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

254 THE DREAM OF A NEW JERUSALEM AT QUMRAN
CONCLUSION
When Jerusalem became the capital of the Israelite monarchy and the
temple was built, the city took on symbolic significance as the cosmic
mountain, the meeting place of heaven and earth, and it was equated
with the primordial paradise, the garden of Eden. The exile awakened
hopes for a restoration even more glorious than the days of David and
Solomon. The Dead Sea Scrolls attest three different but related visions
or dreams of a new Jerusalem. First, the sectarian community understood
itself as a metaphorically restored Jerusalem and as a living temple,
offering “sacrifices of the lips.” These ideas are expressed in the Rule of the
Community, the Melchizedek scroll, and the Commentary on Isaiah. Second, the
community probably composed, and at least read and preserved, a
detailed blueprint or set of norms for the ideal temple, namely, the Temple
Scroll. This plan was conceived as an alternative to both the first and second
temples, a criticism of those temples, and a statement of how they
should have been designed and administered. Since this plan was perceived
as divinely revealed and commanded, it is likely that the community
would have executed it, if they had had the power and the means.
They did not understand this temple, however, as the eschatological,
definitive, or everlasting temple. Thus 11QTemple 29.6–10 clearly states
that it was to last only until the day of creation, on which God would create
a new and everlasting temple. This is the third vision of a new
Jerusalem, a glorious and everlasting city and temple brought into being
by God. This eschatological temple is also mentioned in Florilegium
1.1–13, where it is defined as a temple made by the hands of the Lord and
as a Temple of Adam. It is also described, in part as a fulfillment of Isa
54:11–12, in the Description of the New Jerusalem. In spite of the lack of a
temple building in the new Jerusalem of the book of Revelation, the city,
which takes the place and plays the role of the temple, has many similarities
with the eschatological city and temple of the Dead Sea Scrolls.