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

78 MESSIANIC EXPECTATION AT QUMRAN
apocalypses that were written before and during the Maccabean revolt.
Some scholars identify the “white bull” of 1 Enoch 90:37 (the “Animal
Apocalypse”) as the messiah, but he does not seem to be an agent of
salvation, and seems rather to be a new Adam. 24 The book of Daniel
envisions a figure who will come on the clouds of heaven and be given a
kingdom (Dan 7:13). In later tradition this figure was most often identified
as the Davidic messiah, but in the context of Daniel he is more plausibly
identified as the archangel Michael. 25 It seems likely then that the
expectation of a Davidic messiah was dormant at least in the Maccabean
period, and possibly for much of the Persian and early Hellenistic eras.
It may be noted that none of the passages we have cited from the exilic
and early postexilic periods use the word xy#m with reference to the
future king. (Ezekiel typically refers to the future ruler as a “prince”
()y#n). There were precedents for referring to the king as xy#m (Saul is
called “the anointed of the Lord” in 1 Sam 24:6; the king is called “his [the
Lord’s] anointed” in Ps 2:2). Moreover, the Persian king Cyrus is called
the anointed (xy#m) of the Lord in Isa 45:1 (“Thus says the Lord to his
anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped…”). The prophet we
know as Second Isaiah indicated thereby his belief that Cyrus enjoyed
legitimate divine authority. The word messiah only becomes associated
with the future king who will restore the Davidic dynasty in the
Hellenistic period. As we have seen, however, the hope for such a king, by
whatever name, is found in several texts from the early postexilic period.
THE HASMONEAN PERIOD
The revival of messianic hope, or hope for the restoration of an ideal
Jewish kingdom, coincided with the restoration of an actual Jewish kingdom
by the Hasmoneans, descendants of the Maccabees, that was very
much less than ideal. According to Josephus, the first Hasmonean ruler
to proclaim himself king was Aristobulus (104–103 B.C.E.), 26 and even
he did not claim his royal title on his coins. The first coins of a Jewish
24. See George W. E. Nickelsburg, “Salvation without and with a Messiah:
Developing Beliefs in Writings Ascribed to Enoch,” in Judaisms and Their Messiahs (ed.
J. Neusner, W. S. Green, and E. S. Frerichs; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1987), 49–68; Patrick A. Tiller, A Commentary on the Animal Apocalypse of 1 Enoch
(SBLEJL 4; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1993), 20, 384.
25. John J. Collins, Daniel (Hermeneia; Minneapolis: Fortress, 1993), 304–10.
26. Ant. 13.301.