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

ÉMILE PUECH 249
of God (Isa 26:19). In fact, the passage builds upon this opposition: the fate
of the wicked (vv. 9–14) and that of the people of Yahweh (vv. 15–19): 2
The Dead do not live; shades do not rise—because you have punished and
destroyed them and wiped out all memory of them (v. 14).
Your dead shall live, the corpses shall rise. O dwellers in the dust, awake
and rejoice because your dew is a radiant dew, and the earth of shades will
give birth (v. 19).
Whereas some perished forever, others shall revive and be resuscitated
for a blessed life. The vocabulary used is typical of that which would be
repeated later within indisputable contexts of resurrection: “your dead
will live” (wyxy Kytm), “the corpses will rise” (Nwmwqy t[w]lbn), “O dwellers
in the dust, awake and rejoice” (rp( ynk# wnnrw wcyqh), “the land of
shadows gives birth” (lypt My)pr Cr)w). This passage is an undeniable
witness to the certainty within this pious circle of Jews of a life after
death and a resurrection of the just of the people of Yahweh already at an
early date (at least in the third century B.C.).
The certainty of life after death and the resurrection of the people of
Yahweh came to be joined in a passage of clearly eschatological nature.
The hope of ultimate salvation is expressed in the form of a banquet
upon Zion where God will gather all the peoples who will see the
salvation of God for his people and the chastisement of the impious of
whom the archetype is Moab (Isa 25:10–12). Whether or not there is a
notion of resurrection in these lines, the author expresses here the firm
conviction of God’s definitive victory over death and his dominion over
life (Isa 25:6–8).
Job
Similarly on his part, Job could have nourished a hope of a miraculous
resurrection in this life (Job 19:25–27):
For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon
the dust. But after my skin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh I shall
see God. Because I myself shall see him, my eyes saw and not a stranger,
and my heart fainted within me (Job 19:25–27).
Because of faith, Job knows that God is capable of awakening the dead
(1 Kgs 17:22) and making them ascend from Sheol. In certain ways, the
2. On the state of the question and textual criticism, Hebrew text and Masoretic
Text, etc., see Puech, La croyance des Esséniens, 66–73.