on the legends of ‘
a flight
’
to the Pella
region
– also across Jordan on ‘
the way to Damascus
’ – by James’ ‘
Jerusalem Church
’ followers in response to some mysterious oracle after his death which we shall further elucidate below.

Pella
was the nearest settled city across the Jordan leading up to Damascus and beyond in the great expanse of desert north and east along the
Fertile Crescent
as far as ‘
the Kingdom of the Edessenes
’ in Northern Syria and ‘
the Land of Adiabene
’ further east. By the same token, it is also possible to take the allusion to this ‘
Pella Flight
’ more generically as it might be the allusion to an emigration to ‘
the Land of Damascus
’ in the Qumran documents and the whole tangle of conflic
t
ing data relating to the same area in Acts, Paul’s letters, the Pseudoclementine
Recognitions
, and Josephus – to say nothing of the similar flight tradition, where Northern Syria or Mesopotamia is concerned, after the death of John the Baptist in Mandaean literature.

Epiphanius expresses something of this, when speaking about ‘
the Ebionites
’ and ‘
Nazoraeans
’, in the section in which he also refers to ‘
the Primal Adam
’ ideology of ‘
Sampsaeans
,
Osseneans
,
and Elchaseans
’ (that is,
the Sabaeans, Essenes, and Elchasaites
). He says: ‘
For the most part these settled in Perea
,
Pella a city in the Decapolis
,
Batanea
(the Roman province north of the Decapolis and east of Gaulonitus/‘
the Golan
’),
and the Land of Bashan
(the classical name for these areas, ove
r
lapping most of these other locations as far north as Damascus).
24
His meaning here is clear and he
was a
Palestinian – as we have seen, allegedly a convert from Judaism or, more precisely perhaps, ‘
Ebionitism
’ – so whatever else might be intended, he is certainly speaking about
the other side of the Jordan River and further north in Syria
– ‘
on the Way to Damascus
’ as 1 Kings 19:15 about Elijah might have put it.

In other delineations of such groups, Epiphanius also includes ‘
Moab
’ (directly east from the Fortress at Masada on the other side of the Dead Sea, south of Perea and north of Arabian Petra) and ‘
Coele-Syria
’, north of Damascus on the way up to Aleppo, Edessa (‘
Antioch Orrhoe
’), and points further East.
25
This is the area of primary interest to the War Scroll too, which speaks in its own archaizing manner of a
War
against ‘
Edom
’, ‘
Moab
’, ‘
the Sons of Ishmael
’, ‘
the
Kittim
of Assyria
’ (probably referring to the Romans but possibly, as some see it, the Seleucids preceding them – this cannot be determined with precision on the basis of the reference as it stands), ‘
Aram-Naharaim
’ (
Northern Syria and Iraq
), and ‘
the East as far as the Great D
e
sert
’, also a straightforward geographical allusion.
26