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

196 SOME WORKS OF TORAH AND PAUL’S GALATIANS
(Nk wnyrbd tcqm). 43 If so, “this will be reckoned (hb#$xnw) to you for
righteousness (hqdcl Kl) in doing what is upright and good before
him” (117, my translation; cf. Qimron, C30-31). Clearly in view, on the
one hand, are the rulings and practices (works) documented in the previous
paragraphs (cited in the section above). Equally clearly in view, on
the other hand, is the formulation of Gen 15:6—“He [the Lord] reckoned
it to him [Abraham] as righteousness (hqdc wl hb#$xyw).” But note difference:
the phrase is understood as it was subsequently understood in
Early Judaism, that is, as righteousness reckoned in recognition of
covenant faithfulness: Ps 106:31—Phinehas’s action in preventing Israel’s
defilement was “reckoned to him for righteousness” (hqdcl wl b#$xtw) 44 ;
1 Macc 2:52— “Was not Abraham found faithful when tested, and it was
reckoned to him for righteousness?” (NRSV); and Jub. 30:17—
righteousness was reckoned to Simeon and Levi for maintaining the
purity and distinctiveness of the children of Israel, like Phinehas, by
killing the Shechemites. So here, in MMT similarly, the assumption is
evidently that “righteousness is reckoned” to those who are faithful in
observing the rulings and following the practices (works) outlined in the
earlier paragraphs of MMT.
The parallel with Galatians at this point obviously lies in the reference
to the same phrase from Gen 15:6. Paul cites precisely this text in Gal
3:6: “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him for righteousness”
(italics mine). For Paul, this meant that “those who are of faith are blessed
with faithful Abraham” (3:9). The language is the same—“reckoned for
righteousness.” In both cases appeal is being made, in effect or explicitly,
to Abraham as the normative pattern. The difference is that Paul attributes
Abraham’s being reckoned righteous solely to his faith, whereas in
Psalm 106, 1 Maccabees 2, Jubilees 30, and MMT righteousness is attributed
to a pattern of behavior understood by the respective authors,
implicitly or explicitly, as demonstrating faithfulness to covenant obligations.
More to the present point, the argument in Gal 3:6–9 is clearly an
elaboration of the basic thesis enunciated in 2:16: “No one is justified
from works of Law but only through faith in Jesus Christ.”
In other words, Paul is objecting precisely to the sort of understanding
and attitude we find expressed in 4QMMT. MMT, in common with
43. Dunn’s translation, with Hebrew inserted by Charlesworth.
44. As Abegg observes in “4QMMT,” Gen 15:6 and Ps 106:31 are the only biblical
verses that contain both the verb b#$x and the noun hqdc. The implied appeal
to Gen. 15:6 carries with it the implication that Phinehas’s action was interpreted, like
that of Abraham in 1 Macc 2:52, as an expression of his covenant faithfulness.
(Charlesworth has inserted the Hebrew.)