Messianic Motifs of Qumran and the New Testament

William H. Brownlee

doi:10.1017/S0028688500017410

Messianic Motifs of Qumran and the New Testament

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2009

William H. Brownlee

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William H. Brownlee: Affiliation:
N. Carolina, U.S.A.

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The relationship between the New Testament and the Qumran Literature is much more basic and fundamental than occasional words and phrases reminiscent of one another; for the messianic motifs of the Qumran Community are combined, modified, and adapted in the New Testament portrayal of Jesus the Christ. As we here use the term Messianic, we intend to include all that relates to the great eschatological figures of the sect, the Teacher of Righteousness, the coming prophet like unto Moses, and the two Messiahs of Aaron and Israel.

Type: Articles
Information: New Testament Studies , Volume 3 , Issue 1 , November 1956 , pp. 12 - 30

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0028688500017410 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1956

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^{Page 12 note 1} Thus the sect's regard for sacrifices has been used as evidence against the identification of the sect with the Essenes, but the Qumran literature agrees precisely with what Josephus says in Antiquities, XV111. i. 5. Josephus uses the term ‘sacrifices’ and ‘lustrations’ as synonymous terms. ‘The more pure lustrations of their own’ are doubtless the lustral sacrifices which in full accord with the Torah were to be performed ‘outside the camp’. The ‘water for impurity’ repeatedly mentioned in the Manual of Discipline should be construed literally as referring to the purifying water prepared from the ashes of the red heifer (Num. xix). There were also other lustral sacrifices, such as those for the cleansing of a leper (Lev. xiv). I have pointed this out previously in Interpretation (January, 1955), p. 75, but the accidental omission of a clause has resulted in the false identity of the ‘water for impurity’ with the rite for the purification of a leper.

^{Page 13 note 1} 1QpHab ii. 4f. For the restoration see 1QH xiv. 8. I now employ the documentary symbols advanced by R. de Vaux in Revue Biblique, Lx (1953), pp. 87f. The older system DSH, DST, etc. was meaningful in English, but not in other languages. Moreover with the ever increasing discoveries being made in other caves and other areas, they were not precise enough. There is no reason, however, why we cannot find English equivalents for the new designations. Thus 1QS (formerly DSD) may be called the Society Manual rather than the Manual of Discipline. 1QS^a becomes the Society Manual Annex, and 1QS^b the Society Benedictions. IQM (formerly DSW) could properly be called the Military Manual. 1QH (formerly DST) could be called the Hymn Scroll, rather than the Thanks-giving Psalms. This scroll may be the hodayoth of IQM xv. 5; but I strongly suspect that it is the Book of the Hagi(not Hagu), i.e. the Book of Meditation referred to in CDC and 1QS^a. Cf. 1QH xi. 2, 21f. Happily the symbol H fits also this Hebrew word.

^{Page 13 note 2} CDC i. 11 (i. 8).

^{Page 13 note 3} The genitive of the noun in the construct case admits of the ambiguity, ‘teacher of righteousness’/ ‘righteous teacher’.

^{Page 13 note 4} Hans, Joachim Schoeps compares the Ebionite ό προφήτης τŋς αληθείας, Zeitschrift fur Religions und Geistesgeschichte, vi, 3 (1954), p. 4.Google Scholar

^{Page 13 note 5} De Habakuk-rol van ‘Ain Fasha, Tekst en Vertaling, van Gorcum, Assen (1954), in note to i. 13.Google Scholar

^{Page 13 note 6} CDC i. 14f. (i. 10).

^{Page 13 note 7} CDC xx. 1 (ix. 29); xx. 14 (ix. 39).

^{Page 13 note 8} CDC i. 9f. (i. 6).Google Scholar

^{Page 14 note 1} CDC i. 5f.(i. 5). It has recently been denied that, may mean ‘after He gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar’. Cf. Isaac Rabinowitz, J.B.L. LXXIII (1954), pp. 13f and E. Wisenberg, Vetus Testamentum, V (1955), pp. 284f. Rabinowitz relates all to the Old Testament history, with the Teacher of Righteousness as Nehemiah. Wisenberg makes the Teacher a wholly imaginary character of Old Testament times, who was expected to return in the future, thus ‘the ZF [i.e. CDC] deal either with the distant past or with the future, but never with the sectarian writer's own age’. Ibid. p. 308. Nothing could be worse than this! The Teacher of Righteousness was definitely historical and in him the sect had a man of such prophetic significance they did not need to ascribe their interpretations of Scripture to any more ancient authority than this man of their own age. It is this which distinguishes the Covenanter literature from many of the Pseudepigrapha. Without going into the matter fully, the use of the Lamedh with the infinitive in the dating of I Kings vi. i is an exact parallel: ‘480 years with respect to [i.e. after’ the going forth of the children of Israel from the land of Egypt’. The absence of the preposition Beth in the specification of the time in CDC has no significance here, since points of time may be indicated by the adverbial accusative, without the use of the preposition.

