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

276 RESURRECTION: THE BIBLE AND QUMRAN
The Damascus Document (CD)
In the Damascus Document, of which a number of copies have been found
in the caves, and whose composition also dates from the second half of
the second century B.C., the author is more preoccupied with the conversion
of his contemporaries in exhorting them to observe the Law than
with their future fate. He nevertheless does not ignore the day of judgment
(8.3–4, 19.15), the definitive destruction of the impious and the
reward of the just to whom are promised “a life eternal and all the glory
of Adam (Md) dwbk lkw xcn yyx)” (3.20), or “to live a thousand
(thousands of) generations” (7.5–6 par. 19.1). This clearly indicates the
recovery of the blessings of paradise before the fall. The impious and apostate
will receive appropriate retribution at the time of the Day of the Lord
(7.9 par. 19.5–6). One can even note parallels in vocabulary throughout
Dan 12:1b–2: “At that time your people will be spared, those …
those for punishment (…twprxl hl)…hl) Km( +lmy )yhh t(bw)”
and CD 19.10: “Those will be spared at the time of the Day of the
Lord and those who remain they will be delivered up to the sword
(brxl wrsmy Myr)#nhw hdqph Cqb w+lmy hl)).” This text knows
the imagery of eschatological war and the final confrontation of the
prince of light and Belial (4.12–6.18, 12.23–13.1, 14.18–19). If the document
does not contain an explicit mention of resurrection, 37 it is not without
significance that its eschatology forms with that of the three other
Qumran scrolls quoted above a unified conception, in direct line with the
developments in biblical and apocryphal literature.
Miscellanea
In Melchizedek (11Q13) Melchizedek triumphs over Belial at the end of the
tenth and final jubilee where the “lot” of Belial is judged and definitively
plunged in the darkness, while the “lot” of Melchizedek triumphs in
peace and exaltation, as in Daniel 12. This final victory initiates the renovation
of the world and the arrival of a new and eternal era. 38
The eschatological conception of Daniel is recalled in a laconic passage
of the Wicked and Holy (4Q181 1, col. 2, lines 1–6) attesting the
37. Chaim Rabin, Qumran Studies (Scripta Judaica 2; Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1957), 73–74, has read a mention of the resurrection in 20.10, 13; 3.20 and 7.6;
see also Puech, La croyance des Esséniens, 499–514.
38. For a more detailed discussion, see ibid., 515–62.