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

354 ECONOMIC JUSTICE AND NONRETALIATION
Capper also argues for specific parallels to 1QS, both linguistic and
organizational. In Acts 2:44 the phrase “they were together” (h}san
e0pi\ to_ auto\) reflects the Semitic usage of “to become as together”
(dxyl twyhl) from 1QS, necessarily then clarified by the epexegetical
“they were holding all things in common” (ei]xon a#panta koina_).
Peter’s reaction to Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5:3–4, he argues, is best
elucidated in terms of the complex procedures for entry known from
1QS 6.13–23. The text assumes that, while the sale of property itself is
voluntary, the entire amount of proceeds is supposed to be presented to
the apostles (5:2–3). Peter’s comment in Acts 5:4 that the property was
“his” before its sale recalls the postulancy stage (first year) of admittance,
while his comment that after the sale the property was still “in his
power” refers to the novitiate stage (second year), when the proceeds
were passed on to the community, but registered to the novitiate’s credit
and technically remaining his own. The seriousness of lying in matters
of property (1QS 6.24–25) thus also represents a substantive parallel. 112
The voluntary nature of the contribution by Ananias does not contradict
the practice of community of goods, he argues, since it was practiced only
by a select group.
To make the parallel with Acts more plausible, Capper also maintains
that fully property-sharing Essene groups (1QS) were closely linked and
interacting with those only following a pattern of mutual support (CD),
and that fully property-sharing Essene groups were not limited to
Qumran and were not all production-communalized (cf. Philo); in both
cases this would involve daily contact with outsiders, including fully
property-sharing groups (331–34). Capper bases the likelihood of the
practice by early believers and the impact from Essenes on (a) the widespread
awareness and currency of this practice (cf. Josephus; Philo), and
(b) the possibility of some historical connection (even “direct conduit”)
between Essenes and the earliest Jesus movement. 113 Despite some difficulties
with this argument, 114 it is basically on target, confirming that for
112. It is certainly special pleading to claim that the rule in CD 14.20–21 and 1QS
6.24–25 is not really a parallel to Acts 5 since in Acts the problem is “lying to the
Holy Spirit”; contra, e.g., Leaney, Rule of Qumran, 200. Nor should one be surprised
at the much greater gravity of the situation in Acts (death) compared to CD and 1QS
when the genre of the material is taken into account.
113. Capper, “Palestinian Cultural Context,” 341–50; the possible proximate presence
of the “Essene Quarter” is also significant in his argument.
114. Against his harmonized presentation of the “ethos” of the Palestinian practice
of community of goods, the sharp economic separation and purity ideology of 1QS
(esp. 5.10–20; 8–9) does not easily harmonize with the arguments (1) of close links
with Essene groups not practicing community of goods, (2) of a daily contribution of
earnings from outside employers (cf. Philo, Hypoth. 11.10; Josephus, Ant. 18.22; cf. 1QS