^{Page 14 note 2} They take us back not to the origin of the Hasidim (which emerged gradually from roots more ancient than the second century B.C.) but to the time when ‘they possessed the land’. Our sectaries sprang from the Hasidim and their memory goes back to the time before there were sharp cleavages among the Jewish parties. Thus John Hyrcanus was looked upon with favour by them at the early part of his rule (iQpHab viii. 8f.).

^{Page 15 note 1} IQpHab vii. 6–14.

^{Page 15 note 2} CDC xx. 13f. (ix. 39).

^{Page 15 note 3} ‘The Historical Allusions of the Dead Sea Habakkuk Midrash’, B.A.S.O.R. no. 126 (April 1952), pp. 10–20.Google Scholar

^{Page 15 note 4} Ibid. p. 16.

^{Page 15 note 5} Ibid. pp. 18f. If one must take his choice between the man who rebuked Hyrcanus (either Eleazar or Judah son of Jedidiah) and Judas the Essene as the Teacher of Righteousness, one will naturally prefer the latter, since he is definitely known as an Essene. My interpretation of the historical allusions has been adopted substantially by Cyrille Detaye in Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses, xxx (1954), pp. 323–43. He rejects the evidence for Eleazar (alias Judah son of Jedidiah) but over-looks Judas the Essene as a possible rival.

^{Page 16 note 1} ii. 15 f. For the text and its interpretation see Allegro, J. M., ‘A Newly Discovered Fragment of a Commentary on Psalm xxxvii from Qumran’, Palestine Exploration Quarterly, LXXXVI (May-October, 1954), pp. 69–75. Cf. also 1QH vi. 25–9; vii. 6–9 and the discussion of A. Dupont-Sommer, Numen, 11, fasc. 3, pp. 186f.CrossRef Google Scholar

^{Page 16 note 2} See Schmidt, K. L.. The Church (English trans. J. R. Coates), p. 40 n. 1; J. W. Bowman, The Intention of Jesus, pp. 195ff.Google Scholar

^{Page 16 note 3} Cf. Kraeling, Carl H., John the Baptist, Scribner's Sons (1951), pp. 119 f.; also Brownlee, ‘John the Baptist in the New Light of Ancient Scrolls’, Interpretation (January 1955), pp. 71–90, particularly PP. 75, 77.Google Scholar

^{Page 16 note 4} 1QS v, i f.

^{Page 16 note 5} Brownlee, op. cit. p. 76; Oscar Cullmann, J.B.L.(December 1955), p. 215.

^{Page 16 note 6} 1QH vii. 20–2.

^{Page 16 note 7} 1QH viii. 16.

^{Page 17 note 1} 1QH vii. 20f.

^{Page 17 note 2} 1QH v. 22–4. Cf. G. Vermés, Quelques Traditions de la Communauté de Qumran, an extract from Cahiers Sioniens (1955), p. 50.

^{Page 17 note 3} 1QH xiv. 18.

^{Page 17 note 4} 1QS i. 8, 10.

^{Page 17 note 5} 1QS v. 25-vi. 1. Cf. B.A.S.O.R. Supplemental Studies, nos. 10–12 (1951), p. 23 n. 3.

^{Page 17 note 6} Krister, Stendahl, The School of St Matthew, Acta Seminarii Neotestamentici Upsaliensis, xx (1954), P. 24.Google Scholar

^{Page 17 note 7} Zeitschrif für katholische Theologie, lxxiv (1952), pp. 22f.

^{Page 17 note 8} Matthew, Black, Scottish Jour. Theol. vi, no. 1 (1953), pp. 6–9; Soensk Exegetisk Arsbok, xviii-xix (1953–4), PP. 88f.Google Scholar

^{Page 17 note 9} Delcor, M., R.B. LXII, no. 1 (January 1955), pp. 60f.Google Scholar

^{Page 17 note 10} ‘The “Law-interpreter” of the Sect of the Dead Sea Scrolls: The Second Moses’, Jour. Jewish Stud. iv, no. 4 (1953), pp. 158–75.

^{Page 17 note 11} Vermès, op. cit. p. 51.

