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

278 RESURRECTION: THE BIBLE AND QUMRAN
orientation of the individual tombs of the central cemetery (about 1,100
tombs) and sometimes east-west on the slopes exhibits a marked disdain
towards the “impure” Jerusalem and its defiled temple. It is favorably
turned towards the north where is situated the paradise of justice and the
divine Mountain-Throne according to the biblical and other apocalyptic
imagery in line with the cosmology of the time (see Isa 14:13–14, Ps 48:3,
1 En. 25:4–5).
On the basis of Deut 32:43, did the Essenes also attribute to the soil
of Israel the power of the purification of the sinful flesh and of atonement
in the expectation of resurrection? Given the importance of the Mosaic
law in their activities and their constant concern with purity, it is quite
probable. All these factors have brought about the custom of individual
tombs in a single trench in the soil, especially as the occupants did not
live in families but in a celibate state. 44 Better than an inhumation in a
coffin as in the Hellenistic period or a reinhumation in an ossuary as in
the Roman period within a family tomb, the Essene practice respected
the remains of the deceased sheltered in a loculus which was not disturbed
again, except in rare cases of reinhumation, in their eternal repose,
in this manner preserving as well as possible the bones from further contact
or defilement. The elect lie upon their backs, head to the south gazing
toward the north, and face the paradise of justice, the Mountain-
Throne of God, and the New Jerusalem toward which they will be drawn
into the awakening of resurrection. Or, with head to the west, they will
gaze upon the Sun of Justice and its light bursting forth (Mal 3:20).
These customs clearly translate the Essene belief revealed in the texts
above and they are distinctly in favor of a belief in resurrection of the
body which they read in the biblical passages and Apocrypha and which
they expressed in their own writings. These imply belief in a resurrection
of the body, which will be animated by the spirit joined to the soul held
in reserve during the intermediate state in the paradise of justice. They
also emphasize the importance of the body for the personal identity of
the resurrected. In considering their tombs does one not hear the echo of
the word of the prophet upon which they have surely meditated: “But
you, go to the end (of your life) and take your rest, you shall rise for your
reward at the end of days” (Dan 12:13).
Is it surprising that the burial practices are in full agreement with the
conceptions of a future life transmitted in the documents pre-Essene and
Qumranic found in the caves? This is certainly not by accident and if
44. As recent studies showed it, see Joe Zias, “The Cemeteries of Qumran and
Celibacy: Confusion Laid to Rest?” DSD 7 (2000): 220–53.