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

JOHN J. COLLINS 81
case, this passage becomes a major proof-text of messianic prophecy in
the Hellenistic period. In Psalms of Solomon 17, the king who would fulfill
Isaiah’s prophecy is explicitly called “anointed” (Gk. christos = Heb.
xy#m) in v. 32.
The king in question is filled with a spirit of wisdom, and he is,
remarkably, said to be pure from sin, but his role is undeniably violent.
The Psalm follows the Greek translation of Isaiah 11 in referring to “the
word of his mouth,” rather than “the rod of his mouth” as in the Hebrew,
but his mission is “to shatter unrighteous rulers, and purify Jerusalem of
the nations” (17:22). The Psalm also borrows phrases from Psalm 2, especially
v. 9: “you shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in
pieces like a potter’s vessel.” The task of the Davidic messiah is to kill the
wicked, drive out the Gentiles and pave the way for the kingdom of God.
The renewed interest in a king as the agent of God in this process must
be seen as a reaction to the failure of the Hasmonean kingship, which was
not sanctioned by divine authority.
THE DAVIDIC MESSIAH IN THE SCROLLS
The expectation of a Davidic messiah in the Dead Sea Scrolls should also
be seen as a reaction against the kingship of the Hasmoneans. This is suggested
by two factors. First, the “messiah of Israel” in the Scrolls is paired
with a priestly “messiah of Aaron,” who takes precedence over him. The
separation of functions can be seen as an implicit critique of the
Hasmoneans, who, notoriously, combined the kingship and the priesthood.
31 Second, 4Q175 Testimonia strings together a series of biblical passages
that have rightly been seen as proof-texts for messianic expectation.
These are Exod 20:21 in the Samaritan recension ( = Deut 5:28–29 +
Deut 18:18–19 in the MT), which promises that “I will raise up a prophet
like you from among their brethren”; Num 24:25–27 (Balaam’s oracle
about the star and the scepter); Deut 33: 8–11 (the blessing of Levi); and
a passage from the Psalms of Joshua, including Josh 6:26 (“cursed be the
man who rebuilds this city”), which refers to “an accursed man, a man
of Belial.” The first three passages have usually been understood to refer
to the prophet and the messiahs of Israel and Aaron, mentioned in 1QS
31. Maier argues that the Zadokites of Qumran would not have objected to the
combination, because of the precedents of Levi and Moses (“Messias oder
Gesalbter?” 604). But neither Levi nor Moses was king, and both exercised their
power before the promise to David, according to biblical chronology.