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

PAUL GARNET 379
• CD 14.18–19: “And this is the clarification of the judgments in which [they
shall walk, until there arises the Messi]ah of Aaron and of Israel, and he
will expiate their iniquities.”
• CD 20.34: Those who follow the Righteous Teacher “will prevail over the
sons of the world, and God will forgive (be 6(ad ) them, and they will see his
salvation because they trusted in his holy name.”
• 1QH 12 (= 4).37 (in a hymn probably composed by the founder of the
community): At the time of his former troubles, he had committed the sin
of doubting God’s acceptance of him (35), but when he remembered
God’s power and his love, he ceased to doubt, “because thou wilt forgive
iniquity and cl[eanse a ma]n from guilt in thy righteousness.”
The remaining Hymn passages are from compositions that do not
reflect the pilgrimage of any specific individual.
• 1QH 7.28 (= 15.24): “Thou dost not take a kôpher for works of
wickedness.”
• 1QH 4 (= 17).12: “[As thou hast s]aid by the hand of Moses, ‘[pardoning
transgression] iniquity and sin and forgiving (be 6(ad ) guilt and rebellion.’”
• 1QH col. 23 frag. 2 line 13: “Thou hast sprinkled upon me the spirit of thy
holiness to cleanse guilt.”
• 1QM 2.5: When the sons of light return to Jerusalem, their priests shall be
organized to offer temple sacrifices “for God’s good pleasure to atone for
(be 6(ad ) his congregation.” The preposition be 6(ad may indicate that Day of
Atonement sacrifices are in view. In any case, it is a national atonement.
• 1QS 2.8 (from the curse upon those of the lot of Belial): “May God not be
gracious to you when you call upon him, and may he not pardon by expiating
your iniquities.”
• 1QS 3.6–8 (giving the reason why those whose attitude is not genuinely
repentant may not enter the community): “For it is by the spirit of the counsel
of the truth of God that the ways of an individual shall be purged, even
all his iniquities, so that he may gaze upon the light of life, and it is by the
spirit of uprightness and humility that his sin shall be expiated.”
• 1QS 5.5–6 (reading M))w [w))m] in line 5 as a cipher for “God of gods and
Lord of lords”) 22 : “God … is ready to” correct attitudes (“circumcise the
inclination”) in the community “in order to establish a foundation of truth
in Israel for a community of an eternal covenant, to atone for all who freely
offer themselves…and who join them for a community, and for suit and
for judgment to condemn all who transgress the precept.”
22. Following William H. Brownlee, The Dead Sea Manual of Discipline: Translation and
Notes (New Haven, CT: American Schools of Oriental Research, 1951), 19n18,
49–50.