^{Page 17 note 12} The Zadokite Documents (Oxford, 1954), p. 23.

^{Page 17 note 13} The Dead Sea Scrolls, Viking Press (New York, 1955), p. 267.

^{Page 18 note 1} I did however suggest that the peculiar reading of Isa. xlv. 8 (i QIs^a) refers to the Teacher. B.A.S.O.R. no. 127 (October 1952), p. 19.

^{Page 18 note 2} The Hebrew Union College Annual, xxiii, part i (1950–1), pp. 289–93. A few details of the translation are uncertain, but the meaning is essentially correct. Cf. 1QH iv. 27.

^{Page 18 note 3} Cf. after Professor James L. Price of Duke University (who has graciously read and criticized the present paper) the Transfiguration Scene of Jesus (Matt. xvii. i ff.; Mark ix. 2 ff.; Luke ix. 28 ff.).

^{Page 18 note 4} Restoring after 1QH xv. 17 and Jer. i. 5, in the latter passage the same verbs standing in parallelism as here.

^{Page 19 note 1} 1QH ix. 29–32.

^{Page 19 note 2} Or, even more radically, from the time he existed as a sperm in his father. Vermès, op. cit. p. 54, translates: ‘Car mieux que mon père tu m'as connu…’, which is quite possible; but the parallelism favours the interpretation given here.

^{Page 19 note 3} Note the variant for —the Aramaic sign of the accusative replacing that of the Hebrew and the synonym occurring for . The Aleph here, as frequently in Scrolls, attests the fact that the consonantal γrodh was at least often completely quiescent. Cf. and in Isa. xli. 18 (IQIs^a) and the characteristic spellings and .

^{Page 19 note 4} Vermés, op. cit. p. 54. Cf. also Dupont-Sommer, op. cit. pp. i86f.

^{Page 19 note 5} Cf. The United Presbyterian(13 December 1954), p. II. In the first printing of The Dead Sea Scrolls of St Mark's Monastery, the word was cautiously transliterated as but in the second printing (whose photographic plates are much inferior to the first printing) it is erroneously transliterated as . The original Resh was decapitated in order to convert it into a Waw and another Resh was crowded in after it (not a γodh!). More was removed from the original Resh than should have been for complete clarity; but there is no reason why a perfectly good Resh should have been erased in order to replace it immediately afterward with a very crowded and compressed form of the same letter. Hence it is best to read the word as .

^{Page 20 note 1} Cf. also Matt. vii. 24f. and Jas. i. 25 with the Scroll phrase ‘doers of the law’ (iQpHab vii. II; viii. i; xii. 4f)., where it is a matter of being a doer of Christ's law. Cf. Gal. vi. 2.

^{Page 20 note 2} Cf. Dupont-Sommer, ‘Le Maître de Justice fut-il mis à mort?’, Vetus Testamentum, I (1951), pp. 200–15. The clearest reference is i QpHab xi. 5: ‘The Wicked Priest who pursued the Teacher of Righteousness in order to [or, with the result that he did] swallow him up’. The ambiguous use of the infinitive has left room for doubt.

^{Page 20 note 3} Scottish Jour. Theol., loc. cit.

^{Page 21 note 1} Barthelemy, D. and Milik, J. T., Discoveries in the Judaean Desert, 1 (Oxford, 1955), pp. 108ff. entitle this work ‘Règle de la Congrégation’ (1QS^a). For an English equivalent of the symbols S^a, cf. p. 13 n. 1, See here 1QS^a ii. 11–22.Google Scholar

^{Page 21 note 2} Kuhn, Cf. K. G., ‘Die Beiden Messias Aarons and Israels’, New Test. Stud. i, no. 3 (February 1955), pp. 168ff.Google Scholar

^{Page 21 note 3} 1QS vi. 3–5.

^{Page 21 note 4} 1QS² ii. 21f. Barthélemy understands ‘au sens de “repas”’, comparing 1QS x. 14. One may note that the verb is employed for the arrangement of the table at 1QS vi. 4.

^{Page 21 note 5} Ch. ix.

^{Page 21 note 6} Audet, Cf. J. P., ‘Afinités littéraires et doctrinales du Manuel de discipline’, Revue Biblique, Lx, no. 1 (January 1953), pp. 41–82.Google Scholar

^{Page 21 note 7} Preiss, Cf. Theo, Life in Christ, Studies in Biblical Theology, no. 13, trans. by Harold, Knight, (London, 1954), pp. 81 ff.Google Scholar

^{Page 22 note 1} Barthélemy and Milik, op. cit. pp. ii8ff., call this ‘Recueil des Bénédiction’. Its symbol is 1QS^b. For English equivalent of S^b, cf. p. 13, n. 1. The present passage is 1QS^b v. 20–29.

