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

JAMES D. G. DUNN AND JAMES H. CHARLESWORTH 195
2:1–10) and rules governing table-fellowship with Gentiles (2:11–15). It
is true that the “works” (My#&)(m) of MMT are all highly technical
issues, principally related to the proper administration of the Temple cult.
Whereas in Galatians the “works of the Law” (e1rga no/mou) might seem
(from a “Christian” perspective at least) to focus on much weightier matters.
38 More to the point, however, is the fact that in both cases the rulings
and practices (works) have been focal points of dispute within the
community, sufficient indeed to cause a separation in the wider community,
with those following the stricter interpretation separating from those
following the less strict practice. This difference between the two early
Jewish texts in what are referred to by the terms (My#&(m and e1rga) 39
may be simply explained by the fact that in the one case it is an intra-
Jewish dispute, where the issue of separation hangs on finer points of
religious law (halakah), whereas in Galatians the issue was of separation
between Jew and Gentile. 40 The principal point of parallel remains the
same, however: that the Hebrew (hrwt y#(m) and Greek (e1rga no/mou)
expressions both seem to refer to “works of the Law,” and both were
understood as defining a boundary that marks out those of faith and
faithfulness from others. 41
Reckoned for Righteousness
Not least striking of the parallels between MMT and Galatians is the
one that appears in the penultimate line of 4QMMT (116 in the
Composite Text). 42 The writer hopes that “at the end of time, you may
rejoice in finding that some of our words (or practices) are true (or correct)”
38. The fact that the phrase in Paul is always anarthrous (almost always in the form
e0c e1rgwn no&mou) is comparatively unimportant in view of the similar form in 4Q174
(= 4QFlor 1.7). (Charlesworth has supplied the Greek in this note, and the Hebrew
and Greek in this paragraph.)
39. The Hebrew and Greek are supplied by Charlesworth.
40. In his response to the earlier version of this paper (“Paul and Qumran: When
Paul Shuns the ‘Works of the Law,’ Is He Referring to the Very Works Commended
by the Dead Sea Scroll Known as MMT?” BRev 14, no. 5 [1998]: 18, 54), Nicholas
T. Wright misses these points of parallel: both involved separation; and at issue in
both cases was the hope of final justification (next section, below); see further again
Dunn, “Noch einmal ‘Works of the Law.’” See also Martin G. Abegg, Jr., “4QMMT
C 27, 31 and ‘Works Righteousness,’” DSD 6 (1999): 139–47.
41. See also James D. G. Dunn, The Theology of Paul the Apostle (Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 1998), 354–66.
42. Noted also by Abegg, “Paul,” 55; and Eisenman and Wise, Dead Sea Scrolls
Uncovered, 183–85.