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

434 DEAD SEA SCROLLS AND THE NEW TESTAMENT
The other attempts to fill the lacunae in the argument by some pieces of
evidence from New Testament texts are even more questionable: The mention
of a man carrying a pitcher of water (Mark 14:13–14) cannot prove
that Jesus had the Last Supper in the environment of Essene monks. 102 Nor
can the reference to the use of the Essene calendar (by Jesus or the evangelists)
solve the problem of the different chronologies of the passion when
comparing the Synoptics with the Fourth Gospel. 103 And the note about the
conversion of priests in Acts 6:7 is no valid evidence for the assumption of
personal links between Essenism and primitive Christianity. 104
Hence, even if it is quite plausible that Essenes lived in Jerusalem, 105
there remain a number of problems with the assumption of an Essene
quarter, and the links between the Essenes in Jerusalem and the earliest
Christian community cannot be established without doubt. There is no
undisputable evidence that Jesus and the apostles were in relation with
Essene circles or that Essenes joined or even influenced earliest
Christianity. 106 Therefore, assumptions like that of an Essene quarter
Jerusalem,” in Akten des XII. internationalen Kongresses für Christliche Archäologie, Bonn
22.–28. September 1991 (ed. E. Dassmann and J. Engemann; Studi di antichità cristiana
52; JAC: Ergänzungsband 20; Münster: Aschendorff, 1995), 1:543–51.
102. Thus Pixner, Wege des Messias und Stätten der Urkirche, 219–22. This argument
gives too much weight to the idea that the Essenes formed a monastic community of
unmarried men. Such a view was prominent in the earliest periods of Qumran
research, but it can not be maintained anymore. See below, n118.
103. Cf. Jörg Frey, Die johanneische Eschatologie, vol. 2, Das johanneische Zeitverständnis
(WUNT 110; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1998), 183, n130. Eugen Ruckstuhl, “Zur
Chronologie der Leidensgeschichte Jesu,” in Jesus im Horizont der Evangelien (ed. E.
Ruckstuhl; SBAB 3; Stuttgart: Katholisches Bibelwerk, 1988), 101–84, esp. 130–33.
and 180–81, suggests that Jesus held a Passover meal according the Essene calendar,
on Tuesday evening in the Passover week. For Ruckstuhl, the Johannine “Beloved
Disciple” in John, who has the prominent place at Jesus’ breast (John 13:23), is a
monk of the monastic community of the Essenes in Jerusalem. Cf. also Brian J.
Capper, “‘With the Oldest Monks …’: Light from Essene History on the Career of
the Beloved Disciple,” JTS 49 (1998): 1–55.
104. Cf. Joseph A. Fitzmyer, The Acts of the Apostles (AB 31; New York: Doubleday,
1998), 351; Charles K. Barrett, The Acts of the Apostles (vol. 1; ICC; Edinburgh: T &
T Clark, 1994), 317: “Theories of influence on the primitive church from
Qumran…cannot be built on this verse.”
105. There might be some additional evidence for that in the tombs found at Beit
Safafa, which are quite similar to some of the tombs at Qumran; cf. Boaz Zissu,
“‘Qumran Type’ Graves in Jerusalem: Archaeological Evidence of the Essene
Community?” DSD 5 (1998): 158–71; idem, “Odd Tomb Out: Has Jerusalem’s
Essene Cemetery Been Found?” BAR 25 (1999): 50–55, 62; but there are still many
questions regarding the cemeteries of Qumran and their context.
106. It is another question whether Essene converts entered Christian circles after
the catastrophe of 70 C.E.; cf. Oscar Cullmann, “Ebioniten,” RGG 2:297–98; Karl
Georg Kuhn, “Essener,” RGG 2:701–3.