^{Page 22 note 2} Restoring: Cf. line 27; also 1QH iii. 10.

^{Page 22 note 3} According to Isa. xi. 4 one should restore ‘the poor’ , but this inadequately fills the space. Probably for this reason Milik restores rather ‘the needy’ ; but there is room for more than this. Hence I conjecture ‘the poor and needy’ after Ps. lxxii. 13. Cf. also Ps. lxxii. 4.

^{Page 22 note 4} Restoring after i QS iv. 2.

^{Page 22 note 5} Milik restores ‘the covenant of His holiness’. This is possible, but the context does not require this particular attribute. For the expression ‘Covenant of peace’ cf. Ezek. xxxiv. 25; xxxvii. 26, and the appropriate association of this idea with Isa. xi.6–9.

^{Page 22 note 6} Cf. Isa. xi. 2.

^{Page 22 note 7} Cf. Isa. xi. 5.

^{Page 22 note 8} Restoring: . For the same thought sequence, cf. Ps. lxxii. ii. The mention of ‘kings’ after ‘rulers’ is suitable to the context.

^{Page 22 note 9} Restoring after Micah v. 7.

^{Page 22 note 10} Cf. the use of as a Messianic title in Ezek. xxxiv. 24.

^{Page 23 note 1} See George, Foot Moore, Judaism (Cambridge, 1932), ii, pp. 350f.Google Scholar

^{Page 23 note 2} See Moore, lac. cit. The sectaries variously called themselves ‘the penitents of Israel’ (CDC iv. 2 (vi. 1);vi. 5 (viii. 6); viii. 16 (ix. 24)) and ‘those that repent of transgression’ (CDC ii. 5(ii.3);xx. 17 (ix. 41); DSD x. 20)—both phrases being drawn from Isa. lix. 20. Cf. John V. Chamberlain, Vetus Testamentum, v, no. 4 (October 1955), p. 371.

^{Page 23 note 3} For the ‘Man of Lies’ see IQpHab ii. 1–2; CDCxx. 14f. (ix. 39). For the ‘Prophet of Lies’ see CDC i. 14f. (i. 10); xix. 25f. (ix. 22); IQpHab x. 9.

^{Page 24 note 1} The following studies of the passages have appeared: G. Vermès, Les Manuscrits du Désert de Juda, 2nd ed, (1954). pp. 193f.; John V. Chamberlain, ‘Another Qumran Thanksgiving Psalm’, Jour. Near Eastern Stud. xiv, no. 1 (January 1955), pp. 32–41; ‘Further Elucidation of a Messianic Thanks-giving Psalm from Qumran’, J.N.E.S. xiv, no. 3 (July 1955), pp. 181f.; A. Dupont-Sommer, ‘La mère du Messie et la mère de 1'Aspic dans un hymne de Qoumrân’, Revue de l'Histoire des Religions, CXLVII, no. 2 (April-June 1955), pp. 174–88; Joseph Baumgarten and Menahem Mansoor, ‘Studies in the New Hodayot (Thanksgiving Hymns)-II’, J.B.L. Lxxiv, part iii (September 1955), pp. 188 ff.

^{Page 24 note 2} There is no need to distinguish between these corporate designations for the period under study. The repeated use of the expression ‘pregnant one’ may possibly allude to Isa. vii. 14: ‘Behold the young woman is pregnant and is about to give birth to a son and his name shall be called Immanuel’—following the slight variant of iQIs^a for the last clause. It may be that the LXX translated as in order to identify the ‘young woman’ with the ‘Virgin Israel’ and that they there-by intended a Messianic interpretation. Cf. Brownlee, ‘The Incarnation in the Light of Ancient Scrolls’, The United Presbyterian, cxiii, no. 5 (31 January 1955), pp. 12f., 15. In Matthew and Luke the application of the prophecy is changed from the corporate Virgin Israel to the personal Virgin of Israel—the latter perhaps being regarded as representative of the former. Cf. Paul Winter, ‘Magnificat and Benedictus—Maccabaean Psalms?’, B.J.R.L. xxxvii, vol i (September 1954), p. 341.

^{Page 24 note 3} Op. cit. p. 188.

