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

72 MESSIANIC EXPECTATION AT QUMRAN
While Charlesworth’s survey of the Pseudepigrapha was both accurate
and illuminating, however, it was also a little misleading. Charlesworth
acknowledged, of course, that there were other corpora of Jewish
literature from this period, and that messianic references can be found in
the Dead Sea Scrolls and Targums. 4 But by isolating the Pseudepigrapha,
his study could give the impression that they were representative of
Judaism in the period between the Testaments. 5 When the Scrolls are
taken into account, the number of messianic references is increased,
although it is still not great. More importantly, however, the Scrolls show
something of the distribution of messianic beliefs in late Second Temple
Judaism, specifically that these beliefs were not peculiar to any one group,
but are found across the boundaries of various sects and movements.
The release of the Scrolls in 1991 triggered a new consideration of the
extent and nature of Jewish messianic beliefs. The “new” texts that were
published in the following years included several that are directly relevant
to the study of messianism, notably 4Q246, An Aramaic Apocalypse ar
or “Son of God” text, 6 4Q521, which was dubbed a “Messianic
Apocalypse” by its editor, 7 and 4Q285, which seems to be a fragment of
the War Rule, and which was thought, for a time, to speak of a “dying
messiah,” although it is now clear that the messiah is the one who kills. 8
These texts stimulated several new surveys of messianism in the Scrolls. 9
4. Idem, “The Messiah in the Pseudepigrapha,” in ANRW 19.1:190.
5. For a balanced view of the situation, see Michael A. Knibb, “Messianism in the
Pseudepigrapha in the Light of the Scrolls,” DSD 2 (1995): 165–84.
6. Émile Puech, “Fragment d’une Apocalypse en AramÉen (4Q246=pseudo-Dan d ) et le
‘Royaume de Dieu,’” RB 99 (1992): 98–131; idem, “246. Apocryphe de Daniel,” in Qumran Cave
4.XVII. Parabiblical Texts, Part 3 (DJD 22; Oxford: Clarendon, 1996), 165–84.
7. Idem, “Une Apocalypse Messianique (4Q521),” RevQ 15 (1992): 475–519. The
PTSDSSP renamed this text On Resurrection.
8. Martin G. Abegg, Jr., “Messianic Hope and 4Q285. A Reassessment,” JBL 113
(1994): 81–91. The PTSDSSP refers to this text as Isaianic Fragment.
9. Florentino García Martínez, “Messianische Erwartungen in den
Qumranschriften,” Jahrbuch für Biblische Theologie 8 (1993): 171–208; James
VanderKam, “Messianism in the Scrolls,” in The Community of the Renewed Covenant (ed.
E. Ulrich and J. VanderKam; Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame, 1994), 211–34;
Craig A. Evans, “Messianic Texts at Qumran,” in Jesus and His Contemporaries (ed. C.
A. Evans; Leiden: Brill, 1995), 83–154; John J. Collins, The Scepter and the Star: The
Messiahs of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Other Ancient Literature (ABRL; New York: Doubleday,
1995); Johannes Zimmermann, Messianische Texte aus Qumran: Königliche, priesterliche und
prophetische Messiasvorstellungen in den Schriftfunden von Qumran (WUNT 2/104; Tübingen:
Mohr Siebeck, 1998); George J. Brooke, “Kingship and Messianism in the Dead Sea
Scrolls,” in Kingship and Messiah in Israel and the Ancient Near East (ed. J. Day; JSOTSup
270; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1998), 434–55; Gerbern S. Oegema, The
Anointed and his People (JSPSup 27; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1998); idem,
“Messianic Expectations in the Qumran Writings: Theses on their Development,” in