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

188 SOME WORKS OF TORAH AND PAUL’S GALATIANS
authors disagree with the ruling priests in at least twenty laws pertaining,
inter alia, to sacrifices and especially purity. 4 It will become evident in
this essay that the editors translated a common Hebrew noun in MMT
as “precepts.” When we observe the more common meaning of this
noun—“works”—we discover a striking link between this document and
Paul’s thought in Galatians. Let us now turn to this phrase.
SOME WORKS OF TORAH AND GALATIANS—DUNN
The occurrence of the phrase miqs[at ma(as 8ê ha4tôrâ (hrwth y#(m tcqm)
in Some Works of Torah (4QMMT) had already been exciting comment for
some years prior to the official publication of the scroll fragments. 5 In one
of the first reflections on the official publication, 6 Martin G. Abegg Jr.
suggested that Paul’s use of the same phrase, ergōn nomou (e1rgwn no/mou)
in Galatians and Romans (Gal 2:16; 3.2, 5, 10; Rom 3:20, 28) indicates
that Paul was “rebutting the theology of documents such as MMT.”
Abegg continued, suggesting “that Paul was reacting to the kind of theology
espoused by MMT, perhaps even by some Christian converts who
were committed to the kind of thinking reflected in MMT.” 7
As we shall see below, Abegg presented some further reasons for seeing
a parallel or even a connection between the thought of 4QMMT and
Paul’s argumentation in Galatians in particular. But even he does not
seem to have appreciated all the points of possible connection between
this Qumran composition and Paul’s letter to the Galatians. In assessing
the significance of 4QMMT for New Testament study (“nothing short of
4. For a succinct introduction, see Lawrence H. Schiffman, “Miqsat Ma(asei ha-Torah,”
in EDSS (ed. L. H. Schiffman and J. C. VanderKam; 2 vols.; New York: Oxford
University Press, 2000), 1:558–60. Esther Eshel shows that the rules regarding some sacrifices
unite not only 11QTemple (11Q19–20) and MMT but also preserve views attributed
to one or more rabbis (viz., R. Ishmael). See Esther Eshel, “4QLEVd: A Possible
Source for the Temple Scroll and Miqsat Ma(as 8e ha-Torah,” DSD 2, no. 1 (1995): 1–13.
5. See James D. G. Dunn, Romans (WBC 38; Dallas: Word, 1988), 154.
6. Elisha Qimron and John Strugnell, Qumran Cave 4.V: Miqsat Ma(ase ha-Torah (DJD
10; Oxford: Clarendon, 1994); the text and translation have been reprinted in Martin
G. Abegg, Jr., “For This You Waited 35 Years: MMT as Reconstructed by Elisha
Qimron and John Strugnell,” BAR 20, no. 6 (1994): 56–61.
7. Martin G. Abegg, Jr., “Paul, ‘Works of the Law’ and MMT,” BAR 20, no. 6
(1994): 52–55 (here 54). Now, see idem, “4QMMT, Paul, and ‘Works of the Law,’”
in The Bible at Qumran: Text, Shape, and Interpretation (ed. P. W. Flint; Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 2001), 203–16 (added by JHC).