The Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls: The ... - josephprestonkirk

168 IMPACT OF QUMRAN TEXTS ON PAULINE THEOLOGY
(or two messianic figures) occurs. The subject of a common meal comes
at the latest in line 17. In the following lines, the text is structured according
to the contents, which should help to understand them more easily:
And [when they] 48 gather together [at the tab]le [or to drink the (new) w]ine
(#wryY[th…]), and prepared is the table [18] of the Community [and
the] (new) wine [is mixed (?)] for drinking,
[no-]one [shall stretch out] his hand to the firstfruit [19] of the bread and
[the (new) wine] before the priest, for [he is the one who] recites the
benediction over the firstfruit of the bread [20] and the (new) win[e
([… #]wrythw) and who stretches out] his hand (first?) to the bread
before them.
And after[ward] the Messiah of Israel (l)r#y xy#m) [shall str]etch out his
hands (first?) [21] to the bread.
[And afterward] the whole congregation of the Community [shall recite the
bene]diction, ev[eryone in accordance to] his honor.
And according to this ruling [they] shall proceed ([w]#(y) [22] at every
prep[aration, when] at least ten men are [gat]hered.
The two texts correspond almost exactly in structure and wording.
Compared to the Rule of the Community, the text in Sa/SE has at the end
three supplementary statements about the “Messiah of Israel,” the “congregation
of the Community,” and the command to continue (recognizable
in the last three paragraphs of the text as printed above), and above
all, the text in Sa/SE is expanded in the opening statement (2.17–18).
Explanations
When we compare the Qumran meal and the Eucharist as taken over by
Paul (considering also the other early Christian texts on the Lord’s
Supper), we can detect the following fourfold correspondence that sets
the two meals apart in various ways from other meals in the Graeco-
Roman world:
1. In both cases it is a meal that was clearly determined by Jewish tradition; this
is also clear from the early Christian texts dealing with the Eucharist. Let
us particularly note the breaking of bread and the benedictions over
bread and wine.
2. In both cases it is a matter of a meal in a (from a sociological point of
view) closed assembly that sees itself as a community of the saved into which
one is admitted.
3. In both cases there is an eschatological expectation linked to the meal that corresponds
to the Jewish tradition (so clearly in 1QSa /4QSE and in Paul).
48. Line 21 shows that “the whole assembly of the Community” is intended here.