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

260 RESURRECTION: THE BIBLE AND QUMRAN
first millennium before Christ, primarily 1 Enoch, of which five sections
date from the end of the third century to the end of the first century B.C.
“The Book of Astronomy” proclaims the happiness of those who die just,
without any misdeed written in judgment, when he will receive his reward.
“The Book of the Watchers” knows of the compartmentalization of Sheol
for the souls according to their degree of justice/righteousness waiting for
judgment. “The Book of Dreams” and the “Letter of Enoch,” contemporaneous
with Daniel, attest to the belief in resurrection of the just and the
everlasting chastisement of the impious. Finally, the “Parables,” dated to the
end of the first century B.C., essentially stress resurrection of the just upon
a renewed earth in the company of the Elect One who presides over the
judgment. In the “Letter” and the “Parables,” the just shine brilliantly in
vestments of glory just as the stars of heaven in a universe transformed (1
En. 91:16; 45:4–5), whereas the sinners perish within the flame of eternal
fire. Thus, The Book of Enoch presents the eternal life of the just as a life in
glory, radically different from the present terrestrial life and generally associated
with resurrection at the time of judgment.
In the second part of the first century B.C., the Psalms of Solomon attest
to the experience of judgment and resurrection of the just for eternal life
but eternal punishment and perdition in Hades for the impious.
These major lines of origin and development of the belief in a life after
death and the resurrection of the just of the people of God in the canonical
and some apocryphal works appear to be sufficient to locate the position
of the trend in Jewish thought that the recently discovered
manuscripts from the Dead Sea reveal to us. 14 Yet we are not unaware
that these ideas were far from being shared by all the currents of Jewish
thought during the last centuries B.C. 15 Whether according to Christian
14. Because one often makes too much of it, one must avoid the characterization of
“Sect” or “sectarian.” This movement within Judaism had nothing of a sect about it,
because postexilic Judaism was far from being unified. In fact, over the course of centuries
several Jewish movements saw the light of day and represented just as many
official Judaisms. Flavius Josephus reported the existence of three “schools of Jewish
philosophy” dating back to 152 B.C.: the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes (J.W.
2.119) and it is impossible to decide upon the orthodoxy of any of them. Even though
being the most numerous, which survived in the subsequent rabbinic movement, the
Pharisee movement cannot pretend to represent all by itself orthodox Judaism from
before the national catastrophe of the fall of the Temple in A.D. 70; quite to the contrary,
since Essenism itself vigorously disputed the Mosaic orthodoxy of thought-systems
and praxis. One must not forget that even the word “Pharisee” comes from the
Aramaic Ny#yrp “separated.” Thus, on the whole, the latter are of a sectarian tendency
in relation to the more orthodox and traditional heritage.
15. For the state of the question concerning the currents of Pharisaism and Sadduceeism,
as well as Greek and Semitic apocryphal texts, ancient Jewish literature,
inscriptions and the New Testament, see La croyance des Esséniens, 99–301.