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

248 THE DREAM OF A NEW JERUSALEM AT QUMRAN
fruit trees and making the Dead Sea live again. Therefore, in spite of the
similarities between the Temple Scroll and the Description of the New Jerusalem,
it seems that the former describes the ideal or interim Jerusalem and
temple, which are provisional, whereas the latter depicts the eschatological
city and the definitive, everlasting temple. 80
THE ANIMAL APOCALYPSE
The “Animal Apocalypse,” 1 Enoch 85-90, is a text that was written before
the emergence of the Qumran community, but was read by its members.
Aramaic fragments of the work were found in Cave 4 near Qumran. 81 It
is an allegorical review of history from Adam and Eve to the eschatological
new age, in which various kinds of animals represent types or groups
of human beings and men represent angels. In the account of the ascent
of Enoch, he says that three white men (angels) lifted him up to a lofty
place and showed him a tower higher than the earth, and that all the hills
were smaller (1 En. 87:3). Since the “lofty place” seems to be distinguished
from heaven, it is probably the earthly paradise, which is assimilated
here to the mountain of God or the cosmic mountain. 82 The high
tower is probably the prototype of the earthly temple, since the latter is
also described as a tall tower. 83
After veiled accounts of the Exodus and the events at Mount Sinai, the
text relates that “that sheep” (Moses) built a house for “the owner of the
sheep” (God), and he caused all the sheep to stand in that house.
Although many commentators have concluded that this “house” refers to
the tabernacle, it is more likely that the camp is meant. 84 Only the priests
were allowed to enter the tabernacle. Thus, the allusion to a place in
which “all the sheep” (all the people of Israel) could stand fits the camp
80. For a discussion of the similarities between the two works, see Wise, A Critical
Study of the Temple Scroll, 66–81. Like the Temple Scroll, the Description of the New Jerusalem
emphasizes the number seven and its multiples (ibid., 66–70).
81. See Jozef T. Milik with Matthew Black, The Books of Enoch.
82. See the discussion in Patrick A. Tiller, A Commentary on the Animal Apocalypse of “1
Enoch” (SBLEJL 4; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1993), 248–49.
83. 1 En. 89:50; see Tiller, Animal Apocalypse, 37.
84. 1 En. 89:36. The Ethiopic reads the equivalent of “house,” the Greek is not extant
for this passage, and the Aramaic fragment breaks off after about one-third of the first
letter of the word corresponding to the Ethiopic “house.” Milik restored it as Nk#$m (tabernacle),
but as Tiller points out, the context of the allegory as a whole speaks against
this reconstruction. Tiller proposes rdm (dwelling, compartment) and argues that the
reference is to the camp, not the tabernacle (Animal Apocalypse, 40–45, 296).