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

274 THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS AND THE APOCALYPSE OF JOHN
hate the works of evildoers, though there may be a slight distinction in
that the command to hate in Revelation is directed at works rather than
at people (2:6). Even in the scrolls, however, the command to hate was
not an invitation to hostile acts, but rather an invitation to withdrawal
from association. 61
The closest parallels in the New Testament to the frequent use of the
word “hate” in the scrolls are in the Gospel of John and the First Epistle
of John. By way of contrast, Jesus said that his disciples are not to “hate”
their enemies, but rather to “love” them (Matt. 5:43). Instead of hating
their enemies, it is their own families that they are to hate (Luke 14:26). In
the New Testament, only Jesus enjoins hatred of people (Luke 14:26).
THE FINAL ESCHATOLOGICAL BATTLE
The book of Revelation and the Dead Sea Scrolls reflect strong similarities
as well as strong differences with regard to the community’s participation
in the eschatological battle. 62 In the scrolls we see eschatological
judgment both in terms of eternal blessing and eternal damnation and
torment (1QS 4.11b–14; 5.12–13). There is also a clear mixing of combat
myth and eschatological judgment in 1QH 14.27b–37. This eschatological
judgment is portrayed as cosmic cataclysm in both works (1QH 4.13;
11.34–36; Rev 6:12–17; 8:7–12). Here the convulsions of creation normally
associated with theophany are transformed (through an association
with sacred time) into deeds of judgment associated with the eschaton.
Both were messianic communities in that an expectation of God’s
messiah or messiahs was central to their theology. 63 At Qumran, there is
61. Pheme Perkins, “Apocalyptic Sectarianism and Love Commands: The
Johannine Epistles and Revelation,” in The Love of Enemy and Nonretaliation in the New
Testament (ed. W. M. Swartley; Studies in Peace and Scripture; Louisville: Westminster
John Knox, 1992), 288, in ch. 12.
62. Among the better comparisons of Revelation with the Dead Sea Scrolls with
regard to the combat myth are those of Josephine Massyngberde Ford, “Shalom in
the Johannine Corpus,” HBT 6, no. 2 (December 1984): 67–89; Charles Homer
Giblin, The Book of Revelation: The Open Book of Prophecy (GNS 34; Collegeville, MN:
Liturgical Press, 1991), 25–34; and Bauckham’s chapter, “The Apocalypse as a
Christian War Scroll,” in Climax of Prophecy, 210–37 (ch. 8). Matthew Black refers in
passing to the Apocalypse of John “as a kind of ‘War Scroll,’” in “‘Not Peace but a
Sword’: Matt 10:34ff.; Luke 12:51ff.,” in Jesus and the Politics of His Day (ed. E. Bammel
and C. F. D. Moule; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), 293, but he
does not develop the concept.
63. On the messianism of the Dead Sea Scrolls, see John J. Collins, The Scepter and
the Star: The Messiahs of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Other Ancient Literature (ABRL; New