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

272 THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS AND THE APOCALYPSE OF JOHN
Righteous Teacher (qdch hrwm; cf. Damascus Document [CD] 1.5–11),
the Poor Ones (Mynwyb); cf. Thanksgiving Hymns [1QH] frag. 16 3.3; Psalm
Pesher 2 [4Q171] 3.10), and the Community (dxyh; cf. 1QS 1.1; Habakkuk
Pesher [1QpHab] 12.4; Micah Pesher 1 [1QpMic = 1Q14] frags. 8–10 line
8). It is not clear whether “furious young lion” (Nwrxh rypk; Hosea
Pesher [4QpHos = 4Q167] frag. 2 line 2; cf. “angry lion”; Alexander
Jannaeus?) is appreciative, critical, or neutral in force.
The Qumran covenanters saw the lion as a symbol for violent aggression
and for royalty. 54 The Qumran covenanters did not see the lion as a
symbol for the messiah, despite the fact that in 1QS b (1Q28b) 5.29 the
destructive force of the messiah is compared to that of the lion, perhaps
drawing on Num 23:24 or Mic 5:8. Geza Vermes argues on the basis of
1QS b 5.29; Targum Onqelos on Gen 49:9; 2 Esd 12:31–32; and Rev 5:5 that
the symbolic representation of the messiah as a lion was “known in all sectors
of Palestinian Judaism…[and] represented a tradition familiar to all.” 55
However, there are two significant problems with this conclusion. First,
Vermes fails to recognize that the lion in 1QS b 5.29 is not a symbol with
a sustained semantic value. Rather, it is a passing simile. This difference is
significant for whether a whole tradition of understanding lies behind a
concept. The messiah is also compared to a bull in 1QS b 5.27 without any
implication that the bull was a well-known symbol for the messiah.
Second, the other texts to which Vermes appeals are all relatively late.
Among the most common of the negative sobriquets in the scrolls are
“seekers after smooth things,” or “flattery-seekers,” as Abegg and Wise
translate it. 56 Although a debated issue, these “seekers after smooth
things” are likely equivalent to “Ephraim,” both of which refer to the
Pharisees. 57 “Manasseh” is another sobriquet. “Ephraim” and “Manasseh”
appear to represent two separate factions that were at one point part of
the Qumran community. Other oblique “names” include Wicked Priest
(h#rh Nhwkh; 1QpHab 8.8), the Man of the Lie (bzkh #y); CD
20.15), Sons of Darkness (K#wx ynb; 1QM 1.1; 1QS 1.10), and the Kittim
(My)ytkh or Myytkh; 1QpHab 2.12, 14; 1QM 1.4). We also see this negative
form of naming in Some Works of Torah (4QMMT = 4Q394–399).
Thus, naming was one way to create and maintain a way of looking
at the world, a symbolic universe, a way of defining reality and maintaining
54. Cf. Geza Vermes, Scripture and Tradition in Judaism: Haggadic Studies (2d rev. ed.;
StPB 4; Leiden: Brill, 1973), 40–43.
55. Ibid., 43.
56. Cf. 4QpNah (4Q169) 2.2; Wise, Abegg, and Cook, Dead Sea Scrolls, 218.
57. Cf. esp. 4QpNah (4Q169) frags. 3–4 2.2–10 for an apparent equation of “seekers
after smooth things” with “Ephraim.”