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

ÉMILE PUECH 261
sources (in particular Acts 23:6–8) or Jewish sources, which compare the
Sadducees to the figures of Cain and Esau (cf. Mishnah, Talmud, )Abot de
Rabbi Nathan, the Targumim, etc.), the Sadduceean trend of thought in
particular explicitly rejected belief in resurrection. The Sadducees, just as
the wicked in the book of Wisdom, denied faith in resurrection, angels
and spirits, and all forms of the afterlife, including the survival of the soul
and body—beliefs which, according to the Sadducees, are without foundation
in the Law of Moses.
II. QUMRAN
Along with the majority of scholars, we hold the inhabitants of Qumran
to be Essenes, even if the Essenes cannot be simply reduced to the
Qumranites. This identification alone at once accounts for the classical
evidence (Pliny the Elder, Dio Cassius, Flavius Josephus, and Hippolytus
of Rome) and for the archaeological evidence from the campaigns in the
ruins of (Khirbet) Qumran and the nearby caves where the manuscripts
were found.
But, then, what is the belief of the Essenes concerning the future life?
Must one blindly follow Flavius Josephus, who attributes to them a faith
in the immortality of the soul after death, the just receiving an eternal
blessing, while the wicked are found in torment without end (J.W.
2.151–158, summarized in the Ant. 18.18)? Or, rejecting this type of neo-
Pythagorean belief, is it preferable to accept the presentation of
Hippolytus of Rome who attributes to them a belief in the final judgment
after an intermediate state, a universal conflagration, and resurrection of
the flesh for the just who will become immortal, but eternal punishment
of the wicked (Elenchos or Haer. 9.27)?
The majority of modern scholars traditionally accept the evidence of
the references of Flavius Josephus as rather faithfully representing the
belief of the Essenes, even if it is a bit distorted by being dressed up in
Hellenistic fashion, concluding that the passage in Hippolytus only reproduces
material that belongs to his predecessor, adding or expanding here
and there some details, even on occasion in contradiction. In short,
Hippolytus would have christianized a more authentically Jewish passage
in Josephus. 16
16. For a fairly complete discussion of the state of the question see ibid., 703–69,
where I discuss the thesis of Todd S. Beall, Josephus’ Description of the Essenes Illustrated
by the Dead Sea Scrolls (SNTSMS 58; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988).