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

454 DEAD SEA SCROLLS AND THE NEW TESTAMENT
remarkable similarities with Paul’s idea of justification of the ungodly
(Rom 3:23–26; 4:5). 179
One aspect deserves special consideration. In 1QS 11.9, 12 and also
in some other passages in the Thanksgiving Hymns, 180 there is the notion
of “flesh” (r#&b) as a sphere that is characterized basically by sin and
upheaval, or even as a power that provokes and causes evil deeds. 181 A
similar use of “flesh” (r#&b) is known from the Pauline Epistles, especially
in the antithesis between “flesh” and “spirit” (xwr), as in Gal 5:17
or Rom 8:5–9:
For the Flesh is actively inclined against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the
Flesh. Indeed, these two powers constitute a pair of opposites at war with
one another, the result being that you do not actually do the very things
you wish to do. (Gal 5:17) 182
For those who exist in terms of the flesh take the side of the flesh,
whereas those who exist in terms of the Spirit take the side of the Spirit.
For the flesh’s way of thinking is death, whereas the Spirit’s way of thinking
is life and peace. Because the flesh’s way of thinking is hostility toward
God, for it does not submit itself to the law of God; for it cannot. And
those who are in the flesh are not able to please God. (Rom 8:5–8) 183
Such a negative use of “flesh” goes far beyond the range of meanings
of r#&b in the Bible. There, r#&b can denote the human body and its
physical substance or, generally, the created being in its weakness and
mortality. 184 But the passages quoted use the Greek term sa/rc with a
strong notion of evil and iniquity. It even seems to denote a sphere or
power opposed to God and his will. Scholars have, therefore, tried to explain
the Pauline antithesis of “flesh” and “spirit” and chiefly the background
179. Cf. also Siegfried Schulz, “Zur Rechtfertigung aus Gnaden in Qumran und bei
Paulus: Zugleich ein Beitrag zur Form und Überlieferungsgeschichte der Qumrantexte,”
ZTK 56 (1959): 155–85; Jürgen Becker, Das Heil Gottes: Heils- und Sündenbegriffe in den
Qumrantexten und im Neuen Testament (SUNT 3; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1964).
180. Cf. 1QHa 5.30–33 (= 13.13–16 Sukenik), 1QHa 7.34–35 (= 15.21 Sukenik)
and especially 1QHa 12.30–31 (= 4.29–30 Sukenik). References to the manuscript
1QHa are quoted according to the counting of columns and lines in H. Stegemann’s
reconstruction of the scroll. The reference according to the editio princeps by E. L.
Sukenik is given in brackets.
181. Cf. Becker, ibid., 111–12.
182. Translation from J. Louis Martyn, Galatians (AB 33A; New York: Doubleday,
1998), 479.
183. Translation from James D. G. Dunn, Romans 1–8 (WBC 38A; Waco: Word,
1988), 414.
184. Cf. DCH 2:277; Ludwig Koehler, Walter Baumgartner, and Johann J. Stamm,
eds., The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (Leiden: Brill, 1994), 1:164; see
more extensively Gillis Gerleman, “r#&fbf
@; ba¯s 8a¯r Fleisch,” THAT 1:376–79; and
Nicholas P. Bratsiotis, “r#& fbf @,” ThWAT 1:850–67; ET: TDOT 2:317–32.