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

250 RESURRECTION: THE BIBLE AND QUMRAN
hope of Job is related to that of the suffering servant of Isaiah (Isa
53:8–11) who, after the experience of death in sacrificial expiation (v. 10),
will see light. The plan of God cannot fail; it must succeed.
Wisdom of Ben Sira (Sirach)
If, at the beginning of the second century B.C., Ben Sira was aware, in
the sapiential/wisdom part, of a notion of “Sheol” common to all, on the
other hand, in the Praise of the Fathers (Sirach 44–49), the author, who
is no longer tied to the style and context of the doctrines of the common
tradition, takes over material from the Israelite tradition relating to each
praiseworthy figure. Belief in the resurrection of the Israelite just is found
in numerous passages. If Isa 66:4 has been picked up in Sir 46:12 and
49:10, the hope that the bones of the judges and the prophets will be
quickened to life in the tomb already could allude to a belief in the
resurrection of the body; this hope certainly has been understood in this
manner at least since the first century B.C. 3
On the other hand, the passage concerning Elijah’s ascent to heaven
gives an occasion to recall the miraculous action of the prophet in the resurrection
(1 Kgs 17:17–24). The author knows that Elijah must return at
the time of the eschaton in order to preach conversion, before which,
according to Mal 3:23–24, God’s anger bursts forth against his people. A
makarism, which the Hebrew text (= HT) preserves in its original form, 4
3. The floral image taken from Isa 66:4 and repeated in the Testaments of the Twelve
Patriarchs, T. Sim. 6:2–7, Tg. Hos. 14:6–8, Gen. Rab. 28:3, has most probably served to
express the hope of the resurrection of the individuals in question, as tends to be
proven by its utilization on tombs (the lilies of the fields in particular) and on ossuaries,
which are certainly linked to this belief; Sir 46:12 (Syriac) explicitly has “the
lilies”; see Puech, La croyance des Esséniens, 73–74.
4. For the text and textual criticism, see Puech, ibid., 74–76, and Émile Puech, “Ben
Sira 48:11 et la résurrection” in Of Scribes and Scrolls: Studies on the Hebrew Bible,
Intertestamental Judaism, and Christian Origins presented to John Strugnell on the Occasion of his
Sixtieth Birthday (ed. H. W. Attridge, J. J. Collins, and T. H. Tobin; College Theology
Society Resources in Religion 5; Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1990),
81–90. But we cannot support either the choice of the Greek text or the interpretation
of the recent study of Jean Lévêque, “Le portrait d’Élie dans l’éloge des Pères
(Sir 48:1–11),” in Ce Dieu qui vient: Études sur l’Ancien et le Nouveau Testament offertes au
Professeur Bernard Renaud à l’occassion de son soixante-cinquième anniversaire (ed. R.
Kuntzmann; LD 159, Paris: Cerf, 1984), 215–29. On the one hand, the Hebrew text
of manuscript B is totally recoverable and not mutilated (the author does not appear
to know our study). On the other hand, if in this context the Hebraism, zwh= |
chso/meqa, does not signify “revive,” what would makarism mean (“blessing” or “calling
happy” from Gk. makarismos), in general, and the sequence “moreover we also, we