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

226 THE BIBLICAL AND QUMRANIC CONCEPT OF WAR
between the major forces of light and darkness at the beginning of a global
war. He also called attention to the influence of Hasmonean military practices
(banners, hymns, ambushes) on the “nationalistic” material and
argued for a dualistic redaction of earlier nondualistic material, challenging
the consensus that the dualism of the Qumran texts was primary.
In 1988, Jean Duhaime compared the genre of 1QM with military
texts from the Greco-Roman world and concluded that 1QM is best classified
as a “tactical treatise.” At present, there is little consensus on the literary
history, though a date in the last quarter of the first century B.C.E.
is widely accepted, as is the identification of the Kittim, allies of the
“Children of Darkness,” as the Romans. Maurice Baillet has published
fragments of similar materials from Cave 4 and has suggested, rather
implausibly, that they belonged to a more concise recension of 1QM. 24
Duhaime published a critical text of 1QM, with an introduction and
commentary. 25
The Themes of the War Scroll
As just stated, the War Scroll combines both an ethical-dualistic and a
nationalistic perspective on the Final War. It also balances human with
divine activity in a way that allows elements of “holy war” to coexist with
the presentation of Yahweh as the victorious divine warrior. Since I have
already offered some account of the overall structure of the War Scroll, I
can perhaps best cover the many ingredients of its vision in the order in
which they appear.
The conditions for the onset of the war are given in column 1. Here,
the “Children of Light” comprise the “Levites, Judahites, Benjaminites,
and the ‘exiles of the wilderness,’” and the “Children of Darkness” are
made up of the “army of Belial, the troop of Edom, Moab,
Ammonites…Philistia, and the troops of the Kittim of Asshur as well as
‘violators of the covenant.’” It is noteworthy that the forces of light are
not simply identified with Israel, while the forces of darkness comprise a
24. Maurice Baillet, Qumrân Grotte 4.III (4Q482–4Q520) (DJD 7; Oxford:
Clarendon, 1982).
25. Jean Duhaime, “War Scroll,” in The Dead Sea Scrolls: Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek Texts
with English Translations, Vol. 2, Damascus Document, War Scroll, and Related Documents (ed. J.
H. Charlesworth et al.; PTSDSSP 2; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck; Louisville: Westminster
John Knox, 1995), 80–203; cf. idem, “The War Scroll from Qumran and the Graeco-
Roman Tactical Treatises,” RevQ 13 (1988): 133–51, and most recently The War Texts
(Companion to the Qumran Scrolls 6; London: T & T Clark, 2004.