^{Page 25 note 1} Braun, Cf. F. M., L'arriére-fond judaique du quatrième évangile et la Communauté del'Alliance R.B. LXII, no. 1 (January 1955), pp. 29f.Google Scholar

^{Page 25 note 2} Since the ‘I’ must frequently refer to the psalmist himself in his distinctive role as the head of the community, it is a matter of serious question whether the hymns were on the whole suitable to community praise; yet there were some phases of the psalmist's experience which were parallel with the group's experience, so that in his outpourings of the soul he was expressing the feeling of the group as well.

^{Page 25 note 3} The United Presbyterian, Cxl, no. 50 (14 December 1953), pp. 7f.; B.A.S.O.R. no. 135 (October 1954), PP. 35ff.

^{Page 25 note 4} ‘Affinités littéraires et doctrinales du “Manuel de Discipline”’, R.B.(1952), pp. 219–38; (1953), PP. 41–82.

^{Page 25 note 5} Handskrifterna frdn Qumrân, Symbolae Biblicae Upsalienses, no. 14 (1952) p. 70 n. 54. Cf. also his article ‘Nytt ljus över Johannes döparens förkunnelse’, Religion och Bibel (1952), p. 14.

^{Page 26 note 1} Quelques Traditions de la Communauté de Qumran, extract from Cahiers Sioniens (1955), pp. 54 ff. One ought not concede as Vermès does that Y. Yadin is correct in interpreting .CF. Yadin ‘A note on DSD iv. 20’, J.B.L. lxxiv, part 1 (March 1955), pp. 40–3. Cf. against Yadin, J. V. Chamberlain, J.N.E.S. xiv, no. 3 (July 1955), p. 182. Yadin (op. cit. p. 40), after citing my translation ‘He will refine him’ (for ), interjects an exclamation mark. There is no need for this amazement, since there are several examples of the use of the Lamedh for the sign of the accusative in our scrolls. Cf. p. 19 n. 3 above! In any case Vermés, who follows Yadin's reading, agrees that one is concerned with ‘a man’ here, not with ‘[each]’ man’.

^{Page 26 note 2} Ibid. p. 57.

^{Page 26 note 3} B.A.S.O.R. no. 135 (October 1954), pp. 33–5; U.P.(30 November 1953), p. 11.

^{Page 26 note 4} In any case the Servant is always Israel or Israel's representative. Mark ix. 12f. affords an example of applying the Suffering Servant prophecies to more than one representative, with both Elijah (i.e. John) and the Son of Man (i.e. Jesus) fulfilling these prophecies. Cf. Interpretation (January 1955), PP. 86–8.

^{Page 27 note 1} 1QH xi. 12. Heb. , words doubtless echoing Isa. xli. 14, which in iQIs^a reads: ‘Fear not 0 worm Jacob and corpses of () Israel.’ The reading of the Scroll is attested by Aquila. Cf. Robert H. Pfeiffer, History of New Testament Times with an Introduction to the Apocrypha(New York, 1949), p. 417.

^{Page 28 note 1} In this case the infinitive would be subordinate to the one immediately preceding it rather than being co-ordinate.

^{Page 28 note 2} Cf. U.P.(14 December 1953), p. 8.

^{Page 28 note 3} John xii. 31; xvi. II. In Luke iv. 13, the Devil leaves Jesus after His temptation, only that he may return at ‘an opportune time’—that is, for an encounter with Christ at the Cross.

^{Page 29 note 1} John xii. 31; xvi. ii. In Luke iv. 13, the Devil leaves Jesus after his temptation, only that he may return at ‘an opportune time’—that is for an encounter with Christ at the Cross.

^{Page 29 note 2} Note that in Rev. xii. 5 the ‘male child’ is ‘caught up to God and to his throne’ as soon as he is born. This should be explained not as a case of telescoping (leaving out Jesus's youth, ministry, Crucifixion and Resurrection), but of equating the birth with the Resurrection, precisely as in the Gospel! Cf. here Acts xiii. 33.

^{Page 29 note 3} In iQls² Iii. 15 one should probably render: ‘So shall he sprinkle many nations because of himself’, i.e. because of his own anointing with the Spirit, he will be able to sprinkle others with the Spirit. Note that sprinkling is used in connexion with the Spirit in 1QS iv. 21: ‘He will sprinkle upon him the Spirit of Truth.’ Cf. B.A.S.O.R. no. 132 (December 1953), p. 10; no. 135 (October 1954), P. 37 n. 34.

^{Page 30 note 1} Professor James L. Price reminds us of Col. ii. 14f. also.

^{Page 30 note 2} U.P. 28 December 1953, p. II.

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