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

304 THE DIFFERING APPROACH TO A THEOLOGICAL HERITAGE
words, however, derive from the Doctrine of the Two Spirits, which is a
proto-Essene text and thus not a genuinely Qumran concept. It shows the
development of predestinarian concepts, which can already be observed
in texts such as the Book of the Mysteries (1Q27; 4Q299–301) or the Mûsr
le m˜ bîn (Instruction = Sapiential Work A [4Q415–418, 423]). 49 Insofar as such
tendencies are further propagated and developed in genuine texts from
Qumran, they clearly show the central importance of the predestinarian
and deterministic worldview for the Qumran community. 50 Since these
tendencies occur not only in genuine texts from Qumran, the predestinarian
traits of the Johannine theology do not necessarily have to be
regarded as immediate aftereffects of Qumran theology.
The decisive gain of a religious historical comparison between these
Qumran and Johannine texts, however, lies in a different aspect: Even if
in Johannine and Qumran texts we can find comparable metaphorical
patterns and predestinarian statements linked to birth, the fundamental
theological intentions are drastically different. We can see this as the predestinarian
self-understanding brings consequences for behavior toward
outsiders, particularly in the inclusion of the commandment to love.
Frequently scholars have claimed that in the Johannine writings
the commandment to love is limited in a strictly particular way to the
Johannine community itself, since these texts refer only to love within
the community. This focus, however, results from the intention of the
author. 51 By contrast to the commandment to love one’s enemies,
48. Thus, the proposed translation by Florentino García Martínez and Eibert J. C.
Tigchelaar, eds., The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition (Leiden: Brill, 1997), 1:75.
49. Cf. Armin Lange, Weisheit und Prädestination (STDJ 18; Leiden: Brill, 1995),
126–32; idem, “Die Weisheitstexte aus Qumran: Eine Einleitung,” The Wisdom Texts
from Qumran and the Development of Sapiential Thought (ed. C. Hempel, A. Lange, and H.
Lichtenberger; BETL 159; Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2002), 3–30, 12–18,
esp. 17 A strictly predestinarian tendency of Essene theology is already mentioned in
the outline of Jewish religious parties by Josephus, Ant. 13.172–173.
50. Cf. VanderKam, Dead Sea Scrolls Today, 76–78; Hermann Lichtenberger, Studien
zum Menschenbild in den Texten der Qumrangemeinde (SUNT 15; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck
& Ruprecht, 1980), 184–86. Comparable phenomena can also be seen in the motifs
of the “children of God” or “of the devil.” Contrasts such as the “sons of light” and
“sons of darkness” seem to have been fundamental for the self-view of the Qumran
community (cf. e.g., 1QS 1.9–10). Similar equivalents such as the antithesis between
“children/men of the light” and “children/men of the darkness” occur not only in
other genuinely Qumran writings, but also in Essene and pre-Essene documents (Cf.
e.g., CD 20.2, 4–5, 7a; 1QM 1.1, 3, 7, 9, 16; 3.6, 9; 13.16; 14.17; 16.11; 1QS 1.9–10;
2.16; 3.13, 24–25; 5.13, 18; 8.17, 20, 23; 9.8; 1QH 6.2; 10.13–14; 1QpHab 7.10;
4Q428 frag. 7 line 1; 4Q491 frags. 8–10 1.14; 4Q496 frag. 3 1.7; 4Q548 frag. 1 lines
10–11; etc.). Also, compare the outline of further dualistic structures in Frey,
“Different Patterns of Dualistic Thought,” 275–335, 277–78.