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

90 MESSIANIC EXPECTATION AT QUMRAN
Against this interpretation of 4Q521, some scholars have objected
that since “his messiah” (xy#m) is in parallelism with “holy ones” it
should be read as a plural (wyxy#m: anointed ones) spelled defectively,
and so the reference is not to an individual “messiah” at all. 52 This argument
is not necessarily compelling. There is a striking parallel to these
lines in Pss. Sol. 17:43, where it is said of the Davidic messiah that “his
words are as the words of holy ones (ho4s logoi hagio4n) in the midst of sanctified
peoples.” “Holy Ones” are normally angels in Jewish texts of this
period. 53 The comparison exalts the authority of the messiah. It is quite
plausible then that the authority of an individual messiah is paralleled
with that of angelic “holy ones” in 4Q521. But we should bear in mind
Maier’s valid observation that in Jewish texts the focus is on the office
rather than on the individual person. The purpose of 4Q521 is not to
announce the coming of an eschatological prophet, but to proclaim the
“works of the Lord” which include the preaching of good news, which
is usually accomplished through a prophet or herald. This is most probably
the “messiah” or “anointed one” mentioned at the beginning of the
fragment, but this figure is not the focus of attention in 4Q521.
There were two possible paradigms for an eschatological prophet in
Second Temple Judaism: the prophet like Moses of Deuteronomy 18 and
the return of Elijah, promised in Mal 4:5. We have seen that
Deuteronomy 18 is cited in the Testimonia, and it is possible that the
“Interpreter of the Law” (hrwth #rd) is associated with this figure.
The prophet like Moses, however, is not well attested in Jewish texts
from the Second Temple period, apart from Qumran. 54 While Jesus is
cast in this role in the Gospel of Matthew, 55 the Torah never occupies as
central a place in Christianity as it does in Judaism.
Neither is the expectation of Elijah widely attested, although Ben
Sira, who has little eschatological interest, says that “at the appointed
time” he will return to calm the wrath of God, turn the hearts of parents
to their children and restore the tribes of Jacob (Sir 48:10). His role is
52. So Maier, “Messias oder Gesalbter?” 611–12; Karl-Wilhelm Niebuhr, “4Q521,
2 II—Ein Eschatologischer Psalm,” in Mogilany 1995: Papers on the Dead Sea Scrolls
Offered in Memory of Aleksy Klawek (ed. Z. J. Kapera; (ed. Z. J. Kapera; Proceedings of
the Fifth International Colloquium on the Dead Sea Scrolls [Kraków-Zakrzówek,
Poland, 1995]; Qumranica Mogilanensia 15, Kraków: Enigma, 1998), 151–68; summarized
in QC 5 (1995); Michael Becker, “4Q521 und die Gesalbten,” RevQ 18
(1997): 73–96; Puech, “Some Remarks on 4Q246 and 4Q521,” 551–65.
53. Collins, Daniel, 313–18.
54. See Howard M. Teeple, The Mosaic Eschatological Prophet (Philadelphia: Society of
Biblical Literature, 1957).
55. Ibid., 74–82.