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

18 ANOTHER STAB AT TH E WICKED PRIEST
community when recounting its own beginnings, and whose person
matches several significant descriptions of the Wicked Priest. Before discussing
this person and the basis for his identification as the Wicked
Priest, a few observations about the Qumran community are in order.
I. THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS COMMUNITY AND EZEKIEL
A dominant feature of the Dead Sea Scrolls community is its acceptance
of and devotion to the principles expounded by the prophet Ezekiel.
Briefly put, the Dead Sea Scrolls community adopts Ezekiel’s geography,
his chronology, his views on the Priesthood, and the famous Temple Scroll
seems a page right out of Ezekiel, especially the visions of the new
Jerusalem and Temple described in Ezekiel 40–48.
Geographically, the Qumran community’s choice of the Dead Sea
seems influenced, at least in part, by Ezekiel’s vision of the last days when
a mighty river would flow from the Temple in Jerusalem to the Dead Sea
(Ezek 47:1–12). 2 This lifeless body of water would one day become the
location of an apocalyptic outpouring of divine blessing, and the people
at Qumran were perfectly situated to participate in its abundance.
Chronologically, the Damascus Document provides the timeframe of
the Dead Sea Scroll sect, which is also taken from Ezekiel (4:5, 9). CD 1
states that God caused “a root of planting to spring from Israel and
Aaron” 390 years after the fall of the First Temple, that is, 586 B.C.E.
minus 390 years, or ca. 196 B.C.E. 3 The community then wandered for
twenty years “like blind men” until the appearance of the Teacher of
Righteousness, which brings us down to ca. 176 B.C.E. While these
numbers may be inexact due to rounding and perhaps even miscalculation,
4 we should not underestimate their value for determining approximate
dates, and, in the end, they may be quite accurate.
2. Although, cf. 1QS 8, which relates the choice of the desert to Isa 40:3. We should
not overlook the practical appeal of this location, given its remoteness and relative
safety in light of the dangers posed to the community by the Jerusalem establishment.
3. For a different understanding of these numbers, see W. H. Brownlee, “The Wicked
Priest,” 15–16, who argues that this passage refers to the independence of the Jewish
state that was gained in 143 B.C.E. under Simon (1 Macc 13:36–40). For the difficulties
involved in determining dates for the Teacher, the texts, and the settlement,
see most recently Michael O. Wise, “The Dating of the Teacher of Righteousness and
the Floruit of His Movement,” JBL 122/1 (2003): 53-87.
4. In this regard, see the comments of Geza Vermes, The Dead Sea Scrolls in English
(4th ed.; London: Penguin, 1995), 32.