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

222 THE SCROLLS’ IMPACT ON SCHOLARSHIP ON HEBREWS
evangelists, 80 who considered themselves members of a new covenantal
community. Neither were Christians alone in adopting such a stance.
The scrolls too know of a new covenant, and their use offers parallels to
that of the early Christians. 81
The major references to a new covenant appear in the Damascus
Document. 82 CD (MS A) 6.14–21 indicates fairly clearly the function of the
terminology:
Unless they are careful to act in accordance with the exact interpretation
of the law for the age of wickedness: to separate themselves from the sons
of the pit; to abstain from wicked wealth which defiles, either by promise
or by vow, and from the wealth of the temple and from stealing from the
poor of the people, from making their widows their spoils and from murdering
orphans; to separate unclean from clean and differentiate between
the holy and the common; to keep the sabbath day according to the exact
interpretation, and the festivals and the day of fasting, according to what
they had discovered, those who entered the new covenant in the land of
Damascus; to set apart holy portions according to their exact interpretation;
for each to love his brother like himself; to strengthen the hand of the
poor, the needy and the foreigner.
Members of the “new covenant in the land of Damascus,” whenever and
wherever it was formed, bind themselves to a life of separate holiness. In
a community marked by brotherly love, these volunteers are able to pursue
their exact interpretation of the Law and a detachment from things
that defile. The “new covenant” is not, as for Jeremiah 31, a heartfelt
renewal of fidelity to the covenant as an undertaking by the whole of
Israel, but as the designation of a sect.
80. The term appears only in the Last Supper narratives in Matthew and Mark
(Matt 26:28; Mark 14:24) and in the parallel in Luke 22:20. In Luke 1:72; Acts 3:25;
and 7:8 appear references to God’s covenant of old.
81. Susanne Lehne, The New Covenant in Hebrews (JSNTSup 44; Sheffield: JSOT
Press, 1990); for the absence of the idea in postbiblical Judaism, see 35–42. Earlier literature
includes Raymond F. Collins, “The Berith-Notion of the Cairo Damascus
Document and Its Comparison with the NT,” ETL 39 (1963): 555–94; and Christoph
Levin, Die Verheissung des neuen Bundes in ihrem theologiegeschichtlichen Zusammenhang ausgelegt
(FRLANT 137; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1985). Most recently, see
Brian J. Capper, “The New Covenant in Southern Palestine at the Arrest of Jesus,”
The Dead Sea Scrolls as Background to Post-Biblical Judaism and Christianity (ed. J. R. Davila;
Leiden: Brill, 2003), 90–116.
82. In addition to the major references discussed here, there is mention of a
covenant in several minor fragments. In the following documents sufficient context is
lacking: 1Q30 4.2; 1Q36 7.2; 1Q54 1.2; 1QDM (= 1Q22) 2.8; 4.2; 4Q185 3.3;
4Q497 1.5. Some texts simply refer to biblical covenants, such as the covenant with
Noah (4Q370 7) or with Moses (4Q381 frag. 69, 5–8; 4Q503 frag. 3 2.13).