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

450 DEAD SEA SCROLLS AND THE NEW TESTAMENT
The description of the ablution ritual in 1QS 2.25–3.12 links atonement
with repentance and with the ritual application of water. Although for
the Essenes immersion was a regular or even daily practice, John’s
baptism was granted only once. 159 The Essenes practiced immersion by
themselves; baptism in the Jordan was carried out by the Baptizer. The
ablutions of the Essenes were limited to full members, and all who
wanted to take part had to pass through the stages of initiation. In contrast,
the Baptizer preached and baptized publicly, and in view of the
coming day of judgment, there was no time to wait. Thus, the people
who came along the trade route and heard his preaching could repent
and be immediately baptized. The purification rituals of the Essenes
could be carried out at any place where Essenes lived; John baptized in
the Jordan, at the place where Israel once had entered the Holy Land and
Elijah had been taken up by the heavenly chariot. These differences show
that we cannot parallel the eschatological purification ritual of John’s
baptism with the purity rites of the Essenes. Even though repentance and
forgiveness of sins played a significant role in their understanding of
purity, the eschatological purification ritual carried out by the Baptizer is
different, and its distinctive character is visible, in contrast to the Essene
purity rites. 160 So, John’s brothers are not primarily the Essenes nor a figure
like Bannus, but the series of eschatological prophets. Likewise, we
cannot use the Essene purification rites to explain John’s baptism, nor
can we account for the difference between the two by the suggestion that
John held a more universalistic view of salvation than the Essenes. Yet it
would be impossible to describe John and his appearance—and chiefly the
differences from the Essenes—without the texts from Qumran. 161 In this
respect, the Qumran texts provide the decisive tool for understanding
John the Baptizer in the context of his religious environment.
159. This is doubted by Bruce D. Chilton, “John the Purifier,” in Judaic Approaches
to the Gospels (University of South Florida International Studies in Formative
Christianity and Judaism 2; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1994), 1–37, esp. 26–27. Of
course, there is no statement that baptism could not be repeated, but its character as
a purification before the coming last judgment marks it as differing from all other rites
of purification.
160. Cf. Stegemann, ibid., 306–11.
161. Ibid., 311.